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What is business analysis?

One should not restrict the BA role to only being a link between Non-It and IT or only for development projects.
A BA is someone who is able to bring in improvements, changes(technology, process, people etc.) in an efficient manner. So a BA could be part of the marketing team who helps the marketing team in providing estimates/high level solutions for a said project which is under the process of procurement. Or he could be someone involved during the Requirement gathering/analysis once the project is initiated. Or he could be someone who brings profit to the company by performing process improvement activities ROIs at process level.
Last but not the least BAs could be domain specific as well.

 

 

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What is the career path for a Business Analyst?

A Business Analyst in the IT field has many varied directions among which to choose a career path. The most direct would lead to a Lead Business Analyst position and then Project Manager whereby the incumbent manages projects through the entire lifecycle from inception to post-implementation including the management of business analysts system analysts quality assurance analysts and most likely development project managers or team leads. That path would then lead to Program Management perhaps PMO management or Product Manager and on to Directorship.In addition a good Business Analyst may find they are heading toward a Customer Relationship Manager position whereby they become the primary IT interface to a given Business Unit (BU). This role most often leads to a position within the BU as a Manager of Applications or a Process Management role. Process Management opens many jobs including process re-engineering quality program development and large scale or enterprise process management programs such as ITIL or Six Sigma initiatives. These roles will continue to proliferate as companies realize the benefits of having a SME in process and quality.And still many Business Analysts find their understanding of business process entirely portable into purely system related positions in the business side that are only peripherally related to IT. These of course may lead to quantitative roles manager roles or operational roles such as supply chain logistics etc.Of central importance to a successful Business Analyst is the interest in speaking to people. Face to face verbal communication is paramount to support other tools such as surveys and diagrams. Incumbents must be interested in understanding not only the pieces that comprise a system but the people that comprise it and the realities that embrace the system. Briefly the Business Analyst must understand and not judge the what should be and the what is .

 

How would you transform business requirements to functional requirements?

 

 

while preparing Business requirements documents you mention why you need to built a system, i.e. problem statement. What you need to do while creating functional requirements is you have to specify is, solution of the problem. Specify thoroughly business problem and explain solution for the same.

Business requirement documents does not necessarily contains solution part, functional requirement may contain it how end user wants the system to perform. Don’t forget to add non-functional requirements same doc.

Following is the instance of Business Requirement, Functional Requirement and Non-Functional Requirement.

Business Requirements :- sales order is made against customers purchase order. Sales order is given for approval to upper authority

Functional requirement:- Sales order shall be made with reference from Purchase order and it should be approved from upper authority.

Non-Functional Requirement:- Sales order should be in proper format (Specify format) and six copy of sales order should be printed from printer in 1 minute.

 

How do you resolve issues?

I would rather focus on issues and the facts related. Origin of issue, severity of the issue, implications and possibles solutions to solve the issue. Try not to focus on the person who brought up the issue.

Another important part is how to avoid similar issues in future.

 

What analysis and modeling techniques do you use to translate business objectives into system requirements?

 

 

Create project-initiation diagrams including business use cases, activity diagrams, workflow diagrams, flowcharts
Determine project scope and derive context diagrams and project use cases from the business diagrams
Detail the use cases by using activity diagrams or other techniques
Create high level analysis dataflow diagrams, domain class diagrams, and entity-relationship diagrams from the use cases or other high level diagrams
Recognize and understand the various design models, including the other relevant types of UML diagrams, detailed design entity-relationship diagrams, and decomposed dataflow diagrams
Determine when to use which modeling technique, following them through a project life cycle, and understand which diagrams are derived from others
Understand the basic concepts of normalization and decomposition so can converse intelligently on the topic and review diagrams that have been normalized or decomposed

6. Mention some of the tools commonly used by business analyst?

 

There might be various tools that you as a business analyst would be using depending upon the work environment.
The primary tools are:
MS-Office (Especially Word)
MS-Visio (for visualizing the concepts, creating diagrams)

But a lot of bigger organizations have been using Rational Software. Rational software licensing is expensive so you might not find it being used everywhere.
Rational Requisite Pro (for Requirement Management)
Rational ClearCase/ClearQuest (For change management)

I have also found that some places like using MS-SharePoint, telelogic DOORS and other tools for document collaboration. I would say, keep a working knowledge of MS SharePoint, at least.

