Who is a Business Analyst?
Changing needs of the business is best understood by a business analysts. The impact of the changes made is also analyzed by an analyst. They build solutions for the stakeholders. Along with the analysis of business needs the requirements for the product are also extracted by the business analyst. They are also responsible to grant guidance and advice on requirements and solutions.
In fact, Business Analysts wear many hats during the day. Analysis of business needs, the definition of the business case, model requirements, solution validation, project management, development, and quality testing are performed by business analysts.
3 Steps to become the best Business Analyst
The relevant skill-set for a business analyst is not built in a day. A steady growth ladder is essential in the making of a successful business analyst.
1 – Learn what Business Analysis is
Essential skills for a business analyst include documentation skills, analysis skills, business analysis tools, knowledge of visual modeling methods, elicitation skills and many more. Search on How to become a business analyst and you will come across various resources that would aid you in achieving your goal.
2 – Identify your personal skills and hone them to suit the business analyst needs
There would definitely be qualities that uniquely identify a person. If those individual skills are converted to suit the general qualities of a business analyst then he/she can someday grow to become the best business analyst.
3 – Industry experience though small, can create magical transformations
Industry domain experience, application expertise, expertise in specific process areas, and, expertise in a broad set of functional areas can create unimaginable changes in the career.
Short-term goals to become a Business Analyst
Below given are the immediate steps to be taken by a high-school student who aspires to become a business analyst.
- Apply for an undergraduate degree in the appropriate field.
- Take additional computer courses. Technical skills are highly required for a business analyst.
- Stand out from the crowd of applicants using your certifications.
- Never miss an opportunity to gain real-world experience in the business analysis field.
- Never stop learning. An acquired skill is the best weapon you can have in this competitive world.
Business Analysis Techniques
Business Analysis Techniques are highly used in generating the best business solutions. Some of the most used business analysis techniques are given below.
1 – SWOT-Strength, Weakness, Opportunities, Threats
The four paradigms of personal or project performance can be used to predict the outcome of any business process. Strength and Weakness are considered as the internal factors whereas opportunities and threats are considered external factors. This is one of the most popular business models.
2 – MOST-Mission, Objectives, Strategy, Tactics
Here the business analysts identify what an organization does and plans to achieve the goal. The future plans of the organization are identified in the Mission phase. The methods that the organization would follow in order to achieve the mission are known as the strategy. The specified set of strategies is known as tactics of the organization.
3 – BPM-Business Process Modeling
A graphical representation of a company’s business processes or models is known as Business Process Modeling. Several representation methods such as flow-charts, data flow diagrams and more can be used to represent a business process model. This can be a very generic representation process. Business Process Modeling ensures improved efficiency, enforcement of best practices, process agility, transparency and beating the competition.
4 – Use Case Modeling
Pictorial representation of how business processes work in a proposed system through user interactions. Business requirements are transformed into functional specifications within a developmental project. Several tools such as StarUML, Microsoft Visio, IBM’s Rational Rose and more can be used.
5 – PESTLE Analysis
Political, Economical, Social, Technological, Legal, and Environmental Analysis are done in the PESTLE Analysis process. PESTLE is a simple and easy framework for business analysis. Scopes to enter into the global markets are increased globally. Questions, captures, interprets and workshops are a part of the requirement analysis process.
Roles assigned to a Business Analyst
The current market offers a huge demand for business analysts and the various roles that a business analyst can take include the following.
- Competency Manager – Improve the quality of human resource at an organization by analyzing their competencies and matching them with the goals of the organization.
- Project Manager – Plans and executes a complete project efficiently. The project manager is responsible for handling the team-work capabilities, dead-line requirements and, technical efficiency of the entire project team to deliver the product on time.
- Relationship Manager – Acts as an interface between the organization and the stakeholder. All the communication happens through the relationship manager and hence he/she holds a significant role in the organization’s transactions.
- Business Architect – Helps to develop and maintain the business capabilities of the firm with respect to the organizational strategies to meet the business goals on time.
