What Is Business Analysis?
As the name suggests, the process involves analyzing the data with various tools and techniques and helping the business to make strategic changes to achieve its goals.
So, business analysis is the process of searching and identifying business needs, extracting insights from the data, and then suggesting solutions or changes to the business.
The person who is responsible for performing these processes is titled as a business analyst. There are various job roles under the title of business analyst. But let's first see who can become a business analyst and what are their detailed roles and responsibilities.
Who Is A Business Analyst? Business Analyst Roles And Responsibilities
A business analyst is responsible for maximizing business performance and productivity by utilizing their data analytics skills and recommending solutions to business problems.
This job profile is gaining more popularity and demand as organizations now seek the data to make timely required changes according to the changing market. The professionals working as business analyst works with all levels of the organization and are involved in framing the strategy, recommending, and supporting the technology updated in the company.
Let's see business analyst roles and responsibilities in detail.
Business Analyst Roles And Responsibilities
If you're someone with an interest in the domain and are thinking of creating a career in the field, it is essential to know about the detailed roles and responsibilities of a business analyst. Let's see them in detail:
- Understand The Business Requirements: An organization will undergo any change if required. It is the responsibility of the business analyst to determine the needs and pass on the same to developers and stakeholders.
- Presenting The Details: After the correct identification of needs, the project of the company starts. And the project comes with many minor and major components. These are details that must be addressed and thus are presented to developers and stakeholders by the business analyst.
- Implementing The Plan: After going through the above-mentioned method, a business analyst ensures that the implementation is done right.
- Testing: The product must then be tested among users to determine its quality and working ability after it has been prepared. According to the job description, the business analyst evaluates the interface/prototype by including some clients and documenting their interactions with the created model.
Mandatory Business Analyst Skills
The role of a business analyst is somewhat technical and non-technical. So, to pursue a career field in the domain, you must have a combination of tech and non-tech skills. Let's see some of the required skills.
- Programming Skills: Business analysts typically work with applicable coding and data. Being able to program is a must to become a business analyst. Business analysts benefit from using programming languages like Python and R to handle extensive data.
- Data Visualization: Irrespective of company size, it is only possible to study and analyze the data by converting it into a graphical form. With the help of data visualization skills, business analysts can convert the data into certain representations and communicate the same.
- Probability & Stats: Basic knowledge of probability and skills are part of the technical skills that are necessary for a business analyst. As to finding a solution, we need to process data which requires concepts of probability and statistics.
- Framing Reports: Making reports and dashboards is the next crucial ability required by business analysts. To develop reports and dashboards, business analysts need to be skilled users of various business intelligence technologies. Power BI & Tableau are two of the most used tools for framing reports.
- Decision-Making Skills: Whatever the decision business analyst suggests will affect the working of the organization either positively or negatively. The professional must have strong decision-making ability for the welfare of the company.
- Problem-Solving Skill: A business analyst's core role is to ensure that the organization gets a timely solution for the problem. The professional should be capable of performing multiple brainstorming sessions and coming to the required solution.
- Public Presentation: Remember to value the significance of creating and presenting a top-notch presentation on app designs, project developments, and business requirements. The people attending presentations are usually senior IT and business administration staff.
- Excel Knowledge: One of the most dependable and well-known reporting and analytics tools is Microsoft Excel. Business Analysts use it to enable it to perform numerous calculations, analyses of data, and budget evaluations. It helps distinguish between commercial trends. They create pivot tables to compile the data. They make a variety of charts in Excel. They can do this to provide dynamic reports about a business issue.
After knowing about skills, you might get interested in the career domain. And now, you're wondering how to become a business analyst. Below mentioned are the ways to kickstart your career as a business analyst.
How To Become A Business Analyst?
Step1: Take Up The Relevant Course
A business analyst aspirant can opt. for an online workshop or for a boot camp to increase their knowledge and exposure to the necessary subjects. These certification courses will show the following:
- That you're updated with the latest trends and skills
- You have an updated understanding of the field.
