5 Tips for a Good Business Analyst
There’s nothing more important than teamwork when it comes to running a business. Learning strong analytic characteristics and knowledge is essential to running any business professionally and efficiently. What separates a mediocre business analyst from a good one? What makes good business analysts the best at what they do? A good analyst is appreciated by stakeholders, coveted by recruiters and hiring managers, and has a wide variety of career options available to them. We’ve broken down 5 secrets to an impressive business analyst—necessary for any successful company:
1. Be Resourceful:
Business analysts know where to find the right answers to certain problems, and also know that answers won’t just come to them. They find alternative paths through the organization and involve the right people at the right time. A good analyst rarely gets stopped for long and can often work through challenging situations to come to a solution.
2. Have the Basics Covered:
A good business analyst has a good, strong foundation under their belt. They comprehend the basics first and foremost. Good analysts are good communicators, problem-solvers, and they also think critically. They create requirement specifications, analyze requirements, create visual models, facilitate elicitation sessions, and use the necessary tools. These tools and more are examples of the basics of good analysts.
3. Constantly Grow Your Skills:
Good analysts are not content to do the same things in the exact same way every time. Gaining the confidence to apply a wide variety of business analysis techniques will increase an individual’s marketability and thus make any analyst more efficient. Good business analysts know how to pick the right tool for the job instead of relying on just basic tools and applying them to every situation.
4. Have a Strong Sense of Project Management:
Business analysts are proactive and dependency aware. They manage themselves to commitments and deadlines. A business analyst also gets stakeholders involved at the right times and in the right ways and works hard to keep everything moving. They keep a close eye on value and feasibility and guide their stakeholders toward a set of requirements that can actually get implemented.
5. Don’t Rely on Cookies:
Although stakeholders and developers like cookies, and it always feels good to be appreciated for hard work, good analysts don’t rely on bribes to sustain positive relationships. A good business analyst will use active listening techniques to ensure stakeholders feel that their needs and desires are being listened to. They consistently follow through on their commitments and don’t make promises they can’t keep. They honor confidentiality agreements and are generally seen as above office gossip. In the end, quality business analysts are professional and align their skills and actions for sustained project success.