The Role of the IT Business Analyst in a Big Data Project - Data-Driven Approach to Business Analysis
The Role of the IT Business Analyst in a Big Data Project - Data-Driven Approach to Business Analysis

Summary/Abstract: This paper considers the changing role of the IT business analyst (performed by IT practitioners), and the importance of this change for the success of the emerging Big Data analytics projects. The paper highlights the responsibilities of the Big Data business analyst for: defining the data needs of different business areas; providing relevant facts, figures & justification needed for the business to make informed decisions; ensuring that the reporting needs of the business are met and effective KPIs are set; ensuring that the attributes of data, the relationship between data elements and sources of data are defined and mapped and quality of data is high; transforming data into meaningful information that the managers can use during the decision-making process.This paper presents the latest data-driven approach to the business analysis with the help of a business case study on the development of new core business data analytics software system for the needs of an existing internationally recognized leading company in the field of market research which is processing several terabytes of incoming data per day. The case study demonstrates how the company is solving problems related to quality of data, flexibility and processing speed, and how the expected business value from greater process automation, reliable and customizable final product, and shorter time-to-market is delivered. Under discussion are the analytical business analysis tools and techniques in place as well as the necessary skills andknowledge for the successful Big Data business analyst. More specifically, the paper presents the capabilities of the latest Big Data processing frameworks within Apache Hadoop (including HDFS, HBase and MapReduce), Spark and Storm, and their application for the needs of the enterprise business analysis. As part of the case study, the author is reviewing and evaluating the state of the existing corporate approach to business analysis, and is formulating important directions for its improvement.

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