Top 5 Skills for Business Analysts – You Should Be Aware Of!

Careers in business analysis have shown excellent success rates and this is probably why a lot of aspirants in the job market aim to be business analysts. However, for those who want to excel in this career field, a quick summary of the top skills needed to be one would be helpful.

 5 Skills Required for a Successful Business Analyst

  1. Problem Solving Skills: For a business analyst, each project offers different issues and problems that require quick, long-term solutions. So, a business analyst must be able to learn about a problem, analyse the available solutions and then recommend the best option. They must be able to look at a problem from multiple perspectives within the business – that of a technical expert and the end-user. A business analyst training courses must be able to work in a collaborative problem-solving environment where continuous discussion with technical team is possible and solutions that are technically viable are discovered.
  1. Communication Skills: For a typical IT analyst, modes of communications include meetings, discussions, emails, documents, charts and many other. In all these modes, a BA must be able to be concise and clear. The communication of a business analyst is not always about getting their points across but also about understanding what others have to offer. So, patient listening, communicating adequately are key skills an analyst must possess.
  1. Management Skills: A business analyst has to juggle several activities in each day and he or she should be able to manage all these activities effectively. These activities include gathering requirements, documentation of requirements, getting sign-offs, testing, ad-hoc tasks and managing the project as a whole. Balancing all these tasks is a crucial requirement for an analyst or a vicious circle of deadlines will be all around them.
  1. Technical Skills: Even though a business analyst is not required to write codes for the project, some basic knowledge in IT is important to succeed in this career. A business analyst is expected to act as a conduit between the technical and business departments of an organisation. To work among these departments with confidence, a working knowledge of the technology is required. MS Office Suite, Operating Systems, Testing Skills, Programming Languages, and Data Base are some areas where a business analyst is expected to have some knowledge.
  1. Analytical Skills:Being able to tackle every single problem analytically is one of the most important skills for a business analyst. That refers to understanding a problem, visualizing it, analysing it, and solving it. An investigative approach backed with logical thinking and interpretation skills are required to achieve this feat. Knowledge in various analytical techniques such as Interface Analysis, Feasibility Analysis, and SWOT Analysis is recommended.

The skills mentioned above are kept to the more important ones than other soft skills. Obviously, skills like presentation, ability to work as a team, flexibility etc. are also required for a solid career as a business analyst. If you are ready to expand your skills and keep them up to date, you will certainly find success in this fast-growing field.

Business Analysis in the Digital Age

For the last two decades, we have been staring at massive shifts in our economy. Business models that were stable for decades or centuries are at the brim of the transformation or the failure due to the digital transformation happening in the industry. This presents a large scope for business analytics training courses. Since organisations around the world have started shifting focus from the process automation to integrating new digital technologies to the business model, the relevance of BA is greater than ever before.
The Transformation to the Digital Age
What is the digital transformation? Every organisation is trying to find a definition in their own context. All these contexts can be summarized to three fundamental ones they are:

  • Customer Experience – Using technology to enhance the customer experience.
  • Operational Process – Improving the overall operation of the organisation using technology and reducing the cost.
  • Business Models – A new business model relying on technology to deliver new forms of value.

However, in all these cases technology is the common factor which drives the tide of transformation. With these changing circumstances, organisations are compelled to rethink and go creative with their business models.
How Digital Era Affects the Traditional Business Analysis
If we analyse the history of the industry, we can see that each era has presented their own tools to the business world. The industrial age presented tools like standardization, process-oriented assembly line and repeat ability. The progress made with these innovations was tremendous. For the traditional business analysis, most of these industrial age thinking is being used. The business analysts try to stick with the prescribed journeys to achieve process and efficiency. The digital era brought change to all these.
The Digital Era brings a significant increase in self-service, ubiquitous connectivity and focuses on the overall customer experience. It is the complete opposite of the traditional seller-oriented oriented business. This era places the customer at the centre, potentially with extreme customization of products, process and services. Rather than a general product, discrete experiences and emotions have become more prominent in the business.
The new hurdle for the Business Analysis is to obtain ways to connect all these disparate steps together in a way that produces what the customer wants without sacrificing the profitability of the organisation. To support this various channels of interactions are available for the business analysts. The digital tools have obtained prominent roles in interactions in the Digital Era. The integration of Social media and mobile applications to customer services have enhanced the customer experience along with the interaction channels.
The Future…
In the current state, strategic and effective business analysis is becoming a critical corporate ability. The traditional project-oriented business analysis will soon be a thing from the past. The business analysts will be required to adopt a business-oriented approach in the near future. The skill sets like process involvement, product management and lean product development will become necessary skills for an ideal business analyst. As a career opportunity, business analytics is going to be even stronger and profitable in the digital era.