Sometimes you might end up being a BA com QA. As such, it is nice to have a working knowledge of creating Test cases, using Load Runner, QTP etc.

Except for these tools if you have knowledge of RDBMS, Oracle, SQL, different operating systems, some OOP, it is always a plus.

7. Explain equivalence class?

Equivalence class a mathematical concept is a subset of given set induced by an equivalence relation on that given set. (If the given set is empty then the equivalence relation is empty and there are no equivalence classes; otherwise the equivalence relation and its concomitant equivalence classes are all non-empty.) Elements of an equivalence class are said to be equivalent under the equivalence relation to all the other elements of the same equivalence class. For each equivalence relation there is a collection of equivalence classes. Any two different equivalence classes are disjoint and the union over all of the equivalence classes is the given set. Equivalence classes and their corresponding equivalence relation are defined in set theory a vital foundation for mathematics and those fields that use mathematics. More details can be found in a study of equivalence relation.

 

What are the problems solved by business analysis?

As a BA the most critical part is in gathering requirements (we should understand them very well from a Business User /stake holder point of view!!!)

Reason: There might be a chance for the whole project to go in the wrong path due to wrong understanding of the Business users/ Stake holders’ needs and the gathered requirements created for the work following that step… i.e. going from A to C instead of going from A to B.

Notes: (Business Users: are the individuals who work in organizations in different departments like Logistics accounting finance Inventory) in the company who wanted the software in Place for them to work on to help the Customers.

Stake Holders: Someone who is related to the Project? 2 types of People are involved:

Direct Stake holders: business end users customers developers tech team.
Indirect stake holders: management etc.
The Project Manager responsibility (usually) identifies the stakeholders determine their needs and expectations and more important must manage and take their help for the project success. (You should Understand them well to provide them with right service for the right success of the project)…

SME’s: are the Subject Matter Experts who know about that project and have in-depth knowledge about that software application used and that particular business domain knowledge like Finance (terms and permutations etc.) Accounting (Business Planning Ledger maintaining Forecasting) Mortgage (Local banking rules Knowledge about compliancy of applications forms/ applications that needs the authorizations of the local Government bodies or counties Underwriting conditions (How flexible the Loan lending organizations at the individuals credit check or History)

So The SME’s help the Project Manager or BA to help them understand about the necessities or needs of the Business Users or Stake holders like/interests- (How the Project help save time for the transactions or? how much secure/security is needed the application wise or profitable over long run) and SME’s explain How the Stakeholders or Business Users want the application to be or appear to be for the Customers or Business Users).

What is the difference between data model and an entity relationship diagram?

A data model is a model which shows how data is stored and used for e.g. a normal database It has 3 main parts1)Structural part:- how data is structured2)Integrity part:- Rules governing structure3)Manipulation part:- operators used to select,update,querry that data,eg select,update,delete commands in sqlTo furhter add Data Modelling is when we add this theory to Live instance.ENTERPRISE DATA MODEL(ENTERPRISE RELATIONSHIP MODELING) :- This can be called as an conceptual model or semantic model The sub parts of an ERM are1)Entity:- It is an object,eg employees,computer2) Relationship:- It captures how two or more entities are related to each other3)Attributes:- Every entity has its own sets of attributes (e.g. PAN no in India for each employee or SSN in US)To clarify the point look at eg A employee is an entity belonging to entity sets(All employees) which has a relationship with department, and attributes is emp code

 

 

Who uses the output produced by business analyst?

The output will be used by the Both IT and Non-It People, as IT people use this document as key for the building of the application and Non – It people use those document where they can see prototype of their application.

 

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What is the educational qualification required for a business analyst?

