{"id":396,"date":"2017-08-01T16:46:13","date_gmt":"2017-08-01T21:46:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.onlc.com\/blog\/?p=396"},"modified":"2022-07-06T15:35:48","modified_gmt":"2022-07-06T20:35:48","slug":"business-analysis-professionals","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.onlc.com\/blog\/business-analysis-professionals\/","title":{"rendered":"Business Analysis for IT Professionals"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Without business analysis, there would be no software or computer solutions. That\u2019s because the most important aspect of developing information technology is understanding what the problem is before you start to solve it. <\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">To effectively do this, the business analyst needs to accurately determine exactly what the customer wants. Then they need to employ structured techniques for:<\/span><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">gathering business requirements<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">converting them into functional specifications<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">working with technical resources to develop the technical specifications<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">developing and implementing test plans<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">This helps to create a blueprint for the work that will be performed to create an effective technical solution to whatever the problem is. Let\u2019s break out the day-to-day tasks that might be performed by an <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.onlc.com\/outline.asp?ccode=XBAITP\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">IT business analyst<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">.<\/span><\/p>\n<h2><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Gathering Requirements<\/span><\/h2>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Determining what the customer <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">thinks <\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">they want, what they <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">really <\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">want and what they <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">actually <\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">need are three completely different things. It\u2019s the business analyst\u2019s job to use different techniques to effectively gather user requirements. <\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Some examples of requirement gathering methods are customer interviews, questionnaires, prototyping, use cases and collaborative workshops, just to name a few. It is the analyst&#8217;s job to be the bridge between the non-technical business assets and the technical solution providers.<\/span><\/p>\n<h2><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Business Process Analysis<\/span><\/h2>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">While gathering requirements, it\u2019s always helpful to have the customer go through their processes and how they work from day to day. By analyzing how they are currently handling the problem, sometimes inefficiencies and bottlenecks can be discovered. Good business process analysis might help them streamline their current processes and make their new automated processes more efficient because these issues will have already been eliminated.<\/span><\/p>\n<h2><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Data Modelling<\/span><\/h2>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">After the requirements have been gathered and current processes have been documented, the analyst can begin to determine what data needs to be gathered as well as how all of the data is related. <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.smartdraw.com\/entity-relationship-diagram\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Entity relationship diagrams<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> are then drawn to show how the data in the system is connected and how it will flow through the system. This helps technical solution providers to have a better understanding of the underlying data structures when they begin coding the solution. A good piece of software is just like a house. It is only as strong as its foundation, so it is critical that the data is understood and stored correctly to make it easier to save and retrieve.<\/span><\/p>\n<h2><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Testing Plans<\/span><\/h2>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Software needs to be tested &#8211; extensively. A concise and thorough test plan will need to be developed and implemented to make sure that the software effectively solves the original problem and is acceptable to the customer. Different scenarios will need to be documented and scripted so that testers will have a recipe to follow when testing the solution. This ensures the quality of the project and the product while streamlining any issues that arise before the solution gets into the hands of the customer.<\/span><\/p>\n<h2><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Business Analysis Training <\/span><\/h2>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Business analysis is involved at all stages of the solution development lifecycle. The job market for talented business analysts is wide open, and the <\/span><a href=\"http:\/\/www.payscale.com\/research\/US\/Job=Business_Analyst%2C_IT\/Salary\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">salary ranges<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> are varied depending on the type of work and the company. Trained candidates can work in any number of jobs including subject matter specialist, project managers, technical team leaders and many others. <\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Why not start your path to one of the most rewarding and highly sought after jobs today by getting the valuable training that will be highly prized by successful employers? One of the best ways to obtain this training is through innovative technical training companies like ONLC. <\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">We have online and remotely hosted classroom training available for business analysis right now. It\u2019s easy to <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.onlc.com\/business-analyst-training-classes-cbap-certification.htm#classes\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">sign up<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> and jump start your career. <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.onlc.com\/contact-onlc.htm\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Contact ONLC today<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> and let us help you make the first move in a better direction.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Without business analysis, there would be no software or computer solutions. That\u2019s because the most important aspect of developing information technology is understanding what the problem is before you start to solve it. To effectively do this, the business analyst needs to accurately determine exactly what the customer wants. Then they need to employ structured [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":397,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-396","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-certifications"],"aioseo_notices":[],"modified_by":"blogadmin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.onlc.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/396","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.onlc.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.onlc.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.onlc.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.onlc.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=396"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.onlc.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/396\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1186,"href":"https:\/\/www.onlc.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/396\/revisions\/1186"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.onlc.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/397"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.onlc.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=396"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.onlc.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=396"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.onlc.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=396"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}