What does a Business Analyst do, and how do I become one?
Why is everybody obsessed with data, big data, structured data, and analytics? Is every profession really going to depend on data or is it just a trend/fashion of our decade that will vanish in the future?
On the contrary, if you ask me, I think data and analytics are really just getting started in the business world. Everything tends to be connected. Every company is trying to be data driven, to be a company that uses its data to optimize decision making and improve their competitive advantage.
Professional business analysts can play a critical role in a company’s productivity, efficiency, and profitability. Business analyst jobs are well paying, and have a strong outlook — these jobs are projected to grow at a rate of 14%.
What does a BA do?
At the highest level, business analyst’s facilitate a shared understanding of the problem, the possible solutions, and determine the scope of the project. You’ll also find BAs in the midst of facilitating teams to solve technical challenges, especially when they involve negotiation between multiple business or technical stakeholders. Often we start this by analyzing the business process.
As a business analyst, you must know how to adapt quickly and understand the directions that are given to you. If you don’t really understand what and why you are being asked to do what you’ve been told, you won’t be able to deliver what’s being asked of you.
Business analysts help to identify burning business problems and come up with possible solutions. They help teams solve the challenges in front of them, and they are able to negotiate carefully among stakeholders to come to the right conclusions.
As a business analyst, you may need to facilitate a presentation or workshop of some kind. You need to be able to confidently stand up and speak to groups of people about your project. You should be able to dissect your content and make it clear in front of your audience that you know what you are talking about. The information you will be in charge of presenting will be discussed in detail, so you need to be ready to answer questions.
What is really important to work as a business analyst, is to be able to show your findings to others, in a way that can be comprehensive to them. Because even if you are the best analyst out there, if you can’t explain to others what you found, then it doesn’t mean anything. To find a way to show and explain your insights to the rest of the world is really important. That means you have to be able to both show and tell the story behind the data, the numbers and the formulas.
What’s the goal of my analysis and who am I going to present to? These are vital questions. You need to know your audience before you start creating your presentation/visualization.
Most captivating storytellers grasp the importance of understanding the audience. For instance, when speaking to an executive, statistics are likely important to the discussion. But a Business Intelligence manager would likely find analytical methods and data quality just as crucial as the outcome itself.
The next step is to try to find an attractive way to present your findings. You need to find a way to explain your findings and give your insights.
In order to do that, you need to understand the business strategy and combine it with the data insights. That’s why it is really crucial that data scientists (& analysts) work side by side with business analysts. Communicating the output of machine learning models and understanding the variables is essential to presenting the correct insights. Don’t underestimate this bit of business analytics, sometimes the story is harder to come up with than crunching the numbers.
Only then are you in a position to present your findings to business leaders.
>>> For more information on important BA soft skills see my previous post. (click here)
Professional business analysts perform a crucial role in moving an organization toward productivity, efficiency and profitability. From analytical thinking to negotiating and problem-solving, required business analyst skills can be developed through traditional and non traditional education programs. High-quality training and business analyst certification can also help you establish a successful business analyst career.