There is no specific qualification for a business analyst. Well, if you are a management graduate it is an added advantage since you have they have better communication skills. One important thing a BA needs to have is domain knowledge or business knowledge. Unless he/she understands the client’s business process thoroughly they cannot draft the requirements properly.

 

Mention the components of UML?

UML uses many concepts from many sources. 1. For Structure:Actor, Attribute, Class, Component, Interface, Object, Package. 2. For Behavior:Activity,Event, Message, Method, Operation, State, use case. 3. For Relationships:Aggregation, Association, Composition, Depends, Generalization (or Inheritance). 4. Other Concepts: Stereotype. It qualifies the symbol it is attached to.

 

Mention some of the important points a business analyst must take care while preparing business plan?

While Creating Business Document, Make sure you start from small problems. Don’t jump to big problems right way. Keep the Business sponsors and IT folks in the loop. Make sure your document clearly state Exceptions, Assumptions and Limitations. Sometime you need to keep in mind the legal issues. Business document should be well written for usability and for future projects.

 

 

Why is business analyst position vital in an organization?

The position is important because a BA is a people’s person when it comes to the users and an IT person when it comes to the developers. He can communicate with the users in jargon that they are comfortable with and is able to understand them in order to collect solid business requirements. Simultaneously he can effectively communicate these requirements and support them with documentation for a developers benefit.

 

Why excellent communication skill is essential for a business analyst?

A BA is one who sits with the client understands it and then tells the IT people what needs to be done hence BA needs to have excellent communication skills

 

 

What are the industry and professional standards followed by business analyst?

Industry standards that have been set for the BAs to follow are OOAD principles and Unified Modeling Language (UML). This is a common language used by business analysts all around the world to draft the functional requirements.

 

 

What are the quality procedures followed normally by a business analyst?

For quality there is no specific mark of course Six sigma and ITIL (Information technology infrastructural library United kingdom) are certain quality standard establishing organizations and methods. But As a normal the following should be followed:

The quality of communication while gathering requirement should be excellent and outstanding. Sometimes users are just looking for functionality in system and they are not even able to say that what exactly will be their dream functionality which will be most convenient to them. In that case BA should explore them and figure out the exactly demanded requirements.

 

How is requirement analysis done by business analyst?

Requirement session is usually done through JAD session. Business Folks and Major sponsors are always there along with some technical folks. Business analyst then goes through each requirement and asks for the feedback. If Business Sponsors and Technical Folks think that all the requirements are according to the business and won’t be a barrier to existing system. They get the official signoff on Business Requirement document. IT manager and Business manager both do the sign off on that business requirement document.

 

 

Does the business analyst interact with clients directly? If so state the reason for the same?

It depends on the project to project it is not always the same that we do interact with the clients directly, some time there will be a team whom might be interacting with the client and gives you the requirement and if have questions either we do talk with that team or our manager.

 

 

Mention the difference between business process improvement and business process reengineering?

Business process improvement implies changing a step sub step or any part of the process i.e. process is not completely changed In BPR we actually study the business and find out what is the best way I can carry out the process and change the whole way the process runs(business process redesign)

 

 

What is UML?

The Unified Modeling Language (UML) is a standard language for specifying, visualizing, constructing, and documenting the artifacts of software systems, as well as for business modeling and other non-software systems. The UML represents a collection of best engineering practices that have proven successful in the modeling of large and complex systems

 

How is business plan evaluated?

A business plan is evaluated by checking the contents of the plan such as if the plan have based on the resource planning and envisioning phase of the project.

What are the problems Business Analyst could face during gathering Business requirements

 

The availability of the people (e.g. managers, supervisors and the end users) the BA wants to talk with for gathering business requirements.  These people have regular daily works to do and their time to spend in the gathering sometimes hard to schedule and for this reason gathering business requirements is delay.

 

 

What can a Business Analyst do differently than project or program manager (Design Architect) with respect to successfully getting the project implementation done?

