A business analyst is a professional who assesses the business processes in the organization and connects various departments with the IT sector. A business analyst is responsible for the implementation of latest technologies in distinct departments and figuring out business issues and finding technical solutions for the same.
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What does a Business Analyst do?
We are looking for a business analyst to join our team. You will work together with other business analysts and report to the project manager. You will perform various tasks such as detailed requirement analysis, user acceptance testing, and documentation. You need to have an analytical approach toward problem-solving, along with a sense of leadership and teamwork.
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Business Analyst Responsibilities
- To monitor business processes and predict future requirements and/or problems
- To evaluate areas of improvement and implement technical solutions
- To analyze ongoing business processes and create optimization strategies
- To stay updated with the latest process developments and IT advancements
- To modernize and automate existing systems
- To document and report results of the tasks done
- To communicate a plan of action to the management and other teams
- To work collaboratively with clients, IT department, and managerial staff
- To gather insights from various stakeholders to produce useful reports
- To test user acceptance
- To provide training and guidance to all the clients
- To maintain cost-efficiency and resource allocation
- To handle performance monitoring and project management
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Business Analyst Requirements
- Bachelor’s degree in business, finance, or a related field or an MBA
- Minimum five years of experience in business analysis or something equivalent
- Good analytical and technical skills
- Ability to influence stakeholders and work closely with them to reach mutually acceptable solutions
- Excellent documentation skills
- Some experience in creating reports and presentations
- MS Office
- History of leadership skills with a good sense of teamwork
Different Business Analyst Profiles
The term Business Analyst is used to describe various roles such as:
- Data Analyst: Examines raw data and gives insights that help in making business decisions
- Enterprise Analyst: Identifies requirements to process and define solutions using business transformation capabilities
- Business Consultant: Analyzes various business processes and provides management consulting to increase the efficiency of the organization
- Marketing Specialist: Handles the activities underlying the entire marketing domain and takes up projects in sales marketing, product marketing, and corporate communications
- Product Manager: Analyzes various aspects of a particular product
- Requirements Manager: Is accountable for the improvement of complex systems to meet the requirements of a project or product
- System Analyst: An IT professional who analyzes, designs, and implements information systems
Business analysts are required in every sector as they play a vital role in organizational development. Since the roles and responsibilities of business analysts vary greatly with different positions, so do their salaries. To know more about business analyst salary trends, check out our blog on Business Analyst Salary in India.
Business Analyst Qualifications
To achieve the prospect of becoming a business analyst one must have a bachelor’s degree; a bachelor’s degree in business administration would be preferable. If not, one can take up courses and certifications from well-recognized universities to become a business analyst. However, a master’s degree in data science, statistics, information management, or business analytics would be advantageous for more advanced roles.
The following are some additional qualifications for a business analyst:
- Some experience working with seniors in the decision-making process
- Strong communication skills
- Analytical background
- Advanced Excel skills
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Skills Required to Become a Business Analyst
The following skills are needed to become a worthwhile business analyst:
- Advanced technical knowledge
- Exceptional analytical thinking and problem-solving ability
- High proficiency in written and oral communication
- Excellent mathematical and logical reasoning skills
- Interpersonal and consultative skills
- Expertise in Microsoft applications such as MS Word, MS Excel, and MS PowerPoint
- Ability to give presentations and make reports on the analysis done
- Thorough understanding of business structure and processes
- Facilitation skills
- Sense of leadership and maintenance of a team-oriented and collaborative environment
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Frequently Asked Interview Questions
Not sure how to prepare for an interview? Here is a list of questions asked in business analyst interviews.
1. What do you know about project deliverables?
Project deliverables are a set of measurable products and services that are delivered to the customer after the completion of the project. It is the result of the project.
2. How do you get updated about the latest business trends and technologies?
With this interview question, the recruiter wants to assess if you are motivated enough to keep up with the latest emerging business developments and trends. They also want to know what you do to keep your knowledge and skills updated.
You can quote references to various news and industry publications. You can also list the conferences you have attended to connect with the business community.
3. What is a business model?
A business model answers mandatory questions about the business and sets out a strong vision for the organization. The core components of a business model include the organization’s strength relating to target customers, the market, and the essential elements of the product and its sale.
