How to Validate Business Requirements for Successful BPM Automation Projects
5 min read
Why One Analyst Is Not Enough: The Pitfalls of Combining Business and System Analysis
Often, project stakeholders want to optimize labor and budget. And a very reasonable-sounding idea comes to mind for nearly every second product owner or project manager:
"Let’s just have one analyst do everything!"
At the executive level — among top managers and founders — this idea pops up 9 times out of 10. The result?
Missed deadlines, doubled budgets.
Let’s break down why this keeps happening — and will continue to happen — using an analogy, followed by a detailed analysis.
🧗 The Multisport Race Analogy
Imagine you're taking part in a multisport competition. The goal: complete the course in the shortest possible time. As team manager, you can recruit as many athletes as your budget allows.
You even know the terrain in advance: a flat plain, a lake, and a vertical cliff.
The cliff? That’s easy. Or rather, it’s clear that it’s not easy — you need trained experts who can climb fast and not fall to their doom. So you definitely recruit a professional rock climber.
But the plain and lake seem less complex — after all, everyone can run and swim, right?
It’s tempting to bring in just one athlete, a jack-of-all-trades, and save money to paint the interface blue or something.
This is exactly how many development teams are built:
With dedicated developers ("climbers") — and just one analyst tasked with both business and system analysis.
🎯 Specialists vs. Generalists
But here’s the catch:
Specialists in a specific sport consistently outperform generalists.
Why? Because specialists spend years perfecting micro-skills and techniques that give them massive advantages.
For example, someone who’s swum in open water for 10 years:
- knows how to breathe through waves without choking,
- can navigate without veering off course,
- adjusts their stroke to avoid weeds or drag.
But while they were mastering open-water swimming, they didn’t train for trail running — so when they hit the land, they easily twist an ankle on a tree root.
Yes, they can run — but achieving great results in running would require giving up swimming entirely and switching focus.
🤔 So What's the Difference Between Business and System Analysis?
Let’s break it down in the next section by looking at:
- 📄 The outcomes and deliverables of each discipline
- 🛠️ The types of tasks they handle
- 📚 The required skills and knowledge bases
🧩 Business Analyst vs. System Analyst: What's the Difference?
At first glance, it may seem logical to assign both roles to a single person — they’re both “analysts,” right?
But in reality, business analysts and system analysts answer fundamentally different questions and produce different results.
🎯 Difference in Focus: "What?" vs. "How?"
| Business Analyst | System Analyst |
|---|---|
| ✅ Answers the question: “WHAT?” | ✅ Answers the question: “HOW?” |
| 1. What outcomes does the business want? → What should the end result be? | 1. How should the system change to achieve these outcomes? |
| 2. What will users do in the system to achieve this? | 2. How should the system be configured to support those user actions? |
📄 Difference in Project Artifacts
| Business Analyst | System Analyst |
|---|---|
| • Documentation of goals and success metrics | • A system solution design: how to implement the business process in the system |
| • Business requirements: detailed process descriptions, diagrams, user stories | • Development specifications: what changes need to be made, and by whom |
| • Prototypes (e.g., in Figma) — especially when automating processes for the first time | • System configuration (No/Low Code): BPMN workflows, rules, system behavior |
| 🧠 Senior BAs often act as methodologists — structuring the process so business stakeholders can clearly define their vision | 🧠 Senior system analysts act as system architects — identifying technical risks and choosing efficient, stable implementation options |
⚙️ Typical Tasks
| Business Analyst | System Analyst |
|---|---|
| 1. Conduct interviews with stakeholders | 1. Analyze the current system and design a solution |
| 2. Define and align business requirements | 2. Implement No/Low Code system configurations |
| ⭐️ Key focus: Communication and accurate documentation of insights from the business | ⭐️ Key focus: Translating business logic into stable, working system logic |
📚 Required Skills & Competencies
| Business Analyst | System Analyst |
|---|---|
| • Conducting stakeholder interviews | • Building system models: object models, transformation logic, UML |
| • Maintaining a business process registry | • Writing technical specifications for development teams |
| • Describing business processes using IDEF0, IDEF3, EPC, or BPMN 2.0 | • Implementing executable processes, rules, and logic in the system |
| • Writing user scenarios and use cases |
🩺 Medical Analogy
| Business Analyst | System Analyst |
|---|---|
| 🩻 Like an MRI technician – accurately diagnosing what’s happening and what should happen | 👨⚕️ Like a specialist doctor – prescribing how to fix the problem, given a solid diagnosis |
| Doesn’t treat the problem directly but identifies its nature with precision | Can’t recommend a solution unless diagnostic results are clear and reliable |
✅ Summary
Trying to replace two experts with one generalist may seem budget-friendly at first — but it inevitably leads to inefficiency, poor quality, and overspending down the road.
Understanding the clear separation between business and system analysis is essential for building strong teams and successful projects.