A business analyst studies and understands the business process of an organization with the sole aim of identifying gray areas and opportunities for improvement. He basically analyzes the business process seeking inefficiencies. A business analyst can come from a variety of backgrounds including business administration and software development.

A business analyst acts as a bridge between the software development team and the stakeholders in an organization. A qualified business analyst must understand software development life cycle (SLDC) and better still must have participated a full application development from start to finish.

As subject matter expert, the analyst should be able to analyze an application and provide opportunities for improvement. In many organizations, the business analyst is responsible for gathering requirements from stakeholders at the conceptual stage of software development. He provides direction on the difference between a requirement and “wish list”.

For other organizations, the business analyst uses Unified Modelling Language(UML) to model and create use cases based on the requirement. He provides directives by clarifying requirements to both the business team and software development team.

A good business analyst lives in both the business world and the technical world.

Comments are welcome on other roles and expectations of a business anlayst