4. What are the various techniques and methodologies you use to analyze and model the processes?
These are several techniques in business process modeling:
- Flow chart technique
- Business process modeling notation (BPMN)
- Role activity diagrams
- Data flow diagrams
- Gantt charts
- Role interaction diagrams
- Integrated definition for function modeling
- Unified modeling language diagrams
5. What are your ways to deal with a stakeholder who insists that a complex process is an ideal solution to a problem?
With these types of interview questions, the recruiter is trying to understand how you implement your various skills such as communication, negotiation, problem-solving, decision-making, influencing, and collaboration.
As a business analyst, you will deal with different people in different positions with distinct personalities. This question is crucial as it conveys whether you can successfully navigate interactions with stakeholders or not.
You can use the STAR method to explain the situation that you are dealing with and what your tasks or roles are in the case. Outline the action you will take to resolve the problem. Finally, describe the outcome and learnings of your actions.
6. What are the different tools or software systems you have used?
Name different tools and explain how they have helped you ease your work by mentioning their features. You can refer to the tools and software section for more information.
7. How would you set the priorities of requirements from different stakeholders with similar deadlines?
There are various techniques that can be followed to set up priorities if the deadlines are similar for different stakeholders. A few methods include Ranking, Grouping, MoSCoW, Bubble Sort, 100 Dollar, and Five Whys.
You can also state an example by using any of the above-mentioned methods.
Want to learn more about such questions? Have a look at our blog on Business Analyst Interview Questions with Answers!
Any professional requires tools and software to make work easier. Listed here are the top five tools used by business analysts.
Modern Requirements
Modern Requirements is the most commercial business analysis tool. It imparts collaborative requirements elicitation, definition, and analysis and explicates the needs by employing texts and images. It also supports diagramming, mockup, Smart Docs, use case, trace analysis, baselining, review management, and various elicitation tools.
Features:
- Baselining, requirements reuse, and impacts assessment
- AI-inspired BA assistant, Alice
- Three visualization types—Diagrams, mockups, and use cases
- Online document authoring in predefined templates—SmartDocs
- Supports BABOK, BABOK Agile, Scrum, Agile, CMMI, and hybrid methodologies
- Planning boards and customizable dashboards
- Customizable document generation
- Online review and approval with e-signature
- Test care automation and user story generation
Adobe Acrobat X
Adobe Acrobat X allows you to change content or images without formatting a PDF file. It enables you to edit PDF documents. This software can be used to create, secure, and distribute PDF files, and to optimize and print PDF documents for CD/DVD applications. Adobe Acrobat X helps business analysts to create reports or project artifacts to enhance productivity.
Features:
- Auto-adjustment of PDF documents while editing
- Changes are made comfortably in the document
- Autocorrect spellings and grammar
- Add or edit page content in PDF at any point
Nifty
Nifty is an award-winning workflow solution that helps you to manage projects from inception to completion. It allows you to manage projects and get organized.
Features:
- Resource management allows managers and employees to keep track of the work done by junior associates
- Custom fields enable a user-friendly customized and tailored workflow to help teams plan sprints and track budgets
- Time tracking enables you to track time spent on individual tasks
- Project overviews shows all of your milestones across all your portfolios and projects in one easy-to-use dashboard
ClickUp
ClickUp is software that enables you to manage your tasks, docs, chats, goals, etc., with ease. This application allows you to assign and resolve comments. It helps you to set priorities for work with no hassle.
Features:
- It enables you to filter and search for the desired task with ease
- It allows you to assign multiple tasks with just one click
- It allows for synchronization with Google Calendar
- It helps to collaborate with other people
- It allows you to sort tasks by project
Databox
Databox allows you to see your company’s performance with ease. It enables you to connect to your data from MySQL, AWS Redshift, and Microsoft SQL Azure.
Features:
- It allows you to create dashboards without the use of a programming language
- It enables you to build a custom query to generate a view of the company’s performance
- It enables you to visualize your performance from more than 70 integration
- It allows you to browse 200+ pre-built reports
- It easily calculate important key performance indicators (KPIs)
Conclusion
Business analyst jobs are expeditious and rewarding. From small industries to large multinationals, all hire business analysts. You can work as a business analyst irrespective of the sector of your interest. If you enjoy evaluating and analyzing data, creating solutions, working and interacting with different people, and keeping yourself updated, a career as a business analyst could be for you.
If you are looking for a job in business analysis, get yourself enrolled in one of the best online courses on business analysis from Intellipaat and get a jump-start to a rising career in this field.