Due to an increasing demand of excellent analysts, We have explored the use of Centers of Excellence to increase the visibility and competency of the business analysts. The role of the business analyst (BA) has emerged as a critical role on information technology and other projects with uncertain requirements; however, the clients know that their analysts are not properly prepared for that role and often lack support. So, they are looking for ways to improve the skill sets of their business analysts and provide structured support for them.
The business analyst plays a lead role in identifying, defining, and documenting business and stakeholder requirements for IT and other projects. High-quality requirements are a key factor in successful projects. Requirements are generally communicated to different stakeholders in various documents. The documents are composed of a variety of artifacts, such as use cases, context diagrams, storyboards, data dictionaries, data models, business process models, business rule catalogs, decision tables, among many others.
The actual choice of artifacts to include in a requirements document is generally up to the business analyst. The business analyst chooses those artifacts that best allow others to understand the requirements. However, most business analysts are self-trained and work in an ad hoc fashion. Rarely is there guidance for the business analysts in what artifacts should be prepared for a particular project and how those artifacts should be communicated; in addition, business analysts often rely on simple tools such as word processors and drawing programs rather than professional requirements management and visualization tools.