Entry-Level business analysts assist and work with senior analysts. They provide support in enhancing the process of documentation for enhancing procedures and operations. They collect and document business requirements. Further, their role is to provide inputs for implementation of technology for business solutions. Moreover, assistance in business planning, analysis, evaluation, and minimizing business risk, and streamlining business needs are also a part of their job. If you are planning to pursue a business analyst career, these are the skills you will need.
Fundamental Skills
These are the basic skills that any employer expects to have in business analysts. They can be further classified as:
Problem-solving
The main job of a business analyst is to deal with problems and recommend appropriate solutions. You would be given tasks related to handling the minor issues in the project. At such times, recognizing and understanding the problem is a necessary step towards finding an answer. In this, you need to first identify the scope and limitations of the problem in hand, analyze the possible solutions and then give your suggestions. To develop this vital skill, try practicing ‘why’ to get to the root of every issue, and then think of probable solutions.
Communication
As this profile is of a mediator between different departments, you will be constantly communicating with inter-cross departments. So, for this you need to demonstrate excellent written and verbal communication skills. To be successful in this role, you should be able to express the thoughts effectively and be a keen listener. This includes various modes of communication like email, fax, or phone calls. But you have to ensure the message to be conveyed is delivered to the right person in an articulate manner.
Management Skills
A business analyst is often involved with various departments and has to juggle daily tasks and resources to ensure smooth procedures. This includes understanding client requirements and documenting them, attending team meetings, performing adhoc tasks, and managing the projects as a whole. So, you need to have an ability to manage all these activities.
Research
Even if most employers might not specifically mention this one, it is imperative that you have good researching skills. This helps in understanding the core problem, get insights into existing issues, define approaches, and derive effective resolution. Having excellent research skills help in applying different perspectives towards an issue and think wisely.
Technical Skills
Even if a BA is mainly involved with business department in an organization, you need to have a basic understanding of the computing knowledge.
IT Knowledge
When you would be working in this position, it is given that you will not be expected to write down lines of codes for a software project. However, it will be expected that you are efficient in handling MS Office Suite, working with all types of O.S., knowledgeable about programming language concepts, and skilled in testing database. Since this role is a bridge between the development team and business department, you must have a good grasp on both.
Project life cycle knowledge
Whether it’s a software company or a manufacturing firm, every project is developed by following a method. Gaining a deep understanding of the project development life cycle enables you to know what is expected. As a result, you will be in a better position to perform business requirement analysis, and other associated activities. For instance, when you scrutinize a project with different questions like ‘why it is being developed’, ‘who is going to benefit’, ‘what output is generated’, it will give a better understanding of the project, and even enhance your contribution in it.
Domain Knowledge
As the BAs are required in various fields, it is difficult to keep a comprehensive knowledge of all the domains. Once you have decided a specific domain you would like to work for, try to accumulate all information related to it. The simplest way to do this is by interacting with people who are already working in it. It will help you understand projects, and brush up any related concepts.
Business Analysis Skills
Along with the above mentioned skills, a BA must have the following skills:
Requirement Elicitation
It is necessary that a business analyst understands what exactly are the stakeholders’ or client’s expectations. This helps in delivering quality projects and ensuring long-term relationships with the clients. To collect and document business requirements, you have to resort to various techniques like brainstorming, thinking out-of-the-box ideas, and initiating discussions. In addition to this, making minute observation and considering multiple scenarios will help you avoid the loopholes in requirement gathering stage, thus avoiding complicated phases later.
Documentation
Once the requirements have been identified, a proper documentation must be created. Therefore, it is necessary that an aspiring BA must have documentation skills. It will be helpful while creating use cases, business requirement document and sequence diagrams for the project. Furthermore, a BA has to take care that the documents created are accurate, complete, and maintained confidentially during the entire project development process.
Decision-Making
When you are employed in this role, you will obviously come across many critical situations or would have to work in a tense atmosphere. To ensure the work remains unaffected, you will have to take appropriate decisions. As you will be working with different departments, you would have to take decisions concerning the changes, project scope, feasibility of the solution, or even take managerial decisions with respect to the clients. To do this, business acumen and decisiveness are must.
Creativity
This is a must-have skill for a business analyst as it aids in thinking out-of-the-box, and deriving innovative solutions for the problems. You might have to make use of white boards for drawing the charts and graphs and explain them to the project manager or the client. It would prove helpful in putting a different perspective to the problem in hand as well as give a unique solution for the same.
Analytical Skills
When you are applying for this role, it is essential that you have analytical skills. This includes understanding the problem, investigating it, using a logical and inquisitive approach to get feasible solutions.
Business analysts not only collaborate with various departments, but also are the driving factors of the company’s projects. With the work flow undergoing major transformations, and almost every sector hiring these professionals, the number of openings are only expected to rise. In order to be a successful BA, you need to first develop expertise in documentation, process enforcement, communication, and business process knowledge. So, if you want to make a flourishing career in this profile, make sure you have ample knowledge of business process, and proficiency to redefine processes.
