A functional analyst is a type of business analyst who specializes in a specific technology, line of business, domain or industry. These functional analysts, owing to their expertise in a particular field are fully aware of the attributes, characteristics and functions of their field.
Functional Analysts are specialists whose skills are independent of the organization they work in
Due to their ‘subject matter expert’ nature, organizations who develop their products and services for a niche domain, take services of functional analysts. Additionally, They define the feasibility of a solution, its implementation, its interaction with the existing systems and improve the cost-effectiveness of the project/product they are involved in.
Responsibilities
- Be an authority in his area of specialization
- Analyze the existing systems and highlight areas of improvement
- Enhance opportunities by identifying new software/service to be developed
- Analyze and decompose complex requirements
- Perform gap analysis and recommend solutions
- Fulfill the role of a subject matter expert in requirement elicitation
- Document requirements, create functional specifications and prepare wireframes/flowcharts
- Oversee the development of the product as per the specifications
- Facilitate change and configuration management
- Monitor performance, discover variances and propose necessary actions.
- Validate the functionality of the end product according to the requirement specifications
- Prepare technical user manuals, system configuration documents and other technical reports
Skill set
- Thorough knowledge of the area of specialization
- Analytical and investigation skills
- Ability to understand the bigger picture
- Working knowledge of data and process modeling
- Elicitation and comprehension skills
- Grip over database concepts like DBMS, ETL and SQL
- Good command over spoken and written communication
- Organizational and presentation skills
- Interpersonal and managerial skills
Functional analysts possess profound knowledge in their areas of expertise and help organizations achieve their business goals by recommending solutions that align with their strategic objectives.