Fundamentals of Business Analysis

BUSINESS ANALYST

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................3
MAIN BODY...................................................................................................................................3
BA help business to achieve their challenges and goals.............................................................3
Techniques and tools that BA uses to help business...................................................................4
Process in which the BA works..................................................................................................4
CONCLUSION................................................................................................................................7
REFERENCES................................................................................................................................8

INTRODUCTION
Business analysts includes in creating the depth business analysis, opportunities,
solutions and outlining procedures for business (Akter and et.al., 2016). BA is a professional
who measure a business to established working of their process, operations and system. This
report is based on Durell software firm, well constituted in UK. It explain in what ways BA help
business to overcome challenges and achieve goals. Furthermore, also clarifies techniques and
tools that business analysts uses to help company and justifies process in which they works.
MAIN BODY
BA help business to achieve their challenges and goals
Business analysts is someone who help company to analyse their domain and documents.
Durell software is the software developer based firm in UK, they provide accounting and back
office administration software to mortgage, independent financial advisers and general insurance
brokers. Basically BA role revolved around one areas that is technology, they analyse the
business procedure, operational effectivenesses, assessing overall business systems associated
with technology. They play vital role within organization and help to develop the best and
appropriate technical solutions which is quite beneficial and helpful for business. Furthermore,
they are also accountable, to manage requirement at project level that is helpful to fulfil Durell
needs. Business analyst help to gain competitive advantages, they are capable to provide
technical solutions and different types of ideas that contribute for further business growth and
success. They take participation in decision making procedure based in statistical facts, that will
be used to guide company about its progress by measuring the long term view of competition and
market. BA effectively analyse appropriate data to identify business opportunities, it help to
improve internal procedures with data, solve business issues, remove barriers and designs
technical solutions (Alotaibi, 2016). They find out effective ways to reduce waste, improve
efficiency, implement and identify solutions, and appropriately document essential requirements
that help to achieve business desired goals and objectives.
In recent complex business environment, organization face many challenges due to
constant changes in technology through innovation which is difficult to manage by them.
Traditional techniques cannot be able to lead for longer and solve this issue and reach to
objectives. Durell wants to achieve their goals through projects that translate consumer needs

into financial services. Business analysts make it all happen effectively and efficiently, they
implement technology solutions within a business in cost effective manner. So that it determine
necessitate of the programs or projects and then communicate clearly to facilitators, stakeholders
and partners. By implementing technical solutions and adopting new technologies within
organizational structure company overcome through out the challenges that they faced from
continuous change in technology.
Techniques and tools that BA uses to help business
Business analysts perform as the bridge between business capabilities and ideas, scoping
and creating valuable changes and optimizations to business procedures. They are accountable
for delivering, maintaining and creating IT system. Include in modification or design of IT
system and business system, they interacts with subject matter experts and stakeholders in order
to understand needs and business problems (Laursen and Thorlund, 2016). BA uses MS Word
and Visio tools that help Durell software company to achieve business goals and objectives. Both
these tools is used to accomplish logical data modelling and conceptual. Vision is the best and
full featured software tool that aids communication and also used for presenting and capturing
ideas to different stakeholders. It is a software application use for creating UML diagrams such
as activity, sequence diagrams, use case, create architecture diagrams. Visio is the program falls
under Microsoft office, Business analysts used this because they wants to utilize charts, layouts
and diagrams related to technology (Software Tools Business Analysts Use for Data Modeling,
2018). Through proper planning and mapping they can help business to implement new
technology solutions and achieve goals. This application helps to display data graphically and
also display advanced shapes for electrical diagrams.
It is very crucial for BA to collect important background information on project, at this
phase need to be determined task domain and different circumstances that potentially influence
business plan and strategy for project. MS word is the best tool that help to gather more
information about project which is beneficial for overall business.
Process in which the BA works
Business analysts works in Software development life cycle (SDLC) process mostly used
by software industry to develop, design and test high quality software. The aim of the process is
to produce high quality software that exceeds or meet with consumer expectations, reaches cost

estimates and completion within time. SDLC consists with detailed plan that describe how to
maintain, enhance, alter, replace and develop particular software by BA. They works in this
process for redesigning and developing quality software system that meets both the consumers
and real world requirement. Phases of SDLC process depicted in following:

Planning phase-
Business analysts create plan in order to develop or enhance particular software, is the
first stage of SDLC process (Vom Brocke and Rosemann, 2014). Degree of planning dependent
from one model to another one, BA have clear understanding of what they are going to build by
developing system specifications.
Defining phase-
In this stage, business analysts define and analyse system structure and also define
components, how it fit together to produce the working system.
Illustration 1: SDLC phases
(Source: Software Development Life Cycle, 2019)

Designing phase-
In system designing stage, operations and design functions is described in detail by BA
including business rules, documentation related to technology implementation and process
diagrams. Results of this phase will describe new technology as collection of subsystem or
modules.
Building phase-
It considered as development stage, BA according to this process start code generation
based on new system design using interpreters, compliers and debuggers.
Implementation-
This phase is the part of building stage, BA start code generation and implement in
business.
Testing phase-
After implementation, testing phase begin in which business analysts through series of
tests assure that system is actually solving technical issues and solve needs addressed during
requirement stage.
Defect tracking in testing-
Software test reports is used to convey results of executed test plan, report contain all
information about test that pertains to present system being tested.
During Software development life cycle business analysts is include in converting
solutions requirement and driving business requirement. They are involved in translating better
solution features into software necessitate. BA leads in designing and analysis phase, dictates in
code development and then follows testing stage during fault fixing.
CONCLUSION
From above, it has been summarized that Business analysts role is very essential in
Durell software organization. BA use Virio and Microsoft word tools that help business effec
and increase their profit margin. Furthermore, they works in SDLC process and perform for
betterment.

REFERENCES
Books and Journals
Akter, S and et.al., (2016). How to improve firm performance using big data analytics capability
and business strategy alignment?. International Journal of Production Economics. 182.
113-131.
Alotaibi, Y. (2016). Business process modelling challenges and solutions: a literature
review. Journal of Intelligent Manufacturing. 27(4). 701-723.
Laursen, G. H., & Thorlund, J. (2016). Business analytics for managers: Taking business
intelligence beyond reporting. John Wiley & Sons.
Vom Brocke, J., & Rosemann, M. (Eds.). (2014). Handbook on business process management 2:
Strategic alignment, governance, people and culture. Springer.
Online
Software Tools Business Analysts Use for Data Modeling. 2018. [Online]. Available through:
<https://www.bridging-the-gap.com/data-modeling-software-tools/>
The Importance of the Business Analyst Role. 2016. [Online]. Available
through:<https://blog.microfocus.com/the-importance-of-the-business-analyst-role/>
Software Development Life Cycle. 2019. [Online]. Available through:
<https://www.tutorialspoint.com/business_analysis/business_analysis_software_development_lif
e_cycle.htm>