1. Project definition role:
Business Analysts are assigned to projects at or before project initiation, resulting in them becoming key influencers on strategic technology decisions. They work closely with the Business Architect and project sponsor to define the scope of the project. (Roles to work with vary with organizations)
2. Project documentation role:
Business Analysts elicit, analyze, document, communicate and validate business and system requirements for changes to business processes, and information systems. This is achieved by the convergence of various project stakeholders through JAD Sessions, Brain Storming, and walkthroughs. They also create transition documents and flows that acquaint the business users to the new system.
3. Project implementation role:
Business Analysts play an important role in implementation of a project by communicating requirements to the development team. They also play a crucial role in the testing phase by planning and executing the system testing and user acceptance testing (UAT).
In conclusion, a contemporary Business Analyst needs to be in a state of constant agility to learn new technology, and methodologies and apply them in the development cycle. Each project presents unique technical and tactical challenges that a Business Analyst needs to assess and solve. The success of a software project largely depends on the efficiency and quality of the Business Analyst it has.