Business Analyst role is not entirely different than Project manager role but Project Manager is bigger role than business Analyst.
Project manager is responsible for all the deliverables like
– schedules/ timelines
– resources management
– risk management
– Daily/weekly status report to project stack holders etc.
where as business analyst sometimes report to project manager or may report to business manager.
Business Analyst deals with business users to gather requirements prepare RD, FD and coordinate with development team for development and then do the testing involve with users in testing get the sign off and move component to live environment.

I hope this clarify the roles of PM & BA.

 

Where would you document Functional and Non Functional Requirements (i.e. deliverable)?

Functional Requirements are documented in the SRS document / Use Case Document. Non Functional requirements are listed in the SRS document.

 

How do you identify the basic flow? What would you do if someone was struggling to determine the basic flow for a use case?

Basic flow for use case can be identified from Business Requirement Documents or Functional Requirement Documents as these use cases are prepared on the basis of these requirement.

What is the relationship between use case and test case?

A use case is written from a “user” perspective describing the interaction of a piece of software between the user and the software.  These are written in common language typically from the business or user point of view and in enough detail for the developer to create a piece of software. Typically written in a MS Word type tool.  Use cases capture the functional requirements of the system.  It describes the expected interaction the user will experience, in detail.  The audience is the business, for signoff, and technology for development.

A Test Case is written using the use cases for a source.  It takes a use case to a deeper level so that software testers can exercise every possible scenario that could occur, negative and positive scenarios.  One Use Case can turn into 10 test cases.  10 test cases make up a test script.  Typically Test Cases will be written in a testing tool like Test Director, but also can be written in MS Word.  The audience is QA testers.

 

 

What would you do if the client says that you and the other analysts cannot directly talk to the users?

If this happens then explain the purpose of your talk (e.g. capture requirements) and why its important to talk to users directly (e.g. the quality of requirements will be better if they comes directly from the users mouth). Explain them that it will be a high risk to the project if analyst can’t talk to the users directly. Client can give access to indirect (surrogate) users but explain that the quality of requirements will be not good. Hopefully your client will agree by now otherwise flag it as a higher risk in Business Requirement Document and highlight during your meeting with your PM and Project Sponsors. Now, it’s your PM or project sponsors duty to provide you access to those direct users. If they can’t than you are safe anyways.

 

 

We are going to a client on Monday to help them with their requirements. We have just received a business case from the client, and they have no tools in place. What would we do the first week?

First week in this case is always advisable to do a due diligence of the amount of work, expectations, existing process, time lines with the constraints surrounding. One of major constraints in this case would include lack of tools.

Depending on the project timelines, complexity and volume of the project present your recommendations for tools to be used and the estimated budget allocation required. Document the comparison of productivity and flexibility with and without tools used.

This should help the project sponsors to take a call on going for tools

 

Version control and configuration management are terms used widely in the business industry, write short notes about the terms.

By definition, version control is essentially a subset of configuration management. It is usually concerned with the handling changes arising in previous documents as opposed to configuration management which essentially handles the individual components.

 

Good documentation management systems are highly recommended in system development; briefly describe the factors that contribute to a good documentation management system.

For a documentation system to be considered good, the following factors should be prevalent in it: It should be made in such a way that it can accommodate future changes, including version changes, bearing system security features such as providing access only to the allowed users, i.e. have good authentication features. In general, one should take in data as well as information security measures in place, putting in mind that the documentation should also be able to bend to the changing needs of its users as well as the market conditions.

State the different software methodologies.

The term software methodology, software development methodology and software process mean almost the same thing in computer software or system development, i.e. the activities carried out by computer system engineers or computer software engineers in an attempt to procure particular computer software that servers a certain function or purpose. This includes the framework adopted, structure, plan as well as the control of the resources engaged in the software or system development process.

 

There are so many software methodologies and the choice as to which one to adopt is usually dependant on so many other factors such as the purpose of the given software, the prevailing conditions regarding the software development environment and the will of the company or the client procuring or intending to use the final software as some clients even look into the software or system engineers’ methodology to as one of the factors determining whether to contract him or not.

