A business process analyst is a specialist who, at the request of a representative of a company, identifies problems in his business and gives recommendations on how to eliminate them with maximum efficiency. The responsibilities of a business analyst include presenting their ideas in the form of a clear concept and action plan: what and in what sequence the client needs to be done in order to achieve the desired result. It sounds hazy, but that’s why this position is considered so difficult to master. Any problem in business is individual and often requires non-standard approaches. In practice, what a business analyst does is competent advice on minimizing costs and increasing profits. In other words, any business analyst is an advisor and consultant, well-versed in both business and the industry that the customer is involved in.
What are the qualities and skills needed to be hired as a business analyst?
The Business Analyst must have: – excellent analytical skills, in order to master the reports from computer software and understand their meaning in terms of business, – versatility, his position leading him to think both in IT function and operational business of the company, – strong communication skills, his function leading him to interact with the various departments of the company in which he operates; he must be able to manage meetings, to produce and present summaries, to talk to people from different backgrounds.
What training and how to become a business analyst?
The Business Analyst working at the interface between IT systems and operational departments, he can come either from a technical training or from a business-oriented training (such as a Business School). University degrees at Master 2 or MBA level may also constitute an entry path into this function. You can also meet more atypical paths, with Business Analysts first having five to ten years of experience in the field in question and then capitalizing on this experience to exercise this advisory function.
Where to go after a career as a business analyst? What to do after business analyst?
The business analyst can evolve towards strategic consulting functions, by taking advantage of this first consulting experience to evolve in the sector, or on the contrary to management positions, in the IT field or in an operational direction according to his initial training (an engineer may apply for IT management positions, a graduate of a business school to operational responsibilities).
What kind of training or experience do you need?
You can get technical training or business-oriented training in areas such as computer information science or management analyst. A Master’s degrees or MBA may also constitute an entry path into well defined business analyst role. The more typical path would be to first have five to ten years of experience in the field, capitalize on this experience, and move up to senior level analyst role.
Although one can find numerous schools and universities offering degrees in business analysis, there happen to not be any official training needed to become a business analyst. Organizations and businesses depend on certifications from independent bodies to validate a candidate’s qualification.
Often, understanding a precise industry or upright market will be an advantage upfront. For this reason, professionals in data management, operations and product development will move on to a career as a business analyst due to their involvement in agile environments.
Business analysts also come from the developer and coding world. Many experienced developers use their communication, analytical, and data mining skills to move from software development to becoming a business analyst. Their in-depth knowledge of the software development, product lifecycle and processes provides them with a significant advantage.
However, even if you have completed training in computer science or in a particular business area, you will need to develop a more specific skillset to be successful as business analyst.
In practice, the junior business analyst will perform more traceability and the more experienced business analyst will deal more with tactical and strategic issues. The closer you get to the strategic level, the more useful business analysis skills will be. Tactical and strategic issues tend to be much more sensitive and require a lot of soft skills.
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Junior business analyst
The Junior Business Analyst will generally assist the Senior Business Analyst in collecting, validating and documenting requirements. The Junior Business Analyst must maintain and verify the requirements specifications once the requirements baseline is established.
Senior business analyst
The senior business analyst use to be involved in strategic analysis with business partners. He will work carefully with the company in order to gain a thorough understanding of the business strategy and the context in which the company operates. The role of the senior business analyst is essential in understanding the capabilities required and the changes required.
The Senior Business Analyst will review operational processes in any kind of business networking events in order to identify and manage operational, financial and technological risks and opportunities. He can lead small and medium sized projects supporting the business needs and the solution scope on larger and more complex projects.
Business Analyst Manager
The Business Analyst Manager will lead his team of analysts, help define best practices and help analysts plan their business analyst careers. He will also coordinate the allocation of resources with the project teams.
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