Business Analysis

Business Analysis is a research discipline of identifying business needs and determining solutions to business problems.These solutions include software systems analysis,but may also consist of process improvement,organization change or strategic planning and policy development.Business Analysis is usually broken down into steps and the steps are;

• Gathering and Preparing Business Requirements
• Planning and Documenting Requirements 
• Analyzing and Modelling Requirements 
• Take Up Change Requests
• Perform Acceptance Testing 
• Maintain and Update

There are numerous skills associated with steps mentioned above,so the required skills are;

• Oral and Written Communication
• Interpersonal and Consultative
• Facilitation and Team Building 
• Analytical Thinking and Problem Solving
• Knowledge of Business Structure
• Stakeholder Analysis and Management 
• Requirements Engineering 
• Cost-Benefit Analysis
• Process Modelling 
• Understanding of Networks, Databases and Other Technology
• Maintenance of System and Operations
• Change Management 
• User Acceptance Testing 

Some tools and softwares used are;

• Microsoft Excel
• Microsoft PowerPoint 
• Microsoft Access
• Structured Query Language (SQL)
• Google Analytics
• Tableau
• Unified Modelling Language (UML)
• Flow-Charts

In conclusion, business analysts help bridge the gap between business and IT and improve efficiency.They engage with business leaders and users to understand how data driven changes to process,products,services,software and hardware can improve efficiencies and add value.They must articulate those ideas but also balance them against what is technologically feasible,financially and functionally reasonable.