Role of Business Analyst in Start Ups

Define Start up? American Heritage Dictionary suggests it is “a business or undertaking that has recently begun operation.” Therein lies the rub – to be a startup, you must have set up shop recently.

But with the rapidly changing world and corporate environment the definition of “startup” has changed drastically. As quoted by Neil Blumenthal, cofounder and co-CEO of Warby Parker on Forbes, “A startup is a company working to solve a problem where the solution is not obvious and success is not guaranteed,”  “Startup is a state of mind,” says Adora Cheung, cofounder and CEO of Homejoy.

The above quotes clearly indicate that in the present market scenario start ups are in constant quest of resources within them that can adapt and restore themselves with the volatile market needs, demands competition and constantly come out with the innovative ideas and products that will cater the market demands.

Business Analyst is one such key resource that can help startups in achieving the above mentioned objective.

IIBA mentions, Job title for business analysis practitioners include not only business analyst, but also business systems analyst, systems analyst, requirement engineer, process analyst, product manager, product owner, enterprise analyst, business architect, management consultant, business intelligence analyst, data scientist and more. It also mentions that many other jobs, such as management, project management, product management, quality assurance and integration design rely heavily on Business analysis skills for success.

Business Analysis in a startup can be involved in some of the following activities due to the unique BA skills they possess:

• Identify need / Market Analysis: BA can play an important in excavating the details about the need which start up might have identified.

• Competitor’s  analysis: BA can play an important role in competitors’ analysis in different aspects viz (i) Understand competitors offerings for the similar needs (ii) understand different strategies adopted by the competitors (iii) Analyze current process adopted by them in terms of product development/ manufacture.

• Solution: This is the major task that the BA performs. Based on the analysis mentioned above, BA can come up with probable solutions. The solution depends on the need; it can be a service, product or process innovation. 

• BA communicates / aligns with the business with the findings and helps business to finalize the most feasible solution.

• Process Management/ Product Management / Project management: Start ups which generally have limited human resources, (As mentioned by IIBA) BA skills can also be utilized for the above mentioned roles.  BA being the key resource involved in the solution development cycle right from the beginning, he/she acts as a walking encyclopedia as far as the solution to be implemented is concerned. Based on the solution, BA can perform additional roles as Product/Project/Process Manager.

• Quality Assurance: BA plays a key role in verification and validation of the solution being implemented. He is a person who helps in monitoring whether right people are creating a right thing in right time in right manner.

From the above it can be concluded that the BA plays a key role in a startup in developing deliverables that will help startups to “Sustain” in the market.

About Author:

Saurabh Kane is a consultant in Systems Plus Pvt. Ltd. Within Systems Plus, he actively contributes to the areas of Technology and Information Security. He can be contacted at: saurabh.k@spluspl.com