 

Regarding the purpose of the software, let’s look at the following, example is a situation of a safety critical system such as an aircraft navigation system and a business system, one would find that in a business system, one can have its prototype done and users start using it as they identify its weaknesses and tell the engineers to rectify whereas in an aircraft navigation system, no weakness would be allowed at all for it can cause huge loss of property and life thus all the possible identifiable weaknesses are eliminated first before that system comes into operation. Much stories and arguments apart, the following are the available software methodologies:

 

i)                    SLDC- Software Development Life Cycle, also understood as System Development Life Cycle which encompasses activities such as Analysis, Design, Implementation, Testing, Inauguration and Maintenance in that order and then back to Analysis, note that it is a cycle hence once we get to the last stage, i.e. the maintenance we still go back to the analysis stage and move along to the maintenance once more iteratively

 

ii)                  The RUP – The Rational Unified Process, which when looked into intuitively is an iterative software development process framework that was created by the Rational Software Corporation in the US which is a division of the IBM (International Business Machine). However, this process is usually not considered as a single prescriptive framework yet as an adaptable process which can be tailored by the development team or organization selectively in order to end up with their respective results depending on the needs prevailing either on the client’s side, the industry standards or even the development constraints which involve time, scope as well as the budget, Intuitively, this process has characteristics overlapping with other development processes and methodology as will be seen when considering the other methodologies below.

 

 

iii)                The iterative process

 

iv)                The waterfall model

 

 

v)                  The agile software development methodology

 

vi)                The XP (Extreme programming)

 

 

vii)              The ISO 9000 methodology – provided by the International Standards Organization

 

viii)            The ISO 15504 model – also provided by the International Standards organization

 

 

ix)                The Capability Maturing Model Integration (CMMI) which replaced the former Capability Maturing Model (CMM)

 

x)                  The Six Sigma methodology

 

 

xi)                The Test Driven Development (TDD)

 

Describe the abbreviation OOAD as used in Object Oriented Programming.

The term OOAD is an abbreviation of the phrase Object Oriented Analysis and Design. Contrary to the traditional programming, also called procedural programming whereby the entire code of a given program is written line by line, from scratch. There is a new more powerful approach to software development or simply programming referred to as the Object Technology where predefined objects pertaining to particular situations are pre-designed by experienced software engineers and then the programmers just call them into their code in order to implement a given function in their code.

 

Just the way experienced civil engineers design building blocks for particular situations in a particular house so that the inexperienced mason just lays them appropriately in order to end up with a nice house is the way experienced software engineers make these objects. This helps even novice programmers to use the objects to build nice computer software or a program. It is the analysis and design of these objects with intention to make good software that is referred to as Object Oriented Analysis and Design, the OOAD. Programming languages that use the Object Technology include C++, JAVA, and the PHP among others.

 

Describe the meaning of the term data mapping.

By definition, the term data mapping is the process by which a system developer creates data element mappings that relates two models of data (databases) in order to assist in data integration. This usually assists in the following manner:

 

i)                    Data mediation or transformation between the source and the destination of data

ii)                  Assisting in data lineage analysis by identifying the data relationships

iii)                Assists in data masking by discovering sensitive data

iv)                Assists in data de-identification process

v)                  Assists in consolidating multiple databases into one thus identification of redundant columns and advising the developers for consideration or even elimination.

 

Describe the term black box testing.

Black box testing is the type of testing whereby the entire unit is tested as a whole without considering the contents or even how the inner components of the unit under test work, the tester’s only consideration is to enter a known input signal and check whether the output behavior is the one expected out of that unit given his input signal.

 

Give the importance of using a flowchart.

It is easier to interpret as it is graphical in nature and thus all persons involved in the project development can understand it with ease.

Briefly explain the use case model.

This is a model used by software engineers to describe the business environment of a given project. It encompasses of a series of workflow that are pertained to a particular actor.

 

What do you understand by the term UML?

The term UML is an abbreviation of the term Unified Modeling Language which is the standard language used in construction of as well as visualization and documentation of varied system components. It has a collection of graphical notation techniques used in the development of abstract models for certain specific systems.

