Business Analyst In QA: The Role & Responsibilities

7 min readFeb 18, 2021

QA business analysis is an important part of the company’s advancement process, but it is often confused with market analysis, data analysis, UX research, and other analytical activities. It happens due to the blurred line between the roles and responsibilities of these activities.

In this regard, it could be complicated to determine what relates to the responsibilities of the business analyst during quality assurance procedures and what should remain a task for QA engineers and a Team Lead.

To make things clear, let’s find out the ties between BA and testing, the role of a Business Analyst in the QA process, and the place of this professional in a quality assurance & testing company.

Who Is a QA Business Analyst?

A QA Business Analyst is a member of a product development team who becomes a bridge between the client’s business needs and the technical capabilities of IT & business teams. Usually, this specialist:

analyzes business domain;
evaluates strengths and weaknesses;
measures the potential business value;
outlines business requirements;
participates in acceptance testing or beta testing;
comes up with new strategies and initiatives.

Now, let’s take a look at the practical example of the development process. There is a product owner who has a clear understanding of the business objectives and value of a certain project. The product owner also has the approximate requirements outlined: software type, core features, maybe even a highlight. However, the exact plan of how to get from point A, where they are now, to point B, which is product release, is not apparent. Nevertheless, a product owner can not be good at all of the tech aspects of the implementation. Meanwhile, IT specialists tend to prioritize tech aspects before business objectives. That’s where a Business Analyst becomes a part of the game to help both sides find a common solution.

Business Analysts use data-driven insights to determine the requirements and/or cover the areas that can be improved to increase the delivered business value. They introduce the reports for stakeholders and come to the IT team to balance the approved ideas with what is technologically feasible. It can also be the opposite process: a BA specialist analyzes whether feasible ideas are financially reasonable, blend with other functional and UX aspects, etc.

Roles & Responsibilities of a QA Business Analyst

It’s not necessary for a BA specialist to have a technical background. What is really important — understanding how a system works and the ability to collect and process business data, turning the results into ideas for improvement.

Here are the tasks of a Business Analyst, to better understand the role & responsibilities of this professional:

Gather information products and/or processes by observations, interviewing stakeholders and team members, using related reports, etc.
Analyze business processes to understand the problems and their root causes, distinguish opportunities, and define areas that need improvement.
Based on the independent analysis, find solutions that will boost product potential and performance on the market.
Explain the idea and present the plan of its implementation to the stakeholders.
Discuss the technical implementation for the idea with the development team to test its feasibility.
Analyze the feasible solutions within a given budget, deadlines, existing requirements, etc.
Validate the business requirements to make sure that all parties involved in the development process are on the same page.

At this stage, the mission of a BA specialist can end. The implementation becomes the task for a development team. However, a Business Analyst can supervise the implementation as well.

Identify the steps or tasks to complete for the implementation of changes.
Standardize the development process so that the team sticks to the single previously outlined workflow.
Verify the expected result. If everything was done right, the analysis of the same aspects (business processes, customer satisfaction, etc.) shows positive dynamics after change implementation.

Often, the company determines the responsibility of the business analyst itself, depending on the internal processes. So, before starting cooperation, both sides should discuss the level of participation and the list of tasks for a BA specialist.

Software Testing vs Business Analyst

Before the beginning of the testing process, a business analyst is completing the study and evaluation of the company’s processes. The improvement plan has already been created and the testing team adheres to it. Thus, a BA specialist does not participate in testing but can take part in the preparation of test cases.

So, a BA specialist can:

Check if the tests are written in conformance with the requirements.
Be on the list of people authorized to sign a testing plan.
Check the coverage and match scenarios with user stories before approval.

On the one hand, it is obvious for QA Engineers that they should address the requirements to create test cases. That’s the only way to make sure that the system performs as specified. Therefore, it is not a BA’s task to check if a certain testing activity complies with the requirements. On the other hand, a business perspective can alter the priorities a bit. It means that a Business Analyst can be the one to prioritize certain requirements and features in case of tight deadlines, lack of resources, or other issues.

The Role of QA Business Analyst

As mentioned above, a BA doesn’t have to participate directly at any stage of testing, but they can be a consultant, an advisor. A Business Analyst is a person QA Engineers can approach with questions at any stage of testing.

Functional testing: a Business Analyst can participate in writing specifications or be fully in charge of this. Therefore, QA Engineers can ask questions if something is unclear, inform about gaps in logic, etc.
Regression testing: a BA specialist may select test cases to include in regression testing, making sure that all the business-critical features are covered.
UX testing: Business Analysts often advise on how to improve a particular feature to deliver higher quality and value, so it makes sense for them to check the implementation result.
End-to-end testing: just like in the case with functional testing, a Business Analyst can work together with a testing team to create a test plan, review and approve the plan, or provide clarifications on requirements if needed.
User acceptance testing: at this stage, the team is to validate that software as a wholesome product meets business requirements, and Business Analysts are likely to participate in it. As a rule, a software product is handed to real users and stakeholders who agree (or not) to proceed with the release.
Beta testing: this activity is beyond the scope of a testing team’s tasks. It implies the involvement of real users — employees or a selected group of users from outside the company. A BA specialist can participate or supervise the process, taking notes on further improvement.

From QA Engineer to Business Analyst: Professional Growth

There are some career opportunities if you are already a part of a QA team but interested in changing the professional direction. QA Engineers’ professional growth is marked by achieving certain QA grades as milestones. Eventually, a person can become a Senior QA Engineer, take a management position, or move in a bit of a different direction — business analysis, for example.

There are several reasons why QA Engineers have a chance to become good BAs. QA specialists have both technical background and solid analytical skills. First of all, constant work with business requirements shapes a good understanding of product planning; secondly, years of participation in testing activities help to develop attention to detail and analytical skills.

Top Cases When a Team Needs Business Analyst

Some companies do not have a Business Analyst position, nevertheless, someone needs to cover the BA responsibilities, at least partially. Developers and QA Engineers can come up with improvements on the way and offer new solutions. Product Owners can be in charge of requirements writing. So, what makes a team realize that they need to involve a BA in the project?

Every business process is different, so the particular situations when you may need a BA specialist differ too. That’s why our team collected some possible cases and united them in three general categories.

You run or work in a medium company or corporation. The management sets realistic goals, but achieving them is difficult or impossible. A Business Analyst will study the standard processes and workflows to search for the bottlenecks.
A company notices a decline in customer retention, customer satisfaction, sales rates, etc., and the reason for it is not evident. A BA specialist will review the activities and detect the changes that led to the decline.
A small company plans to scale and move to a new level, but the management cannot define the right direction or doesn’t understand what steps to take. A Business Analyst helps to determine the growth opportunities.

If a company needs to find weak spots in the business processes and/or find an opportunity for business growth, hiring a Business Analyst is the right decision to make.

In Conclusion

QA business analysis is significant for the company’s development process. Low customer satisfaction, changing technologies, outdated systems, inefficient processes — there are many reasons why a business may need improvement. Business Analyst initiates the changes based on all following factors.

A BA professional helps to see a company’s processes in detail — with all the highlights and flaws — and suggests the way for improvement. At the same time, they are able to see a bigger picture and advise on specific steps to take for reaching the ambitious business goals. BAs can contribute to an efficient testing strategy and help a QA team to understand business priorities better. That’s why outsourced software companies often include BA on the list of services they provide.

Originally published at http://www.qamadness.com on February 18, 2021.