11 Jul 2022
Top Technical Skills Required For Business Analyst | Ekeeda
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Business analysis is the core business practice and it plays an important role to help companies analyze various business elements to stay ahead in the race. During times of uncertainties such as pandemics, intense competition, economic crises, or rapidly advancing technology, companies rely on business analysts who can help them beat the competition. The need for business analyst professionals is on the rise across the globe and it has a promising future ahead for individuals. But there is a certain set of skills that you should possess to become a world-class business analyst. Having all the required skills will open new avenues and help you grow as a top business analyst in the market. What do business analyst do? What is the business analyst work? And what are the technical skills required for business analyst? Are some of the questions that make candidates reluctant? Relax our blog will throw light on all these questions and some technical skills required for business analyst job in the market.
Who Is A Business Analyst?
Business Analysts (BA) help businesses to improve their processes, products, services, and software through the right data analysis. A business analyst enables a change in the company by developing impeccable solutions to business problems and providing solutions that will maximize their value for the stakeholders. BA are involved in every small or major aspect of the business, right from laying out the strategy to creating enterprise structure. Business analysts play a vital role in every project life cycle. A Business Analyst documents the business process in the company and even evaluates the business model. Business analysts (BAs) are responsible to bridge the gap between the IT team and the business through data analytics – to assess processes, determine business needs, and come up with the best data-driven opinions & reports for stakeholders and clients.
Few Important Business Analyst Roles And Responsibilities Include:
How To Become A Business Analyst?
To be a business analyst, you will need the following things: A bachelor’s degree is a must to enter the field. Students from accounting, finance, or BA and engineering field mostly pursue careers in BA. You need to complete an advanced degree in business analytics or an MBA program to secure a job as an analyst at a Management Level. Graduates can earn certification to gain knowledge and highlight their competency. There are several courses online from top universities and e-learning platforms that will help you master business analysis. If you’re a fresher doing a career track in a related field will be a big boost for your career. Ekeeda offers an advanced Data Science Program that will teach you about Business Analysts' practices and become a certified professional. You might wonder, ‘Is programming required for BA? Is SQL Required For BA? Is a Business analyst an IT job? Well! You’ll be loaded with a lot of questions. Relax! We will try and answer one by one for you.
Now that we have an idea of who a business analyst is, let’s have a look at the top business analyst skills required to achieve success in your career. As a business analyst, you must perform multiple duties; therefore, you need to have some good skills which is a complete blend of technical and non-technical skills.
Here are some important business analyst skills which are the need-of-the-hour:
Learn The Business Objective
You cannot just analyze a business without knowing its objective and end goal. So, the first thing as a business analyst would be able to understand the company’s goals, objectives, and hurdles. It requires you to identify the business problems, and come up with the most suitable solution to counter them. It will be good if business analysts have domain knowledge in the company they will work; for since it will help them with the required deliverables.
Most of the time, business analysts work towards bringing in a change to motivate the increase of sales, scale-up production, improve revenue ways, etc. Learning the business motive is the first step of your journey to being an avid business analyst; it’s a special skill that very few can gain and make use of their intellectuals.
Analytical and Critical Thinking
Although, thinking sounds basic and the most underrated ability; analytical & critical thinking is one of the core business analytical skills.
A business analyst needs to analyze and translate the client’s requirements in a clear and concise manner. It helps the business analyst to assess multiple options before arriving at a perfect solution. As a business analyst, you will focus on gathering and understanding the client’s needs. It enables them to prioritize business requirements. A good analytical mindset will help a business analyst to reach the desired goals even when there are obstacles, limited resources, and conditions that are not so ideal.
Technical Business Analyst Skills
In this technology-driven world today, it’s imperative that one is equipped with various tools and technologies like MS Office, SQL queries, etc. Here are some of the technical skills required for business analyst:
Negotiation & Cost-Efficiency Skills
Decision-Making Skills
Another non-technical skill that a Business Analyst is expected to equip is decision-making skills. Business analyst decisions have a direct & indirect impact on the company’s business. Hence, you should think of all the aspects before coming up with any decision. Before making a decision, as a business analyst, you should interpret the problem and find an alternative business approach. You will then test all the alternative options and then make a careful decision based on the assumptions, thoughts, and output regarding these approaches. You will finally test and implement the solutions. Business analysts also take the final call.
