Business analysis is the set of assignments or tasks and methods utilized to work as collaboration amongst the shareholders in order to perceive the intended meaning of the policies, structure and operations of a particular organization, and to suggest or propose definite solutions, which authorize the organization to attain its objectives and goals. Business analysis is nothing but the practice of authorizing and enabling alteration or change in the context of an organization, by defining the necessity and needs (Eva et al. 2014). It furthers suggests and recommends perfect and specific solutions, which convey value to the stakeholders. Solutions, recommended by business analysis often include a certain software systems development component. It also consists of improvement of process, strategic planning, policy development and organizational change.
The person or individual, who carries out the task of business analysis, is known as a Business Analyst or BA. A business analyst has certain roles and responsibilities. The roles and responsibilities of a business analyst are as follows:
The third major role of a senior business analyst is to define the most effective business system to implement business strategy and produce business case with the assistance of finance specialists. This responsibility even includes the conduct of post implementation review and suggestion of actions to attain business benefits. A business analyst also prepares specification of requirements using the use case modelling or data modelling.
The main competencies of a business analyst are subdivided into three major segments. They are as follows:
These three competencies can be further sub divided into several secondary competencies. They are as follows:
1.1 Communication
1.2 Relationship building
1.3 Influencing
1.4 Team working
1.5 Political awareness
1.6 Analytical skills and critical thinking
1.7 Attention to detail
1.8 Problem solving
1.9 Leadership
1.10 Self- belief
2.1 Finance and the economy
2.2 Business case development
2.3 Domain knowledge
2.4 Subject matter expertise
2.5 Principles of IT
2.6 Organization structures and design
2.7 Supplier management
3.1 Project management
3.2 Strategy analysis
3.3 Stakeholder analysis and management
3.4 Investigation techniques
3.5 Requirements engineering
3.6 Business system modeling
3.7 Business process modeling
3.8 Data modeling
3.9 Managing business change
3.10 Facilitation techniques
The above-mentioned competencies are used by a business analyst and then are used in the business analysis process. The segments of behavioral skills and personal qualities, that is, communication, relationship building, team working- these are used as the improvement of personal qualities and behavioral skills (Healy and Palepu 2012). These are extremely important for any business analysis process. The second competency is the business knowledge; under which there are seven secondary competencies. These are needed for the knowledge in business and business development. The third segment of competency is the techniques that are used in the business analysis process. These techniques help to create the business analysis process.
Example: A business analyst, when working for a certain organization, will face many types of clients in his everyday work. The competencies will help him to do business easily. Communication, relationship building, team working will improve his personal qualities and behavioral skills. He should have perfect knowledge about the business, which means his domain knowledge should be perfect and he should know all the tools and techniques to create a business analysis process.
According to me, the competencies of business analysis are extremely important for any business analyst. These competencies help to improve the business analyst in his work. The competencies help to develop and improve the communication skills, team working skills, relationship management, and domain knowledge. They also help to understand the tools and techniques to run a business analysis process.
These competencies are sometimes difficult to develop. However, with proper training and expert guidance, any business analyst can easily achieve them.
Strategy is the scope and direction of a particular organisation over the long term that attains benefit in an altering environment through arrangement of competences and resources with the focus of fulfilling expectations of the stakeholders.
Strategy analysis is important for any organization. Different business units have different strategies (Grant 2016). There are different levels of strategy in a particular organisation. They are as follows:
There are four approaches of developing a strategy.
These strategies are implemented in the business analysis process (Baldwin, Cave and Lodge 2012). The business analyst plays an important role in strategic planning. The responsibilities of a business analyst are as follows:
According to me, the strategies are extremely important for any organization. Strategies help the business analyst to analysis the business and thus helping to attain the organization’s goals (Lofgren, Cicowiez and Diaz-Bonilla 2013). I think it is difficult for any business analyst to understand strategy analysis but with proper training it can be achieved.
The two famous strategy analysis models are SWOT and PESTLE.
SWOT: SWOT analysis is the four attributes of strategy planning (van Wijngaarden, Scholten and van Wijk 2012). The four attributes are:
Strengths: Organisational strengths such as market share
Weaknesses: Organisational weakness such as financial position.
Opportunities: Recognizing the opportunities of the organization.
Threats: Recognizing the threats of the organization (Kajanus et al. 2012).
PESTLE : PESTLE is another model for strategy planning (Gillam and Siriwardena 2013). The six attributes of PESTEL are:
Political: The stability of government and political situation.
Economic: The impact of interest rates, inflation.
Social: The impact of social life style and change in life style.
Technological: The impact of modern technology.
Legal: The employment laws, health and safety rules.
Environmental: Animal welfare, global warming and climate change.
The two strategy analysis models help to analyze strategies for any organization. Business analysts for attaining organization’s goals implement these. These are utilized for two main reasons. They are:
According to me, the easiest strategy analysis model that can be implemented in the SWOT analysis. It is very easy to implement. The business analyst will just have to identify the strengths, weakness, opportunities and threats of the organization. PESTLE is slightly complex to be understood.
An organizational strategy is the summation of the overall actions that an organization plans to apply to attain its long-term objectives (Kinicki and Kreitner 2012). These actions together combine to become a strategic plan. It takes at least one year to complete a strategic plan, and all company levels are required to involve in it.
