Role of a Business Analyst

From SriRams Thread from Business Analyst Community on Orkut ::

A BA role is very crucial and need lots of expertise in

-> Study the As Is Business processes
-> Propose the change or reengineering of the As Is Business processes if need be.
-> Study the Individual systems in the business processes.
-> Understanding the Business requirements.
-> propose high level solution for those requirements
-> Build the project scope
-> gather the business requirements and capture them using UML Standard Use cases and model the business process using activity diagrams which are Object oriented equivalents of flow charts.
-> Discuss with project tech lead and Prepare high level design documents.
-> Help project team prepare detailed level design documents.
-> Prepare Functional Specification document.
-> Prepare System Specification documents with the help of technical lead of the project.
-> Prepare Interface and other architectural documents needed for project.
-> Act as a point of contact for business users from project team.
-> Act as a domain expert and help project team understand the business requirements and clarify all their doubts as and when needed.
-> Act as a catalyst and middleman in between both business users and the project team.
-> Help project team and the testing team by doing functionality testing post configuration / development stage.
-> Help in product deployment at client location

This is just an overview of what a BA does and his responsibilities are.
The BA is a backbone for every project and he plays a pivotal role in a project as he can either make or break the project.

Project Deliverables Checklist:-

-> In Scope / Out Scope Document
-> SLA (If required)
-> Updated Change Request Document (On need basis)
-> Business Study Report
-> Project Plan
-> Security Plan
-> Disaster recovery, Backup strategy & Plan
-> Business functions and functionality matrix
-> Data dictionary of business data elements and schema
-> Use cases (UML)
-> Business Process Design (e.g. Activity/ Sequence diagrams)
-> GAP Analysis (If Enhancement Project)
-> System Understanding & Applicability document
-> Feasibility Report
-> High Level Designs
-> Technical/Detail Level Designs and Architecture
-> Security and Reliability Architecture and Technical Definitions
-> Quality Standards
-> Quality Plan (Given Intervals)
-> Detailed Functional Specifications
-> Detailed System Specifications and Interfaces
-> Message formats
-> Operational Proof of Concept
-> Case study on Issue's during Development stage
-> Developed Product
-> Case study on testing phase
-> Filled in Test cases
-> Test Results (Unit testing/ SIT etc...)
-> Reference Implementation and starter kit for selected platform
-> User manuals
-> Findings and recommendation reports


This is the general checklist and you may omit/add few more points according to the client’s interest and need.


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Geetesh : I have been on one of the shortest clients assignments as part of pre sales underwhich i did Study "AS IS" System followed by interviewing business users. And the approach which Sri Ram have mentioned above, i could relate it very well now... now the role is very clear to me.

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