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Tag: agile business analyst course

Difference Between Data Analyst and Business Analyst

Posted on by Imarticus Learning

Data Science is crucial in today’s modern world where AI, ML, VR, AR and CS rule. These sectors are where most career aspirants are seeking to make their careers because of the ever-increasing demand for professionals and the fact that with an increase in data and development of these core sectors, there are plentiful opportunities to land the well-paid jobs.
In the earlier days, data scientists were obscure and restricted in the IT server rooms and department. Today they are the blue-eyed boys in the business world. According to Indeed.com analysis reports, a 4,000 % was reported in this profession. This then justifies why the demand for a trained Data Analyst with domain expertise, mathematical and data engineering skills (who are considered invaluable organizational assets), has been inordinately high. Supply positions are never catching up and their pay packages have seen many a career aspirant’s dreams fulfilled.
An analyst is a specialist in data analysis processing both facts and figures to gauge trends, get gainful insights and make forecasts using predictive analysis. Most people tend to use the two terms business analyst and data analyst interchangeably. Though this can be applied in terms of smaller businesses the “business analyst” in larger enterprises actually covers both systems and data analysis. The scope of the BA is not limited to being only a data analyst but appropriates roles of a data scientist too. What both the analyst and BA do with the data is entirely different and their job skills, the environment of operation and technical skills will definitely differ.

The Role Differences:

The two roles are at NEVER interchangeable in job-roles, and they definitely aren’t the same in terms of career progression, job-scope, payouts, and skills required for the job among other differentiators. The business analyst is definitely better paid since his role demands more and his skills are relatively wider than that of a Data Analyst. To get a better understanding of the job differentiators one needs to look at the job roles of the scientist, analyst and BA.

Data Analyst Role

To manage such large volumes of data and extract information from such data sourced from multiple origins the data analyst is a necessity and a good analyst is a prized corporate asset. Their role in the enterprise is to sift through the data and provide the information, forecasts, predictions and such to the decision makers. The evolution of business strategy and informed decisions is thus dependent on data and the data analyst.

Business Analyst Role

The BA and data analyst roles focus on the use of data in focused roles. The BA assesses data and system infrastructure requirements from a business-perspective. The data analyst, on the other hand, takes interest in the databases and is more focused on placing his insights in the hands of decision makers.
Data analysts are generalists who score over the BA and can tackle more data analysis problems since they have the multi-disciplinary technical skills that include engineering skills of a database engineer, deal with algorithms using the skills of a statistician and have expertise in the data domain/subject matter proficiencies of the data analyst. They focus on insights for business decision making. The BA in addition to being a data analyst also includes focused analysis related decision making on data, systems and infrastructure in decision making.

Skills Required

It is true that a Data Analyst collects databases, manipulates them for foresight and analyzes data for predictions. His presentations, reports, and insights often comprise the latest trends, visualization of the data, and foresight in the form of charts, tables, graphs, histograms and more.
All data jobs need strong business acumen and domain expertise. The technical skills and the level of influence on the organization’s performance mean a good analyst/BA will find the right solution with the most value to the business problems presented.
Mere technical skills and degrees are not enough. Both streams aspirants need to be excellent communicators with the data scientist and analyst who have a problem-solving attitude and can lead from the front. Soft-skills are very important in all teams.
Both data, as well as BAs roles, calls for problem-solving attitude and technical expertise in SAP, PeopleSoft applications and Microsoft Excel suite. The formal educational credential is graduation or business-related degree. An MBA is a plus point.
Becoming a specialized Data Analyst at the reputed Imarticus Learning helps start careers such as business analyst, data scientists, and data analysts. The certification issued at Imarticus is globally accepted as an index of your knowledge and practical skills. So, don’t toss a coin to decide. Explore your career with an Imarticus Business Analyst Course. All the best!

Also Read: Difference Between Business Analyst & Business System Analyst

Rethinking the Role of Business Analyst

Posted on by Imarticus Learning

The Business Analyst can be found in most enterprises and their job roles can be classified under the heads of

  •  Requirements analysts
  • Systems analysts
  • Business analysts
  • Business system analysts

Good BAs are people-persons with excellent business domain understanding and include proficiency in interviewing, (JAD), modeling sessions, and model reviews.

The Need for Business analyst

The three oft heard justifications in traditional organizations for hiring a Business Analyst are not justifiable.

