Salesforce BA

Salesforce business analyst is a project-based, business-improvement role.

 businesses to improve business processes and efficiency in Salesforce

 They elicit, document, and analyze requirements around business challenges, and then produce
data-driven solutions.
 Salesforce business analyst like an interpreter
 go-to person when it comes to communication between IT and business stakeholders to ensure
all involved work together to attain the best results.

Required Skills

Here are the soft skills a BA should have:

 Needs analysis

 Eliciting requirements

 Business case definition

 Requirements writing

 Requirements review

 Flow and process diagramming

 Wireframing

 Business data analytics

 Problem solving

A BA should also have at least a basic understanding of these Salesforce technical skills:

 AppExchange

 Automation

 Collaboration

 Data management

 Reports and dashboards

 CRM

 Platform

 Sales and marketing

Communication. When you think about communication, you think about speaking and presenting, but
listening is just as important. A BA creates an environment for open conversations, and clearly
communicates information back out to the appropriate teams.
Elicitation. The BA asks lots of questions, with the purpose of understanding project goals and getting
clarification on what stakeholders want to accomplish. They interview stakeholders, research information
or processes related to the project, and observe teams as they work. This sets a foundation for the
project.

Documenting requirements. Documenting requirements involves recording what was learned. This
should be clear and concise, so the information can be easily understood by stakeholders and anyone
else involved. The BA must be thoughtful about how they choose to document requirements so they can
easily share between teams.

Analyzing information. Next, the BA reviews requirements and gets a sense of how to accomplish their
team’s business goals. They dive into more detail, and use data insights to identify what the business
needs to do to achieve the desired outcome.

Facilitating solutions. Based on analysis, the BA then identifies options for solving business challenges.
Then they choose the best option and move forward with the best solution.

Implementing solutions. Once the BA comes up with a great business solution, they need to make sure
it’s running smoothly and as expected. Are stakeholders seeing benefits? Is anything else needed to
support the implementation? Essentially, the BA is a project manager at this point. It’s their job to make
sure they reach the end goal, that it’s working well, and stakeholders are happy. The BA keeps the end
solution in mind, and makes adjustments if anything goes off course.

Testing. Remember to test after the implementation! At this time the BA builds training material to
support the implemented solution, and records feedback to start eliciting requirements for the next
iteration of the project, if needed.

*Business analysts are experts at learning, understanding, and recording needs*

BA will learn about learn about the specialized approach that business analysts take to bring about
change and improvement to the business. This involves eliciting, analyzing, and documenting
information and employing communication strategies to ensure maximum collaboration among the
project team.

Top skills

Information discovery

To make informed decisions and recommendations, business analysts need to gather information, lots of
information, from all levels.

Analysis and Synthesis

Communication, Collaboration, and Documentation

In the absence of information, we jump to the worst conclusions.” —Myra Kassim, Writer
business analyst plays a significant role in the project lifecycle and that one of the most important
phases in the lifecycle is information discovery.

as a business analyst you gather as much information as possible by exploring all areas of the project.
Typically, you ask every who, what, where, why, when, and how question you can think of about the
subject. For instance:

Who: Who are the stakeholders? Who is involved? Who follows the process? Who hands things off?

What: What is done first? What is done next? What is the problem that we are trying to solve?

Where: Where is the information input? Where does the information go after it is input? Where would a
person be when doing this?

Why: Why are we doing this? Why is this important?

When: When does this happen? (Once a week? Every first day of the month?) When do we need a
solution?

How: How does this work now? How should this work?

“Intelligence is not the ability to store information, but to know where to find it.” —Albert Einstein

Project information is the agent of change. It’s what drives the solution and ultimately the change in the
business. But before it can be the change agent, it must be found

Information comes in all shapes and sizes and from countless sources, including project information,
requirements, analyses, and processes. It also originates from a variety of people, including subject
matter experts and stakeholders.

the information areas into three high-level categories: project history, analysis, and elicitation.

Project History

Creating a new product or service or enhancing an existing one, it’s crucial to gather a significant
amount of background information on the project, either from stakeholders or other sources. This is
known as the project history, or sometimes project orientation.

This type of information ensures that you don’t inadvertently repeat work that’s already been done or
rehash previous decisions.

It also helps you understand the existing systems, design, requirements, and business processes. The
more you know, the better your analysis, and therefore, the better the outcome of your project.
the processes and systems involved to get as much insight as you can into how the business operates
and how the systems work.

Analysis

 Enterprise analysis

As a BA, you need to learn and understand an organization’s structure,

including who reports to whom, and the functions and interactions of
departments within the organization. The information you gain here
helps your team successfully collaborate and communicate (more on
those in the next unit).

 Strategy Analysis

 his is about getting to the heart of the problem. It’s about

understanding. First, you identify the need of strategic or tactical
importance—the business need. This is an important first step; the
business need guides the rest of the project.

 Then, you observe the current state and define the future and
transition states that will address the business need. This is a gap
analysis—identifying what is different between the current and desired
state. Now, assess options for achieving the desired state, including
the work or scope required, and recommend the highest value
approach for reaching that state.

 The BA should also assess the risks associated with the identified
change solution and what effect those uncertainties might have on the
project lifecycle or end goal. Develop a plan of action to address the
potential risks.

 Stakeholder Analysis

Stakeholders are the individuals or groups (internal or external to the

immediate organization) who make decisions and who have an
important role in determining the priorities and requirements for your
project.

Role Internal/ Examples

External
 Owner Internal Founder,
chairperson,
director
Manager Internal CXO,
executive,
manager
Employe Internal Staff, team,
e department,
group
Competit External In the same or
or other
industry/mark
et
Custome External Buyers and
r users of
products/servi
ces
Partner External Alliances and
partner
organizations
Supplier External Vendors who
supply raw
materials/part
s
Regulato External Regulating
r and governing
bodies

BABOK (Business Analysis Body of Knowledge)

Elicitation techniques
 Brainstorming
 Document analysis
 Focus groups
 Interface analysis
 Interviews
 Observation
 Process modeling
 Prototyping
 Requirements workshops
 Surveys/questionnaires

Elicitation is typically performed in three general stages.

 Prepare for elicitation - gather a comprehensive and accurate
understanding of the project’s business need.
 Conduct elicitation - meet with stakeholders to elicit information
regarding their needs and the needs of the business.
 Confirm elicitation results - validate that the stated requirements
match the problem and needs and ensure that the understanding
conforms to the actual desires or intentions of the stakeholders.