The business analysis skills set

Business analysts play a crucial role in bridging the gap between business needs and technical solutions. As the business environment evolves, so do the skills required for success in business analysis. This article examines some of the business analysis skills that are relevant for today’s business environments. We’ll start by considering what business analysts do. This highlights the skills required for the job.

Estimated reading time: 13 minutes

What BAs do

Business analysts help business stakeholders identify and define and implement necessary changes to business operations, including business processes, data, and business rules.

The ability to adapt, rapidly and effectively, in response to changes in the outside world is known as business agility. Supporting business agility is at the heart of what business analysts do.

Business analysis is typically focussed on the inter-related topics of,

• Business processes
• Data, particularly business views of data
• Business rules

Recognising the need to change any of these can lead to a set of requirements that precisely express changes to business operations and supporting IT systems.

These so called, ‘hard’ skills need to be combined with excellent ‘people skills’, otherwise known as ‘communication’ or ‘soft’ skills. This set of interelated skills are the key skills of a business analyst.

A summary of business analysis skills

Communication

The ability to communicate in a variety of media touches everything else that a BA does; it might be considered as the most fundamental of the skills of a business analyst.

Business analysts need to effectively communicate complex information to both technical and non-technical audiences. This includes written, verbal, and visual communication skills. Visual skills include the ability to represent situations and concepts graphically. We can also add ‘physical’ communication skills, also known as body language.

Communication skills link to everything else that a BA does.

Analytical thinking and problem solving

The ability to discover, analyse, and interpret data to identify trends, root causes of problems, and opportunities for improvement is in the job description for business analysis. Strong problem solving skills are essential for developing and evaluating solutions.

Domain knowledge

Business analysts need a broad understanding of business concepts such as production and financial cycles. They should also have an in depth knowledge of the industry or business function in which they work. This is crucial for accurately assessing needs and proposing relevant solutions.

Analysis techniques and methods

• Business process modelling and improvement
• Data analysis and visualisation
• Business rules analysis and visualisation
• Requirements discovery and management

These techniques are interdependent. Analysts may choose to specialise in one of them, but should have a broad understand of all.

Project skills

Business change is typically implemented in a project environment. Therefore, it is valuable for business analysts to have an understanding of established approaches to running projects.

As the rate of change increases, and we enter an increasingly uncertain world, approaches that worked in a more stable environment may no longer be applicable. Business analysts must know how to work with the so called ‘agile’ project environments. The expression, ‘agile business analysis’ is sometimes used. The analysis techniques will still be relevant, but the manner in which they are implemented will take account of the likelihood of change.

Stakeholders

Projects have stakeholders, i.e. people with an interest in the outcome. There are various techniques to assist engagement with stakeholders, but above all a business analyst needs strong interpersonal skills to work effectively with this group. In agile projects, stakeholders need to collaborate closely with the development team.

Interpersonal (‘People’ or ‘Soft’ skills)

Interpersonal skills are core to a business analyst’s skill set.

A well known quote is, ‘You cannot do business analysis alone in a darkened room. It is a people centred activity’. Without good interpersonal skills, the value of everything else written above will be reduced or cancelled.

Interpersonal skills include,

• Teamworking
• Negotiation

Business analysis skills in detail

Improvement of business processes

A business analyst should know how to model and analyse business processes with a view to,

• Recommending improvements, e.g. for greater process efficiency
• Ensuring that the processes
  • Support the business strategy
  • Comply with and enforce business rules

Process modelling and improvement is typically associated with,

• Modelling languages such as BPMN
• Process modelling tools
• Process automation, including Robotic Process Automation

The Capiro YouTube channel contains a playlist called, ‘BPMN tutorial for business analysts’.

Analysis of data

Similarly, a business analyst needs to be able to model and analyse the data created and used by the processes. Data analysis and analytics are becoming ever more important for maximising the opportunities obtainable from big data, artificial intelligence, aand machine learning.

A business analyst might choose to specialise in this area, perhaps getting into data analytics, a topic frequently confused with general business analysis

Analysis of business rules

Policies and rules control the,

• Operation of business processes
• Definition and use of data

They help to protect the organisation by ensuring compliance with legislation and internal policies. They are the glue that binds the processes and data together.

The managers of an organisation define and own the business rules. However, a business analyst might discover that some of the rules are,

• Outdated, i.e. no longer relevant to, or not supporting, current culture or strategy
• Difficult for business stakeholders to access, e.g. buried in computer code
• Poorly defined and difficult to understand and apply
• Inconsistent or contradictory

Skilled business analysts can bring the rules into the open, thereby providing easy access to them. This makes it easier for business stakeholders to review them, ensuring that they are correct, relevant and complete.

