6 Ways Business Analysts Contribute in Software Development

Business analysts ensure that the company's products/solutions meet its objectives. However, the BA’s role in software development outsourcing is still widely misunderstood. This post goes over the roles and responsibilities in detail.

Almost every tech company makes products to solve a particular problem or fill a specific void in the market. Whether or not a company has adopted technology, there is a need for a Business Analyst (BA) to analyze the business processes. There is only one difference: in the tech industry, this role is specifically tailored to help tech companies survive and grow despite shifting market conditions and increasing consumer demands.

In fact, according to a PMI study, more than a third of the time (31 percent) spent by Business Analysts goes on consumer needs assessment and analysis planning while 41 percent is spent on conducting elicitation or analysis. Therefore, BAs have a primary responsibility to solve problems and align resources. For example, in software outsourcing, a business analyst's job is to make sure that the end-user's needs and the company's goals are met.

To better understand how and where the BA fits in software outsourcing, we’ll take a look at their roles and responsibilities.

Who is a Business Analyst?

Business/IT analysts are experts responsible for conducting research and surveys to ascertain the company's requirements. In their proposed solutions, they address the issues they've identified. Analysts serve as a bridge between an organization's stated goals and its actual ability to achieve them in real-time.

Because of their familiarity with current practices, methods, and scope, BAs are also well-known for their ability to predict what the future holds for an organization. Their unique position in the industry gives them the opportunity to provide valuable advice that will help a company thrive for years to come.

What does the BA really do?

Business analysts can help your company's portfolio grow in a variety of ways, and here are six examples.

1. Determines the scope of the project

A number of factors must be taken into account when evaluating a project's usefulness or the extent to which it will meet the needs of its intended audience. There is a huge chasm between providing solutions and meeting business objectives when creating new products. A BA might be able to help you better understand and close this gap.

In a study, three types of project requirements have been identified that the business analyst must quickly assess. They include:

The business requirements

Determining the project's cost, duration, and revenue are all responsibilities of the business analyst. He or she must also explain how the cost-to-revenue ratio is calculated. For example, there is a need for BAs to explain why $250,000 should be spent on an initiative with a revenue potential of only $1 million.

NASCO senior manager Jennifer Gardner says, "We believe that focusing on our business requirements allows us to deliver efficient, high-quality solutions that are competitive advantages for our customers."

Therefore, no work on the project can begin until all of these and other business-related concerns have been addressed in the business requirement.

The user requirements

It is critical that the development team be made aware of the specific needs of various user groups. As a BA, it's your job to work with customers to discover exactly what they need and communicate those needs to the developers.

The functional requirements

According to an article in Forbes Magazine, ensuring business growth can be achieved through operational efficiency, sound decision-making, and prospecting for the right clients. This means that an IT analyst must make certain that the product they're working on is in line with the company's long-term goals.

As an example, a company might want to know the gender or location of its customers for future data analysis. Users must provide gender and location information when registering to use the product in order for it to function.

It is possible for development teams to create questionnaires, distribute them, and then retrieve them with the help of a BA. All of this is necessary to support business objectives, and the Business Analyst is an invaluable asset in identifying the projects most likely to succeed in achieving them.

2. Facilities team communication

BA has a major impact on the team’s communications for two main reasons.

As a "translator" or "interpreter," the BA acts as a liaison between the company's stakeholders and the developers. Often, there is a large communication and understanding gap between stakeholders and software developers due to ambiguities in the stated business goals and objectives. Stakeholders and developers alike benefit from the expertise of a business analyst (BA) when outsourcing software development.

As such the BA is needed in software development outsourcing to effectively communicate the interests of the stakeholders and to the software engineers. The role of a business analyst is also necessary because stakeholders must understand the technical jargon used by developers (BA).

For these reasons, employers in the United States will require 876,000 business analysts by 2020, according to a report published in 2016 by the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS).

3. Maintains a record of the project's progress

Even in software development projects, the role of business analysts is going to increase. IIL Blog predicted this in 2016, and since then, we've seen a massive increase in the number of people signing up for IIL courses. Complex processes necessitate an expert interpretation that can be easily comprehended by regular users.

In order to better understand the business issues, developers and business analysts will need to collaborate. Also, to make complex developer language easier to understand and absorb for readers and end-users, Business Analysts often write a great deal of technical content.

In this regard, Kelly Emo, director of Product and Solutions Marketing at HPE Software, describes the role of a BA as exciting because they have to work as product owners, even though the business is the product owner.

4. Creates cases for acceptance testing

BAs can also be helpful in the creation of User Acceptance Test Cases, especially if the software development is outsourced. Acceptance testing is usually done at the end of the SDLC, and skipping it has cost a lot of tech companies their reputations because they've released buggy software without first testing it. So having a real person use the software and see if it performs as expected helps the team address all of the issues before the build goes into production.

5. Assists in Quality Assurance

It costs 6.5 percent more to fix an implementation error than it does to fix an error in the requirements analysis stage, according to a report from IBM System Science Institute. Testing is necessary to ensure that the product being developed meets the requirements. The Business Analyst is responsible for overseeing these testing activities. To ensure that requirements are accurately interpreted and followed through at every stage of the project lifecycle, it is critical for the BA to remain involved throughout the entire process.

6. Estimates the total cost of ownership for software over its lifetime

As a business analyst, you must be able to estimate the cost of developing software. Performing a TCO analysis reveals both up-front and hidden expenses. Thus, by clearing up any ambiguity in the budgeting process, extra costs can be avoided. This step must be completed prior to the SDLC to be considered a success.

Conclusion

We've seen time and time again how critical the involvement of a Business Analyst is when it comes to outsourcing software development. In addition, we can agree that it is well worth the money to have one on your project team. In summary, adding a BA to your team has two primary advantages: saving money on the overall project and preserving your company's good name.

Let’s know if you have any further questions about the BA’s or other software development roles.