Jama Software Unplugged

What exactly does an analyst do?  This role varies from project team to project team – but the essence is the same – understanding and documenting an approach to a problem then figuring out how to communicate it back to the stakeholders and the project team.

Karl Wiegers has a nice summary of the Analyst position in his article “So You Want to Be a Requirements Analyst?”

http://www.processimpact.com/pubs.shtml#requirements

This quote struck a cord with me - “perhaps most importantly, the analyst helps determine the difference between what customers say they want and what they really need”