Do Business Analysts Code?

Let’s do a functional decomposition of this question! (Business Analysts apply many techniques and ‘Functional Decomposition’ is one of them - this technique would help in managing complexity and reducing uncertainty by breaking down this question into simpler parts and will help in analyzing each part separately!). Well, if you are looking for a quick answer that a business analyst should code - the quick answer is ‘No’ but with caveats.

Starting With the Functional Decomposition for this Question

What Business Analysts are responsible for?

Business Analysts perform many tasks, employ techniques and make use of underlying competencies to accomplish the business analysis work. The core responsibilities of a Business Analyst are planning, elicitation, requirement management, specifying and modeling (read: writing) the requirements, and evaluating the solutions. They are also involved in performing the analysis over strategies for the enterprises. Business Analysts are expected to have great systems understanding so that they understand the business process, people involved, practices, domain, industry, and so on.

Now, What Coding is?

In simple terms - Coding is the process of instructions for computers using programming languages.

Does a Business Analyst work in the Information Technology industry only?

No, a Business Analyst doesn't work only in the Information Technology Industry. Business Analysis is done in various fields like Government, Healthcare, Manufacturing, Public Sector, Non-Profit organizations, and many others. So, we can understand that coding is not one of the mandatory skills required for Business Analysts - and this we concluded based on the various fields a Business Analyst can perform Business Analysis.

Who is responsible for writing codes in an Information Technology organization?

Software Developers and experts in programming languages are responsible for writing the codes. And typically, a Business Analyst is not expected to do the coding.

Why does this question even arise in the minds of aspiring Business Analysts?

The primary reason for this question has arisen is that the majority of Business Analysts work in organizations that rely heavily on Information and Technology. The solutions that are constructed using the Information and Technology dimension require the programming skills to construct such solutions from the Implementation Subject matters like Technology leads, Software developers and with similar roles of resources. So many think that Business Analysts might be doing coding to support the IT organizations.

So, What’s the Take-Away?

From the skills requirement point of view for the Business Analysts - Coding is not a mandatory skill required.

The core responsibility of a Business Analyst is to act as the bridge between the business and IT. When a Business Analyst collaborates with the stakeholders in the IT, they are required to work closely with the IT professionals to develop the recommended solutions using the IT processes and systems - the coding responsibility stays with the Programmer, however, if the Business Analyst can understand and communicate the fundamental principles per the programming stack chosen - that gives a lot of weightage to the Business Analyst as the communication and collaboration become easy.

So, the general recommendation to the Business Analyst is that they need not be an expert in development-related skills or technical skills, but they should find some time to learn how different programming languages work and have a strong understanding of details that are required within their requirement artifacts to support the technical teams in terms of the solution requirements and designs. They should learn about the programming concepts like Object-oriented programming, Variables, Data Structures, etc. Business Analysts those who have a good understanding from a technical point of view and perform a feasibility study over what is feasible to implement and they can also analyze if there are any constraints that can conflict with the organization's technical architecture guidelines.

About The Author

Techcanvass is an Information Technology certifications training Organization for professionals. It offers internationally recognized certifications in the fields of Project Management and Business Analysis like CBAP Course, CCBA Course, ECBA Certification Training and Agile Analysis Certification (AAC) Course.It is a premier Authorized training partner (ATP) of Project Management Institute (PMI), USA and a premier Endorsed Education Provider (EEP) of International Institute of Business Analysis (IIBA), Canada. Founded by IT professionals, Techcanvass is committed to making learning a more structured, practical and goal-oriented exercise. We also provide consulting services in the fields of Project management and Business Analysis.

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Do Business Analysts Code?

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