Skills to Become a Successful Business Analyst
on of its productivity, efficiency, and profitability, and business analysts play an important role in this task. The job of a business analyst comes with a high salary and high social status and outlook. Job opportunities for business analysts are projected to grow at a rate of 14%, which is way above average.
With the proper set of skills, you would be able to beat the market and industry standards and be successful in the competition. Let us delve deeper and take a look into the skills you require to become successful as a business analyst.
Expectations from a Business Analyst
As a business analyst, you are expected to have a wide range of skills, ranging from communication skills to being skilled with a computer. Business analysts can earn a lot from the experience and executive education programs provide the necessary certifications from the required institutions for working as an analyst.
Core Skills of a Business Analyst
There are a few skills and abilities that are fundamental and makes a business analyst good for their job. The skills required for the job are mentioned below.
Communication Skills
As a business analyst, you are expected to spend most of your time interacting with and discussing business plans and strategies with clients, users, management, and developers. To make sure your statements and messages are not misunderstood or misinterpreted, you must be extremely good at communication. Your statements and presentations should be to the point, and non-ambiguous.
Your communication and interpersonal skills would be put to test during your interview. It should show your communication proficiency in personal conversations or conference calls.
Negotiation Skills
Business analysts act as the intermediaries between various people in different positions. It is their responsibility to come to common terms for every transaction and discussion. The act of balancing the arguments for both the parties fall on the business analyst.
As a business analyst, you need to be able to come to a profitable solution for both the parties -your company and its client and make sure both remain happy.
Computer Skills
A business analyst needs to make frequent presentations and reports regarding the various aspects of the works of a company. As such, you need to be very fluent in the use of the popular Microsoft Office suite to less common packages including SharePoint, Visio, and Software Design Tools. It is important to keep yourself informed regarding new developments in the It industry, as the knowledge might come in handy. Some of the programs you might need to use often include:
- Microsoft Office programs like Access, Excel, Project, PowerPoint, Word, etc.
- SharePoint
- Software Design Tools
- SQL Queries
- Visio
Analytical Skills
As the name says, business analysts need to be able to analyze business and company conditions and strategies with proper accuracy. You would require several analytical tools for efficiently designing and implementing software processes for forecast and gap analysis. Other skills that are important to become a successful business analyst include:
- Data review
- Designing and implementing tests of processes
- Documentation
- Eliciting and specifying project requirements
- Financial planning
- Forecasting
- Gap analysis
- Problem-solving
- Process mapping/modeling
- Project Management
- Quantitative/qualitative research
- Reporting
- Risk assessment
- Statistical analysis
- Technical integration
- Validating functionality
- Visualizations
In addition to being extremely skilled in analysis and assessment, you need to be able to solve problems that might pop up in your strategies from time-to-time. Every project is solving a particular problem, and business analysts need to be able to think and outline the possible ways to solve these problems.
How to Stand Out Among Your Peers
Before you apply for any job interview or any position in a particular company or organization, it is very necessary to make sure that you present yourself as someone out of the ordinary. Your resume and interview must leave a mark after you leave the room.
Here are a few pointers for making your resume stand out:
- Adding relevant skills to your resume impresses the hiring personnel. Make sure that your resume contains a summary of all your relevant past experiences and job history. Explaining your experience and expertise would work wonders with the employers and hiring personnel.
- Your cover letter should contain concise yet precise details of your skills for the job. This ensures that you would be given a higher preference during the interview as compared to the many who did not prepare a satisfactory cover letter.
- You should take care to highlight and point out your skills during your interview. Explain your achievements and past experiences to your interviewers. Communicating well is sure to impress anyone on the other