A business analyst can also help to load the rules onto a rules ‘database’ or ‘repository’. The rules are then,

• Available to many people at the same time
• Updateable in a controlled and secure manner
• Better able to control,
  • The running of processes
  • Updates to the data

All that helps to achieve business agility.

Further information on business rules

See the ‘Business Rules Community’.

Discovering requirements for change

Requirements define necessary changes to, or automation of, business operations and supporting systems. A popular way of discovering requirements is to use the human ability to tell and listen to stories that express problems and opportunities.

Expressing requirements

Requirements must be expressed in a way that makes them understandable and useful to,

• Business stakeholders who can confirm the relevance and correctness of the requirements
• IT roles such as solution architects, programmers and testers who develop and implement IT systems based on the requirements

The business analyst’s role is often thought of as bridging the gap between the business and IT. The business analyst must be able to understand and be understood by both of these parties.

Although identifying requirements might sound easy, the reality is that there has been a history of problems in this area. Requirements experts, Alexander and Beus-Dukic, referred to discovering requirements as, ‘simple, but not easy’. This truth is due to factors such as,

• There are two languages, ‘business’ and ‘IT’, involved
• All stakeholders are different and each is likely to describe or view a situation in their own way
• People can find it difficult to express problems and requirements

Further information on requirements

Volere.org has resources relating to requirements.

Requirements and Solutions

It can seem easier to give solutions rather than requirements. Unfortunately, these ‘solutions’ may not be very good. This is mainly because,

• The underlying problem was not properly understood or agreed
• Proposed ‘solutions’ did not take account of all the factors involved
  • Perhaps because these factors have not been identified and analysed

This takes us naturally to consider the communication and interpersonal skills needed by a business analyst.

Dealing with people – Key skills in their own right

People skills for business analysts

Business analysis is a people centred activity. People skills are at the core of all business analysis skills. The other skills that we have looked at are technical. They can be learned, as needed. At least some of the range

BAs need to be,

• Great communicators
  • Able to match a communication approach with the preferences of particular stakeholders
• Active listeners
  • They must show the stakeholders that they care

Other terms for people skills include,

• Soft skills
• Communication skills
• Interpersonal skills

Effective people skills help BAs to gain credibility with stakeholders.

Gaining credibility

It can be difficult to achieve credibility. It can be easy to lose it. BAs can increase their credibility through things such as the following:

• Helping business stakeholders to understand the root causes of their problem
• Proposing and developing acceptable business solutions to the problems
• Clearly defining requirements to developers, testers and others
• Accurate estimating of timescales and costs
• Proactive involvement in the development and timely delivery of effective solutions

Communication skills for business analysts

Essential communication skills for business analysis include:

• Effective interviewing, e.g.
  • Stakeholders
    • Learning what they do and need
  • Recruitment, e.g.
    • Applicants for jobs and positions on a team
• Making presentations, e.g.
  • Supporting cases for change and decision making
  • Broadcasting information
• Facilitating workshops, for example, to define requirements, processes and data
• Proactive and useful participation in meetings
• Leading teams to success
• Writing reports and requirements specifications
• Listening – This is one of the most important skills for a BA – Not everyone is good at it
• Storytelling
• Being a team player
• Team building, motivation and leadership

Collaboration

Close collaboration with business and technical stakeholders is essential for success in today’s fast changing business environment. Successful collaboration demands excellence in the full range of people skills. BAs can stand out by demonstrating commitment, flexibility, and the ability to deliver what they say will.

Improving your interpersonal/communication skills

Some business analysts have a natural ability in one or more of the above skills. However, appropriate training can help to improve the interpersonal skills of everyone. Unfortunately, not all organisations make the necessary investment in their BAs.

Programme and project skills

Most of a business analyst’s work is performed in the context of a programme or project. Therefore a complete set of skills must include the knowledge and capability to successfully deliver project objectives.

Programme/Project skills include,

• Planning
  • Defining terms of reference, e.g.
    • Objectives and scope of the project
    • Deliverables – What the project will produce
    • Assumptions – Attempting to make the uncertain more certain
    • Responsibilities and authorities
  • Identification and sequencing of activities
  • Estimating, e.g.
    • Calculating the likely,
      • Duration of an activity
      • Cost of an activity
  • Scheduling
    • Creating a sequenced calendar of activities
  • Controlling
    • Comparing what is happening with what was planned to happen
    • Responding rapidly to this real world feedback
    • Responding effectively to changes from the business
• People management and leadership
  • Working with people can be the most challenging and interesting part of a business analyst’s role
  • Agile approaches to projects promote the concept of the ‘servant leader’
    • Team leaders are also servants of the team

Project skills help to deliver requirements

1. A business analyst, in cooperation with other team members, defines the requirements for change
2. A change programme or project delivers the changes based on the requirements discovered by the business analyst and others
3. The requirements, in turn, help to define the scope, objectives and deliverables of the project
4. There is, therefore, a close link between project success and the ability to discover the real requirements
5. Business analysis and project management must be mutually supportive roles

Project approaches

The business analyst should also have knowledge of different project approaches, e.g.

