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Introduction.
Business analysis is the art of understanding business change needs, determining the business impact of those changes, capturing, analyzing and coming up with recommendations to ensure that business is running smoothly (Cadle, Eva, Hindle, Paul, Rollason, Turner, Yeates, (2014).
Business analysts play a crucial role in the life of any organization. The job description of business analysts varies from organization to organization and also from one project to another. There are many titles of business analysts that is, business process analyst, IT business analyst, Business system analyst and functional architect just to name a few. Business analyst are involved in the identification of potential problems, needs and opportunities at all levels of an organization. Their primary task is to make sure that solutions are found to tackle the needs or business problems and in turn help the organization to achieve its goals.
Therefore, the roles of a business analyst in an organization are: to clearly understand what the business entails and how it operates. Secondly, they determine and come up with ways of how to improve and optimize the existing business processes. Analyst identify opportunities for improvement in business operation and processes by researching, documenting and analyzing business needs and requirements (Blais, (2012)).
Business analysts solve business problems. They are the one who determine which process or tasks to concentrate on so that the organization attains its goals and objective with low operation cost. Business analysts structure and design IT systems to create functional specification depending on the kind of job process they are dealing with. Finally, the analyst interacts with business stakeholders and subject and other experts in order to have a clear understanding of their problems and needs. They then use the facts collected to design models to deal with the emerging problems and ensure that the business is working smoothly.
Skills of a business analyst.
In order to achieve the above mentioned tasks, the modern business analyst must possess a variety of unique skills including: i. Communication skills.
This is the most crucial skill that is required to be successive in this profession. The job of a business analyst involves a lot of interaction with people ranging from clients to management and team of developers, therefore it is essential to have good communication skills. Information is power and therefore the ultimate success in business will depend on proper communication (Blais, (2012)).
In the profession of a business analyst, communication is the most important because one will be interacting with people from all levels of the organization, from top management all the way to the consumers and clients. Being able to articulate precisely what you need is critical alongside the ability to actively listen and pay attention. Written communication is also important because most of the job is technical writing and creation of business requirements. To be a successful business analyst, one needs the ability to compile useful and relevant documents. ii. Technical skills.
Business analyst are responsible for identifying areas of potential problems and come up with solutions. They need good technical skills which is both the know and understand the current methods and application are being applied in tackling emerging issues. It is important in this profession of the analyst to be able to test software and develop business systems, this is an important technical skill because you will only gain respect and grow confidence in the IT and business consumers if you are conversant both business and technology with utmost understanding. iii. Analytical skills.
Every analyst needs an outstanding analytical skills. This gives them the confidence to properly interpret and translate customer’s business needs into practical application and operational requirements. Most of the business analysts job involve analysis of data and documents to determine the right methods and courses to take in betterment of organizational business operation. iv. Problem solving skills. A business analyst should be able to use out of the box thinking to solve problems by just looking at the data. To be successful in this profession, it is required that one is able to have proper skills in data analysis and also understand what is required or needed for the solution. Changes cannot be proposed unless proper analysis and understanding of the nature of the solution is known. Therefore, the best business analyst is the one who find ways to solve and fix problems. v. Decision making.
In the solution building process analysts are called upon to make crucial decisions. A proper decision making skill is required because a business analyst acts as a consultant to managers and the advisor for the development team. Business analyst assess the situation and take relevant information from different stakeholders and determine proper course of action without hesitation. vi. Flexibility
The best business analysts are flexible and they have no trouble venturing into unique challenges of every new project and mastering the requirements and personalities in their team. The skill and the ability to adapt to changes in business environment is crucial because it will decide if you are in or out of business. vii. Persuasive and good negotiating skills.
Business analyst profession involves interaction of different stakeholders and also to balance their business needs with different individual requirements and needs. To accomplish this, it requires an outstanding skill to negotiate and persuade.
In the contemporary corporate world better negotiation skills will gain a business analyst an upper hand in the ever competitive market. The ability to persuade will help in mitigating stressful situations like failing to deliver a service as per the deadline. viii. Managerial skills.
It is important that a business analyst possesses the ability to manage projects. Some of the managerial skills an analyst should have are; project planning, supervising others and forecasting budgets (Cooke, (2013)).
Relationship between business analyst and project manager.
A project manager is usually entitled with the responsibility for software project including project budget, schedule and resource management as well ensuring quality project delivery. The business analysts on the other hand their role is to be a liaison among stakeholders with the purpose to elicit, analyze, communicate and validate requirements for changes to business, policies, processes and information systems (Ducros, & Fernet, (2010)).
A combination of an effective project manager and an effective business analyst working on the same project increases the chances of success of that particular project. The project manager responsibilities will include emphasizing project cost, schedule and resource management while the business analyst role will be to concentrate on the production requirements identification and management. In other words, the project manager role should revolve around the project that is ensure it is completed within the deadline and within the planned budget. On the hand the business analyst role will be to focus on the product of the project, that is ensuring it satisfies the needs of the stakeholders.
It essential for joint responsibility of the project manager and the business analyst in planning the requirements – oriented tasks and services. The combined task force of the project manager and the business analyst in a project will result in the split of responsibilities. This will make work easier and even more creative and creative because it gives the two the opportunity to apply their particular skills in the areas they can be most effective.
The project manager and the business analyst should apply their roles effectively for a successful project. The two must work hand in hand on the project tasks to ensure that the success of the project is guaranteed during execution.
Conclusion.
The chief purpose of this research is to bring into light the roles and importance of a business analyst in the corporate society. This also serves to clarify the confusion about the roles between project managers and business analysts and the importance of the two working together.
It is evident that a successive business analyst must possess a number of strong skills. Most of this skills can also be used in other areas of life for example communication skill is crucial in any areas because even sharing ideas a proper channel should be used to avoid confusion. Decision making is a very important part in human life because every day we make decision. Other skills that can be used in different areas include; problem solving, flexibility and analytical skills are important.
In addition to the basic essential skills, business analyst should also have knowledge in basic programming, macro – perspective that is adopting a different mindset and also experience in reporting software (Blais, (2012)).

References.
Blais, S. (2012). Business analysis: Best practices for success. Hoboken, N.J: Wiley.
Cadle, J., Eva, M., Hindle, K., Paul, D., Rollason, C., Turner, P., Yeates, D., ... Cadle, J. (2014). Business Analysis. Swindon: BCS Learning & Development Limited.
Cooke, J. L. (2013). The power of the Agile business analyst: 30 surprising ways a business analyst can add value to your Agile development team. Ely, Cambridgeshire, U.K: IT Governance Pub.
Ducros, M., & Fernet, G. (2010). Project management guide.