 

Describe the importance of an activity diagram.

This is the diagram used in a business system to show the workflow involved, activities happening as well as the completed actions. In a company comprising of several departments e.g. the medical department, accounting department, and even the human resource department, usually each department has its own peculiar privileges to the system, for instance the medical department can only be allowed to access the screens related to their activities such as medical records while the human resource department will be allowed to view only the screens which are relevant to them too, thus these activity diagrams assist in showing the relationship between particular activities with their relevant and related departments so that during coding, the coders may refer to them to implement the discrepancies accordingly. Designers too can be guided by these activity diagrams.

How many types of diagrams do you know and what do you know about them?

Am aware of two types of diagrams namely the use case diagram and the collaboration diagram, the use case diagram has been discussed above and as a result I will only talk about the collaboration diagram here, these are diagrams put into being by modeling the objects of a given systems and then representing the prevalent associations between the objects in questions with the use of links.

 

What is the main quality of a good requirement?

The requirement should be good, clear, understandable, and consistent and should be easily verifiable.

What do u understand by UML ?

UML is basically Unified Modeling Language. This is the standard language used in the system to understand, document, construct different components in the system.

What are different diagrams to be known by a BA?

Entity relationship diagram, data flow diagram, use case diagram, class diagram, activity diagram, state chart diagram, sequence diagram, collaboration diagram, component diagrams, deployment diagrams etc..

Use case diagram: basically explains the business environment. Series of all related actions performed by actor.

Activity diagram: Used in the early stage of analysis and designing level. It describes each individual component.

Sequence diagram: It tells the objects interactions with each others arranged in time sequence.  Very useful for developers and testers to understand the system better.

Where did u use rational rose & requisite pro ?

When we created different modules of requirements for different functions, and finally collected all together and made a single requirement document, we used requisite pro to do this.

And we used rational rose to create the business model as a visual representation.

?         Created High level & low level use cases.

?         Activity diagrams

?         State diagrams

?         Collaboration diagrams

?         Sequence diagrams

What do understand by version control & configuration management ?

Basically version control is a part of configuration management. Mainly it handles when the previous document changes. Where as configuration management handles the individual component.

What is meant by good documentation management system ?

Should allow to make any changes if required.

Good security features.

Should be able to change versions.

Authorizations to only required people. (renditioning capability)

Hide imp information from others. (redaction capable)

What are different software methodologies.?

SDLC, RUP, SEI-CMM, Six sigma, SWOT, Cost benefit analysis, Risk analysis, Gap analysis.

What is OOAD ?

Object oriented analysis and designing. Used in coding od object oriented languages like c++, Java, and SAP Badis etc.

What is UAT ?

User acceptance testing.

If the UAT fails, BA did not understand the requirements properly.

What do u mean by Data mapping ?

It is the mapping of data from source system to a destination system.

What is black box testing?

It is completely a functional testing. i.e the tester need not know how it works technically. He only bothers what input he is giving and what output he is getting.

What do u mean by white box testing?

It requires slight programming knowledge to examine the outputs.

What is bug?

Mainly used to see the performance issues and system hangs.

How do u measure the quality of a product?

We do it by seeing min bugs in the product according to standards maintained by company.

What is RAD ?

It is called as rapid application development.

It is a development process that is used to build applications in smaller periods like 50-70  days i.e with some compromises.

What is ETL ?

Extraction     Transformation and loading. Used mainly in data warehousing.

Types of testing ?

Unit testing                  : by developer

Black box testing         : Functional and module level.

Ad hoc testing                        : Random testing..no particular pocess.

White box testing        : Very detailed..into the code.

Exploratory                 : ad hoc testing with some purpose/ goal.

Front end                    : for web based applications.

Back end                     : database level

Regression                   : Testing again and again the same application.

UAT                            : User acceptamce testing

Integration                  : testing the interaction of 2 or more than 2 modules at a time.

System testing             : Testing all the modules together.

Roles of a Business Analyst

Business Analyst – this is a term which has come into prominence in the past few years especially with the advent of the software industry. Who is a Business Analyst and whats his role in an organization? These are the questions which we will be trying to answer here.

