Business Analysis Services: Meaning and Importance

Ensuring everyone's on the same page can be challenging when building a new software project. The leadership team often has a vision of the desired outcomes that must be validated and translated into technical terms. At the same time, the engineering team deals with technical intricacies that must be communicated effectively to decision-makers. And somewhere in between, you’ll have to factor in your target customer goals and pain points that can change over time.

So, the need for a mediator between the parties evolves, making the development process tick like a clock. That's where business analysis steps in – it acts as a bridge facilitating communication, collaboration, and change incorporation across diverse perspectives.

In this article, we'll explore the role of business analysis services in project success. From enhancing team collaboration to optimizing operational workflows, we'll examine how this discipline delivers value. So, if you're eager to uncover strategies for bridging the gap between business objectives and technical implementation, you're in the right place.

What Is Business Analysis?

Place of BA

It transforms solution concepts into formalized business requirements, giving engineering and business teams a uniform direction to follow. 

Let’s explore the place of this practice in the project development lifecycle.

Software development projects follow a typical route: a product owner communicates their idea to engineers, who release it to production. To ensure this trail does not detract, a business analyst steps in to support the idea and map out its implementation roadmap.

To prepare for the idea-to-solution transformation journey, business analysis aims to:

• Understand the current digital systems and tools in use;
• Define the intended interaction with a new system;
• Identify applicable regulatory requirements;
• Determine and articulate functional and non-functional requirements;
• Create a detailed specification for the engineering team.

To make informed decisions, business analysis factors in your strategic objectives, operational tasks, and current project history. The acquired data aligns business and engineering teams, ensuring synchronization of customer and developer perspectives.

Key Benefits of Business Analysis

• Cost reduction.
  Business analysis cuts costs associated with impaired software quality and downtime. As stated above, a BA specialist helps produce well-written documentation at the very start of the project and minimizes risks of failure. This reduces the number of project alterations at later stages of the software development process.
  Besides, business analysis helps to save stakeholders' time and offer more cost-efficient solutions that aren’t hidden. BAs develop operational and organizational changes that would otherwise only be possible with this external look.
• Faster development.
  Business analysis consulting enables development teams to reduce the number of iterations, avoid redundant functionality, and work with a carefully prioritized list of requirements. Fewer redevelopments, especially in the later stages of the development process, make achieving more within shorter timeframes possible. Besides, it saves resources that can be allocated to other tasks.
• Improved cooperation.
  Business analysts create a bridge between all the parties involved in project implementation and remove siloed communication boundaries. They collect all the required data from the client and stakeholders and wrap it into an understandable form for all sides. 
  This helps to avoid misunderstandings and reduces the chance of a product being inconsistent with the client’s idea. Also, conducting efficient business analysis makes it easier to eliminate communication failures, which may eventually lead to missing features or impair business relations.
• Improved quality.
  Without business analysis consulting services, the risks of meeting technology roadblocks, legal liabilities, or compliance issues become high. A BA thoroughly investigates requirements and documents them as a product backlog and tech specifications. 
  But another important part of that service is that it aims to review features and functionality in production. It also ensures that the developed solution meets all the requirements and responds to pre-defined quality standards.
• More loyal customers.
  When done right, business analysis can become the key to improving conversions and boosting sales. It enables stakeholders to develop competitive products with end-users in mind. When users know their needs are noticed and realized in a great product, they will be more likely to purchase and stick to it.
• Strategy fine-tuning.
  It is hardly possible to improve some part of the business without knowing what’s wrong. An expert business analysis services company pinpoints the gaps in the service by comparing results with forecasts.

