5 Business Analyst Portfolio Projects That Actually Impress

Process: Student leave request (college)
Actors : Student, Class coordinator, HOD, Office
As-is steps:
 1. Student fills a paper form
 2. Coordinator signs (often next day)
 3. HOD signs (waits for availability)
 4. Office enters data into a spreadsheet
Pain points:
 - 2-4 day delay waiting for signatures
 - Data typed twice (form + spreadsheet)
 - Students cannot see request status

To-be process:
 1. Student submits an online form
 2. Coordinator approves on mobile (notified instantly)
 3. HOD approval only for leave > 3 days
 4. Data saved automatically; status visible to student
Changes and reasons:
 - Online form removes double entry
 - Rule-based HOD step removes routine waits
Measure: average approval time, requests per week

US-01 As a student, I want to submit a leave request online
      so that I do not need to find staff for signatures.
  Acceptance criteria:
  Given I am logged in
  When I submit dates and a reason
  Then the request is saved with status "Pending"
  And my coordinator receives a notification

US-02 As a coordinator, I want to approve requests on mobile
      so that students are not kept waiting.
  Given a pending request is assigned to me
  When I tap "Approve"
  Then the status changes to "Approved" and the student is notified

Req ID | Business need             | Story  | Test case
-------|---------------------------|--------|----------
BR-01  | Remove paper forms        | US-01  | TC-01, TC-02
BR-02  | Faster approvals          | US-02  | TC-03
BR-03  | HOD only for long leave   | US-03  | TC-04, TC-05
BR-04  | Students see status       | US-04  | TC-06

-- Average approval hours and same-day approval rate by week
SELECT DATE_TRUNC('week', submitted_at) AS week,
       COUNT(*) AS requests,
       ROUND(AVG(EXTRACT(EPOCH FROM (approved_at - submitted_at)) / 3600), 1) AS avg_hours,
       ROUND(100.0 * AVG(CASE WHEN approved_at - submitted_at <= INTERVAL '24 hours'
                              THEN 1 ELSE 0 END), 1) AS approved_within_24h_pct
FROM leave_requests
WHERE status = 'APPROVED'
GROUP BY DATE_TRUNC('week', submitted_at)
ORDER BY week;

1. Context (3 lines)
2. Problem and who it affects
3. Stakeholders and how I gathered input
4. As-is process and pain points (map)
5. Requirements (BRD summary + 4 key stories)
6. To-be process and solution
7. KPIs: baseline vs after (synthetic data, labelled)
8. Lessons learned

1. Purpose and objectives
2. Scope (in / out)
3. Stakeholders
4. Current state summary
5. Business requirements (BR-01 ...)
6. Business rules
7. Assumptions and constraints
8. Success measures (KPIs)
9. Sign-off

Stakeholder   | Interest | Influence | Engagement plan
--------------|----------|-----------|----------------
Students      | High     | Low       | Survey + demo
Coordinators  | High     | Medium    | Workshop
HOD           | Medium   | High      | Short briefing
Office staff  | Medium   | Medium    | Process walkthrough

Business Analyst Portfolio — Your Name
1. Leave Process Case Study  (start here)
2. Process maps (as-is / to-be)
3. BRD (PDF)
4. User stories + traceability matrix
5. KPI dashboard (screenshots + SQL)
Contact | LinkedIn | Resume