Becoming a business analyst is a good start if you want to enter the world of technology, especially when you start your career right after graduation. This means that this profession belongs to a group of professions that is increasing in demand. That is, there should not be difficulties finding a job. To become an analyst, you need to acquire knowledge, put it into practice, and develop your skills.
This article focuses on this particular profession, a Business Analyst. This is a career that will open up new opportunities for you, develops your mind, teaches you communication and thinking skills, and helps the financial business grow. Read this article to the end to learn more about becoming a business analyst.
Table of Contents
Who is a Business Analyst?
A business analyst is the professional responsible for building a bridge between IT and business. The business analyst uses data analysis to assess processes, determine requirements, make data-driven recommendations, and submit reports to managers and stakeholders. As an analyst, you appear in the company as an “agent of change.” Your goal is to introduce and manage changes in the organisation. This happens in profit-oriented companies, political institutions, or non-profit organisations.
You will need to have convincing soft skills and hard skills. You should know how to create and analyse data trends and how to generate reports. You should be able to share the information with others and use it on the business side. This does not necessarily require subject-specific IT knowledge. But you should have a basic understanding of how the systems, products, and tools work.
Why is the Profession of a Business Analyst so Attractive?
This area of activity is interesting mainly to people who are creatively minded and creatively thinking. The very concept of analysis implies the ability to dissect the problem, to delve into its essence, to study the details, to understand the connections and interactions.
The result of such an analysis is a solution similar to creative insight when complex processes can be described using useful simple models. The specialty of a business analyst involves a special mindset that allows you to find an elegant solution for a real problem. That is, universal and impeccably logical, which will lie in the existing structure and itself will turn into a scalable structure.
Companies that are fortunate enough not to encounter business slippage are rare, especially in the realities of the crisis. Therefore, it is not surprising that the profession of “business analyst” is so in demand. Jobs are easy to find. Work as a business analyst belongs to the category of well-paid and stably prestigious. Specialists of this profile will always find a worthy place where they can apply knowledge to the benefit of themselves and society.
Business analyst jobs are numerous. They are in completely different areas. These include banking companies, construction companies, commerce, IT, industrial companies. In these areas, these vacancies are very well paid and promising.
Core Tasks of a Business Analyst
A business analyst, like any other specialist, has a list of responsibilities that he or she is responsible for. You need to understand that the future of a company depends on evaluating the market and the work of the company. First of all, you must understand the business goals of the project, then determine the requirements of users, functional and non-functional requirements that will allow you to evaluate and plan the project.
The main duty of most business analysts is to establish relationships between business developers and technical developers. Your work is to bridge the gap between the stakeholders and the development team. You are always in communication with the stakeholder to manage their expectation and needs.
You should understand that you are linked to executives and users in the company. Your job is to increase their knowledge of data-driven business development. This involves processes, products, services, software, and hardware, as well as improving their efficiency and value. You should articulate the ideas and, on the other hand, be able to weigh up to what extent the ideas can be implemented technologically, financially, and functionally. Depending on the position in the company, working with data sets is ideal for improving products, hardware, tools, software, services, and processes.
The most important tasks include the identification and prioritisation of technical and functional requirements in the company. After requirements management, you should bring IT on board and understand what the clients really need. Although the company appears as a product owner, you should also see yourself as a product owner.
During the analysis, you must ask yourself a few questions: What must the systems be able to do, and how do they have to do this? Where does the input come from? And how is it possible for employees to agree on what needs to be done? Your work is concerned with the definition of requirements and their prioritisation and with the gathering of feedback and approval of the requirements. You will need to make adjustments to the processes that benefit the company, develop effective development strategies, outline implementation methods, and predicts the results.
As you can see, you perform a fairly decent number of tasks that have to be performed in the course of your professional activity. You must know what you are demanding from the company in order for its products to be in demand for revenue to grow and for customers not to make demands. Therefore, it is your responsibility to communicate closely with clients to clarify all requirements. The ability to optimally organise all stages of this process and bring the project to the line of success is an indicator of the quality of a business analyst.
Skills of a Business Analyst
This work requires skills related to analysis. That is, the ability to collect data, work with a large amount of information, analyse, and draw conclusions. You need to be able to clearly express your thoughts, have a responsibility, a desire to get to the bottom of the problem, attention to detail, good communication skills. In general, we can say business analysis is suitable for perfectionists. Here are some skills that you need to have.
