Hi,
New to this forum and wanted to get people's views on the differences between business and system analysts and where the divide sits... should the systems analyst get involved with why the business want the change or are they more involved with how the change is implemented? Who produces which bits of documentation? I have come from an environment where the lines are clearly defined, but now find myself in somewhat of a grey area!
Any help/suggestions gratefully received!
Thanks
The other way to look at this is what deliverables are required/created when your company is doing a systems project. Is there a separation between requirements and solution? As a person who mainly does requirements, I have seen many different deliverables that come after requirements: Technical Architecture, Functional Specification, External and Internal Design, you name it.
What does your company expect to see as a project proceeds? Typically, Business Analysts do Requirements, and Systems Analysts don't, but it depends on the company. I have seen shops were System Analysts take requirements and determine in which of the existing systems they will be met, often across multiple systems. Then it depends on if Systems Analysts are separate from designers and programmers, or if they do those jobs too. I have also seen shops where Systems Analysts aren't in projects, they are support experts for the company's existing systems. I have also seen where people who fit the above descriptions of a system analyst have the title Business Analyst.
So again, start with understanding what needs to be done, and then see who is doing it; job titles may be misleading.
Hi:
Business Analyst, Systems Analyst, Business Systems Analyst, Business Process Analyst, Functional Analyst, Process Analyst, Operations Analyst, Business Operations Analyst, Requirements Analyst, Requrements Engineer etc, etc, etc. Truth of the matter these different titles exist for political reasons - there is no real logical distinction between them.
Tony
Generally speaking, the Business Analyst is closer to the Business
The Systems Analyst is closer to the system ( more technically inclined, comes up with the Design, Solution)
The Business Systems Analyst is somewhere in between.
To answer some of the questions you raise, it all depends on the shop. I worked for a place where the Sr. Manager hated titles and encouraged staff to explore beyond their boundary box limitations.
Where does the most value get added?
At the front end of the elicitation and definition process. Start at the front, spend most of your time on the business end. The techies can deal with the details if you don't get there doe to time constraints.
There's a lot more to be said on this topic. Maybe you can offer some more context.
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