  • Developers fail in eliciting requirements because of poor modelling and communication skills required for this. This is remediable through training.
  • Stakeholders cannot document and model their requirements. Again training stakeholders using the right techniques and tools can help them do most of the work with a little help and guidance.
  • One need’s expert analysis. This is right and does not imply you need a BA to do just that. Agile BAs may not be good at all aspects of the job and analysis may be one of them.

Role of the Business Analyst

Business analyst on a traditional software development project will perform one or more of the following activities:

  • System scoping
  • Translates needs of the business
  • Technical issues translation
  • Document and model
  • Be the broker for communications
  • Be a political mentor
  • Validation and testing
  •  Stakeholder representation

Common Issues For Business Analyst

Some of the common Business Analyst problems that occur are mentioned below.

  • Lack of the right skills.
  • BAs may influence the project.
  • Outdated BAs.
  • BAs may become communication hurdles.
  • BAs may reduce the influence of stakeholders.
  • BAs over analyze.
  • BAs reduce feedback.
  • BAs reduce developer opportunity for communication skills.

Rethinking for Agile Analysts

Agility is to ensure that the processes and development are done in iterative items on a product backlog where the sprint and responsibilities of delivery of products devolve on the team. That means trouble as there is conflict in the BAs role and team activity.
Hence the following methodologies based on Agile practices were evolved to help to scale Agile in the organization.

  • One room methodology – Developers and Stakeholders are Co-Located
  • Over the wall methodology- Not Co-Located but Single Location
  • Across the network methodology- Dispersed/Distributed Development

Business analyst as Product Owner and the role of the Business analyst in scaling Agile cannot be discounted and are Agile measures to empower the new BAs rather than stick with traditional roles. This should be encouraged just because Agile in order to scale needs the removal of all hurdles and the spread of Agile thinking across every employee in the organization. This, of course, involves the Business analyst and gives them a chance to transform into Agile roles of being stakeholders in the process.

Though it would be impossible to discuss the topic in great detail, suffice to say that rethinking the Agile BAs role is a necessity in large organizations and cross-functional teams. So how would one understand better the benefits of Agility? The answer lies in Agile training and implementation from the grassroots levels. Doing an Agile course with a reputed and accredited training partner like Imarticus would bring in more than one benefit.

Benefits of Doing Business Analyst Course

  • You get trained in a very short time period.
  • Practical skills in the latest technology are enhanced through project work, assignments etc keeping your sports vertical in mind.
  • They have sufficient assignments, tests, hands-on practice and boot-camps to help you revise and learn the tough subjects.
  • They have a variety of subjects like ML, AI, finance, fintech etc in which they offer certification.
  • They use certified instructors and mentors drawn from the industry.
  • They integrate resume writing, personality development, mock interviews and soft-skill development modules in the course.
  • They have convenient modes and timings to learn at your own pace and online for professionals and in the classroom mode for sports analytics career aspirants.
  • They offer assured placements too!

Concluding thoughts:

An experienced Business Analyst will find it hard to settle into Agile teams because they have issues with over-modelling and over-specifying. To be effective members in Agile, they need to rethink, be collaborative, flexible and disciplined. This takes effort and time.
The easiest way is to do an Agile specialist course at Imarticus Learning where one can get acclimatized through industry-relevant assignments and project work.
Become a specialized BA today!

How Do I Get Agile Certification

Posted on by Imarticus Learning

Today being Agile is the practice that businesses tend to follow to improve their efficiency and productivity. If you want to thrive in an Agile world then you must have practical knowledge of being Agile, work experience and certain foundations in the right kind of Agile concepts. These practices are best learnt at a number of different educational and training institutions like Imarticus Learning. So let’s get you started off in learning and attaining the certification.

Why Agile Certifications Are So essential

With the rapid pace at which technology and data have evolved in the last decade, organizations have had to find newer practices in management too. Cross-functional teams and Agile practice too have made a mark in domains like Service Management, Project Management and such.
Whether you wish to make a career, switching jobs or aspiring for a promotion, organizations want to know before recruiting that the aspirant has sufficient experience and certification in agile practice. This is where they need a measurable validation of your Agile experience and Agile Certification from a reputed institution provides them with exactly this information.
Certifications besides being a goal achieved can also provide you with a number of other benefits like
• Builds your confidence and adds to your resume.
• Visibility in a pool of aspirants in the job market.
• Salaries that are probably better and account for a better experience in Agile practice.
• Credibility that you know, implement and practice the techniques of Agile frameworks.
• Match market and technological trends that are current and in demand.
Thus from the above diagram, you will see that certification in Agile is a right career step that can enhance your resume, build your confidence and help with landing those jobs with the best payouts.

