Top Challenges faced by Business Analysts

A business analyst acts as a bridge between the client and the technical team. Business Analysts manage several stakeholders, understand, and communicate requirements and manage expectations. These activities pose challenges for Business Analysts.

These challenges are related to communication, negotiation, interactions, elicitation and documenting requirements.

In this article, we are going to explain top 10 challenges faced by Business Analysts in their career and what can they do to overcome these challenges?

Top 10 challenges faced by Business Analysts

A BA is responsible for multiple tasks at the same time. From interacting with client stakeholders, eliciting requirements, interacting with stakeholders, and collaborating with technical team, business analysts got a lot on their plate. Read this article to find out the challenges faced by business analysts and possible solution to these.

1. Lack of domain knowledge

A Business Analyst needs to collaborate with the business users to understand the requirements. Domain knowledge plays a vital role in having a clear and complete understanding of the requirements.

If you are not comfortable with the terms, concepts, and processes of a business domain, you will not be able to understand the needs clearly. And will not be able to write the requirements specifications document correctly. This may lead to a software application, which does not meet the client requirements.

What should a Business Analysts do?

• Conduct research and identify a domain, you would like to specialize in. Banking, Financial Service, Insurance, US Healthcare, CRM etc are the top domains. So, you can start by learning the Domain Fundamentals, before you start working on the project. Project experience will help you gain expertise in the domain.
• Alternatively, every time you are assigned to a new project, make sure that you do your homework by learning the domain of the project. Acquiring domain knowledge will equip you with the skills and knowledge you need to capture the requirements well.

Techcanvass offers a variety of domain training courses from Banking to US healthcare.

As a Business Analyst, you should target to learn the basic concepts/terms and relevant processes. It’s not possible to gain expertise in a few weeks. But you can learn enough in a few weeks to add value to the Project.

You need to understand the business prospects confidently when you work as a team lead. Lack of domain knowledge hampers the team's work productivity, and the project seems to go in vain.

Read Also: Fundamentals of Banking Domain

2. Changing business needs or requirements

Business stakeholders frequently request revisions to requirements even after they have been finalized and approved, as experienced by business analysts.

Change is the reality. The competitive environment and changing customer needs frequent updates to business processes, products, and services. This also leads to revisions to the requirements and software application.

If the changes/revisions are frequent and too many, it leads to re-work. Re-works are the primary reasons for project delays and cost overruns.

Possible solution: Having a robust change management process is the basic requirement. However, if we discuss the nature of the project to decide the project delivery approach, it would be even better.

An Agile approach for a project, having dynamic requirements or unclear requirements, will be more appropriate rather than a waterfall approach.

3. Lack of stakeholders involvement

One of the essential success criteria for every project is stakeholder involvement. You might encounter any of the following as a business analyst:

Lack of crucial stakeholders: If this occurs, there will be multiple problems since they will not be up to date on discussions about the most recent requirements. Either they won't be able to express their ideas, or they will subsequently propose revisions.

Stakeholders' Lack of Cooperation: Occasionally, you may encounter one or more stakeholders who are unwilling to cooperate. It could cause delays, sign-off problems, and even approval problems.

Possible solution: Business analysts may record the requirement discussions, particularly significant decisions made, and distribute them to all stakeholders in the meeting minutes. Before the scheduled requirements sessions, they may ask everyone who wasn't present to review the points. This will reduce the likelihood of miscommunication and reopening requirements items that have already been closed.

Related - When stakeholders can’t express the requirements well?

4. Unrealistic timelines

As a business analyst, you may find yourself in a problematic situation where timelines might be the concern. In that case, pressure is created, which might hamper your work. In that case, understand how to tackle such a situation while maintaining the quality of the work.

Possible solution: Sales Team may be forced to accept a difficult situation for tactical reasons. As a business analyst, you cannot change the terms of the agreement, but you can evaluate its effects and inform management of the probable costs and losses. You have the option of starting over. Unrealistic Expectations from stakeholders are widespread. It's crucial to manage these expectations balanced without permanently damaging the relationships.

5. Managing communication

When you communicate effectively, you aid developers in understanding the needs, limits, and requirements of the business. You contribute to the development of solutions that benefit the client as well as the company. You guarantee the work is completed on schedule and to the required standards. But communicating the point is difficult. It involves a variety of abilities and trade secrets.

Possible solution: Soft skills are part of better work opportunities and personality. Try to communicate your views clearly and confidently to your team so they can understand them easily. It will help incur the communication gap between the team. While intersecting with the stakeholders, try to break the idea into pointers and explain the leads to them.

6. Conflict with users

Sometimes, you might find yourself in a situation where you cannot understand the user's complaint. It happens during the product release stage and might come as rude feedback. Even conflict between stakeholders and business analysts may arise when a team suggests a new strategy pertinent to the existing business process.

Possible solution: First, understand the resistance or a need for a new solution. There might be a reason that the user does not want to change the process and happens to try existing features. In that case, make them understand politely and see how they react. Otherwise, ask for some time to figure things out.

7. Mindset

Business analysts must be prepared to deal with various difficulties throughout their work, from limitations of the technologies they employ to pushback from stakeholders and other team members. But how one approaches their task can significantly alter if they are ready for the most typical obstacles.

Possible solution: The solution to this problem is to keep yourself solution oriented during the process. It will help you save time and cut unnecessary drama during the project process.

Conclusion

As a business analyst, you may face challenges along the way. Approaching the challenges, the right way, is important. You may fail in your approach but having a mindset to face the challenge to overcome these, will help you become an efficient and great Business Analyst.

In our training programs, we do discuss these situations and the approaches to address the challenges. A cohort comprising of professionals, coming from diverse backgrounds, helps find the right way to address challenges in variety of situations.

Join our Business Analysis training programs to not only learn the hard skills but also the right attitude and approach to overcome challenges.

Techcanvass is an IIBA Endorsed Education Provider (EEP) and offers CBAP, CCBA, ECBA, Agile Analysis Certification and Certified Business Data Analytics training courses.