A Business Analyst is the person who is the connection between the business and marketing departments and the engineering department in a company. Because those who work in the business section are not always skilled in technical details they work as a team with the technology teams to accurately advertise and promote new services and products.

While the technical team is trained to develop software or design new products, they may not know what the average consumer wants for a product design or from a company and that is where the Business Analyst comes in to ensure each side knows what is needed.

A Business Analyst is similar to acting as an interpreter or negotiator. A Business Analyst explains to the technical team what the business department wants and needs are and the technology team discusses the technology details, limitations or abilities to be delivered from the analyst to the business departments. The Business Analyst is the person who understands and speaks both technology and business terminology and is able to explain one to the other.

Typical Business Analyst Responsibilities

• Put together a detailed project profile listing the requirements from both the business departments such as advertising and marketing and the technology departments such as product designing and quality assurance.
  
• Follow and manage the project activity to ensure the project is on schedule.
  
• Conduct project coordination reviews and troubleshooting business meetings
  
• Work with the company’s quality assurance and product testing team to make sure the tests adequately cover the requirements and to eliminate errors.
  
• Update upper management and company executives of the project’s activity

While a Business Analyst may not be required to know all of the technical details it is expected that they be able to manage a project and it’s teams. They may feel like a Personnel Manager one day and a research surveyor the next. Business Analysts not only negotiate between differences of opinions but research and read technical manuals. At the end of a project some Business Analysts create analysis of the entire project and a evaluation of both the finished product as well as the teams involved.

As you can see the Business Analyst is an extremely important part of growing businesses into new areas and attracting new customers. They need to be well organized, able to talk to all levels of employees in any department and they need to be the ‘go to person’ for any information needed on a project. They usually have a degree in Business Administration with prior experiences or independent studies in Information technology. They are responsible for analyzing the business needs of their projects and help identify and solve problems.

References

• Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia - Business analyst
  
• City Jobs.com - Business Analyst
  
• Women In Technology - Senior Business Analyst