Best Agile Certifications

The Agile domain is not a single technology or certification. Rather it speaks about the concepts of such practices within and on an Agile framework. Hence you can choose the right certification depending on the size of the organization, its needs, technology and culture.
To leverage your ROI you can use the above diagram to choose the right certification for you. While Scrum is really the most popular Agile platform we can briefly look at all of them to help you decide the best. Obviously, you will spend money, time and effort in gaining these certifications. Hence a bit of research does help.
1. PMI-ACP or PMI’s Agile Certified Practitioner.
Offered by the Project Management Institute this certification is best for Project Managers. It helps you understand the basic concepts of Agile methodologies, LEAN, KANBAN and SCRUM among others while endorsing your measurable skills in them. You will need work experience or 30 PDUs considered equivalent to having the appropriate training and experience required for certification annually to renew the certification. Regular practice of your learning is the key practice in Agile.
2. CSPO/CSM/ CSD/CSP from Scrum Alliance.
Agile projects run well with the Scrum framework of management practices. Scrum is popular for software projects and offers certifications as a developer, scrum master or product owner. The training for this certification lasts 2 days for the CSPO and CSM certifications and 5 days for the CSD programs. This certification is an advanced and professionally-oriented certification that demonstrates proficiency in Scrum concepts, procedures, roles, artifacts and practices. The CSP certification can be directly attempted.
3. PSM/PSPO/PSD from Scrum.org:
These three-levelled professional certifications are certifications that are considered more difficult to attain and rely on passing the exams. However, the exams itself thoroughly check practical applications of scrum practices on the Agile platform and may require real-world experience and learning to implement. Course training is not mandatory but preferred for the PDUs they earn and assistance in industry-related situations and mentorship.
4. SAFe/ Scaled Agilist
The 2-day certification training is mandated and certification will need a minimum of 5-experience years in software testing, business analysis, development, project management, and practice of scrum techniques. Learn to launch SAFe in an agile environment and practice techniques in leadership using Lean-Agile principles for continuous value-added releases of software and improving productivity. Cash in on the many companies to transition teams as an Agilist or Coach.
Parting notes:
Agile Certification is essential to launch agile careers and for professional growth bring with them many career and financial benefits. Choosing the right training partner is half the battle won. Try Imarticus Learning for an Agile experience with benefits like assured placements, reasonable fees, certified mentors and instructors and many more. Hurry!

How do You Become a Business Analyst?

Posted on by Imarticus Learning

Sawan Arora, a student of the online Agile Business Analyst & Scrum certification course talks about his experience at Imarticus.
We caught up for a chat with Sawan Arora, a student of the online Agile Business Analyst & Scrum certification course. Here’s what he has to say about the program.
Hi, my name is Sawan Arora, and I have recently completed the Agile Business Analyst & Scrum Prodegree at Imarticus Learning. The course curriculum is excellent and includes business analysis, agile & scrum, project management, and additionally, you get access to a lot of SAP instructional videos.
Initially, I was a bit nervous about joining an online Agile & Scrum certification course because I was not sure how it would be in comparison to a classroom training program. But as soon as the course began, and I attended the sessions, it turned out to be a smart decision, and it was a significant step towards my career goals.
The faculty at Imarticus is definitely at par; no exceeds industry standards. The knowledge level they have and their skills are excellent. I was trained by Mr. Mukhraj Saberwal, who has over 18 years of experience. His lectures were terrific, and all his sessions were very interactive. The entire class would interact with him extensively, and there were a lot of queries and doubts that we used to pass on to him.
It was just like we were in a classroom training program because whenever we asked any questions, he was prompt in his response.
There is a lot of good content to learn and knowledge to gain during these 160 hours of training, and you get access to an LMS portal from Imarticus that has all of the learning material on it. You can access it anytime, anywhere as long as you have a decent internet connection. LMS was an essential aspect of the learning journey.
On completion of the program, you get 35 PDU’s from IIBA, and that makes you eligible for the CCBA or ECBA exams if you have the required experience. The course in all really helps you know the skills a business analyst should have – you get a good exposure of agile and scrum methodologies, and hands-on knowledge of project management.
So, no matter if you are an experienced professional or a fresher, if you want to learn business analysis, I would highly recommend you join Imarticus Learning.
Not to forget, you also receive access to Imarticus Learning’s placement portal where you can find a job on completion of the course.
Do you want to kickstart your career as an Agile Business Analyst or Scrum Master? Click here and inquire about the program now.

