Introduction:
The head of FP&A (Financial Processing and Accounting) in an organization probably performs the same functions as the head of the same process in another company. But the same is not true for a business analyst. The career path of a BA tends to vary from one company to another.
When it comes to IT Business Analyst, it is only natural to assume that they balance the work between the ‘IT’ component and the ‘business’ component. However, the job goes much beyond that. Is it equal stress on both the components or is the business side much heavier? Let’s see in this blog today.
The job of an IT Business Analyst revolves around IT-Business balance
The role of a business analyst can be achieved after several years of experience in a business domain. Domain expertise is integral to this role.
So, when can a business analyst become an IT business analyst? After good 3-4 years down the line as a business analyst, the aspirant will have the potential to become an IT business analyst.
As the business change and the IT implementations work in tandem, the role of an IT business analyst is more or less aligned.
Responsibilities of an IT Business Analyst
While some IT business analysts have more focus on the business side, the other roles might be partial towards seeing that the changes are suitably implemented by the technical team.
Responsibilities of the IT BAs who are more business-focused:
- Eliciting and understanding the requirements of multiple stakeholders from various systems.
- Making the environment conducive for negotiation between multiple stakeholders.
- Evaluate the present and future needs of business processes.
- To help the business stakeholders foresee the need to change in order to keep up with future trends in businesses.
Responsibilities of the IT BAs who are more IT-heavy:
- Creating, evaluating, and validating the requirements.
- Discussing with the software team to arrive at a solution.
- Discussing the details of the system design, rules for data migration, business rules, etc.
How the role of IT business analysts is shifting towards expansion?
A traditional IT business analyst has always been the professional who is more technology-centric and the role often revolved around a system, set of systems in use by the organization. However, the drawback is that this role is career-limiting not only to the business analyst but also decreases the business value of the organization.
The following are the ways how the role of IT BAs is expanding:
They work on more than one systems
This is more towards the technical front. Instead of building and maintaining single systems, they are shifting towards the expansion of COTS (Commercial Off-the-Shelf) systems to meet the demanding business needs. With this change, the BA’s job description is also transforming and expanding. However, the growth is more on the technical aspect as mentioned.
They are into evaluating business processes
This expansion is more into the business aspect. With the emergence of newer software tools, meeting business requirements is becoming easier. This essentially clears up most of the IT BA’s time and help them focus on business processes after driving the software requirements.
This means that the IT BAs can play a crucial role in improving the business processes which are affected by the technical changes in the projects.
They support multiple stakeholder groups
More stakeholders are getting involved in a project as they are associated with a particular, or numerous systems. As an example, a change in the sales system could as well affect the marketing team, accounting system, or customer service.
Conclusion:
To be an IT Business Analyst is a great place to be. This role is constantly expanding from the technology component into the business component. This means greater career options for IT business analysts.
