The IIBA further elaborates in this regard, stating that “business analysis is the practice of enabling change in an organization by defining needs and recommending solutions to stakeholders. Our Agile Business Analysis (Agile BA) course, accredited by APMG-International, is designed to give the Business Analyst the skills needed to successfully gather, analyse, validate and champion the requirements throughout an Agile project. It is mandatory to procure user consent prior to running these cookies on your website. These professionals primarily work on analysis and design in the areas of planning, organization, and information technology.A technical business analyst is a business professional who understands both business and IT. Their role involves listening to stakeholders and translating their needs into implementable, testable designs and requirements that define business systems or other solutions for an organization. Business analysts enable an organization to articulate needs and the rationale for change, and to describe and design solutions that can deliver significant value.” Elaborating a bit more from my own experience, organizations don’t often know how to identify and diagnose a perceived problem or challenge, but they certainly see and experience the symptoms of such. Nicholas B. Sisson holds a B.A. I’m often the first to say that business analyst (BA) job titles can be extremely ambiguous as they are used inconsistently across organizations. Business analysts, strive to improve business productivity and establish new programs. Its areas of impacts include technology, organization, process, business, and enterprise. He will successfully shape and draft the business request, which will even include changing requests. It is seemingly about mapping the customers’ requirements to the selected system or solution, then working out the best way to deal with any gap in between. According to the International Institute of Business Analysis (IIBA), “a BA is any person who performs business analysis activities, no matter what their job title or organizational role may be." 2. Functional Business Analyst vs. Techno Functional Business Analyst- The Difference 1. As an aside, you might be interested to know that a quick search on the Indeed job search platform, showed approximately 600 jobs with the title “Functional Analyst” and more than 15,000 jobs with the title of “Business Analyst.” Obviously, “Business Analyst” is the more popular job title. People required to execute business analysis are Business Analysts, and Functional Analysts. It can be used to understand the current state, to define the future state, and to determine the initiatives and activities required to move from the current to the future state. Functional analysts and business analysts both attempt to improve a company's processes and procedures. For example, in the case of a software implementation, by having a completed functional design - time, resources, and most importantly, money, are saved when everyone involved in designing, developing, implementing, testing, and approving of a solution have signed-off on a document containing all design and functional requirements. Functional business analysts help companies more effectively use software for specific purposes, such as monitoring finances or managing employees. As the name suggests, functional analysis dismantles a system with a productive purpose in order to define the variable functions that contribute to its operation. It’s about using your experience and skills to help organizations clarify what they need to achieve their business goals and objectives. But a BA is often defined in a general way by organizations as a very broad role that is not limited by a specific business domain, nor is it necessarily solely focused on software solutions. "...tasks and techniques used to work as a liaison among stakeholders...". Copyright 2020 Leaf Group Ltd. / Leaf Group Media, All Rights Reserved.