Why Business Analyst?

Why any company need Business Analyst or Business System Analyst?

Business Analyst is the person responsible for smooth ongoing projects whether its in IT or non IT. For many years industry looks IT directors and CIO as main liaison between business and IT. Its true in some manners, ,mostly at upper level management level. But at the project development level, business analyst is the main bridge between business and developers. Business Analyst is the one who creates business cases and lead IT development process. Business Analyst makes sure that all contributing parties have smooth communications and they have all what they needed for going further in the project.

Business Analyst position and its responsibilities varies depending on the organization. BA actually works as to eliminate line between business and developers. Business Analyst must have good blend in both business and communications savvy. A business analyst has to work as a diplomat between various levels in origination.

To be a successful business analyst one must have good communication skill, business understanding and passion. BA is a bridge for organization to reach development team and get the information from business analyst according to project requirements, need and supply of IT resources. Now as I mentioned earlier, business analyst role depends on organization. Some business analyst role lien more on business side and some more on technical side. There are also more areas such as finance, marketing, engineering etc.which needed functional business analyst.

Kick off meeting

• The Kickoff Meeting is the first meeting with the project team and the client of the project. This meeting would follow definition of the base elements for the project and other project planning activities. This meeting introduces the members of the project team and the client and provides the opportunity to discuss the role of each team member. Other base elements in the project that involve the client may also be discussed at this meeting (Schedule, Status Reporting, etc.).
•  The basic format of a kickoff meeting includes the roles of and contributions from the stakeholders. It also mentions the risks and issues involved, particularly those that may affect project schedules and lead to decreased customer satisfaction. This is the point at which help needed from stakeholders is explicitly mentioned.
•  If there are any new team members, the process to be followed is explained so as to maintain quality standards of the organization. Clarity is given by the project lead if there exists any ambiguity in the process implementations....
• There is a special discussion on the legalities involved in the project. For example, the design team interacting with the testing team may want a car to be tested on city roads. If the legal permissions are not mentioned by the concerned stakeholder during kickoff, the test may get modified later to comply with local traffic laws (this causes unplanned delay in project implementation). So, it was best to have a discussion about it in the kickoff meeting and follow it up separately, than to assume stuff and later be forced to replan test procedures.
• The kickoff meeting is an enthusiasm-generator for the customer and displays a full summary of the project so far. By displaying a thorough knowledge of the goal and steps on how to reach it, confidence is put in the customer.