Analytical Ability
When working as a business analyst, you need to identify the business needs (requirements) and assess the working atmosphere to implement improvements. You make connections between data sets and processes findings in new, effective concepts.
Systems Thinking
Always looks at the bigger picture. As a systems thinker, you will need to monitor the software being developed, the business process being studied, and stakeholders interested or influenced.
Strategic Insight
The BA considers business processes, sets the course, and makes informed decisions. What specific changes need to be made? The application consultant develops the overarching vision and formulates objectives for the long term. You will need to think and acts from a customer perspective and considers possible consequences for the internal organisation.
Decision-Making Skills
You need to be creative in offering solutions. Your work will be to simplify thought processes and policies in which you guide stakeholders in decision-making. You will provide and compare data, determines which tools or techniques should be used and in which direction a solution should be sought.
Entrepreneurial and Innovative Skills
Proactive business analysts convert original ideas into products and services and dare to take risks to achieve set business goals. As independent thinkers, you are on top of current events. You should have an in-depth knowledge of relevant fields. Your work will be to identify opportunities and stays ahead of the competition with efficient, innovative solutions.
Technical Skills
Your skills are not important on paper alone. During the project, you will need to introduce the appropriate technical solutions systematically and analytically. This means you must have the technical skills to make this possible. These include Oracle, SQL, C#, and many more.
Communication and Consultancy Skills
Communication skills are indispensable. The business process manager develops a vision and sells it to both (potential) customers and IT team members. Presentations must be credible and create support. You should convey the essence of a problem in a clear manner. Some form of diplomacy comes in handy in negotiations. Finally, an analyst maintains his network to realise and guarantee sustainable professional partnerships.
It reasonably argued that this profession is an integral part of companies. This is because it will be the duty of the analyst to help the company grow, gain credibility in society, and improve its reputation with customers.
Training, Education, and Certification
All high paying and promising job vacancies place high demands on applicants. The business analytics profession is no exception. Often people can’t find a job due to the lack of certain items on the list of requirements. Specialised education received in a credible academic institution plus personal mental characteristics are the most important factors that form the skills of a business analyst at the proper level. The main one is the ability to master the subject area in detail in order to understand the customer and correctly convey the essence of his business needs to the developers.
To be successful, business analysts need to know how to work with the data that should impact the company at the same time. It is not enough to simply spot a trend. Because the trend must also be made understandable to the non-technical employees in the company. This requires training and further education to improve IT and business skills.
One way to improve your skills is to get a certification that is specifically designed for the role of a business analyst. To earn an entry-level position as a business analyst, you will need a bachelor’s degree in business administration or related fields. After gaining experience, you can strengthen your position with a certificate.
The IIBA (International Institute for Business Analysis) offers a professional certified business analysis program and business analysis proficiency certification.
The IMC (Institute of management consultant) certifies at a basic, experienced, and management level. However, for the basic course, you will need a minimum of 3 years’ experience.
These certifications provide you with the right tools to enable you to deal with different situations within the company. Also, they help you to move well between sectors, identifying possible opportunities for improvement. Boot camps, on the other hand, are about learning new skills that a business analyst needs. There are various boot camp offers, for example, online, as a block event or crash course within the company itself.
Furthermore, there are already subject-specific, international courses at the master’s level, which are suitable for computer or economists. Overall, there are various options for receiving formal training as a business analyst. In training, it is important that you get the result. When you understand what skills and responsibilities a business analyst should have and compare them with what you have, then you need to undergo some theoretical training.
Remember that any education you receive must be practical. When choosing a training, be sure to ask how many practical tasks will be there. This is very important for training. Also, don’t collect crust in training. That is, to go from one training to another, from one company to another, but find the company that will give you specific training in business analysis.
Business Analysts’ Salaries
Since this is a very popular profession that requires special thinking and skills, it is fairly fair to assume that the employee’s salary will be high. This is true. However, the salary may slightly vary depending on the level of skills and abilities, education and opportunities, duration of service, nature of production, and other factors. The average salary of a business analyst is around $67700 per year. As you can see, this is quite a good amount of money to work with. In addition, the profession is largely useful and interesting, with the prospect of self-development being a very important criterion for those in need of self-development.