• Linear, ‘plan driven’ approaches where project activities are performed in a pre-defined sequence.
• Iterative and incremental, approaches, designed to respond quickly and effectively to change
  • Such approaches are often included under the banner of ‘agile’ and include,
    • Scrum
    • Kanban
• Some BAs may work in environments such as Scaled Agile Framework (SAFe) and Disciplined Agile Delivery (DAD)
  • These are designed to apply agile approaches at an enterprise level

Required business Knowledge

Sector specific knowledge

Business analysts must know the business sector in which they work. They must be able to talk in the business language of the organisation.

A BA may well be, or become, a specialist in a particular business sector, e.g.

• Manufacturing
• Retail
• Banking and finance
• Health
• Travel

Some BAs may need to become specialists and experts in a tiny section of a sector.

Certain business sectors have a very specific language that will take time to learn. Speaking the language fluently can be vital to achieving credibility and ensuring that the analyst properly understands the stakeholders.

General business knowledge

All BAs must actively seek to expand their general business knowledge. For example,

• The basics of finance and accounting
• Business and financial cycles such as acquiring funds to create products for sale
• How to prepare a business and financial case for change
• Legal aspects such as intellectual property
• Stakeholder and client management
• Awareness of different organisation structures
• Understanding strategy: a business analyst must be aware of the strategy of the organisation they work for.
  • This includes,
    • Who the customers are
    • The organisation’s value proposition to the customers

Personal Characteristics – ‘Built in’ skills of a business analyst

Effective business analysts will have at least some of the following characteristics and abilities:

• Great communicators, as already mentioned
• Able to see the detail of a situation in relation to the big picture
• Able to identify the root causes behind the symptoms of problems
• Enjoy, and be good at, solving problems
• Able to abstract and generalise situations rather than being stuck in specifics and detail
• Differentiate between problems and solutions
• Empathy and understanding of and for the business stakeholders and colleagues

It is unlikely that one person will possess all of these ideal characteristics. This is why the team environment is so important.

Team players

Business analysts are usually members of a team. Being an effective team member is a vital skill. Members of successful teams,

• Listen to each other
• Respect each other
• Are open, honest, and transparent with the customer(s), each other, and the wider set of stakeholders
• Learn from each other
• Support other team members
• Consider other people’s ideas and opinions
• Can be generalising specialists, i.e. have a specialism, but know at least something about other necessary specialisms
• Work for the good of the team
• Work to provide valuable products to the customer as quickly as possibly
• Build a reputation for delivering what you say you will deliver, when you said it would be delivered

Each individual is important in their own right. These individuals should be able to achieve more as a team than they can by working

alone.

Looking ahead – Tomorrow’s key skills of a business analyst

The following emerging trends will become increasingly important for business analysts and their careers.

• Understanding AI and machine learning
  • As these technologies mature and their use becomes more prevalent, business analysts who understand their potential and limitations will be in high demand
• Cybersecurity Awareness
  • As the risk of cyber attacks increases, business analysts need to be aware of cybersecurity risks and how to mitigate them
  • Article on cyber security
• Sustainability
  • Businesses are increasingly focusing on sustainability practices
  • Business analysts who can incorporate sustainability considerations into their work will be valuable assets
  • See article on the increasingly important topic of ESG

Business Analysis Centre of Excellence

Organisations can develop the effectiveness of their business analysis department and improve the skills of individual business analysts by creating a business analysis centre of excellence.

Links to sites focussed on related skill sets

Business architecture

Data analytics

Closing comments

The required range of business analysis skills is great. Even when focussing on the key skills of a business analyst, the list is still quite long. However, many BAs specialise in particular niches where they can demonstrate their mastery of general skills, backed up with in depth knowledge and capabilities in specific areas; recruitment companies might refer to, ‘The T shaped business analyst’. Personal characteristics, strengths and weaknesses are likely to lead each BA toward certain niches and away from other

Most if not all skills and knowledge can be improved and extended with learning. There are many ways of doing this. We look at some of them in the article learning business analysis.

There are a number of professional bodies that identify skills needed by business analysts. These include:

• International Institute of Business Analysis (IIBA)
• International Requirements Engineering Board (IREB)
• British Computer Society (BCS)
• Business Architecture Guild

Check out this article for ideas on self studying for business analysis qualifications

Gain business analysis skills and qualifications

This self study e-learning course from Capiro will give a useful foundation in business analysis and prepare you to take a BCS business analysis foundation exam.

For BCS practitioner level exams, try starting with ‘Business Analysis Projects’, which supports the syllabus for BCS Business Analysis Practice.