Do you want to become a Business Analyst?
Are you looking for a Business Analyst profile?
Do you want make your career in software industry as Business Analyst?
Are you looking for some help? some guidance? then here it is................First of all you need to think, what is required to become a Business Analyst? you may be an MBA with Information Systems background or your basic degree can be B.E/B.tech/B.C.A/B.Sc Computer Science/ Diploma in Computers BUT it is not enough!!!! Hey.. Relax... You need not to go for any additional course or institute to learn more. Just read below content and enable yourself.
You need to think of one important thing, just like you there will be many number of ('N' number) of college pass-outs, MBA's , degree holders etc.... What special are you? What is the advantage over other candidates that you are having? what is the edge you are having over others? How company will get benefited by hiring you?
If you know the answer for above questions you will easily get job as a Business Analyst, if not don't worry it is time to enable yourselves.. Keep reading this page :-) You will get an fair idea.
Know extra apart form your college syllabus Most of Business Analyst aspirants think if you score good and understand the topics covered in your regular college syllabus (information Systems subject) You read and understand SDLC, Roles and Responsibilities, Software Engineering, Project Management, BPR, CMMI etc which are available in your curriculum, it is okay BUT it is not enough... You need to know how exactly SDLC process happens and what will be actual roles and responsibilities of Business Analyst.
Lets Start with SDLC (System or Software Development Life Cycle):
Usually we think of Initiation, Planning, Requirements gathering, Development, Design, testing, Implementation and Maintenance . Yes that's correct but what is the extra point you know actually. How exactly software business runs...?
In a software company there will be several teams like;
Once they get a customer , they will have an high-level requirements of software which is suppose to be built. Project manager, Business Analyst and technical architect will get associated with sales team and analyze the project requirements for feasibility of project. Is this project doable? doing this project will yield profit or not? any technical risks involved in the project? any functional risks involved in the project? high level delivery schedule..... will be discussed in details and they arrive to a conclusion and submit proposal to client (usually it is called RFP - Request for proposal).
BD team will get back to client with cost and delivery schedule. If client agrees for the same then sales team will prepare a document called " Statement of Work - SOW". which will be signed-off from the client as well.
Once SOW is there, Project manager will prepare a delivery plan called Project Plan. which includes milestones of the projects, iterations, end dates etc.....
Also Requirements gathering schedule, Development schedule, Design, testing, implementation schedule will be mentioned in detail.
SO NOW YOU KNOW HOW PROJECT GETS INITIATED - if not go to contact page and write your question.
Your SDLC STARTED WITH BD TEAM i.e PROJECT INITIATION AND PLANNING
Requirements Analysis:
After project imitated and planning done by Project manager, Business Analyst starts his/her work which is most critical because if anything goes wrong in this phase project will go loss. something like foundation of a building is not proper then what is the use of building(development) and testing...?
Business Analyst will have high level requirements from BD team (usually it will is never mentioned in your college syllabus). Business Analyst will establish connection with client and starts Requirements Elicitation (or requirements gathering) in detail. Requirements can be collected over phone, Email, face to face discussion, joint requirement discussion (JRD).
Then starts DOCUMENTATION - the collected requirements will be documented in a MS-Word or any other documents BUT it will be neatly formatted and some document techniques will be used like USE CASES, Use case diagrams, activity diagram, Data flow diagrams.
Before giving an example for use case, just think of a functionality of User Login to some website or some email (like gmail). What do you think? usually you think there will be one page where there will be options to enter user name and password and Login button. correct!!!! yes that is what you think BUT a Business Analyst will think bit different not too much. he/she will make it more clear. Like....
User will type URL www.mail.google.com in browser
A page will be displayed (a screen shot will be displayed)
There will be two fields User name and password
User name should be entered and password should be entered.
While user enters password it should be encrypted (with asterisk - '*' symbol).
Then user will click on Login button
If user name and password matches user will see mail box , if user name and password is wrong an error message will be displayed "user name or password is invalid"
WHAT DO YOU THINK????? Does BUSINESS ANALYST thinks different? yes , also lot of clarity in requirements and documenting it. See how Business Analyst documents in USE CASE below (same example of gmail login);
Do you want make your career in software industry as Business Analyst?
Are you looking for some help? some guidance? then here it is................First of all you need to think, what is required to become a Business Analyst? you may be an MBA with Information Systems background or your basic degree can be B.E/B.tech/B.C.A/B.Sc Computer Science/ Diploma in Computers BUT it is not enough!!!! Hey.. Relax... You need not to go for any additional course or institute to learn more. Just read below content and enable yourself.
