Category: Business Analyst

How I became a Business Analyst

Posted on November 15, 2019 Last updated on July 1, 2025 by admin | 4 min read | 36 views

“Sales? No… I don’t want to work in sales. That also for financial products…? No way.. See I cannot sell insurance products to the customers by visiting in their home and convincing them to buy one… That’s not my job…” – This was my reaction after 1 month of my job…

and then I left it. I got an interview call from a software company. I went for it. The lady who interviewed me, mentioned, “You have to read a lot of documents. I’m not sure you will be able to do it. Let’s see”. I was a fresh MBA, failed in my first job and joined this software company as a Project Executive. I was supposed to read customer’s requirements, prepare pre-sales document (proposal) and also post sales document (project document).

When I joined in the company, I felt everybody is so quite and silent unlike our management guys who keep screaming, dominating, discussing, giving view points etc. It took me some time to settle down and understand my job roles. Initially I thought I am not working on my goals but now I look back and realize it was also business analysis job.

My Job Role involved the following responsibilities:

  1. Read all the documents sent by the client for customized website development. This job was really difficult because the documents are not well organized and I was supposed to get fetch the meaning out of it.
  2. Create a documentation that lists down the customer’s requirements on a very high level. This document included Scope of work, Proposed technology, Process flow, Project timeline, Cost etc. This document was shared with customer for approval.
  3. If the customer agrees, I had to prepare another document. This was little bit extended version of what I have already built. This document was prepared for our technical team so that they can design and develop the website.
  4. Clarify any doubt if the technical team needs.

– I left the company in 8 months. I joined another IT organization in sales. Not again. I don’t like the word. Here also I had to prepare the similar kind of documentation with additional responsibility to close the deals. My performance was measured by the number of customers and revenue I bring in. Documentation was not the priority. It may look good or bad but at the end of the day the question was “When will the customer decide?”. By the was I was dealing with products like real-estate software, recruitment software, ecommerce solutions. – I left the job in 1 year.

Knowledge Gathering: Now, I realize I have gained good knowledge on the subject of software development, website development etc. I appeared in another interview and landed a job for Pre Sales Consulting for ERP and HRMS products. I was in this role for 3 years, spoken to 70+ odd customers on their complex requirements for ERP, HRMS, Website, Custom Solutions etc. I wrote proposals, presentations, gathered requirements, closed many deals, clarified requirements to the technical teams. I was the king. Without me, no one had any understanding on the requirements nor they had the confidence to deal with the customers.

The Shift: Later I joined a CMM level 5 organization for real business analysis job. It’s been close to 5 years and still I’m learning new techniques. Now here I realized what a business analyst do. My previous experiences of sales, proposal writing, requirement gathering helped but it’s long way to go. I understood the process of creating documentations, what information to go in a document and what information should be out of it. Here I was also fortunate enough to learn functional consulting which gets more into techno functional role (slightly above than a generic business analyst). I love my job. I am the key for any project. I lead requirements and I own it throughout the project. I take part in other activities like testing, design etc. This also helps me to learn more and trust me it has no limit.

Business analysis is such a sophisticated profession that you get to learn so many things all together. The you get paid to learn. You apply what you learn. You need not be technical in the beginning. Now all the business analysis profession are not same. I will talk about the different types of Business analysts in a separate article. Also BA should be technical or non-technical; will get future attention.

What is domain Knowledge for a Business Analyst?

Posted on November 12, 2019 Last updated on July 1, 2025 by admin | 3 min read | 27 views

As a Business Analyst if you have domain knowledge, it will definitely help you in BA career. In this article, I will explain what we mean by domain knowledge for a business analyst and how to acquire domain knowledge.

Domain is the industry, which our customer organization belongs to. Banking, Insurance, Healthcare, Retail, Hospitality, Aviation, Real estate, Manufacturing etc. are the examples of various industries. All the industries differ based on –

  • Business process (Sales, Production)
  • Product or Service offerings
  • Customer types, Market, Target audience, Competitors, Alliances  
  • Statutory compliance and government regulation

Based on the above-mentioned factors, all the business organizations have segregated themselves as a domain.

