The IT Business Analyst is a professional who supports the software development process by translating what domain experts need into a format that enables the development team to shine. Business analysis, like any other profession, requires a unique combination of technical and social skills. This video discusses technical skills practitioners of business analysis need to excel.

IT Business Analysts Need to Focus on Business Value

Business analysts live at the intersection between the business community and IT. The are primarily involved in capturing requirements, user stories, feature lists, etc., written to guide developers work. However, a business analyst’s first allegiance is to the business community because they have to ensure that what IT delivers provides business value.

To achieve the outcome that makes them successful, business analysts need technical skills like:

• Eliciting epics, user stories, feature lists, or plain old requirement statements from domain experts
• Story splitting and right-sizing to reduce epics and complex user stories to the level of detail developers need
• Backlog grooming to aid the product owner in prioritizing and sequencing the workload for developers
• Defining acceptance criteria and test scenarios that confirm whatever developers deliver meet the objectives

Obviously, this list is just a small sample of the technical skills that business analysts need to succeed. The video also expresses the timing aspect of doing business analysis at the last responsible moment, a cornerstone of the lean philosophy.