How to be a Good Business Analyst
Many people see themselves in this field, but few really want to understand what they need to do to become a business analyst. This advice will help you if you want to be successful in this field. It should be noted that analyst professionals are very independent and confident in the modern business world. To achieve this, follow these guidelines:
a. Improve your communication. – You will need to communicate with various people within the organisation, clarify details, and ask them questions regarding your proposal. Communication is key. You need to be clear and precise to be understood.
b. You can create and overcome different situations. – Analysts often force tasks to achieve more effective results. It is possible to work in an equally productive way with the simplified versions because you must be able to imagine all the paths to the events.
c. Don’t deny comparisons. The analyst’s work involves a constant comparison of the activities of different companies. Professionals should also compare their work with the results of other professionals. It is a component of a business intelligence system. Advanced training, the ability to communicate with more experienced employees in the field. This is what you should strive for.
d. Approach analytical tasks analytically. When a problem arises, your main goal should be to eliminate its roots. To do this, you need to look at all the details of the work you have done. Get to the bottom of the problem and eliminate it.
e. Good speech. This point is not important for literacy (it is also very necessary), but it is to give your client exactly and accurately. Misunderstanding is a common problem, and not just in business.
As you work, you should consider all the pros and cons and makes a business decision about each decision. Your work is to help clients and performers (producers of goods) to find a common language and to develop business activities in order to create mutual benefits and a desire for further cooperation. This way, you will be on your way to becoming a good business analyst.
How to Competently Write a Resume for a Business Analyst Job
Almost all employers require work experience from the applicant, so this section is key in the resume. In order to gain relevant experience, it is advisable for beginners in the profession to complete an internship. In the absence of experience, you must indicate the availability of appropriate education and describe your skills and abilities as detailed as possible.
It helps to increase efficiency, reduce production costs and economic costs. Therefore, you must have fundamental education and stay up to date with industry news. Employers usually put forward such requirements to applicants:
• The presence of a university diploma (mathematics, information technology, economics);
• Understanding of business processes in the industry of the company;
• Experience collecting and describing requirements, identifying, documenting and modelling business processes, creating user interfaces;
• Understanding of the principles of building large databases;
• Knowledge of modelling tools, interface prototyping, modelling notations.
Some companies require higher education in a narrow area. For example, if the firm is medical, a specialist with a medical background may be required. Experience in IT in positions related to process automation or in the enterprise management system is desirable (financial manager, operations director, development specialist).
Also, look for a job in big cities and in metropolitan areas, it is much easier to find the right one. There are many promising areas where you can pursue your career, use your knowledge and skills. Analyst jobs are also sufficient, as every business needs to make the most of it. Therefore, you need to take into account the employer’s wishes regarding expected work.
The work of a business analyst is diverse and capable of being used in any field of activity. Sometimes people working in the profession are working in parallel with a company manager or quality manager.
Coaching and Group Support
You are now in a group that is interested in business analysis. When you introduce yourself to another person, find out what interest this person has in business analysis. Maybe the person is already working as a business analyst, or even he has some kind of open position in the company. Maybe this person is a manager or programmer who already knows that there is a position and will recommend you.
A coach is like a team coach. The person who inspires you, supports, edifies. Therefore, if there is such a person, it can be either the one who has already gone this way or the person who may already be in a higher position. Look for such people. Look for people who already work as an analyst and ask how they achieved this. Maybe they will take to lead you in this direction. That is, it is imperative that you are supported by your environment, and you have some people who would be your coach or mentor.
Conclusion – Becoming a Business Analyst
The business analysis profession is complex but interesting, compelling. In order to get a job, you have to have many skills, work experience, ability to communicate with people, ability to analyse a situation, make plans, models, and navigate in many other areas. All of this knowledge can be useful at work. There are many business analytics jobs, so you can always find a place.
Your activities as an analyst are organisational changes. You are responsible for determining what changes are proposed and how they will ensure that the company’s profits continue to grow. Your main goal is to enable not only the analysis of incoming data and the development of new ones but also the ability to communicate with people to match the offer to the company and the customer. It only succeeds in units that make the work of professionals so important and important.
Lastly, we can safely say that a business analyst is much needed in the modern world. This area of expertise improves the work of companies, positively influences their reputation, the development of new ideas and products. It also improves customer engagement. You need to love your job and give it away completely. After that, not only you but also others will benefit greatly.