Business Analyst can be termed as an analyst who can delve deep into the business, understand the processes and make use of the knowledge in the betterment and success of the organization. But the term Business Analyst is used very generically in today’s professional environment. It can mean analyzing the system, business processes, requirement analysis, supporting the business or system functions, handling the sales or financial KPIs’ (Key Performance Indicators). But we will discuss the main responsibilities of a Business Analyst in a generic environment and it may happen that in some cases, its an amalgamation of roles or may be a subset of another role.

A Business Analyst is responsible for a host of processes and activities which are elaborated as follows:

a) At the Project Initiation process, its the responsibility of the Business Analyst to cover the high level scope and objectives of the project and establish communication channels

b)Understanding the business processes of a section or whole of the organization in a very clear cut manner so as to implement that knowledge in any required manner.

c) Clear Understanding and communication of Requirements is a very important aspect of a Business Analyst as it ensures that there is minimum gap between the expectations of the end users and the final deliverable from the technical team.

d) Analysis and Documentation should be very precise and clearly understandable so that starting from the end users or stakeholders to the developers can understand the

underlying stated expectations in the requirement documents.

d) Solution assessment and validation is one of the main roles of a business analyst as it should be ensured that there are no gaps in the requirement process to the development stages.

e) Regular interactions by the business analyst with the developers and the module leads is essential as the knowledge transfer of the user expectations should be made clearly

f) The business analyst has a major role to play in the testing phase where he can actually take part in the systems testing phase and also provide support during the acceptance testing phase.

g) After the implementation of the software system, the business analyst also may need to handle the change management process if there are any new requirements or changes proposed.

The business analyst profile actually encompasses different roles like that of a process analyst, system analyst, project manager, application support, data analyst and tester. Gaining all round knowledge in all these different role types will definitely give the Business Analyst an edge and will enable him to overview the project from all angles.

Implementation of such responsibilities will help the Business Analyst become the interface between the users and the technical team. The organization should also be responsible for guiding the Business Analyst through his correct responsibilities for the better advancement of the individual as well as the company as a whole.

What is Business Analysis?

Business analysis can be described as the  sequence of activities which are implemented in order to assess the business requirement needs and to fit the required solution so as to bring around the success of the organization and business. So, this sequence of task is normally performed by a “Business Analyst” or BA. Business Analysis can cater to different industries and so there are specialists created among business analysts. For e.g the business analysts who solely work on developing IT systems are the Technical Business Analysts, and the ones which cater to the functional parts of the business processes and their improvement or re- engineering are known as Process Analysts.

 

 

Business Analysis is as such a vast subject and hence we will categorize it into subsets for better understanding of the various stages in any business process or software management. Business or Enterprise Level Analysis is the study and analysis of the business needs and the identification of initiatives to steer the organization on the path towards its strategic goals. This can include the finalization of the project scope, purpose and objective. This is the stage where the actual feasibility analysis occurs wherein the actual cost benefit analysis(CBA) of the project occurs and its evaluated whether the project should go ahead or not. Requirements elicitation and communication

is vital to the basis of business analysis as it involves the actual collection of data from the stakeholders and ensuring that their requirements are clearly illustrated and conveyed to each and every member involved in the project. This is the level at which the actual requirement needs are captured using using various requirement methodologies like Zachman framework etc. Requirements analysis or engineering has been synonymous with Business Analysis always and represents the requirements planning, development and management processes. At this stage the actual analysis of the requirements is done wherein the raw requirements are processed into functional objectives. The documentation of the requirements is done at this stage and may include the functional as well as the non-functional documents together with supplements like prototypes or UML diagrams. Finally,we come to Solution assessment and validation which ensures that the proposed solution design is in line with the requirements and there are no gaps in understanding which will trickle down the software development life cycle. At this stage, the requirements have taken form and have been converted to a solution design which can be developed and implemented as an application or software system. So its essential that analysis of the solution is done properly to ensure that the requirements are in synchronization with the solution. Business Analysis is not limited to this stage and can extend to the other parts of the project life cycle with significant contributions at the design, development, testing as well as implementation stage.

