Business Analysts’ Diplomatic Mission

What Does a Business Analyst Do?

Suppose a person unfamiliar with software development asks what a business analyst does.  Here are some brief replies:

  1. Business analysts serve as a liaison between users and developers.

  2. Business analysts determine what users need from a solution, then translate those needs for a development team.

  3. Business analysts collaborate with business and technical stakeholders to build a solution right the first time.

Reply #1 works for a passing interest in business analysis. Reply #2 says more but limits business analysts to the passive role of a translator. Reply #3 activates the business analyst role far beyond translations between business and technical stakeholders. Business analysts act more like diplomats, leading a mission to get the solution right the first time.

Business analysts learn about an organization, including its “language” of concepts and specific terminology. They develop the context and fluency to work with managers, subject matter experts, and users to define their problems and capture what they need from a solution.  Business analysts curate business needs into well-understood requirements, confirming their understanding with the business stakeholders. Like diplomats, business analysts strive to minimize misunderstandings.

Models for Understanding

Business analysts collaborate with stakeholders to create a process model, illustrating the business processes affected by the solution. They verify the correctness and completeness of the process model with the stakeholders.

They build a data model with stakeholders, outlining what information the solution will contain and deliver.

Finally, business analysts and stakeholders create acceptance criteria - what the solution must do for the business to accept it. They specify the criteria to avoid misunderstandings when running user acceptance tests.

Once business analysts have verified the models and requirements with the stakeholders, they introduce them to the development team.

What Do Developers Need?

The development team needs to understand the problems defined by business analysis. They want to build a beneficial solution, so a business analyst should emphasize what makes it valuable to the organization. The development team comprehending a solution’s value motivates them.

Business analysts create user stories or specifications from the process model and collaborate with the development team to complete the data model. Developers need the models, user stories, or specifications to cover the problem completely.  For example, a user story states:

As a prospective customer, I want to change my email options so that I receive fewer emails.

What does the story mean by “fewer emails?” Which emails should the prospect continue to get? How do they unsubscribe from all emails?

Often business analysts return to the stakeholders to clarify what they need. In some cases, business analysts help stakeholders determine what they need. 

Business stakeholders sometimes propose a specific solution that may or may not cover the problem. In this case, business analysts diplomatically coax the stakeholders back to defining the problem, ensuring it covers common scenarios.

Getting the Solution Right

Business analysts focus stakeholders on defining their needs, acknowledging, and clarifying what they say. Then, they ensure they understand the requirements.

Like diplomats reviewing a crucial treaty, business analysts confirm their understanding with stakeholders. Getting the solution right starts with complete and accurate requirements.

Business analysts create process and data models for stakeholders and the development team. Once they verify the models with stakeholders, they share the process model with the team to provide solution context. Finally, they collaborate with the development team to complete the data model.

The development team intends to make solutions as easy and effective for users as possible. Business analysts anticipate that a solution could create friction with users and collaborate with the team to minimize it. They continue their diplomatic mission, getting answers to questions from the development team while bringing the stakeholders up to speed on the solution. They celebrate when the solution passes user acceptance testing.

Business analysts act as diplomats between stakeholders and the development team on a mission to build a solution right the first time.

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