Refine Your Product Backlog Continuously to Improve Flow

Posted on by Imarticus Learning

 

As you might already know, product Backlog is simply a list of everything you have to do to complete your project. It helps you find all your requirements for the product at a single source. This article discusses how we can improve the product flow by continuously refining your product backlog.

The Refinement Process

We can improve our product flow by merely comparing the estimates using time-dependent sizing. But, most of the product backlog items (PBI) won’t be clear enough for such an analysis.

One strategy to approach this issue of poorly PBIs is to spend more time on it and refine them as you go. This process will take time, but the total time taken for the project will be significantly reduced. It also leads you towards better reliability and velocity.

In the early days of Scrum, the sprint begins with a time-boxed planning meeting. Such planning meetings would usually go long and frustrate the team members attempting to estimate PBIs. The results were overly vague product backlogs. To eliminate this issue, the Scrum guide now specifies that along with the planning meeting, a continuous refinement process should take place. 

Benefits of Continuous Refinement

This refinement process involves estimation and addition of details to the PBI. By doing it continuously, the team will be able to deliver more consistent and improve the quality of their job. It can also reduce the duration of the planning meeting at the start of the sprint. The regular refinement process allows the team to deal with the estimation process in small pieces.  By improving the productivity of the team, the refinement improves the product flow. 

However, the refinement process will not solve all the difficulties. You still have to discover alternatives and problems during the implementation. But with the Refinement process, the questions will be smaller and much easier to find an answer. 

How to Carry Out Refinement?

The major challenge in implementing this practice is to have a refinement process that doesn’t tie up the whole team in meetings. The solution suggested by the Scrum Guide is to limit the refinement to 10 percent of the team capacity. In that way, we can complete the refinement of a 4-week sprint in 2 days. The refinement meetings should be short and time-boxed, and the number of backlog items covered in each session shouldn’t be the main focus. In most scenarios, the longer refinement process will result in a shorter planning meeting. 

In ideal cases, all team members are supposed to be a part of the refinement conversations. Dividing the team excessively will result in missing out important questions and insights. Also, be sure to have an estimation of every backlog item you cover at the end of each session.

Agile planning is all about striking a perfect balance between precision and accuracy. So, your backlog doesn’t need to be consisting of the full specification of every item. Although, it is important to have in-depth knowledge about each of them. Spending little more time of ensuring that everyone in your team really understands the backlog will help you deliver more value in a shorter time period.

Management Theory: Managing Organizational Design and Change

Posted on by Imarticus Learning

Design and change are highly interchangeable when it concerns the daily processes of any organization, and the process can be elaborated by looking at the inherent methodologies that concern both these subjects. Change is continual; it does not stop, and business processes change the condition and equilibrium of a particular organization status in the market even to the slightest extent. Designing begets change, which upon further consideration can be stated like this: “Warranted change can only happen after a particular organizational design is consolidated, implemented and upgraded as time passes on.” In this article, we shall take an in-depth look at both of these phenomena and shall discuss in detail appropriate strategic management as well as change management.

Organizational design

Design is actually a step-by-step methodology whereby any accomplished business analyst can recognize and take stock about the certain dysfunctional elements within an organization like workflow, structure, system, and procedure, is redesigned and re-implemented so as to perfectly fit with the current goals of the organization in order to develop new strategies that can implement change in an appropriate and effective fashion. This initiation, deployment and developing new strategies often take place on the two key aspects of any business: technical and people.
Perfect strategy management would intrinsically link the two in a common thread resulting in an unparalleled success and prosperity for the business in question whilst also touching and improving every other aspect that has an effect on the well-being and state of the organization, including increased profitability, reduced costs, improved efficiency and cycle time amongst many other miscellaneous factors. The end goal of any business should, however, be to potentially increase the scope and growth of the business in question. In effect, businesses generally look to incorporate people to the individual sections of the core business processes, systems, and technology. This is a key concept of proper strategic management as without the workforce there wouldn’t be any chance to make the company work under any number of possible conditions whatsoever.
However, business designs are subjected to change on a much more frequent basis than anyone might presume under normal circumstances. As the status, scale and scope of a particular business grow over time, there are a plethora of challenges, which would have to be determined and resolved in an effective way so that the digression of the business is avoided under any possible circumstance. Amongst such a state of affairs, it would become extremely hard for any company to effectively make use of the basic tenets or steps that effectively teaches how to properly design the current state of the organization properly. This methodology is uniformly taught across all forms of business analyst course, and its steps have been enlisted below:

  • Chartering the design process
  • Assessing the current state of the business
  • Designing the new organization
  • Implementing the design effectivelyAgile Business Analysis Course

Organizational change

On the other side of the spectrum, there is change management, which effectively takes stock about the state of the company from a wide variety of aspects and divisions, and manipulating them in some fashion or other in order to intrinsically favor the interests of the organization in question. For business analysts, this application and determination process might seem a little bit tricky, but the main cornerstone of any change management strategy is based on the intrinsic human nature includes the process and preparedness of human beings to adapt to the changes happening around them. Strategies can be developed either for the purpose or because of implementing a certain instance of change in the organization.
This organizational change is important for the interests of a particular business, especially in the long run. As such, such implementation of change often runs with a veritable target in achieving the most optimum state one may effectively get through the correct implementation of the change in the context of the organization itself.
Change management, in this particular case, is actually ideal for application, especially in a variable business environment, such as a response to a disaster level problem with respect to the state of the organization in question, or is actively brought about by a wrinkle happening in the environmental factors around the organization itself. Essentially, successful organizational change is not just a fluke incident, but it requires very advanced and complex understanding of management techniques and models, most of which are generally covered in business analyst courses. As many management experts will proclaim, a change in guard within the management of a particular company also invokes a significant amount and extent of change in and of itself.
Management studies often describe this phenomenon as being a state of transition between the current and future one, to which the state of the company is being directed effectively. It has been observed quite distinctly through many change management instances and studies that the aforementioned “transition” may take place if there happens to be any kind of shift both in the internal and external contexts of the organization in question. As such, change is always happening and continuing because every other aspect that might influence a particular business entity always are subjected to transformation in some shape or form.
Business analysts often debate and discuss about these factors that may influence a particular industry or organization; their job is to essentially understand the state of the market at large as well as the internal state of the organization in order to keep proper track of a change that is just beyond the horizon of occurrence, and develop an abstract design in order for the same business to effectively counter and adapt against.

Is The Key To Agile Leadership Simply Doing Stuff?

Posted on by Imarticus Learning

Doing activities in an agile ecosystem may just be the secret tip to a successful leadership within an organisation.
Today, organisations are growing at a rapid pace and are quick to pursue a digital solution for a problem. Initially, companies faced a bit of a challenge to transform into an agile business as the world around them was changing at an exponential rate due to technological advancements. We have now moved into a realm of agile abundance where companies are harnessing the power of technology to grow. For instance, traditionally CEO and CFO roles were occupied by marketing and finance majors, whereas now we see these positions occupied by a professional with a technology background.
Agile practice entered the IT industry nearly two decades ago, and today it is also referred to for a style of leadership which is nimble and quick. Lately, there has been a lot of focus on driving agility through innovation and creativity, and this is an important consideration for individuals and organisations which want to chase an agile ecosystem. Agile business training maybe the need of the hour today.
In order to be competent organisations can undergo an agile business analyst course which has these key factors

Network of Teams

Agile leadership encourages abundance and leveraging what is already existing within the organisation. Teams are trained in agile programs such as SCRUM, DSDM and lean development which gives them the capabilities to scale up for growth within the organisations. Teams collaborate and work together in a sprint approach to achieve the desired result.

Continuous Learning

One of the key facets of an agile business is the ability to learn and implement solutions in an environment that is dynamic and ever changing. Making iterations as you go along a problem is an attribute of agile leadership.

Entrepreneurship

Individuals within an agile ecosystem take ownership of the processes to provide end to end solutions. The integral part of this model is to also come up with fresh, innovative solutions which can meet the customer’s needs and provide value.

Embrace Flexibility

One of the key attributes of agile methodology is the ability to work in a flexible manner on any given problem. In a business ecosystem, one should be able to strategy in a flexible manner in order to enhance performance.

Empathy and Ability to Take Feedback

An often underrated trait, agile leaders also need to focus on being empathetic and understanding the needs of others. In an agile world, feedback comes continuous, and individuals who wish to pursue an agile career need to be attuned to taking feedback positively and implement actions decisively.
Conclusion
In order to implement successful agile methods, organisations have to evolve in their digital transformation journey. Teams must actively participate in the change to see overall growth and performance.
Reference
https://www.forbes.com/sites/mattballantine/2018/10/30/is-the-key-to-agile-leadership-simply-doing-stuff/#6729a85e6796
https://www.forbes.com/sites/forbescoachescouncil/2018/06/29/what-does-it-mean-to-be-an-agile-leader/#573f613c4db4