A certification course with capstone projects will give an advantage to you over the other candidates.
Step2: Create A Relevant Portfolio
You can start by volunteering with a small business or by taking full advantage of work placement opportunities to gain expertise. If an organization currently employs you in a different job role, volunteer to assist with business analyst-type assignments.
You can practice using your new knowledge to solve actual business problems if you have a firm grasp of the foundations of business and the capacity to analyze massive amounts of data.
Step3: Create Your Network
Because of the networking they've done inside their businesses, their strong communication skills, and the interest they've exhibited in the commercial side of their company, many business analysts have moved into lateral career positions.
Building good connections with colleagues and mentors in the sector can also assist you in navigating the job market, facilitating introductions to potential employers, and letting you know of BA possibilities that are typically not published.
Step4: Start Applying For Jobs
If you possess all the required education and working experience, you are eligible to apply to a company for a business analyst position. Update your cv before applying to a company. Since the first image is the most important, use the resume to capture their interest during the interview.
After remembering to include in your CV all the skills, you learned from online courses as well as the projects you worked on in previous roles, look at the business analyst job openings at various companies.
Also, don’t forget to look for and prepare for some common BI questions and answers before going to the interview.
Tools Used By Business Analysts
You must employ all the methods and technologies that help your company run more smoothly and efficiently regarding workflow management. For instance, you must use software programs that increase your productivity.
Similarly, business analyst utilizes specific tools and techniques to make their work smoother. Let's see the top critical business analysts' tools:
1.SWOT Analysis
Whenever it comes to the decision-making part, SWOT analysis plays a vital role in the process. SWOT analysis stands for strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats. The concept applies at the time of the launch of a new approach, plan, strategy, etc.
All four aspects of SWOT analysis help the business analyst to examine both the external and internal factors of the market.
In-Demand Business Analyst Jobs
Like any other job field, there is also a particular hierarchy in the field of business analyst jobs. Starting from the junior position to the most senior level, one can get ahead in the area according to their skill set.
The most in-demand business analyst jobs in the market are:
- Business Analyst Manager
To become a business analyst manager, you must know how to do the management of a team. The manager should make sure that the team performs the tasks on a timely basis.The manager should follow up with the needs of stakeholders and analyze the data on a regular basis to identify the problem, if any. The average salary in India for the job role of a business analyst is ₹17 Lakh.
- Data Analyst
To become a data analyst, it is required to have a minimum of 2-3 years of experience in the domain. These professionals are required to perform an analysis of the data. The average salary of a data analyst in India is ₹6 Lakh.
- Project Manager
A project manager is allotted to a specific project and must manage it. The management part of the project involves planning, implementation, and evaluation of the project. Due to the high responsibility of the professional, the salary of this profession in India is an average ₹16 Lakhs.
- Business Consultant
A business consultant is responsible for checking the organization's work and helping the same to improve performance. They are required to provide suggestions to increase business efficiency, productivity, etc. The average salary for this position in India is ₹12 Lakhs.
Conclusion
Business analysis is not a brand-new field of study. But it certainly has changed as businesses have changed how they operate. Traditional business analyst responsibilities are combined with other functions or divided into more minor, more targeted roles as organizational roles become more flexible.
In the end, a business analyst's work for an organization is influenced by the project's nature, the organization's simple goals, and the demands of the stakeholders. But despite these factors, it is safe to state that a business consultant is essential to the efficient operation of any organization.
Before transitioning into a career in process improvement, several business analysts have prior experience in IT or finance. A solid business degree will give you a foundation in finance, marketing, and management and a broad understanding of how various types of organizations function.
With this, we are sure that now you're fully aware of what business analysis is and what exactly business analysts do. If you're interested in the field, try to explore the top Data Science And Business Intelligence course and gain in-demand skills of the market.