You need to think of one important thing, just like you there will be many number of ('N' number) of college pass-outs, MBA's , degree holders etc.... What special are you? What is the advantage over other candidates that you are having? what is the edge you are having over others? How company will get benefited by hiring you?
If you know the answer for above questions you will easily get job as a Business Analyst, if not don't worry it is time to enable yourselves.. Keep reading this page :-) You will get an fair idea.
Know extra apart form your college syllabus Most of Business Analyst aspirants think if you score good and understand the topics covered in your regular college syllabus (information Systems subject) You read and understand SDLC, Roles and Responsibilities, Software Engineering, Project Management, BPR, CMMI etc which are available in your curriculum, it is okay BUT it is not enough... You need to know how exactly SDLC process happens and what will be actual roles and responsibilities of Business Analyst.
Lets Start with SDLC (System or Software Development Life Cycle):
Usually we think of Initiation, Planning, Requirements gathering, Development, Design, testing, Implementation and Maintenance . Yes that's correct but what is the extra point you know actually. How exactly software business runs...?
In a software company there will be several teams like;
- Business Development (marketing or sales team) - tele callers, sales executives, marketing managers.
- Business Analyst team - Business Analyst or business Systems Analyst
- Development team - Developers (software engineers), Technical Architects,Team lead, Project managers
- Testing team - Quality Engineers, Quality lead
- Deployment or Implementation Team - Deployment Engineer, Implementation Engineer
- Support Team - Support Engineer
Once they get a customer , they will have an high-level requirements of software which is suppose to be built. Project manager, Business Analyst and technical architect will get associated with sales team and analyze the project requirements for feasibility of project. Is this project doable? doing this project will yield profit or not? any technical risks involved in the project? any functional risks involved in the project? high level delivery schedule..... will be discussed in details and they arrive to a conclusion and submit proposal to client (usually it is called RFP - Request for proposal).
BD team will get back to client with cost and delivery schedule. If client agrees for the same then sales team will prepare a document called " Statement of Work - SOW". which will be signed-off from the client as well.
Once SOW is there, Project manager will prepare a delivery plan called Project Plan. which includes milestones of the projects, iterations, end dates etc.....
Also Requirements gathering schedule, Development schedule, Design, testing, implementation schedule will be mentioned in detail.
SO NOW YOU KNOW HOW PROJECT GETS INITIATED - if not go to contact page and write your question.
Your SDLC STARTED WITH BD TEAM i.e PROJECT INITIATION AND PLANNING
Requirements Analysis:
After project imitated and planning done by Project manager, Business Analyst starts his/her work which is most critical because if anything goes wrong in this phase project will go loss. something like foundation of a building is not proper then what is the use of building(development) and testing...?
Business Analyst will have high level requirements from BD team (usually it will is never mentioned in your college syllabus). Business Analyst will establish connection with client and starts Requirements Elicitation (or requirements gathering) in detail. Requirements can be collected over phone, Email, face to face discussion, joint requirement discussion (JRD).
Then starts DOCUMENTATION - the collected requirements will be documented in a MS-Word or any other documents BUT it will be neatly formatted and some document techniques will be used like USE CASES, Use case diagrams, activity diagram, Data flow diagrams.
Before giving an example for use case, just think of a functionality of User Login to some website or some email (like gmail). What do you think? usually you think there will be one page where there will be options to enter user name and password and Login button. correct!!!! yes that is what you think BUT a Business Analyst will think bit different not too much. he/she will make it more clear. Like....
User will type URL www.mail.google.com in browser
A page will be displayed (a screen shot will be displayed)
There will be two fields User name and password
User name should be entered and password should be entered.
While user enters password it should be encrypted (with asterisk - '*' symbol).
Then user will click on Login button
If user name and password matches user will see mail box , if user name and password is wrong an error message will be displayed "user name or password is invalid"
WHAT DO YOU THINK????? Does BUSINESS ANALYST thinks different? yes , also lot of clarity in requirements and documenting it. See how Business Analyst documents in USE CASE below (same example of gmail login);
Design and Development
Now, who does the design?
Usually Technical Architect will do the design, Hey!!! Don’t confuse… Design is not creating something like we create drawings, paintings etc… but this is very similar to this but Architect will design How Database structure should be? How application should interact with Database (frontend and backend)? And other technical specifications will be designed at this phase.
There are two types of design
High level Design [HLD]
Low level Design [LLD]
In this phase Business Analyst will have no role to play, only Senior Developers, technical Architect and project manager will do this activity.
Now comes Big time DEVELOPMENT:
Development – here software developers will code the functionality provided by business analyst. Once development is over.. Developers do a round of testing by themselves this is called ‘Unit testing’. Procedure is something like Developers should write Unit test cases and then test but in normal practice Unit test cases will not be written. Directly unit testing happens from developers.
