Firm Skills in the Development Process
Business Analysts’ Mission
Business Analysts work as diplomats to establish a shared understanding of what their organization needs from a solution. They employ “soft communication skills" to learn business domains and needs. They apply technical “hard” skills for data modeling, prototype development, and solution validation. They develop firm skills to exchange information between business and technical stakeholders.
Bridging Gaps with Firm Skills
Business analysts engage firm skills in their diplomat role to:
Convey business domain concepts and needs to technical stakeholders
Demonstrate the solution to business stakeholders using their terms
Bridge gaps between stakeholders with a thorough understanding of business needs and technology
They ensure solutions cover the requirements with prototypes and validation during development. Also, business analysts provide user feedback to the development team, advancing the solution toward organizations’ expectations. Finally, they take it across the bridge from the development team for user acceptance testing, where domain experts and other users confirm the solution meets their needs.
Business analysts use firm skills to share their understanding of organizations’ needs with technical stakeholders and adapt solutions to meet those needs.