Business Analyst
A business analyst helps teams understand problems and find the best solutions. They look at how things work now, suggest improvements, and make sure changes meet user and business needs.
What they do
- gather and document user needs and business requirements
- facilitate stakeholder collaboration
- analyse processes and identify opportunities for improvement
- coordinate communication between stakeholders and technical teams
- ensure alignment between user needs, business objectives and service design
Key outputs
- Business process maps - diagrams showing workflows and pain points
- Requirements documentation - defines what the service needs to deliver
- Stakeholder analysis reports - identifies key decision-makers and their roles
- Impact assessments - evaluates how changes affect users and operations
Project tasks
- Discovery - gather requirements and map business processes
- Alpha - validate assumptions and document requirements for prototyping
- Beta - refine requirements based on testing and support delivery teams
- Live - analyse data and feedback to ensure continuous improvement
Hiring considerations
Before hiring, consider whether the skills already exist in your organisation. Training or reallocating staff might be a more effective way to fill gaps.
- When to hire - if structured business analysis is lacking and requirements need to be formally gathered and documented
- When to upskill - if someone on the team can confidently map business processes, document service requirements, and facilitate collaboration between teams
- Essential skills - process mapping, stakeholder engagement, requirements gathering, impact analysis
- Common tools - Microsoft Visio, Lucidchart, Draw.io (for process mapping), Jira (for tracking requirements), Power BI (for data analysis)