What is a business analyst?
There are all kinds of analysts and most of them work within IT. We also categorize the business analyst among the IT professions,
but this analyst is actually an all-rounder. Your main responsibility in this profession is to identify the wishes and needs of employees in order to improve business processes. Consider, for example, the desire for a more user-friendly system for requesting days off. You investigate to what extent there is a need for this and what exactly employees want differently in a new system. In principle, you are step one in implementing new (IT) systems.
What is the difference between a business analyst and other analysts? Simple, they are responsible for another step in this
improvement process. For example, the information analyst takes over as soon as the improvement proposals have been submitted
to the IT team. It is the job of this analyst to further develop the technical aspect and convert it into a concrete project
for the IT team, and the data analyst? It actually works exactly the other way around. Within this position you look at possible
improvements based on existing data. As a business analyst you look from the wishes of the company.
You now know that a business analyst conducts research into areas for improvement in business processes, but that still sounds
quite vague. So what does a business analyst really do on a working day? At the start of a new study, you mainly have a lot of
conversations with colleagues from different departments. This helps you orient yourself to what is going on among employees
and what is needed. Do you encounter something that several people encounter, for example that they cannot view their pay slips
on a smartphone? Then you zoom in on this. In this phase you also briefly look at how this change can be achieved. You do this
by using your own IT knowledge or sparring with IT employees.
Is your improvement proposal ready? Then you present it in detail to management. If you receive the green light, you further
develop your idea with the IT team. Then you completely pass it on to them. After the solution is implemented, monitor the effect
and investigate the employee experience.
What exactly you focus on as a business analyst depends entirely on what is going on within the organization. Maybe you set
up an information system for customers on one occasion. Another time you come up with a new declaration system for employees.
But whatever project you are working on, you always stay informed of the latest technological developments. This way you know
exactly how to convert employee wishes into concrete IT improvements.
Below you will find a summary of the business analyst tasks:
- Taking stock of the wishes and needs of the different departments of a company.
- Drawing up a business analysis based on the inventory.
- Researching new developments in the field of technology.
- Make improvement proposals to management.
- Sparring with the IT team about realizing the solutions.
- Directing and monitoring the implementations.