4 Reasons Why Your Web Development Project Needs a Business Analyst

If you’re in the market to build or redesign your organization’s website, you know you need a partner with the technical expertise to bring your vision to life. But here’s what you may not realize. All the coding and design skills in the world aren’t enough to guarantee you’ll walk away with a solution you’re happy with. 

We know. That’s a surprising statement coming from a web development firm. But it’s the truth. If your agency partner doesn’t understand your goals, chances are high you’ll end up with a beautiful new website that simply doesn’t meet your end user’s needs.

What you need is an advocate — someone who takes time to ask the right questions, fully understand your business needs, and translate your requirements into the complex technical language used by developers and designers.

To reach a successful conclusion, soft skills are just as important as hard skills. Business analysts (BAs) offer a unique mix of the two. Here are 4 reasons why we never kick off a new development project without a BA at the table.

1. Analysts Get to the Heart of Your Website’s Business Goals 

Web developers are adept at thinking through all the hows of building your website. But to focus on solving the right problems and designing right-fit solutions, they first need to understand your requirements. Put simply, they need a very specific set of whats.

It sounds like a no-brainer, right? Of course, you need to layout your business objectives before beginning a website project. But the truth is the lack of clearly-defined goals is likely the most common reason website projects fail.

Good business analysts are curious and ask insightful questions. They doggedly probe deeper to ensure you’re thinking through the ramifications of every request you make. And they help you stay laser-focused on making choices that align with your business goals.

A business analyst:

• Reviews the RFP or Statement of Work and extracts the high-level requirements to begin to understand the features
• Performs background research to understand your vertical, industry, and market position
• Defines specific deliverables based on this preliminary information
• Takes time to understand all the use cases for your website and the overarching goals you’re trying to achieve with the project
• Audits and evaluates content on your existing website to make strategic recommendations on ways to improve
• Evaluates if there are custom integrations that will need to be built to connect your website with other digital solutions 

This thorough review becomes the basis for a series of discovery workshops and exercises to make sure the entire team is on the same page and aligned around a common set of goals.

2. Business Analysts Know How to Communicate With Tech-Minded Developers

Marketers and web developers tend to speak two separate languages. Marketing leaders may have a surface understanding of headless/decoupled websites, low- and no-code development options, designing for superior User Experience (UX)/User Interface (UI), and the importance of thoughtful information architecture. But without a deep understanding of what each element entails, they might request bells and whistles that aren’t necessary to reach their goals. 

Furthermore, even the simplest requests have the potential to cause confusion if they’re not fully thought through and communicated appropriately. That’s why you need someone who can speak both your language and that of your developer.  

For example, perhaps one bullet point in your Statement of Work says that users must be able to sign in to your system. This might seem like a simple enough request, but it’s more complex than it appears. 

A business analyst would dig into this requirement by asking:

• Which system(s) are you referencing? Will all users need this ability or only some?
• Are you requesting Single Sign On (SSO) capability? 
• If so, which programs and digital solutions need to be linked together to enable that functionality? 
• What should the workflow look like to bring this feature to life? 
• What are the system requirements that will make this request a reality? 
• How will we prepare to test this feature?

After taking time to fully understand the request, the business analyst translates your business terminology into the technical specifications the developer requires. 

Now imagine applying this level of scrutiny to each of your requirements. Without the right person who is equipped to dig into every detail, you may end up with a website that’s too complex or one that’s simply not geared toward your users’ needs, you could also end up spending time and money on the wrong features, or worse, building features that are not properly understood which will ultimately need to be rebuilt at a higher expense.

3. Business Analysts Keep Your Project Within Scope and Budget

Website projects take a long time to develop. And along the way, it’s tempting to continually add “one more thing” to your specifications list. This feature creep can easily become a deterrent to completing your project on time and within the agreed-upon budget. 

There may be solid reasons to request additional functionalities, integrations, and features as your project progresses. But it’s important to understand that what seems like a simple add-on could in fact, significantly alter your project’s scope. 

Therefore, your business analyst will help you consider each new idea in light of your originally-stated business goals. That way, you can make an informed decision about whether it’s worth it to make an additional investment — or whether you’d rather trade off existing features for new options.

4. Business Analysts Oversee Quality Assurance to Ensure Superior UX

Business analysts don’t develop solutions to your problems themselves. But they do work closely with the designers and developers to be sure what’s built is ultimately meeting your needs. This involves defining the problem, creating acceptance criteria for each possible solution, and evaluating possible designs and structures in light of how well each one performs.

Along the way, the BA partners with a Quality Assurance analyst to create a test plan and look for issues and problems in the website’s performance. Essentially, they try to break the system, find any bugs that hinder users from completing required tasks, and triage issues that come to light. This ensures that the final product functions as intended and provides your end users with the user experience you expect.

Choose an Agency Partner Who Will Go the Extra Mile

Your website should drive your organization forward, connect you with your users, and help you reach your business objectives. But to harness your website’s potential, you need to hire an agency partner that is fully committed to building the right solution for your needs.

Any web development firm can create a website that makes a great first impression. But very few agencies assign a business analyst to every project as a way to be sure they understand and meet each client’s unique objectives. 

We’ve seen the power of making a technically savvy, highly organized, proficient communicator integral to the development process. And we truly care about making each project we work on a success. So if you’re ready to learn more about our approach, just reach out. We’d love to hear from you.