Customer Discovery17% of the exam
BA roles across the implementation lifecycle
What the business analyst owns in each phase of a Salesforce implementation, how the role differs from admin, developer, architect, project manager and business owner, and why the BA supplies analysis and raises gaps while others decide, design and build.
Understand and explain Business Analyst roles and responsibilities in different phases of the implementation lifecycle.
~8 min read · 8 practice questions ·
What the exam expects
- Separate BA responsibilities from those of the admin, developer, architect, project manager and business owner or sponsor.
- Name what the BA does in each phase: discovery, design, build, test and deploy.
- Explain the liaison role: translating business needs for the technical team and technical constraints back into business impact.
- Respond when asked to make a decision that belongs to someone else: provide the analysis, facilitate, let the owner decide.
- Raise a gap between an approved requirement and the proposed design instead of fixing or hiding it.
Key terms: liaison (the BA as interpreter between business and IT); business owner or sponsor (the person who sets priorities and accepts the solution); implementation lifecycle (the phases a change passes through, from discovery to go-live); out-of-role work (tasks the exam guide says the BA is not expected to do).
Key facts
Role type
- Detail
- BA is project-based business improvement; admin is operational
Core BA work
- Detail
- Elicit, document and analyze requirements; interpreter between IT and business
When BAs join
- Detail
- From the get-go, not only after kickoff
Not expected
- Detail
- Change management, project management, ROI, custom code, technical design, ongoing administration
May need assistance
- Detail
- Stakeholder conflict, setting priorities, signing off UAT
Discovery
- Detail
- Where the BA does most of the groundwork
Testing step
- Detail
- Build training material and record feedback for the next iteration
Admin tasks
- Detail
- Org, users, security, objects, automation, sandboxes and production
Sources for this section (4)
- Compare the Admin and Business Analyst Rolestrailhead.salesforce.com (opens in a new tab)
- Exploring the Salesforce BA Roletrailhead.salesforce.com (opens in a new tab)
- Salesforce Certified Business Analyst Exam Guidetrailhead.salesforce.com (opens in a new tab)
- Explore Techniques for Information Discoverytrailhead.salesforce.com (opens in a new tab)
- Why does the BA raise a design gap rather than fix the design?
- When do BAs join a Salesforce project?
- What separates the admin role from the BA role?
- Why is a BA central to UAT?
The questions are free to read. Answers with their sources and self-grading are included with the pack.
Keep reading with the Business Analyst pack
- Core concepts
- Exam traps
- Worked scenario
The pack includes:
- All 22 lessons of the Business Analyst guide, with reading progress
- Interactive decision walks and step-by-step sequence steppers
- Inline practice questions and one-click topic practice (8 questions for this lesson)
- An official source cited for every claim
- An AI tutor that answers from the guide
- Unlimited timed practice exams