Free Sample Lesson: The business analyst role across the implementation lifecycle (Business Analyst Cert Lab)

Free sample lesson from the Business Analyst Cert Lab. The full course has 17 lessons and 4 full practice exams.

Customer Discovery · CD1 · part of the 17% section · about 20 min with practice

CD1: The business analyst role across the implementation lifecycle

You’ll be able to: explain what a Salesforce business analyst does in each phase of a project, and spot common misconceptions about the role.

What the BA does, phase by phase

Activity	What the BA does	Output
Communication	Creates room for open conversation, listens, and relays information to the right teams	Shared understanding between business and IT
Elicitation	Interviews stakeholders, researches processes and observes teams at work	A foundation for the project
Documenting requirements	Records what was learned, clearly and concisely	Requirements anyone can read
Analyzing information	Reviews requirements and uses data to decide what the business must do	A view of the desired outcome
Facilitating solutions	Identifies options, then helps choose the best one	A chosen solution
Implementing solutions	Checks the solution runs as expected and adjusts if it drifts	Benefits stakeholders can see
Testing	Tests after implementation, builds training material and records feedback	Input for the next iteration

A project-based, business-improvement role

Trailhead describes the Salesforce business analyst as a project-based, business-improvement role. BAs elicit, document and analyze requirements around business challenges, then produce data-driven solutions. Think of the BA as an interpreter: the go-to person for communication between IT and business stakeholders.

The exam guide frames the same idea: the candidate understands business needs, captures requirements and collaborates with stakeholders, and acts as a liaison between business and development teams. It also lists what a BA is not expected to do on this exam: change management, managing a project, building ROI, developing custom code, designing a technical solution and ongoing tool administration.

Exam trap

Misconception questions are common. A BA does not need to be deeply technical, can do configuration if they have the skills and bandwidth, joins the project from the start, and does much more than requirements.

The skills behind the role

Three skills sit at the top: information discovery (gathering information from all levels), analysis and synthesis (looking at details and the big picture to chart needs and plans), and communication, collaboration and documentation. The quick-look unit adds soft skills such as needs analysis, business case definition, requirements writing and review, process diagramming, wireframing and problem solving, plus a basic grasp of Salesforce areas like automation, data management, and reports and dashboards.

Predict, then reveal

A sponsor says, “We’ll bring the BA in once the build starts, so we don’t waste their time on kickoff.” What’s the problem?

Show the answer

BAs are brought in from the get-go. Understanding needs and scope at the start is one of the most important parts of the job.

Benchmarks matter too. Early on, agree measurable benchmarks for what the customer cares about, such as minutes to create and send a quote, and run them on the current process so you have a baseline to compare after the change.

Apply it 10 min · a notebook or your current project

List the seven BA activities from the table and write one example of each from a project you know.
Mark which ones happen before the build starts and which happen after.
Write one measurable benchmark you could run on today’s process.