Skills required to become Business Analyst and how to learn them?

Skills required to become Business Analyst and how to learn them, SQL, Python, analytics skills, communication skills, problem solving skills, curiosity, domain knowledge, project management skills, online certifications.

Introduction

To become an effective business analyst, you need to possess a diverse set of skills that enable you to analyze business processes, identify problems, brainstorming, provide solutions, communicating results to your stakeholders etc.

Some essential skills that a business analyst should have

1. Analytical Skills:

As a business analyst, you should have the ability to
– Analyze data i.e. understanding data and finding relevant information out of it,

– Identify trends i.e. if the trend is going up or down or remaining flat,

– Make data-driven decisions i.e. is you are working in sales then what kind of customers are paying more and than focusing on them only etc.

2. Communication Skills:

Effective communication is vital for a business analyst. You should be able to
– Communicate with stakeholders i.e. effectively communicating them to make them understand your analysis,

– Understand their needs and concerns i.e. what is going on in their mind that you can solve using data, and

– Present information in a clear and concise manner i.e. making well structured presentation so that people can understand complex concepts easily etc.

3. Problem-Solving Skills:

A business analyst should have the ability to
– Identify problems i.e. if sales are down what is the problem, is spending on marketing giving you enough returns is no then what is the reason etc.
So, as analyst you should be always curious to answer why something is not working as expected, what is the reason behind, why certain numbers are high or low etc.

– Gather relevant information: To dig into any problem to find probably cause requires connecting strings or identifying relevant information i.e. is sales down because of holiday season, or are deals going to competitors, is there any issue on your website that is not allowing users to purchase product on your website etc.
So, having relevant information is very important.

– Develop solutions that meet business needs i.e. identifying solutions to the problems for e.g. if some features are developed long back but is not giving enough value to customers then shutting it down, stopping services that teams are not using hence saving money, finding ideal customers who are buying more and enriching existing dataset for sales team so that they can use the information to get more money etc.
So, the purpose or the ultimate goal is to get more sales or saving money by reducing expenditure.

4. Project Management Skills:

You should be able to
– Manage projects i.e. managing resources, making a plan as per requirement and available resources, managing work effectively to deliver things on time etc.,

Meet deadlines i.e. working under the timeline you have committed helps in building good reputation,

Work effectively in a team environment because you cannot do everything and so working effectively in a team is very important.

5. Technical Skills:

A basic understanding or working knowledge of
– Programming languages like python/R for data science,

– Databases: Knowledge of SQL for querying data from databases or data warehouses, and

– BI/visualisation software knowledge or working experience is good for business analysts.

6. Domain Knowledge:

You should have a good understanding of the industry and/or domain you are working in or going to work.
– Industry and/or domain knowledge i.e. if you are working in a software industry vs automotive vs electric batteries industry every industry requires very separate and distinct skill set that is why have industry knowledge or domain knowledge is very important.

To learn these skills, you can take various approaches, such as

1. Formal education:

You can pursue a degree in
– Business analytics: There are many universities that are providing data analytics courses now-a-days event IITs, ISB, BITS etc.,
– MBA,
– Information technology -or- computer science related degree.

2. Training and certifications:

You can take courses and certifications offered by organizations such as the
– IIBA (International Institute of Business Analysis) and
– PMI (Project Management Institute).

Or do some online certification by going through websites like coursera, simplilearn, upgrad etc.

3. On-the-job training:

Gaining experience by working in entry-level positions if you are just completed your college and looking for a job in business analytics field. Most of the companies provides on the job training.

Learning from senior business analysts in your company is always the best way to gain knowledge quickly. Try to learn from the quality work that your seniors are delivering on day to day basis.

4. Self-learning:

You can read books, blogs, and online resources on business analysis and related topics to enhance your knowledge and skills.
– Search amazon for relevant books, if you search just analytics you will see a lot of options,

– Go through online blogs like of coursera, linkedin posts, kaggle, scikit learn etc. are some of the good websites to learn about analytics,

– Do some online courses from coursera, upgrad, datacamp etc.

5. Mentoring:

Finding a mentor who is an experienced business analyst can be a valuable way to learn and develop your skills.
– Try to network on linkedin: Make a good network and try to get in touch with the people who are already working in this field and have spent years in this field and are quite active on linkedin,

– Reach out to your college seniors or someone known ready to help i.e. understand from them what is going on in the analytics field, how can you get job as fresher or as an experienced professional, what kind of package you can expect and likewise whatever doubt you have,

– Join public forums (e.g. Quora, Reddit etc.) related to analysts and can ask your doubts there etc. there are already alot of people sharing their experience and go through the comments to understand more about people’s thinking and what is actually going on in the analytics field etc.

Other relevant links related to data analytics field are:

Conclusion:

Hope you liked the video. Please comment and let us know if you want us to cover any other topic. We will be coming with other topics as well in this data analytics series.

FAQ:

Is business analyst an interesting job?

Yes being a business analyst is a very interesting job as it allows you to understand business with a different angle using data and it always tells something interesting which others are not aware about.

Is it possible to learn skills required to become business analyst?

Yes it’s perfectly possible to learn these skills, taking online or offline classes can help you in starting in this field. And as menitioned in article as well if you can get some mentor then that will help greatly in progressing.

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