The work of a business analyst is crucial for projects, which the client often does not notice or does not want to notice. Compared to, for example, a programmer, when a customer receives a product that they can work with, the analyst's job becomes redundant. So, let's try to delve into this process a little bit and understand its nuances.

An analyst is a specialist who defends the client's interests in the developer's company within the project. One of the most critical moments is where the specialist from the service provider team works closely with the client and even visits the business on-site, such as a factory, which helps to better understand the work processes and challenges that the resulting project is to solve. This allows one to analyze specific moments and define requirements more precisely. The client specializes in their industry and does not know the nuances of the IT field, so the analyst is the one who formulates detailed requirements for both programmers and the client, thus achieving a shared vision of the solution.

The main results of the work are:

• Organized, clear, and unambiguous requirements described and added to the register used by the development team and the client.

• They prepare documentation that allows the customer to make adjustments or change requirements quickly, without waiting for the developed solution from programmers. It helps define an appropriate task description, which offers different options for creating one functionality with advantages and disadvantages, which allows the client to make a more favorable decision.
  

As mentioned above, the analyst participates in the project with a vision on the client's part, which helps explain the technical aspect to the client in a language they understand. When implementing a particular functionality, various possibilities for realization appear. Thus, documentation is prepared for the client, which shows the pros and cons of each option, allowing the client to choose the solution that suits them.

Let's look at an example with the following case. The customer's e-shop requires a payment system. The buyer makes a payment when purchasing the product. Our analyst prepares a document describing how we can do it:

1. Online connection to the bank.. 

2. External payment system (payment card, PayPal, or any other system according to the customer's wishes).

3.Hybrid solution - both the bank's online connection and the external payment system.

4. Import a CSV statement from the accounting system to restore payment status for orders.

In essence, a business analyst must get involved in a project before a programmer does. The client must understand what they want and what can be offered before diving completely into the project and spending vast sums of money. In addition, a feasibility study is desirable. It usually helps the client better understand their needs and possibly give up minor things in the early stages, focusing on that which will immediately bring more benefits.

The involvement of the analyst depends on the project. Meetings are organized with the client to find out the requirements of the project to be implemented. The participation of an analyst is not foreseen at every meeting. As soon as the client's wishes are known, the analyst can start the feasibility study. It is not possible to provide the client with specific deadlines and costs without conducting a feasibility study. When the project is developed according to the Agile methodology, the requirements can be changed during development, which is convenient for the customer and leads to better compliance of the final product with the needs.

The development process then begins. Only an analyst works on the pre-feasibility stage, but this does not mean that the wine cannot involve other specialists in the processes of analysis to determine the complexity of developing the functionality. At this stage, communication with the client occurs in various ways through e-mail and video conferencing (ZOOM, Teams, where the analyst and project manager participate, and where needed, the programmer and tester). Face-to-face meetings are also important. During the presentation, it can be established that the client has questions about non-verbal gestures. This allows us to react and find out the client's wishes and incorporate them into the project.

Typically, customers understand the requirements and their needs, cost, and implementation time. The problem is that customers usually want to implement the system in business all at once. It should be explained here with an example. The client's project will be developed according to Agile methodology, and the planned term is four months. The project is divided into three stages:

1. A period of one month. The most straightforward functionality is delivered, and the customer digitizes part of their business, making these processes easier, faster, more transparent, and more efficient.

2. A period of two months. Sophisticated functionality is delivered, and most businesses are digitized.

3. A period of one month. Business is fully digitized.

It is worth mentioning that in this way, shortcomings are identified during development. They are corrected and improved during development. The result is an IT system that solves current business challenges.