Why Business Analysts should Learn UX

Both the business analyst, or BA, and the user experience professional are responsible for finding ways to use technology in meeting the needs of users, as well as those of the business or organization. Both BA and UX professionals have skills and functions that overlap, and both use design thinking to fill their role. Although BAs are often considered to have more of a business focus while UX professionals are considered to focus more on the end-user or even design, the reality is that neither can work in a vacuum, and BA’s must consider user needs along with the UX design process. This makes UX training for BA’s a useful investment of their time, as it helps them to create a more efficient product development process for apps and websites.

A business analyst, or BA, assesses an organization's business model by documenting its processes and integration with technology. User experience (UX) training allows business analysts to participate and better understand in the entire design process, from requirement gathering through design and testing. UX classes allow business analyst's to adapt their approach based upon the needs of users and the scope of each project.

Improving BA Skills with UX training

Modern application and website development projects typically require input from multiple roles across a business. With more complex projects, a business analyst that has a better understanding of the UX needs and development process is able to assist in keeping a project on-track by better integrating business needs and user needs. While some projects may not have time or resources for a full-time UX professional, having a BA that understands UX principles will enable these projects to better meet user needs, eliminating poor user experience problems, or costly and time consuming revisions. Many introductory UX training workshops can be completed in only a few days.

Approach for Business Analysts and UX Collaboration

Projects that have solid analysis and up-front research are more than twice as likely to reach their completion, and see a one-third reduction in the overall time required to complete a project. These are both areas where Business Analysts and UX professionals function, and having them work collaboratively helps to make sure that projects are not only completed, but that it occurs more quickly, and that they deliver a successful project that meets both business and end-user needs Involving both a business analyst and user experience professionals who collaborate effectively from the inception of a project through its completion helps to insure success.

UX practitioners and business analysts can collaborate starting with vetting the basic idea behind a project, determining if a project should be built, or if an off-the-shelf solution exists. Together they can collaborate on strategy, stakeholder research, scoping a project, user research, workflow, use cases, and many other areas. By having BA’s trained in UX skills, your organization achieves stronger synergies that helps to meet user and business needs, and there is less overlap and more sharing of information, causing projects to be delivered in less time and with lower costs.

The synergies of a strong collaboration between BA and UX professionals are clear, and have been written about by academics previously. These benefits of having business analysts receive UX training are documented in a paper published by UC Berkeley.