The knowledge audit is the assessment of a company’s knowledge capabilities. This audit recognizes the gap between the available knowledge and what is needed for the organization’s strategies (Armstrong 2013).
Organizational strategies and knowledge audit plans are implemented using the strategy analysis models like SWOT and PESTLE. These are implemented only after knowing the strengths, weakness, opportunities, threats, political, economic, social, technological, legal and environmental analysis (Peppard and Ward 2016). Without these analysis, organizational decisions and strategies cannot be taken by any business analyst.
According to me, implementation of organizational strategies and knowledge audit plans are as important as the organization. I think these should be implemented in all organizations to achieve the objectives of the organization. These are not at all difficult to implement.
Leadership is the process of influencing, motivating or persuading other group members to pursue a common goal of the group and to set aside their individual concerns. Leadership is the ability to obtain extraordinary performance from all the group members (Cameron 2012). It combines goals of a particular organisation with the desire of its employees through a committed action and shared vision.
Team building strategies are those strategies that are implemented by different organizations for team building.
The leadership team consists of four members. They are:
The most important team building strategy is the Tuckerman’s Model (Keavney 2016). There are five stages in Tuckerman’s Model.
Norming: This is the third stage. Team members finally settle in for a decision.
According to me, the Tuckerman’s model is the most important model for team building strategies (Dyer and Dyer 2013). The five stages clearly define the different stages of building of a perfect team in an organization. I think it is very easy to implement and beneficial for the organization.
A business context is the context in which a special lexicon is employed. A business context can be a larger business community, an individual organization, or a particular project and initiative (Brock et al. 2013).
A specific business context has five major stages. They are:
According to me, the implementation of business models is important for any organization. The five stages of business context helps to understand the needs, requirements, options, and the perspectives of the business model. All these are possible only when the situation is understood. I think business context is easy to implement.
Investigation requirement elicitation techniques are such techniques that are required to understand the depth and breadth of issues in an organization. These techniques focus to detect the underlying causes and develop the specific requirements for the solution.
There are two types of investigation techniques. They are as follows:
According to me, the qualitative and the quantitative investigation techniques are important for elicitation in any organization. These are easy to implement and beneficial for the organization.
References
Eva, M., Hindle, K., Paul, D., Rollaston, C. and Tudor, D., 2014. Business analysis. BCS.
Healy, P.M. and Palepu, K.G., 2012. Business analysis valuation: Using financial statements. Cengage Learning.
Jenkins, W. and Williamson, D., 2015. Strategic management and business analysis. Routledge.
Baldwin, R., Cave, M. and Lodge, M., 2012. Understanding regulation: theory, strategy, and practice. Oxford University Press on Demand.
Grant, R.M., 2016. Contemporary strategy analysis: Text and cases edition. John Wiley & Sons.
Lofgren, H., Cicowiez, M. and Diaz-Bonilla, C., 2013. MAMS–A computable general equilibrium model for developing country strategy analysis. Handbook of computable general equilibrium modeling, 1, pp.159-276.
Gillam, S. and Siriwardena, A.N., 2013. Leadership and management for quality. Quality in primary care, 21(4).
Kajanus, M., Leskinen, P., Kurttila, M. and Kangas, J., 2012. Making use of MCDS methods in SWOT analysis—Lessons learnt in strategic natural resources management. Forest Policy and Economics, 20, pp.1-9.
van Wijngaarden, J.D., Scholten, G.R. and van Wijk, K.P., 2012. Strategic analysis for health care organizations: the suitability of the SWOT?analysis. The International journal of health planning and management, 27(1), pp.34-49.
Armstrong, R., Waters, E., Dobbins, M., Anderson, L., Moore, L., Petticrew, M., Clark, R., Pettman, T.L., Burns, C., Moodie, M. and Conning, R., 2013. Knowledge translation strategies to improve the use of evidence in public health decision making in local government: intervention design and implementation plan. Implementation Science, 8(1), p.121.
Kinicki, A. and Kreitner, R., 2012. Organizational behavior: Key concepts, skills & best practices. McGraw-Hill Irwin.
Peppard, J. and Ward, J., 2016. The strategic management of information systems: Building a digital strategy. John Wiley & Sons.
Cameron, K., 2012. Positive leadership: Strategies for extraordinary performance. Berrett-Koehler Publishers.
Dyer, W.G. and Dyer, J.H., 2013. Team building: Proven strategies for improving team performance. John Wiley & Sons.
Keavney, A., 2016. Team building strategies. Training & Development, 43(2), p.26.
Boons, F. and Lüdeke-Freund, F., 2013. Business models for sustainable innovation: state-of-the-art and steps towards a research agenda. Journal of Cleaner Production, 45, pp.9-19.
Brock, C., Blut, M., Evanschitzky, H. and Kenning, P., 2013. Satisfaction with complaint handling: a replication study on its determinants in a business-to-business context. International journal of research in marketing, 30(3), pp.319-322.
Onetti, A., Zucchella, A., Jones, M.V. and McDougall-Covin, P.P., 2012. Internationalization, innovation and entrepreneurship: business models for new technology-based firms. Journal of Management & Governance, 16(3), pp.337-368.
Boateng, W., 2012. Evaluating the efficacy of focus group discussion (FGD) in qualitative social research. International Journal of Business and Social Science, 3(7).
Patten, M.L., 2016. Questionnaire research: A practical guide. Routledge.
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