Business Analysts, what have we done?

Let’s look into what BAs do in 2025 in the IT industry

In today’s fast-paced software industry, Business Analysts (BAs) play a crucial role in delivering value to customers by contributing to designing and developing solutions (cliché). But what exactly does a BA do? What can be expected from a BA? Let’s dig in!

BA Role in a Team

Before going about the “BA work”, BAs try to understand the expectations and the gaps they can fill in the team. Maybe the customers are unhappy with the product, or the team is struggling to bring the product to market. This is why the nature of the work that a BA does might differ depending on what the team needs.

So, where does the BA role fit in the team?

One common mistake that people make is assuming a hierarchy between roles like Product Manager, Product Owner, Business Analyst, UX Designer or Developer. These are all peers with different mandates, responsibilities, and skills who are working together to deliver a great product. Whether the BA should be considered as a part of the development team or not is a question that I will leave out for Agile experts to answer but to get the job done, it doesn’t matter where the BA sits.

Okay, what can a team expect from a BA?

Much of a BA’s work can be mapped to the design thinking framework, contributing to different phases of product development.

Design Thinking + Business Analysis

Empathize: Understanding the Business and Customer Needs

If the development teams deliver what the Product Manager asks them to develop, it will make the Product Manager happy. But will it make the customer happy?

When a stakeholder proposes a change, Business Analysts seek to understand why the change is needed and what customer value it delivers. Interviews with stakeholders can help uncover these insights. However, the key is to differentiate between facts and assumptions.

Everything is an assumption until validated

It’s easy to treat assumptions as facts. It is better to treat everything as an assumption until the data says otherwise. The validation of assumptions can be done through experiments and one simple experiment would be to talk to a few customers and gain insights. This is where direct customer interviews become invaluable. Business Analysts should have access to customers to gather first-hand insights, verify assumptions, and refine problem definitions.

Define: Creating a Shared Understanding

While it is beneficial to involve teammates in customer interviews, it’s impractical for the entire team to participate. Instead, the BA summarises and communicates the key insights in a way that suits the team, whether through verbal discussions, documentation, or interactive workshops.

Collaboration is key in defining requirements and problem statements. When teams collaboratively define problems rather than having requirements handed down from product people, they develop a stronger sense of ownership and accountability.

Ideate and Prototype: Designing Solutions

A Business Analyst’s role doesn’t end with defining requirements; they also contribute to solution design. Once the team understands the problem, BAs collaborate with designers, developers, product owners, testers, etc. to explore possible solutions.

Based on the skills of the Business Analyst, this contribution may include designing wireframes, building prototypes, writing API specifications, drafting information architecture, creating domain models, etc.

Test: Evaluating and Recommending Solutions

Beyond solution design, BAs help evaluate and recommend the best options. The evaluation would depend on where the biggest risk is in the solution. Is it in usability? Is it in the architecture? If it is in usability, testing a prototype with several users/customers would be a good approach to evaluate the solutions. However, the goal is to eliminate subjective opinions and instead validate solutions with real users before making final decisions. Data-driven insights help decision-makers choose the most effective path forward.

Supporting the teams

Once a solution is chosen, the development teams take the lead on implementation. However, Business Analysts continue to play a critical role. The presence of the Business Analysts in the backlog refinements and sprint plannings (assuming a scrum practice) would be crucial for the teams to make sure that they break the work down in a way that can deliver value to customers iteratively.

In the development process, the BAs stay available for the teams to provide clarifications or to go back to the drawing board to refine solutions based on the new learnings gained while in development.

Maintaining the documentation of requirements and designs can also be expected from Business Analysts to make sure the product is maintainable and necessary information can be communicated to other departments such as Legal, Customer Support or Product Documentation.

By staying engaged throughout the development cycle, BAs help teams stay aligned with business objectives and customer needs.

Conclusion: The Evolving Role of Business Analysts

The role of Business Analysts in IT is evolving beyond documentation and requirement gathering. Today, BAs contribute to strategic decision-making, product design, and customer experience. As technology advances, so must our skills — embracing data-driven decision-making, user research, and collaborative solution design will set BAs apart in 2025 and beyond.

What do you think about the role of Business Analysts in the coming years? Let’s discuss in the comments!