That’s what we will talk about in this article.




So, let’s start by defining the phrase.

Business analysis is a mix of getting information from data and using methods and completion of tasks for specifying the needs of a business and then offering solutions that are useful for the interested parties. A lot of the solutions potentially include software and digital components but also can involve organizational changes such as process improvement, new politics creation, and participating in strategic planning.

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What is business analysis in a simpler way?

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A simpler business analysis definition is here: it is a set of tasks and methods linking the interested parties: IT vendors and businesses ordering software development. This helps companies to understand the structure, politics, and operations of the organization. Specialists in business analysis also can recommend solutions that help a business reach the set goals. In general, business analysis is a part of IT consulting services with the aims to discipline the development process, improve it, meet all the requirements, needs, and goals of the business, save their timing and financial costs, increase the revenue from the launched product, and make the business’s customers satisfied. As we’ve mentioned, business analysis is a part of the software development process. That’s why let’s check the exact position of the stage in a creating life cycle.

The place of business analysis in a software development life cycle.

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What is business analysis, and what place does it take in software development?

According to the scheme, business analysis is a part of the requirement analysis stage connected with all the other stages. It means that the quality of business analysis influences the quality of the final development product, too. That’s why this stage is vital when developing a mobile app, a web service, or another software product.

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Now, after discussing the business analysis definition, let’s check the purposes of business analysis in more detail.

Why does a development process need business analysis?

Including business analysis in the software development process gives a great opportunity to ensure the growth and success of a company, to correct and make the existing processes better. Thorough business analysis and solution implementation can improve several aspects of a business’s performance. The role of the specialists here (business analysts) is very important, as they help businesses develop successfully, for they save the finances and business processes timing that is rather often crucial.

To support these words, let’s take a look at a bright example in the app development sphere when business analysis got really useful for the development of startup business.

🔴 Uber

The story of this company is exactly that case when business analysis was used in a proper way because, at the very beginning, it was a very small startup with no large budget and investments. First, they launched a MVP (minimum viable product). That is as simple an app as possible. The first development product aimed just for connecting taxi drivers and clients. The simplicity was the key that attracted the audience. And, only after the MVP had lived up to the expectations, all other features started to be implemented step-by-step. On their way of development, the company’s specialists were collecting a lot of data and analyzing them to determine and correct the further direction and steps to move. The thorough analysis on each step caused the stable revenue growth of Uber. According to Statista, it increased from 0,1 bln US dollars in 2013 to 17,46 bln in 2021! Just look at this chart below! If we check the step-by-step story of the company, we can see that the success is the realization of all the aims that business analysis sets:

• disciplining the work,
• implementing proper solutions at every stage,
• saving costs,
• raising the revenue,
• satisfying the audience.

The data of revenue of Uber according to Statista.

There are rather many cases in the software development sphere when a company (startup) has succeeded because of thorough business analysis. Such examples are: Instagram, Google One, TikTok, YouTube, Tinder, and others. We are not going to stop on them.

So, all the technological achievements (as in the example above) have affected a lot on the way companies use IT solutions for resolving various business difficulties and problems. As a result, plenty of businesses all over the world started to include business analysis in their work processes.

That’s why, nowadays, the companies demand highly qualified specialists having good business analysis skills to use business analysis techniques helpful for them.

The numbers in the chart below are impressive.

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It may be difficult to believe, but the fact is the fact:

work with big data and business analytics raised the revenue of businesses from 122 bln US dollars in 2015 to 274,3 bln in 2022!

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Revenue from big data and business analytics worldwide (in billion US dollars) according to Statista.

Moreover, we can see the permanent growth in revenue worldwide due to business analytics in the chart.

But here, we can see a bit different term – business analytics (not analysis), so let’s make it clear.

The difference between business analysis and business analytics

In general, business analysis refers more to functions and processes, while business analytics involve data and reports. In other words, analytics is the result of an analysis (or analyzing) process. Thus, the statistical data above includes the business analysis impact, too.

If we want to understand what causes such impressive results in business revenues, it’s useful to check the main steps in the business analysis process to get an idea of how exactly it works.

The stages of business analysis

Of course, the requirements, needs, and situations of companies differ. That’s why the business analysis stages are not always the same. Here, we explain the ones for a typical situation.

Step 1: Orientation

This first step defines the role of a business analyst and the points of view of the interested parties.

Step 2: Defining the main business goal

At this step, the interested parties discuss their expectations, reconcile contradictory ones, and make sure the set goals are clear and real to reach.

These first two steps help meet all the requirements and needs of the stakeholders.

Step 3: Defining the project scale

Here, the accurate full description of a project scaling is created. Thus, the project development team gets the roadmap of their own actions and roles in it.

This step supports the discipline in the future development cycle.

Step 4: Business analysis planning

This step includes the timing, the steps to take, the solutions to implement, and the results that are predicted and expected to get as the result.

Step 5: Defining requirements

The requirements should be brief, clear and effective. They are normally based on the analysis of the gathered data.

Step 6: Technical implementation support

It’s useful if a business analyst cooperates with the IT team closely, as plenty of solutions often require software use.

Step 7: Help with solution realization

This step involves making clear and accurate documentation and teaching the users.

The aims of steps 4, 5, 6, and 7 are disciplining and controlling the development.

Step 8: Value assessment

This step defines if the project succeeds, what the progress of the company is, and if any further actions are needed.

Now, we can realize the necessary aspects and details referred to business analysis, why they are important for businesses, and why plenty of companies prefer to hire such specialists for their development projects. So it’s time to summarize the benefits business analysis gives to businesses, isn’t it?

Benefits for a business from business analysis

✔️ Disciplined development process

It happens as analysts using various business analysis techniques find the weak sides of a business, define needs based on the communication with the interested parties and feedback from them, create solutions, implement them, and check the results.

✔️ The right tool for improvement

The work of business analysts makes the organization more efficient, productive, and profitable.

✔️ The opportunity to make the needs real

Due to business analysts included in the development process, the business representatives can express their needs or wished changes and get the right solutions to realize them in practice (to implement them in the development product).

✔️ Timing and budget saving

As we’ve already mentioned at the beginning, the business analysis aims to optimize all the development costs and correct them if necessary. This happens also due to the direct responsibility of a business analyst: considering and comparing necessary information.

✔️ Increasing revenue 

This is a consequence of the previous item. In the processes that include business analysis ROI (return of investment) is likely to increase, as a business analyst defines the areas where a company wastes the budget or time and finds the solutions for minimizing the costs. But it’s possible to assess if the investments of a business in the development get returned only after a product launch.

✔️ Customer satisfaction

This is the result of the fact that business analysis considers the points of views from all the interested parties (or stakeholders), and the goals of all of them get considered when developing.

Nowadays, the business world is very competitive. That’s why companies of any size need to get all possible advantages. The work of business analysis specialists is a valuable source for defining the best tactical and strategic steps. Moreover, hiring business analysts with good business analysis skills lets the companies understand their processes, their needs, and ways of getting them better.