QAULITY (TESTING). – After coding is done it will be passed to Testers, testers will have test cases written vis-à-vis SRS document. Testers will test the application and if any bugs are there then they will record it and make a list of the same and pass it back to Developers to fix those bugs. (Bugs means errors). Developers will fix that bugs and pass it back to testers. This cycle will go on till all the bugs are fixed.
Finally one round of final (System testing) happens and all the bugs fixed from developers will be verified and closed from QA (testing team) go to http://anil-businessanalyst.weebly.com/qa.html to know more about testing
Once application is made bug free , application will be dispatched to UAT. (User Acceptance testing). Here again Business Analyst will come to picture. Usually clients will take their own time in doing UAT, Business Analyst will coordinate with client and makes sure application is tested with in time and in case any bugs are found in UAT it will be passed back to Developers and tester. (usually if clients finds some bug… it is very bad on testers).
After UAT is successful, application will be in Beta period for some time (that depends on deal happened initially with marketing team). During Beta period free support will be given to client. Beta period will be live… this is made to ensure application is stable.
After beta period, Project manager will get sign-off from client. He provides all the documentation to use software like user guide, installation manual etc….
Later if any things related to software it will be considered as ‘Maintenance’.
This is the typical software development life cycle happens.
Apart from SDLC, you can start looking at gaining domain knowledge.
Usually Freshers are not expected to have domain knowledge but if a fresher is having some knowledge on some domains it will be added advantage.
So, how to get domain knowledge?
Go to this link http://anil-businessanalyst.weebly.com/domain-knowledge.html
Also you can see some sample interview questions in this link
http://anil-businessanalyst.weebly.com/ba-interview-questions.html
However, before understanding/studying SDLC , Business Analyst roles & responsibilities, QA cycle it is not preferred to go over domains.
Note: The content provided is only for information sake, this is not copyrighted and this process may not be same in all the software companies. It is subjected to differ from company-to-company.
Usually Technical Architect will do the design, Hey!!! Don’t confuse… Design is not creating something like we create drawings, paintings etc… but this is very similar to this but Architect will design How Database structure should be? How application should interact with Database (frontend and backend)? And other technical specifications will be designed at this phase.
There are two types of design
High level Design [HLD]
Low level Design [LLD]
In this phase Business Analyst will have no role to play, only Senior Developers, technical Architect and project manager will do this activity.
Now comes Big time DEVELOPMENT:
Development – here software developers will code the functionality provided by business analyst. Once development is over.. Developers do a round of testing by themselves this is called ‘Unit testing’. Procedure is something like Developers should write Unit test cases and then test but in normal practice Unit test cases will not be written. Directly unit testing happens from developers.
QAULITY (TESTING). – After coding is done it will be passed to Testers, testers will have test cases written vis-à-vis SRS document. Testers will test the application and if any bugs are there then they will record it and make a list of the same and pass it back to Developers to fix those bugs. (Bugs means errors). Developers will fix that bugs and pass it back to testers. This cycle will go on till all the bugs are fixed.
Finally one round of final (System testing) happens and all the bugs fixed from developers will be verified and closed from QA (testing team) go to http://anil-businessanalyst.weebly.com/qa.html to know more about testing
Once application is made bug free , application will be dispatched to UAT. (User Acceptance testing). Here again Business Analyst will come to picture. Usually clients will take their own time in doing UAT, Business Analyst will coordinate with client and makes sure application is tested with in time and in case any bugs are found in UAT it will be passed back to Developers and tester. (usually if clients finds some bug… it is very bad on testers).
After UAT is successful, application will be in Beta period for some time (that depends on deal happened initially with marketing team). During Beta period free support will be given to client. Beta period will be live… this is made to ensure application is stable.
After beta period, Project manager will get sign-off from client. He provides all the documentation to use software like user guide, installation manual etc….
Later if any things related to software it will be considered as ‘Maintenance’.
This is the typical software development life cycle happens.
Apart from SDLC, you can start looking at gaining domain knowledge.
Usually Freshers are not expected to have domain knowledge but if a fresher is having some knowledge on some domains it will be added advantage.
So, how to get domain knowledge?
Go to this link http://anil-businessanalyst.weebly.com/domain-knowledge.html
Also you can see some sample interview questions in this link
http://anil-businessanalyst.weebly.com/ba-interview-questions.html
However, before understanding/studying SDLC , Business Analyst roles & responsibilities, QA cycle it is not preferred to go over domains.
Note: The content provided is only for information sake, this is not copyrighted and this process may not be same in all the software companies. It is subjected to differ from company-to-company.
