Irene wrote Regarding BA roles and titles, there is a question in my mind for a while: should BA also work as QA/tester in big organizations? In the bank I am working for currently, there is no solid QA. All BAs are required to do testing, including creating/modifying test cases, executing test cases, etc. BAs are also encouraged to get CSTE(Certified Software Tester) certificates here. I am wondering whether this is the best practice for big organizations; whether BAs could benefit from this exercise in their future career development.

Hi Irene,

You are asking a great question!

In most organizations the Business Analyst is involved, in one way or another, in the QA process.  However, most large organizations or large projects have dedicated QA teams. 

On most projects, I do not believe it is a good practice to attempt to have the Business Analysts also perform the QA role, here's why:

• Quality Assurance should not only be concerned about testing the code/product but also ensuring that high quality is achieved at all points in the process - this includes the deliverables created by the business analysts.  Therefore the QA team needs to be separate from the BA team in order to be objective at evaluating the quality of the business analysis artifacts.
• The role of the Business Analyst, as it is, can require a vast array of knowledge such as organizational assessment, business process modeling, requirements elicitation/management, solution design, etc.  For many analysts this is already a lot to master and there is no need to dilute the role by adding full QA responsibilities.
• Quality Assurance tasks require very specialized knowledge and training in a variety of areas: test strategy, test plan creation, development of test cases and scripts, use of automated test tools, functional vs. performance testing, regression testing, integration testing, defect documentation and reporting, etc.

This is a similar question as to why the developer gather the requirements... well it's the fox guarding the hen house.  Same goes for why can't the business analyst also code.

Yes - there are developers who have the skills needed to gather the requirements: many in the Agile movement advocate this.  And, yes there are some analysts who can code and probably many who could be good QA analysts.  But for the majority of projects this is not practical or advisable.

Having said this, I will admit that there are some areas of Quality Assurance which can benefit greatly from a business analyst's involvement.  Here are some:

• The business analyst should clearly document the user acceptance criteria which will be used by the QA team as a baseline for their testing efforts,
• The BA should review the test plans and test cases created by the quality assurance team to ensure coverage (that no key functionality  was missed),
• The analyst can get involved in the user acceptance phase of the QA process by executing a subset of the user acceptance tests and by helping the stakeholders, who provided the requirements in the first place, to verify the product,
• In addition, the business analyst is also heavily involved in the resolution of defect reports and an play referee between the QA and Development teams when clarification is needed or when the QA & Dev teams disagree on whether a but is a truly a bug.

Now there are instances when a business analyst might indeed consider gaining QA knowledge, experience, and certifications.  For example, if their goal is to move up the ladder and manage entire projects: analysis, development, testing.

Hope this helps!

- Adrian