A Business Analyst acts as a bridge between the business stakeholders and the IT Development Team to refine processes, implement new features and make changes to the existing systems for the benefit of the business. Since the job profile involves a huge amount of communication and a great deal of analysis, the skills required for being a successful business analyst are varied and numerous.
Skills Required:
- Communication Skills:
As the primary duty of a Business Analyst is to coordinate between the stakeholders and the internal teams, written and verbal communication is of utmost importance. To be successful in this field it is crucial to put your thoughts across and at the same time understand what the other person is trying to say. - Problem Solving:
Since most of the projects a Business Analyst works on is trying to improve or refine a process or a system, problem solving skills are of utmost importance. The two parts to this skill is to define/evaluate the problem and propose necessary solutions to overcome it. - Analytic Thinking:
No organisation is without problems. The effective way to deal with a problem and come up with a solution requires a substantial amount of analysis. Hence, this skill is one of the most important skills to possess for a Business Analyst. An effective analysis ensures that the solution is optimum and meets the requirements of all the stakeholders and ultimately that of the business. - Facilitation:
The different phases of a project involves a lot of stakeholder communication for a Business Analyst. If there are multiple stakeholders, the task of facilitating a meeting with them could be difficult. This task becomes uphill when the stakeholders have busy schedules and reside in different timezones. To combat this, the Business Analyst must be an effective facilitator in leading the meetings and saving them from getting hijacked. - Negotiation:
More the number of stakeholders, more the chances of conflicts. In a project, there could be scenarios where the different stakeholder could have differences of opinions on a particular requirement. It is the task of a Business Analyst to spot these and effectively mitigate them so it does not affect the overall goal of the project. This is when the negotiation skills come in handy and result in an agreeable solution. - Domain Knowledge:
Domain knowledge is fairly a very subjective skill to possess. A Business Analyst has to deal with high level requirements that are received from various business stakeholders. These then need to be analysed and effectively elicited. Doing this effectively will require a great deal of domain knowledge in the area of business. Hence, someone who has a variety of experience and knowledge in retail businesses, will be an efficient Retail Business Analyst.
Job Description:
- Liaison with various stakeholders to gather requirements.
- Document the requirements using the Requirement Traceability matrix or any other alternate documentation.
- Analyse the requirements is to be done using the Requirement Analysis techniques like Entity Relationship diagram, Workflow Diagram, etc.
- Carry out GAP Analysis to understand the As-Is and To-Be Process.
- Analyse the scope, impact, out of scope functionalities, risks, etc and document it in form of BRD(Business Requirement Document).
- Document the requirements for the Development team in the form of Use Cases, User Stories, Flow Diagrams, Wireframes, etc.
- Liaison with the UI/UX team to make sure the UIX wireframes cover all the functional requirements.
- Answer any queries that might arise from the development team towards the requirements.
- Asist the Quality Analyst team in forming the Test Cases to test the project so it meets the requirements.
- Reconnect with the stakeholders once the project is LIVE to understand if it fulfilled the business needs.
- Document any further requirements that the stakeholder might have to make the feature more robust and beneficial.
- Budgeting and forecasting any new projects.
- Developing reports that may help the stakeholders evaluate the benefits of the implemented project.
Certifications:
The following Certifications are widely accepted and could help one break into the Business Analyst field and climb the ladder thereon:
- IIBA Entry Certificate in Business Analysis (ECBA)
- IIBA Certification of Competency in Business Analysis (CCBA)
- IIBA Certified Business Analyst Professional (CBAP)
- IIBA Agile Analysis Certification (AAC)
- IQBBA Certified Foundation Level Business Analyst (CFLBA)
- IREB Certified Professional for Requirements Engineering (CPRE)
- PMI Professional in Business Analysis (PBA)
- International Diploma in Business Analysis (BCS)
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