Business Analyst

A business analyst’s main job function is to become familiar with an organization’s processes and procedures (its business) and identify opportunities for improvement. In organizations that build technical products to support or replace business processes, such as software, business analysts gather requirements for the product.

In product development environments (such as software development), the business analyst also:

  • writes requirements documents, user stories, or use cases
  • helps identify the priority of product features
  • works with product designers to make sure that the designed product will meet the business needs

Importance for the Technical Communicator

Business analysts are important resources for technical communicators. While writing documentation and training materials, the technical communicator can interview the business analyst to understand the situations and environments in which users work. Business analysts can be effective reviewers of the materials to make sure that processes are described accurately and examples are realistic.

Resources

More information about business analysis

 

Contributed by Ben Minson, 2011. Updated April 2016