Key skills for a Business Analyst

As we understood (i believe we understood ) the roles of a business analyst, I believe you now have a rough idea on what skills would be necessary for a BA to perform his roles and responsibilities in the organisation. I don’t get into the Technical, Non-technical and soft skills. We took the analogy of an Order Taker to understand the BA role, let’s deduce the key skills required based on that.

Following are the major responsibilities a BA has

• Take orders (requirements / business needs) from customers (read as Stakeholders/Business - it sounds more corporate)
• Tell the development team about the requirements (this is where the documentation part comes. which needs to be precise and unambiguous)
• Check if the team has development the solution as per requirements
• Deliver it to business

Let’s deduce the key skills based on the above responsibilities

👂🏼Listen carefully - I believe this should be the key skill for a BA. Should listen to client requirements clearly before jumping into any conclusion.

A father wants a Masala Dosa roasted with less oil and more red chutney, Mother wants a Fried Rice with less garlic and no soy sauce, Kid wants a pizza with extra cheese and corn, tomato, onion topping and NO pepper. Listen Carefully !

📄 Document Properly - Once you listen to what a customer wants, document the stakeholder needs properly. It should be precise and unambiguous

3 people and 3 different orders. Quite a complex right? As a BA, I need to understand the requirement clearly and document it correctly. Without that it will be difficult to communicate client needs to Development & QA team

💾 Understand Team offering -  Now you know the client requirements, check if your team is able to deliver those needs. As a BA you should be aware of what are Product or Bespoke development your team can offer

Let’s say a customer comes and asks you for a Chicken Biriyani where as your restaurant serves only Vegetarian food, then you should be able to inform the customer that you can’t serve that.

📠 Communicate Properly - Once you know what your client needs and documented those needs, now you need to communicate this with the Development and QA team. BA should clearly eliminate any confusion and ambiguity in the Business Logic, business rules and make sure development & QA team consumes the requirement needs

👀 Look over the implementation - Keep a tab on the development process to make sure the solution getting developed is as per the business expectations and meeting the client requirements. BA has to run the first level of acceptance once QA ensure that the solution developed is matching the client needs

Agile is an iterative approach to project management and software development that helps teams deliver value to their customers faster and with fewer headaches. Instead of betting everything on a "big bang" launch, an agile team delivers work in small, but consumable, increments. Requirements, plans, and results are evaluated continuously so teams have a natural mechanism for responding to change quickly.

🚚 Delivering the solution - Once the solution is completed, BAs should be in the front lines to  present and deliver the solution to the client.

So the customers enjoy their meal... happily 😄

And there are many other skills required which will be very helpful (but not necessary). Will talk about those skills later. But the above ones should be able to help you start your career as a BA.

Want to get trained & certified for your BA Career? You can go through Adaptive US courses on BA. You can use the coupon code "VIJAYEEBHAVA" for discounts.

Let the BA serve order right! Vijayeebhava..