by Nadiia Pidhorodetska Inoxoft BA Specialist At first sight, it might seem that it’s not a big deal to create a project: all you need to do is to come to a company and share your vision on what should be done to make your business run better. Unfortunately, in practice, things don’t go so smooth at all. And here comes the hero – a BA specialist – the one who knows how to organize the chaotic unstructured business idea into a functional and efficient solution. In this digest, we will talk about the advantages of hiring a Business Analyst specialist and proceed with the discussion of the BA’s functions. If you’re still thinking “Why should I hire a business analyst?” – we have a lot to tell you. Before it all starts, let’s make some points clear Product Owner – is a customer that requests the product Contractor – a company that offers its services for software development BA – Business Analyst, the linking between the two parties Now that we know where BA stands, we can go on talking about the main functions of the BAs perform. As soon as the Product Owner knocks the contractor’s doors, BA is already here to listen to the idea and see how can the contractor help. Before it all begins, let’s see how to hire a business analyst? Easy! You can address a consulting company that would dive into the resolution of your problem or goes right to the software developing company that offers BA as one of its services. We recommend the last option as the probability that the IT company has already dealt with something similar is higher than the consulting company employees. So, if you’re still wondering how to hire a good business analyst – we already have an answer for that. What to Look for When Hiring a Business Analyst There is no chance you’ll spend a minute with your mouth shut as you’ll go into sharing your vision. Still, you’ll have to make sure that this specialist is right what you need. So, here are some questions to ask when hiring a business analyst. For how long he/she has been working in BA? Which streams does he/she know? Examples of successful projects? If available, in portfolio format. What methods are used to collect requirements, their structuring, submission to the customer, tracking changes? Does he/she know the basis of UX? If yes, what’s the proficiency level? How much time does the BA need to process the requirements of this project? Now, when you know what to look for when hiring a business analyst, let’s see what jobs can a Business Analyst do and what benefits of hiring a business analyst you’ll experience. Reasons to Hire a Business Analyst Formulating the Problem Statement Imagine that you are a young startup with a “million dollar” idea but you’ve never tried yourself in big business, yet you are very eager to do so. Your first meeting with BA is going to resemble an appointment with a therapist but don’t fall into delusion. A conversation with the BA is the time when all your chaos and excitement shapeshift into the sound business problem and BAs love your problems because they explain what you really need. BAs ask you way more than “5 Whys”, they formulate your business need as based on the business problem. Whether your business lacks certain tools that would optimize its functioning or it earns too little, BA is here to dig deep to the root of the problem. The services of BA are necessary for the experienced businesses, too. Why? Because if there is a need in optimization or restructuring, BA will analyze the need and will offer the best augmentations. Quite often, the Product Owner has a complicated but workable solution and BAs know hot to offer alternatives that might work better. How come someone can know what’s better for your business? The thing is that after the BA makes a problem statement, he/she proceeds with the deep analysis of the current market, finding similar solutions, and basically learning more about the analogs. Finally, the BA delivers the best-fit solutions based on the positive experiences of the other businesses and the problem statement of the Product Owner. So, why hire a business analyst? To put a long story short, BAs make the client’s life easier doing the following things: Formulate the business problems Map out the software solution Prepare mockups of the applications/software solutions Finally, hiring a BA specialist is more than necessary, it’s vital for a business that needs to be innovated. They can formulate, research, and render your message to the contractor converting an idea into a profitable transformation. You are always welcome to read some more reasons to hire a business analyst in our next article – Business Analysis In Action: are Business Analysts Necessary?