What is a Business Analyst’s Role in App Development?

Oftentimes, companies mistakenly believe that a software developer alone can make their projects a success. Yet, it is essential to align technical details and the business agenda. To do so, employing a business analyst is beneficial as they can effectively communicate your needs to developers.

Through this article, the basics of business analysis will be explained, common misconceptions debunked, and the advantages of hiring a business analyst discussed.

What is Business Analysis?

Business analysis is an integral part of mobile app development, as it helps to bridge the gap between technical departments and clients. This process includes activities that help to identify, validate, and address business needs, requirements, problems, and solutions. Business analysts serve as mediators between stakeholders and technical teams, ensuring that diverse perspectives are taken into account to create a cohesive project vision. They are involved in the development process from start to finish, providing helpful input throughout.

What are the purposes of business analysis?

1. Identify areas of improvement: Business analysis helps identify areas of business operations that could benefit from improved processes, technology, or organizational alignment.

2. Enhance efficiency: Business analysis helps identify and eliminate inefficiencies, such as unnecessary steps or processes, that may be reducing productivity.

3. Reduce costs: Business analysis can also be used to identify cost-saving opportunities, such as streamlining processes, improving technology, or reducing personnel.

4. Increase profitability: Business analysis is used to identify and capitalize on profitable opportunities, such as expanding into new markets, launching new products, or finding new customers.

5. Improve customer service: Business analysis can be used to identify customer needs and develop strategies to meet those needs, resulting in improved customer service.

6. Support decision-making: Business analysis provides the data and insights needed to make informed decisions about how to move the business forward.
Why Business Analysis Matters in Mobile App Development

According to a McKinsey report, 17% of IT projects fail catastrophically, with projects running 7% behind schedule and 45% over budget on average. The failure rate for consumer mobile apps is particularly shocking, with an average success rate of 0.05%.

Despite these discouraging figures, business owners can use business analysis for mobile applications to make their projects successful. By taking the right steps, they can turn the odds in their favor.

Relevance of the App Market

Market research is critical to the app development process and is used to figure out the best way to position an app into the market and verify its market potential. In today’s competitive market, business owners may spend months analyzing the features and unique selling points of their competitors.

Business analysts are then responsible for performing extensive market research in order to answer certain questions. These questions include what the target audience is, who the competitors are, what the app’s strengths and weaknesses are, and whether the app’s goal aligns with user needs.

By researching the market in this way, app owners can create a detailed and data-driven concept for their app, which can then be used to decide which core features should be included in a minimum viable product (MVP) that is adapted to meet market trends and user needs.

Accurate Requirements Elicitation

The Project Management Institute reports that businesses that prioritize requirements management have a success rate of 65% for meeting their original goal and business intent. By contrast, projects with vague and volatile requirements only succeed 46% of the time.

Business analysts play a critical role in gathering and documenting user stories to meet the project’s needs. By understanding the desired business objectives, analysts can create comprehensive user stories that inform development and testing. This ensures the resulting functional and non-functional requirements are in alignment with the business’s needs and expectations. By doing so, business analysts provide essential support for designing and developing mobile apps that meet the desired objectives.

Measuring App Performance

When thinking about app performance, the number of downloads may come to mind first. However, this number may not be completely accurate since some users may delete an app shortly after downloading it. As such, business analysts have a variety of metrics they can leverage to evaluate an app’s success.

These metrics will be chosen based on the app’s unique needs and objectives, and can be used to refine an effective marketing strategy. Examples of these metrics include the number of downloads, app store rating, user engagement rate, and lifetime value. Additionally, churn rate, conversion rate, cost per acquisition, in-app purchases, and quality of user experience should all be monitored.

By monitoring these metrics and adjusting accordingly, you can maximize the success of your app and drive the desired results.

Reduced Software Development Costs

Recent industry research has shown that the average software product has 80% of its functionality rarely or never used, with only 12% being used on a daily basis. Companies often invest in unnecessary features that do not generate any revenue, an issue that arises from a lack of business analysis or incorrect requirements.

By using prioritization techniques such as story mapping, business analysts are able to identify features that provide the most value to users. This helps to avoid expensive redevelopment in the future and reduces the cost of development, maintenance and support.

Balanced Team Workload

Having a business analyst on the team can be beneficial, as it helps to distribute work evenly among team members. This prevents any single team member from having to take on multiple roles, which can lead to inadequate analysis or inaccurate requirements definition. With both a project manager and a business analyst on board, the project manager can focus on overseeing the app development process, while the business analyst can strategically ensure that the project meets the needs of the business.

Enhanced Communication

Having a business analyst involved can also increase the speed of communication. They can be used as a liaison between different teams, ensuring that information is exchanged faster and more accurately. Business analysis can also help identify potential problems early on, helping to reduce the risk of miscommunication. By using techniques such as process mapping, they can identify areas in which communication can be improved and introduce new ways of working to increase efficiency.

Conclusion

If you want to increase the success rate of your project, enlist the help of our experienced business analysis professionals. At Orangesoft, we have a team of experts who will ensure that your mobile applications are user-friendly and aligned with your business objectives. Our business analysts will make sure that you and your developers are communicating effectively, and they will put together the requirements and documentation needed for your project. Get in touch with us and let’s work together to make great things happen!