What is a Business Analyst (BA)? A Business Analyst is the person on a software project who is the liaison between the business people and the technical people in a company. This is a very important job on a software project. The business people who are the stakeholders of the project understand what they need, but are not trained to develop software. The technical team is trained to develop software, but may not really understand the business side of the company. As a Business Analyst, your job is like that of an interpreter. You explain the business needs to the technical team, and you explain the technology needs to the business team. You are the one person on the team who must understand both groups of people, and be able to explain them to each other. This becomes even more important when the project team is geographically distributed. Required Skills A survey of very successful Business Analysts shows that while a Business or Computer Science degree is useful, it is not necessary for success in this field. These Business Analysts have an average of 18 years experience in the software industry and are in high demand for their skill in the job. Few of the Business Analysts surveyed have degrees in Business or Computer Science. Their degrees are in fields such as Decision Science, Anthropology, Sociology, Journalism, and Music. If a particular college degree is not required to be successful, what is required? These top Business Analysts were asked: What do you think are the skills (up to 5) every Business Analyst needs to be successful? A summary of the results indicates that these skills and traits are the most basic to the job: • Listening • Writing • Speaking – interpersonal and public • Researching • Analyzing information • Organizing information • Leadership • Meeting facilitation • Negotiation • Self-motivated and assertive, but with a pleasant personality. Given these basic skills, you can learn what you need to know about the business and technical sides of a software project. The more you understand both the business and technical parts of your project, the more successful you will be as a Business Analyst. Remember my example of an interpreter – the interpreter knows how to interpret. While the interpreter knows all the words of the two languages, the interpreter may not understand all the details of what is being said. But the more the interpreter understands the conversation, the better the interpretation will be. The same is true of a Business Analyst – you can act as a liaison between the business and technical people by learning to speak both languages. But the more you understand about the business, and about how software development works, the better you will be at your job.
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Geri Schneider Winters is the primary author of the popular book Applying Use Cases: A Practical Guide, and the President/CEO of Wyyzzk, Inc., a software engineering consulting firm at www.wyyzzk.com Her blog and website for Business Analysts can be found at www.writingusecases.com
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