A Business Analyst is expected to know at least one domain so that he can communicate well with the customer to understand the business issues, process, requirements and business goals. If the business analyst is planning to acquire the knowledge on a domain, he should focus on the points, mentioned above and try to gain as much information he can gain.

If someone wants to gain Healthcare domain knowledge, he should first follow the instruction as below –

  • Learn the Business process that is followed in Healthcare domain. It follows various sales processes. If you work in healthcare business, you may ask the sales person to explain you how the sales happens, what are the sale types, how much time does it take, how do customer make payment, how does a customer cancel a sale etc.
  • Learn how many different Products or Services offered by the healthcare company. What are the major category of healthcare products e.g. Medical, Dental, Medicare, Medicaid etc. How do the products differ, what are the major value the product or services provide to customers?  
  • Learn about Customer types, Market, Target audience, Competitors, Alliances the healthcare organization has. The customers are segmented based on various factors, the competitors are in the market with additional benefits, the partners, distributors, providers, health organizations, pharmacists all have key role to play for a healthcare organization. Try to understand why they exist and what they do.
  • All healthcare organizations have to maintain some statutory compliance and government regulations, e.g. HIPAA. Try to know about the major statutory compliance for healthcare organizations and the rules.

How to gain domain knowledge?

  1. If you are a fresher, you can learn about a domain from internet by searching on the topics as discussed above
  2. If you are working in an organization, you can speak to the end user in your company and gain the required knowledge you are seeking for
  3. You can also subscribe to the specific industry portal’s newsletter and business updates
  4. Follow some organizations that you aspire for (follow it on Facebook, LinkedIn, organization’s official website)

I believe this will help you in the first step in understanding a domain. Remember, domain knowledge acquisition, is a continuous process and there is no end of it. So keep learning and maintain a journal to keep recording what you have learnt today.

What does a Business Analyst do?

Posted on November 12, 2019 Last updated on July 5, 2020 by admin | 3 min read | 51 views

From my personal experience and observation during my career as a Business Analyst, I can say that a Business Analyst will go through number of roles and responsibilities during his career. Now, in the initial days as a fresher when a BA start the job, his role will vary from a senior business analyst who has spent more than 10 years. I will explain it from IT standpoint where a System Integrator (IT Company) is working on a project for a client organization. The other scenario could be a Business Analyst who is working within the customer organization (we are not taking about the business analyst role).

Phase 1

This is the time when a fresher joins as a business analyst. The BA has probably done a business analyst training (not certification). His job role will be –

  1. Understand the client requirements from reading a number of documents (RFP, Scope, SOW etc.)
  2. He will have regular meetings with the Senior BA to understand the project requirements and also to validate himself
  3. He will undergo some technical training to understand the tool that is being used in the current project
  4. He will prepare questionnaire to gather requirements and send it to his senior
  5. He will document high level requirements in BRD based on his understanding
  6. He will co-ordinate with development and testing team members

Phase 2

This is when the junior business analyst has gained some experience and can work independently. His role will be –

  1. To work closely with the client on the requirements
  2. To work with the technical team and guide them
  3. Ensure the documentations are done properly (BRD, FRD, RTM)
  4. Ensure the testing team understands what functionalities need to be tested and how to go about it
  5. Build confidence with the customer so that the project continues and they are satisfied

Phase 3

This is when the business analyst has more than a decade experience and he implemented various solutions. He is BABOK certified. Here the BA role will be vast –

  1. Bring domain knowledge on the table (Insurance, Banking, Healthcare, Telecom, Real-estate etc.)
  2. Help the customer to define the requirements
  3. Consult and recommend the customer to benchmark the solution with peers
  4. Bring in best practices during the project and also in the solution
  5. Help junior business analysts to gear up
  6. Help the sales team to close deals (pre-sales) or be the business consultant for new customer acquisition

The role of business analyst will change based on the location, industry, his capability also.

How Capability of the Business Analyst matter?

I have seen many business analyst who can also design the solution. So they are technically aligned with the team.

Similarly there will be business analysts who can also work as a Project Manager or Program Manager. However this will add too much of job load on a single person and either of the role may be impacted

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