Myths abound surrounding the role of the Business Analyst (BA). In the product development world, it’s not uncommon to hear people referring to the BA as an extra cost rather than the investment that it really is. Unfortunately, BAs are often perceived as note-takers or documentation addicts. But if this is the role that you are expecting the BA to fulfill, the myth is true: it is an extra cost.

However, if your company needs someone to guide decision making, build strong and solid relationships between stakeholders and the project team, encourage conversation, imagine scenarios quite different than others could imagine, and facilitate changes that are necessary to the business model, then you need a BA.

For sure, having BAs on your teams can result in a lot of exciting benefits. But if you had to sum them all up, mainly the BA will allow your company to achieve better outcomes in a cost-effective manner. 

Check out the following list and learn why you will be grateful that you included a BA in your team.

The Benefits of Including a Business Analyst on Your Team

I have been working in the software development industry for the last 7 years. Due to my experience performing as a Business Analyst, I realized that we can improve the company’s outcomes by providing several benefits to the business. 

Here I detailed the ones I consider as the mains: 

• Increased ROI: As you probably know, ROI measures the gain or loss generated from an investment relative to the amount of money put in. A high ROI means the investment’s gains compare favorably to its original cost. BAs help increase these benefits because they help the team to implement the client’s needs prioritized by business value, which means that your company will always deliver features that generates incomes.
• Ensured project success: BAs will enable faster processes for the team by having backlog items ready for them. BAs can facilitate high-quality and fast feedback loops with users/customers. Speed and adaptation to changes are two critical factors in every project success.
• Reduce rework: By working side-by-side with stakeholders, BAs ensure a complete understanding of business requirements from scratch, so the steps can be implemented accurately throughout the project.
• Set realistic expectations:  The Business Analyst is responsible for setting the right expectations — those that fit with the project. While the BA is not responsible for defining the objectives, they care that these objectives are a good fit for the purpose. If the objectives are unrealistic, the projects run a significant risk of failure.
• Comprehend the business needs: A deep understanding of the company and business allow the BA to discover new business needs. As a consequence, they help companies introduce the changes they need to achieve continued success.
• Prioritize requirements: By implementing prioritization techniques, the BA guarantees shareholders are focused on what really matters.
• Provide a holistic view: the BA provides a big picture of the customer, user, data, processes, and systems.

The more involved in the project we are, the more chances of success there will be. By providing the expertise of analyzing and interpreting the business needs and transforming larger request files into small and realizable tasks, we can ensure the project will be yet another winner for your team.