Companies are in a constant search for innovation and growth to guarantee their survival in todays business environment or to reach a new level of operations to compete against their competitors.
Information technology is one of the most important tools to support this evolution. However, one of the great difficulties of companies has always been the alignment between the business areas and the IT team.
In order to overcome this alignment difficulty, a business analyst (BA) comes in to work with teams to create solutions that add value to the company to meet business outcomes. It is in this profession that many organisations are betting to unveil market trends, optimise their efforts, and achieve their goals.
But, after all, what are the skills needed for a business analyst?
In this post, we will explain to you the best business analysis key skills needed to make a good BA. But first, let’s get to know who is a business analyst.
Table of Contents
Who Is A Business Analyst?
A business analyst is the professional responsible for knowing the company’s processes, understanding its organisational and political structure, in order to provide the necessary support for the business to achieve its objectives.
To this end, the professional must have a holistic view of the company. The business analyst acts as an integrating agent for the various audiences that relate to it, and constantly seek innovative solutions that increase the organisation’s competitiveness. In a nutshell, a business analyst seeks to:
- Understand business needs;
- Identify growth and innovation opportunities that are aligned with the company’s plans;
- Act as an integrating agent for the various audiences that relate to the company;
- Propose technological solutions adhering to business objectives.
In order to perform your role well, you must have technical and practical knowledge of the business. Without these basic conditions, the correct practice of business analysis will be very difficult.
This is because it is not appropriate to indicate solutions for an unknown domain. This broad knowledge about the functioning of the different areas of the company will enable you to understand the real needs and indicate which would be the best solutions.
Skills And Characteristic Of A Business Analyst
In order to be truly successful as a business analyst, you undoubtedly need certain skills in addition to a thorough professional and technical knowledge and experience. While there are many opportunities for professional development today, from free online content
to business analyst certification training, skill development is a bit harder to get. However, the good news is that these skills can be developed. Here are some of the skills of a business analyst.
Communication Skills
The business analyst is a professional who is in constant contact with various project stakeholders and users. Therefore, communication is key to the business analyst work. You are supposed to build a relationship, listen to colleagues, facilitate a meeting, and much more. The success of your project will largely depend on your ability to communicate effectively. For this reason, you must be able to express yourself with ease, communicate with primacy, and ensure that people understand your message.
Analytical Skills
This is perhaps the most basic skill for a BA. You must be able to break down a need into its elements and see what a customer needs. The main aspect of your work is analysing data, documents, workflows, and user input surveys to find solutions to a business problem. To be a good business analyst, you need to have strong analytical skills to be successful.
Organisational Skills
The organisation is fundamental in the work of the business analyst. You have access to a huge amount of information and documents vital to the company. This information may be needed at any time. In order to manage this information, it is necessary to have an organised work environment. As a business analyst, you should have a method of separating this information. Also, you should have access to technologies that provide the necessary support for the retrieval of any data at any time without delay.
Technological Skills
A BA is responsible for optimising the company’s activities, with a focus on improving its performance and competitiveness. Therefore, you cannot live in isolation. Technology is fundamental. So, a you should be aware of technological innovations that can impact a company’s business, facilitating people’s daily lives, and increasing the team’s productivity. However, you does not need to be an expert in each new technology that appears. But rather have a comprehensive view of the potential that each of them has to help develop a good job.
Facilitation Skills
Being a facilitator is also one of the skills to be developed if you want to be a good business analyst. As you already know, you are in constant contact with people with a mission to integrate the sectors of the company. Also, you needs a good dose of flexibility to make employees work well together. You should promote meetings, workshops, and gatherings so that people get to know each other and exchange ideas. When a conflict arises, you act as a mediator. Always looking for a plausible solution and without pointing out the culprits. Help people to carry out their activities and always be available.
Problem-Solving Skills
As a business analyst, you must be a person who thinks outside the box. Every project that you do will always needs a solution and will need to address underlying problems and need problem analysis skills. For this reason, you should be able to use your creativity to escape the standards and seek different solutions. Innovations are always welcome, especially when they save investments, time, and resources. To be a good business analyst, you should be able to propose creative solutions in the company and always be open to new ideas.
Interaction Skills
This skill is related to communication with people of different profiles. You should have the right skills to interact with different people of different levels in an organisation. These are the executives, sponsors, team members, developers, and end-users. In addition to this, a you should be able to moderate discussions effectively, have the ability to influence others, and the ability to teach.
Listening Skills
In addition to observing the lines, you must also be a good listener, keeping a focus on what others are telling you. That way, there will be no doubt about understanding each other needs. Communication is incomplete if one party does not understand. Summarising and rephrasing is an effective way to understand what you are saying. This will ensure important facts are not overlooked.
In addition to this, good listening skills will allow you to make better use of each meeting and develop your activities more safely. In addition, being a good listener will make sure that you are fulfilling exactly what was agreed upon. Attention should also be paid to body language.
Observation Skills
Observing the company’s various stakeholders, customers, project managers, and everyday situations helps the professional to develop a more accurate analytical sense. This will enable him to have a better reading between the lines. This automatically makes it easier to identify opportunities for improvement. For example, in a business meeting, as an observer, a BA can identify requirements that the customer has not yet realised he needs. Acting on these needs is one way of demonstrating the company’s care in offering the best solution.
Questioning Skills
Being an observer and a good listener does not mean that you should not speak up. Only that you have to be careful when asking the right questions. Your focus should be on the solution that the client needs, the requirements of each project, the details, and the actions that must be put into practice after each conversation. You should avoid deviating from the subject so as not to lose focus.
Knowledge Of The Business Structure
One of the first things that you must do is to deepen your knowledge of the business in which you are in. When you get to know the company’s business in-depth, it becomes possible to make a more precise analysis of the organisational context. With this, yo can identify more opportunities for improvement. It is also with market knowledge that a you will be able to convince top management to make the necessary changes to more efficiently achieve the organisation’s objectives. Basing your ideas and suggestions on real and quantifiable data.
Conclusion – Skills Needed For A Business Analyst
A business analyst plays a key role in companies that are looking to keep up with the market’s competitiveness. That is, being ahead in terms of productivity and evolution. The labour market perspective of a business analyst is generally very good for anybody who has the right education studies and skills. The good thing is that a business analyst can work for many different employers and consultancy firms. In other words, a good business analyst will not soon be out of work.
However, due to the changing times in the market, the required skills have changed. If you are interested in this field, then it is necessary you acquire new skills such as agile ways of working and certifications that will help you overcome the challenges in the current environment. Lastly, a business analyst is like an architect. While it is true that a building can be executed without an architect, its execution will always be much more risky and uncertain.
To develop your business analyst skills you may wish to seek out a business analyst certification.
