A business analyst is any person who performs business analysis tasks described in the BABOK® Guide, no matter their job title or organizational role. Business analysts are responsible for discovering, synthesizing, and analyzing information from a variety of sources within an enterprise, including tools, processes, documentation, and stakeholders. The business analyst is responsible for eliciting the actual needs of stakeholders - which frequently involves investigating and clarifying their expressed desires- in order to determine underlying issues and causes.

Business analysts play a role in aligning the designed and delivered solutions with the needs of stakeholders. The activities that business analysts perform include:
• understanding enterprise problems and goals,
• analyzing needs and solutions,
• devising strategies,
• driving change, and
• facilitating stakeholder collaboration.

Other common job titles for people who perform business analysis include:
• business architect,
• business systems analyst,
• data analyst,
• enterprise analyst,
• management consultant,
• process analyst,
• product manager,
• product owner,
• requirements engineer, and
• systems analyst.