[Sigia-l] Disciplines and roles that work with IAs

[Saffer, Dan]

I've worked with Business Analysts for the past two years on projects
and have found them helpful, although you have to make sure that they
are not suggesting design and functional solutions, only clarifying and
documenting the business goals.

They don't typically generate "traditional" IA deliverables such as wire
frames, site maps, conceptual diagrams, etc., only Business Requirements
and (occasionally) Use Cases.

B.A.s allow the IA to focus more on the user's goals, especially during
discovery/exploration stage. The B.A. can go find out, for example, what
percent discount users get on the website, leaving the IA able to
channel her energy towards figuring how how the user buys the products
in the first place.

Dan

dan saffer  .  sr. interaction designer
ameritrade  .  dsaffer at datek.com