Salesforce Business Analyst: Quick Look

Learn About the Salesforce Business Analyst Role

Discuss the Salesforce business analyst role and skills. Explore the responsibilities of the Salesforce business analyst. Debunk common misconceptions about the Salesforce business analyst.

What is a Salesforce Business Analyst

  • Salesforce BA is a project-based, business-improvement role.
  • Business Analysts help guide businesses to improve business processes and efficiency in Salesforce
    • They elicit, document, and analyze requirements around business challenges and then produce data-driven solutions
    • They are an interpreter, a go-between from IT and business stakeholders to ensure all involved work together

Required Skills

  • Soft skills:
    • Needs analysis
    • Eliciting requirements
    • Business case definition
    • Requirements writing
    • Requirements review
    • Flow and process diagramming
    • Wireframing
    • Business data analytics
    • Problem solving
  • Salesforce technical skills (at least basic understanding):
    • AppExchange
    • Automation
    • Collaboration
    • Data management
    • Reports and dashboards
    • CRM
    • Platform
    • Sales and marketing

Key Activities

  • Communication: BAs creates an environment for open conversations and listens
  • Elicitation: BAs ask a lot of questions to understand project goals. Interview stakeholders, research info or processes related to the project, and watch teams work
  • Document Requirements: BAs record what they learn, being clear and concise
  • Analyze information: Next, BAs review requirements and get a sense of how to accomplish their team’s goals. This involves diving into more detail and use data insights to identify what the business needs for a certain outcome
  • Facilitating solutions: Based on their analysis, BAs choose the best options and move forward
  • Implementing solutions: BAs need to make sure its running smoothly and act as a project manager
  • Testing: BAs build training material to support the implemented solution, and records feedback if further iterations of the project are required

Common Misconceptions

There are several misconceptions about the Salesforce BA role:

  1. Salesforce BAs need to be very technical. A basic, up-to-date understanding of the platform is sufficient. Salesforce Admins do the technical work.
  2. Salesforce BAs should do configuration on the platform. This is up to each individual. If they have the skills, knowledge, and bandwidth to configure Salesforce while overseeing implementation, they can do so.
  3. Salesforce BAs are only needed after a project kickoff. Getting an initial understanding of needs and scop for a project is important - they should be involved from the get-go.
  4. Salesforce BAs are only focused on requirements. BAs focus on much more than requirements - see Key Activities, above.