Look through the BA role around at the moment I saw these requirements for a role. Some are fairly typical BA requirements, others cross over into project management or product management. I though I’d run through my take on them. Snippets from the ad are in bold. For context this organisation is involved with Digital Rights Management (DRM).
“Research and recommend business solutions for existing and new products and services”
Strategically this organisation is in the middle between copyright owners and users of copyrighted materials both within Australia and Worldwide. It also administers a federal government royalty scheme. Thus the organisation utilises a brokerage model and new products and services are likely to focus on growing the volume of rights under management, growing the volume of transactions and also to minimize leakage of pirated rights. Thus the organization is likely to need solutions to support marketing as well as tight processes to protect rights. Potentially there is also scope for R&D to develop content scanners and aggregators to help protect content under management.
“Take business concepts and translate these into functional requirements and system specifications”
After prioritizing business requirements, the BA will be left with a bunch of requirements with business outcomes in mind. These will need to be implemented by developers or outsourced to vendors. Both will need more defined specifications on what is required in order to meet the business objectives. Functional requirements that can be validated after implementation are crucial and will serve as goal posts for all involved. System specifications will be important if linking up with existing systems and in regard to items like transaction volume.
The BA will also need to be communicate both ways when formulating these specifications. They will nee to be able to turn business needs to functional requirements that developers can understand as well take more technical questions and translate them into a business context. Throughout this process the BA will gather a more and more comprehensive view on what needs to be completed to deliver the business outcomes.
“Collaborate effectively with the development team throughout the design, build and test phases”
After kick off, the BA needs to work with the development team to ensure that the solutions implemented stay inline with business requirements. The BA also needs to keep the team informed of clarifications to requirements or even wholesale changes to requirements. Where possible, testing and validation should be conducted throughout the build.
“Utilise agile methodologies to ensure project delivery”
Agile methodologies are about adapting quickly and can be summarized as:
Individuals and interactions over processes and tools
Working software over comprehensive documentation
Customer collaboration over contract negotiation
Responding to change over following a plan
Agile methodologies use an incremental development cycle to release new features a quick and steady pace.
“Willing to take ownership of the product or service and champion its success”
Given this is an Agile oriented organisation then it it sounds like the BA will also be the “Product “Owner” in the Scrum definition. This means that the Business Analyst will act as the voice of the customer, write user stories and scenarios and maintain the product backlog.
Summary
This organisation is likely looking for a Business analyst to fulfil the Product Owner role on Scrum based product development. The successful candidate should be capable of understanding business requirements and be able to communicate these to the development team. They need to be able to prioritize requirements and keep a project on track using agile methodologies.
This role would suit a business analyst with a development background who has exposure to project management and product management.
Rory Ford 