Stages of Business Analysis

1. Assess business needs.
   The initial business analysis phase begins by assessing high-level business needs and background information. This step helps pinpoint discrepancies between the project's current status and its envisioned outcome. To grasp the essential needs, business analysts interview project initiators and subject matter experts.
   At this point, business analysis aims to thoroughly understand the project’s history. BAs can examine past activities to prevent redundant efforts and revisit previous decisions. Additionally, they focus on comprehending the existing systems and business processes.
   For example, when building an application from scratch, a BA studies the functionality of similar applications and systems with which they interact. When an existing system requires modification, the efforts will go down to examining its structure to prepare for consecutive transformation.
2. Identify stakeholders.
   Project stakeholders are individuals, groups, or organizations with a say in decision-making. They include those who proposed the project, would benefit from its implementation, or use and support the final product. Identifying stakeholders enables business analysts to properly prioritize requirements, eliminate misunderstandings, and create the most efficient communication plan.
3. Document objectives.
   Documenting business strategy and goals establishes a unified vision for the projected outcome. Business analysts collect measurable and feasible objectives and assign respective deadlines. Then, they determine optimal paths crucial to their successful implementation. Subsequently, BAs consolidate these objectives into a comprehensive business case document and present it to stakeholders for alignment.
4. Define the project scope.
   Determining the scope involves defining specific project deliverables, costs, constraints, assumptions, and items or integrations out of scope. BAs document the result in a comprehensive project scope statement detailing the exact deliverables of the project.
   A precise scope statement offers your project team a clear roadmap to fulfill business requirements. This deliverable transforms identified needs into tangible objectives, which enables all project team members to visualize their contributions to the project's future execution path.
5. Source project requirements.
   During this phase, a business analyst gathers and documents comprehensive requirements from stakeholders. The main focus is identifying, analyzing, and aligning requirements for the envisioned solution. BAs aim to grasp the intricacies of business processes and user requirements by utilizing various techniques, such as interviews, surveys, and workshops.
6. Create a specification.
   The identified requirements are documented, culminating in a detailed project specification. This document describes the functions and limitations of the future product, enabling accurate forecasting of project timelines.
   On top of that, the deliverables can include:
   • step-by-step implementation roadmap;
   • well-documented development stages;
   • prioritized backlog;
   • use cases;
   • UX journeys and wireframes;
   • definition of ready and definition of done;
   • explicit cost estimations;
   • the right structure of the engineering team, etc.

Each document offers exhaustive details on the features and constraints of the future product. A thorough product exploration from multiple angles yields valuable insights for stakeholders. For instance, it gives them a leg up on assessing potential risks and benefits associated with different courses of action.

Discrepancies are far easier and cheaper to resolve during approval than when engineers start coding. Continuous feedback from stakeholders at this stage helps business analysts update and refine requirements by adding new and crossing out redundant ones. They also check the compatibility of new requirements with approved specs, discover inconsistencies, and make adjustments as needed.

Business analysts provide usage consultations or draft written instructions when the system's complexity demands it. They ensure users receive the necessary guidance to navigate the intricacies of the developed system.

Ways You Can Leverage Business Analysis Services

Outsource BA as an integral part of full-cycle development

You can entrust business analysis and consecutive development to an external service provider like Geomotiv. In this scenario, you’ll leverage a bespoke software solution fully aligned with your objectives. With outsourcing, managing business analysis services will be the responsibility of the chosen vendor.

Initially, business analysts aim to understand the client's requirements, objectives, and constraints through stakeholder interviews and data analysis. Next, they translate these findings into documentation to align business needs with proposed technical solutions.

During the development stage, business analysis clarifies and validates requirements, facilitates communication, and addresses changes in project scope. It also identifies and mitigates risks to ensure project success.

Throughout the project, business analysis bridges the client and development team, ensuring that the delivered software meets expectations and business objectives.

This approach facilitates iterative development, where each cycle yields a shippable product increment. Later, additional features further enhance the solution’s capabilities. At the same time, business analysts continue working with technical documentation for each development phase, ensuring incorporation of change and ease of adjustments.

Opt for BA as a part of outstaffing services

Business analysis consulting companies may offer outstaffing services as an alternative to a project-based cooperation model. It involves hiring a business analyst and other team members to work remotely but as a part of your company's team.

This approach is beneficial when the project requires business analysis efforts but lacks qualified individuals. In other situations, you may have overwhelmed internal specialists needing additional staff help. In these cases, you can strengthen your project team on a temporary or long-term basis without hiring complexities and administrative hassles.

Augmenting your team with external professionals offers more control and flexibility over the BA’s work and allows for closer collaboration with in-house teams.

Request a standalone BA stage for your project

Business analysis can also serve as a standalone service for companies seeking insights into specific markets, conducting pre-project feasibility studies, or defining the right solution architecture. BAs help assess the viability of proposed ideas, clarify client expectations, and identify potential project implementation risks.

