Business Analyst - IT

Business Analyst Job Description :

- In the enterprise and IT sector, Business Analysis has emerged as a core business practice. Business Analysis refers to understanding the changing business needs, evaluating the impact of these changes, identifying and analysing requirements, and documenting and facilitating communication among all the stakeholders involved.

- They contribute actively to an organisation's profitability and sustainability. Business Analysts guide organisations to improve their process and quality of products and services.

Important Roles and Responsibilities include:

- Evaluating business processes, predicting requirements, designing and implementing solutions

- Staying updated on the latest technologies to automate processes and improve efficiency

- Analysing business processes and communicating feedback to other team members and management

- Budgeting and forecasting

- Planning and monitoring projects with regular check on requirements

- Responsible for pricing

- Conducting detailed market research and competitive analysis

- Regular Reporting and Analysis

- Managing competing resources and priorities with regular check on delivarbales

- End to end project management

- Leading and managing teams

- Business Analyst Skills

- Just like any other job role, it is crucial to possess certain skills to become a business analyst. Both technical skills and business skills are equally important and have been listed below for your reference. Business analysts are not limited to any particular department, but they work with multiple departments.

- The business analysts' work ranges from IT, operations, and executives. When their work ranges to each department, these business analysts have a variety of responsibilities, and for this, they would require a diverse set of skills.

- According to Great Learning business analytics experts and faculty, some of the top business analyst skills required are:

- Analytical Problem Solving capabilities

- Interpersonal and consultative skills

- Oral and written communication proficiency

- Creative Outlook

- Basic software knowledge and skills

- Basic programing language knowledge

- Understanding of Databases and Networks

- Industry knowledge

- Business structure understanding

- Knowledge of Relevant Tools, e.g.:BluePrint

- Stakeholder Analysis

- Cost-Benefit Analysis

- Requirements Engineering

- Process Modeling

- These Technical Skills should have in the candidate for Business Analysts Job

- Before we start with the technical skills, we should first know why technical skills are essential for business analysts. The fundamental reason behind the importance of technical skills of business analysts is that they provide the tools to the organization that helps identify and address all the issues and find the solution of these solutions.

- These business analysts help to improve the processes for the departments and organizations by analyzing the existing policies and the existing systems and making required and necessary recommendations for the benefits of organizations. They help to enhance efficiency and reduce expenditure. If business analysts have the technical knowledge and are proficient in these skills, then business analysts can do these tasks quickly and with more accuracy.

Basic Skills For Business Analysts :

- The most basic technical skill that every business analyst should possess. The business analyst should have deep knowledge of these applications used in offices. Some of these applications are as follows-

- Microsoft word (word processing).

- Spreadsheets.

- Powerpoint presentations.

- Charts.

- Diagrams.

- Email.

- Knowledge Of Common Operating Systems

- When you are into the profession of business analysts, then you should have a clear understanding of various functionalities and the capabilities of the operating systems that are most commonly used.

- Knowledge Of Software Testing Skills

- Software testing is sometimes part of the job of a business analyst. Due to this, business analysts should clearly understand different methodologies to test software. They should also know the benefits and drawbacks of different testing methods. Apart from all this, they should also know the best testing type for the software. For testing the software, the business analyst should have some basic knowledge, and they are as follows:

- Test cases

- Manual testing

- Test scripts

- Automated tests

Knowledge Of Programming Languages :

The job of business analysts is not to sit and write the code, and they are not required for that. But still, it is mandatory that they should possess a basic knowledge of programming languages such as Java, C++, PHP, Python, and Visual Basic. The programming knowledge is mandatory for business analysts at the primary level only because with this knowledge, they will be able to help the company identify the problems and find out the perfect solution for it or develop the solution for the identified problem. If the business analysts are skilled with programming languages, they can prove assets for the company.

Knowledge Of Using Database:

The business analyst should have a clean hand in the database. They should know how to compile and manipulate data, and to perform these functions, one should have a deep knowledge of databases and the types of databases. The knowledge that a business analyst should have regarding database are as follows:

- They should know about relational databases such as SQL Server, Oracle, and MySQL.

- They should also know about non-relational databases such as stores of key volumes, document stores, and wide column stores.

- They should have knowledge of cloud databases.

- They should have knowledge of real-time databases.

- Should Possess Problem-Solving Skills

- One of the most important skills that a business analyst should possess is problem-solving skills. The problem-solving task comes under the most significant duties that business analysts perform. There are several steps in problem-solving. The first step is to evaluate the problems from each and every perspective. The second step is to determine the benefits and the drawbacks of the given various solutions. The last and final step is to predict the outcomes.

Should Have Good Communication Skills:

- The role of business analysts is to work in different departments. They have to work with various professionals of those various departments so that they can develop or find out the best solution for the company. They often bridge the technical professionals and the laypersons who don't have any knowledge. Business analysts are supposed to communicate the complex concepts and solutions in a very simple language or in a very easy way so that they can be understood. Most of the time, during an interview of business analysts, the recruiters observe employees and report their recommendations to the management based upon the communication skills of a business analyst.

Should Have Good Research Skills :

- Business analysts should also possess the skills of research. With the help of research skills, one can explore the challenges and find the cause of any problem. If business analysts have research skills, then they can perform various tasks, and they are as follows-

- They will be able to ask the right questions.

- They will be able to gather all the relevant information from the appropriate sources.

- They will be able to develop a hypothesis.

- They will be able to write comprehensive reports.

- Should Have Knowledge Of Software Development Methods

- A business analyst should also have a basic knowledge of the different development methods of software. Some of the methodologies are as follows-

The Agile development.

- The DevOps deployment.

- The Waterfall development.

- The Rapid application development.

- Should Have Good Documentation Skills

- When it comes to documenting a report, it should include their data and their findings on that data. The role of business analysts is the major role as they have to find out the most appropriate ways for documentation.

There are different types of documentation, and they are as follows:

- The System documentation.

- The User documentation.

- The Process documentation.

- The Source code documentation.

- How To Improve Your Technical Skills

There are some ways through which you can improve your technical skills and they are as follows:

- You should learn additional IT skills.

- You should practice your communication skills.

- You should apply your research skills.

- You should work on your software development knowledge and improve it.

- You should review various documentation materials for future use.