What is an online business analyst?

A business analyst identifies business needs and determines solutions to business problems. An online business analyst specializes in understanding the organizations online business requirements and the transformation of those requirements into processes, workflows and design documents that can be implemented by the online project manager.

The business analyst needs certain personal qualities to succeed in their role. Firstly they must have the ability to understand problems from the organizations perspective. They need to be aware of who the key stakeholders are and be able to synthesise these different views into documentation.

In working with these stakeholders, the business analyst will need to be capable of conducting workshops meetings and presentations. In balancing priorities, a good online business analyst will have good time management skills and be able to relate to a wide range of different types of people within the organisation.

A good online business analyst will also be able to understand the needs of the customers. This means not only understanding the online marketing managers requirements but be able to understand the data capture needs that the marketing department require. A good synthesis between marketing and system design can yield many benefits for the organization through increased sales and customer satisfaction.

An online business analyst is required to generate documentation that captures the requirements of the organisations. They need good language and writing skills as well as training in a variety of techniques such as wireframes and screen mock ups. The online business analyst should also be experienced working within process methodologies such as AGILE or waterfall models and ideally have experience throughout the development cycle.

From a technical basis, the online business analyst will benefit from knowledge of web tools and technologies. This includes web basics such as HTML and CSS through to understanding the current systems in use by the organisation and available generally.

Domain experience is essential in some areas such as banking but more often the online business analyst needs to bring a desire to learn and understand the business, its customers and the requirements. Intelligence and a smart mind assists in quickly learning what is required.