An investigation of the role of business analysts in IS development

Paul, D. and Tan, Y. L. (2015) An investigation of the role of business analysts in IS development. In: 23rd European Conference on Information Systems, 26-29 May, 2015, Munich, Germany.

Abstract/Summary

Business analysis has developed since the early 1990s as an IS discipline that is concerned with understanding business problems, defining requirements and evaluating relevant solutions. However, this discipline has had limited recognition within the academic community and little research has been conducted into the practices and standards employed by business analysts. This paper reports on a study into business analysis that considered the activities conducted and the outcomes experienced on IS projects. Senior business analysts were interviewed in order to gain insights into the business analyst role and the techniques and approaches applied when conducting this work. The Context, Content, Process, Outcomes framework was adopted as a basis for developing the interview questions. The data collected was analysed using the template analysis technique and the template was based upon this framework. Additional themes concerning aspects of business analysis that may contribute to IS success emerged during data analysis. These included the key business analysis activities and the skills business analysts require to perform these activities. The organisational attitude was also identified as a key factor in enabling the use and contribution of business analysis.

Item Type	Conference or Workshop Item (Paper)
URI	https://reading-clone.eprints-hosting.org/id/eprint/40808
Refereed	Yes
Divisions	Henley Business School > Digitalisation, Marketing and Entrepreneurship
Uncontrolled Keywords	Business analysis, Business analyst, Requirements engineering, IS projects
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