Business Analysis, in summary, is the art of managing the requirements and the business needs and synchronizing them in line with the strategic objectives of the organization. In order to implement this management methodology, one needs to understand that Business Analysis forms the base of the successful implementation of any business process or software management event in an organization.

 

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How to Promote Your Business in the Yellow Pages:

Ask the Expert

By Fran Finley

The Expert

Our expert on Yellow Pages advertising is author, speaker, consultant, Barry Maher. You may have seen Maher on the Today Show, NBC Nightly News, CNBC or in the pages of USA Today, the New York Times or the Wall Street Journal. His book, Filling the Glass was recently honored as “[One of] The Seven Essential Popular Business Books” by Today’s Librarian magazine. Few people realize that Maher is also the author of the book, Getting the Most from Your Yellow Pages Advertising, and that he conducts Yellow Pages workshops at conventions across the country. According to TIME, “Barry Maher has helped thousands of small businesses get the most cost effective Yellow Pages advertising possible.”

Does Yellow Pages advertising really work?

Well, it certainly can work. But it’s far more likely to work if you pay attention to a few key rules.

Can’t you rely on your Yellow Pages sales rep for any help you need?

Sometimes the rep can be part of the problem. Too many Yellow Page ads are whipped up in the few minutes the rep has left after trying to sell you a bigger ad. Ask, no, insist, that your directory publishers develop an ad for you that justifies the cost. If they can’t, have the ad produced yourself.

Okay, so you need a great looking ad. What about the content?

Content is another key. The first piece of ad copy that readers see, the headline, has to be powerful enough to drag them away from all those competing ads. Never use your company name as your headline unless it really is that powerful. Unless it really is the most important selling copy in the ad.

What other copy should you include?

You have to include all the hard, factual information potential customers need to make a decision to call or drop by: be it about image, market niche, products and services, features, brand names, expertise, pricing, quality, hours, reliability, speed, location, service area, credit available, whatever it might be.

So you should use every bit of ad space you’re paying for?

Absolutely not. Your ad is competing for readability with every other ad under your heading or headings. If it’s difficult to read, it isn’t going to be read. You’ve got to refine your copy until you can provide all the information potential clients want in an ad that’s so uncluttered and inviting that reading it becomes automatic.

What about visuals, like drawings and photos?

Nothing can turn a mediocre Yellow Pages ad into a great one faster than the right illustration. If your picture isn’t worth a thousand words, find one that is.

How about ad size: is bigger better?

Unfortunately, all things being equal, bigger ads get a greater response. They also get the best placement, closest to the front of the heading. Placement can be even more important than size.

A visually appealing ad can make up for some size, especially under a heading where all the ads are on the same page or two. It’s much more difficult to compete with ads on an earlier page. That page may never be turned.

Always consider placement when you’re deciding on ad size. Have your sales rep show you where the size you’re considering would fall in this year’s directory. That should give you an idea of the position, relative to the competition, you’d have next year. Sometimes going up a size and spending just a few more dollars will move you much closer to the front of the heading. Sometimes you can cut back in size without losing much in the way of position.

What about using color?

Color is eye catching. And expensive. If the money you’d be spending is approximately the same, you’re better off significantly improving the size and placement of your ad than the color.

Some areas are covered by several competing directories. Should you buy ads in all of them?

Make the sales rep prove value before you buy, especially when you’re considering a directory for the first time. If he or she can’t prove value, don’t put any real money there. Instead, try something small: perhaps even a simple in-column ad, or even just a listing. Track your response, survey your customers to discover how they discovered you. Then next year you’ll have know.

What’s the biggest Yellow Pages mistake you’ve ever encountered?

That’s got to be the attorney who found herself listed not under ATTORNEYS but under REPTILES. I’ll leave it to you to decide if that was perhaps more truth in advertising than she bargained for.

Which reminds me: Always insist on getting a proof for your display ad.

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