At the end of the BA stage, you will have a complete software specification and a detailed breakdown of development and implementation efforts. The documentation you get as a result will be your intellectual property. This means you can outsource the project to a contractor or develop it internally. In both cases, the specification acts as a guiding document, ensuring the complete realization of your vision.

Featured Business Analysis Case from Our Portfolio

Our business plan analysis services company has extensive experience developing technical specifications for clients in different domains. In our most recent project, we collaborated with a MarTech agency that wanted to validate a new business idea for an advanced AI-driven solution.

A key aspect was implementing a notification system to alert managers on specific trends or unusual market movements. The company’s managers manually handled this task using 10+ different tools. No comprehensive off-the-shelf solution was available to cater to all their requirements.

However, establishing a clear product vision and assessing the idea's feasibility was necessary before diving into development. The specifics remained elusive as the client grappled with integrating different tools into their IT infrastructure. It was evident they preferred to consolidate disparate systems and automate internal processes. However, they needed to figure out the precise implementation path.

Our task was to guide the client through the business analysis stage. Via collaborative workshops and discussions, we worked closely with the client to refine their objectives, define critical requirements, and shape a cohesive strategy that aligned with their goals. 

Once we executed a business analysis plan, we delivered comprehensive artifacts that included the project roadmap, approximate timeline, and other critical information.

Equipped with these deliverables, the client could kickstart project implementation by collaborating with Geomotiv or any other service provider.

Business Analysis Services Provided by Geomotiv

Project discovery.

Our BA becomes part of the discovery team, which helps assess future projects from tech and business perspectives.

Together, they decide on tech aspects and research market conditions, user expectations, budgets, or services provided by competitors. Based on the correct interpretation of the client’s vision, it is the right way to ensure that the solution is delivered according to the initial idea. Likewise, it helps depict all possible project challenges and state if the product idea is viable.

Requirements management and audit.

We implement techniques for successfully managing and auditing the business and functional requirements. Our team knows how to prioritize the product backlog, document changes, assess their impact, and request future changes from stakeholders. We ensure that the development team deals with the approved requirements and has access to one source of truth.

Enterprise business process analysis.

When it is difficult to understand whether a given business process delivers value and is efficient at the level of a large Enterprise, business analysis can come to the rescue. Together with the subject matter expert, we can identify the process that has areas for improvement, collect all the related data, and identify all the dependencies with other systems or processes.

Based on the collected data, our business analysts can prepare a scenario for business process modifications. Once implemented, an improved business process contributes to Enterprise growth, faster execution of company-wide goals, and informed decision-making.

IT product ownership.

IT product ownership links stakeholders, developers, and end-users and takes full responsibility for the project’s outcomes. In this role, a business analyst remains in the problem domain to respond to ongoing queries from the development and management teams.

On the other hand, they dig into customers' needs to discover the solution's actual value. Based on that value, a BA uses vast tech and business expertise to implement product functionality, prioritize the backlog, and adjust to changes throughout the project lifecycle.

Why Choose Geomotiv for Business Analysis Services

Guided by the best business analysis practices, Geomotiv is ready to deliver real value to your company. We provide competent business analysts well-versed in modern technologies and software development methodologies. Our specialists continually refine their skills and exchange expertise to provide you with solutions that fully satisfy business needs.

Geomotiv’s global hiring capacity enables you to source and hire BA specialists of any seniority level. Our extensive talent base provides access to qualified individuals at affordable rates in countries of your choice. Approved candidates will gladly join your project as part of a dedicated team, IT staff augmentation, or outsourcing services.

With Geomotiv, you can:

• Access vast areas of excellence. With 14+ years in the IT market, we’ve accumulated rich business analysis expertise and skills necessary to complete projects of any complexity and scale;
• Find talents not available locally. We tailor our proven recruitment processes to your unique needs so that we can match your specific requirements with the utmost precision. Our company hires specialists in 10+ countries, enabling you to avoid the limitations of talent scarcity in your home country;
• Embrace change more quickly. We use the best practices of modern Agile methodologies to meet changing demands and address real business problems.