The Business Analysis Blog

The most exciting and yet difficult part of being a BA, is at the start of a project. Let me be more precise, the first time you meet the client. This is the time when client introduces their business and the problems that they want to solve with your help. This is also the time that, you introduce yourself and try to make a good impression on the client. What do you do to be at your best when you walk into that first meeting with the client? To start with, it always helps to do a bit of homework before the meeting.

As a Business Analyst you are involved in understanding the Business Requirements of your client and document them. It is essential for a Business Analyst to understand the requirements and for that it is necessary for a Business Analyst to understand the Business of the client. So it is imperative that you spend time on understanding the business of the client. Here are few steps that you may follow:

• Meet people in your organization who have worked with this client before.
• Dig deeper into your organization's knowledge base.
• If the client is new or there is lack of data, start searching on the internet.
• The most important is to read the communication that your organization has already had with the client. Go through the documents that have been exchanged, typically you will get some RFXs. These should give you a good ground to start your research.
  

As a Business Analyst it will be even better if you can gather knowledge about the market in which your client operates and also about the client of the client. It will help you a lot in doing your work if you are thorough with your homework. The client will have to spend less time to explain each and every thing about his business to you. If you are an informed Business Analyst it will only help you to build the confidence of the client. At the same time you will be able to suggest solutions to some inconsistencies in the Business Requirements of the client or at least you will be able to pin point some inconsistencies.

As a Business Analyst it will be really helpful to you if you can analyze the markets and the business of the client. If you have time at your hand before you start your assignment with the client, you should do a thorough analysis of the client's business, especially in the field of your project. It will be helpful if you can do some analysis about the competition of the client.

All these activities will enhance your knowledge about the client and will help you in carrying out your work better. It will help you to build a foresight about where the business of client is heading and where the system that your team going to develop fit in the bigger picture. Clarity is always good.

Tarun Chandel
The Business Analyst