Education can only help you gain entry into an organization, rest all is hard work. So, business analysts training is that education, a solid proof of your skills which can essentially get you a berth in a company. But is a formal training mandatory to become a business analyst? Perhaps not. Then what are the must-have skills for a person to become a BA?
Per definition, a business analyst is a person who bridges the gap between the business problem and its solution. He is the communicator between the stakeholder who might or might not be technically literate and the technical solution which is based on a lot of analysis of data.
Who is a Business Analyst?
Many times, the role of business analysts are stark different from one another. Sometimes, the employers look for an MBA degree based on the requirement. However, for a techno-functional business analyst, they look for coding knowledge. On a positive note, the BA training and internship can remove the hurdles and facilitate the path to reach your goal.
However, the following the common activities of a BA on a day-to-day basis:
- A typical IT Business Analyst is the person who gathers information from the client about the requirement. Let’s say a client requires a business to build an internal communication system. It is the job of the business analyst to gather the entire requirement concerning the system.
Questions like-
What does the client want from the internal communication system?
Who and when can the users access the system?
Can they communicate when they are within the company premises or can they log in to the system from outside?
At times, the business analyst will have to guide the client in the right direction to get the maximum information as they themselves need to be aware of what they want.
- Next, the business analyst creates a requirement document and shares it with the client for confirmation. This ensures that both the development team and the client are on the same page.
- The BA will then create a low-level document for the benefit of the development team. This is the part where the business analyst acts as a bridge between the consumer and the development team.
- At times, the BA might also get involved in performing the pre-acceptance testing just to make sure that all the product specifications meet the requirement.
- Last, but most importantly, the business analyst also acts as a product owner and holds the capacity to make decisions as far as the product is concerned based on the requirement.
Is Business analysts’ training enough to become a BA?
As already mentioned in the earlier section, training is the surest way to get placed as a business analyst. However, there are other qualifications also, which the potential employers might be looking for.
How to become a business analyst?
There are certain prerequisites which qualify you for the role with or without the formal training:
Ability to perform a good analysis of the client’s requirement.
It’s is a common perception that the testers can grow to become business analysts as they have the ability to think in multiple scenarios to catch the bugs. However, a good business analyst is the one who can analyze the requirement under a magnifying glass.
Never assume – Don’t be afraid to ask Why.
The business analyst’s primary responsibility is to communicate the requirement to the development team. Therefore, it is quintessential to ask as many questions to the client as possible to understand the business case better.
Oral and written communication skills
These skills are imperative for a business analyst. The BA not only elicits the requirement from the client but is also required to document it, before communicating the same to the development team.
Analytical and problem-solving skills
Many times, the BA needs to act on the spur of the moment, therefore, smartness and analyzing skills are fundamental for this role.
Knowledge of UML
Business analysts are required to create use cases and sequence diagrams for explaining the process.
Domain Knowledge
Some Business Analysts enter the field with domain expertise; a few others learn it on the job. However, the point is, domain knowledge is an integral part of the role of a BA.
Conclusion:
As an endnote, we would like to add that more than BA training, hands-on experience is the key to bag the lucrative job of a BA. When in doubt, it is better to be over-prepared than underprepared. Enroll for a good internship program where you can get good exposure to the domain at the same time gain hands-on experience in performing the BA activities while working on a real-time project.
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