Review Data & Statistical Analysis
The Ocean of numbers that you find after the research is quite vast and might baffle you. Relax! You need to be analyzed to give insights into various factors. This data will tell stories about gaps and help you do risk assessment once you come up with statistical calculations. Your business analytical skills will be put to test during this part of the job. A typical process that goes into giving efficient business solutions include: Performing thorough research on the problems, gathering data and statistics, Reviewing and analyzing the research data, and provide the most perfect solution after data interpretation.
Communication & Interpersonal Skills
Programming Languages
Business analysts should have hands-on experience in programming to perform better and fast data analysis. Knowledge of R and Python is quite beneficial Complex problems or data sets could be solved easily by writing effective codes. Even R is an impactful language. R and Python consist of several libraries and packages for data wrangling, data pre-processing, data visualization, and analytics. Additionally, good knowledge on statistical software like SAS and SPSS could be beneficial. With the help of programming languages, business analysts can analyze massive data and present it in the most lucrative way to clients. Also, business models could be created to make accurate business predictions. One up your industry knowledge with Ekeeda Data Science Program and stay ahead in the analytical race. Get complete knowledge on to process and analyze their data. Help companies make smarter business decisions using your expertise and provide the best and most profitable results for the clients.
To check the complete syllabus – Click here!
Create Reports & Dashboards
Another versatile and vital skill is to create accurate and easily accessible Reports & Dashboards. Business analysts should be proficient in various forms of business intelligence tools such as creating Reports, Dashboards, Visualizations, BI Reporting Tools, Predictive Analytics, Data Mining, Online Analytical Processing, Extract Transfer Loads, and Drill Down. Sound knowledge of Tableau, Python, Qlik View and Power BI will help you create customized reports based on the basic-specific needs.
Database and SQL
Another great skill set that every business analyst should have is the knowledge of Databases and SQL. Business analysts usually work with structured data. In order to store and process huge data, you should have good knowledge on relational databases like Microsoft SQL Server, MySQL database, Oracle DB, and NoSQL databases, Numpy, Pandas. Every business analyst should have good experience in SQL. It will help them access, retrieve, manipulate, and data analysis. You should define data and data manipulation commands like create, delete, select, update and insert, etc. Some tools extensively used in business analytics are Excel, Tableau, SQL, and Python. And the most common techniques will be – Statistical Methods, Forecasting, Predictive Modelling, and storytelling.
Good Microsoft Excel Knowledge
Another basic yet important skill would be sound knowledge of Microsoft Excel. This is a fundamental skill that every business analyst should possess. Excel is one of the strongest analytics and reports management tools; business analysts use it to carry out various calculations, data, and budget analyses to unravel business patterns. BA summarises data by creating pivot tables and making various charts using Excel to general dynamic reports related to business issues. Excel helps to create revenue growth models for new products based on recent customer forecasts, editorial calendar, list of expenses for products and create charts to show if the product meets the budget category or not. Business analysts calculate the customer discounts based on monthly purchase volume by-product with the help of the excel tool. They even summarize the revenue report by-products to find areas where there is a need to build strong customer relationships.
Documentation and Presentation
Business Analysts need skills for documentation & presentation. A Business analyst should know how to document their teachings and result very well, clearly, and concisely. You should be confident to present your project findings & outcomes in front of stakeholders and clients. Through organized documentation, BA can communicate technical concepts quite easily to non-technical employees. Jotting down project lessons is equally important as it will help you make a better decision. Later, if similar issues come up, BA can use prior solutions and thus save time and prevent unwanted problems.
Good Financial Planning
The data analysis you do will lead you to financial planning as to how much every part of the solution will cost. You can then plan if your business will achieve the objective and goals through the right financial planning. The ultimate motive of the process is to bring profit to your firm and your clients. To do that effectively, you will need to know the following: How much every process would cost to the company or client, what will be the benefits stakeholders get from solutions, and how much will the company or client benefit? Interpersonal business analyst qualities and other soft skills & finally documentation - it makes life easier for others. To understand, you should show them the roadmap in an easy and comprehensive manner.
Time Management Skills
Well! This is a skill not restricted to BA, but it’s the most important part of every profession. However, from BA’s point of view, it requires multitasking hence managing time is quite crucial to be efficient in their roles. The key to successful time management is to understand the priorities and plan your daily work activities in accordance with that.
On An Ending Note -
Business Analysts doesn’t need to be an expert in every domain or industry; however, their soft and technical skills so are proficient and it’s enough to be successful in their roles. A business analyst skills are important in various business spheres like operations, product designing, technical leadership, project management, finance management, presentation to stakeholders and clients, etc. therefore BA has a chance to enjoy long shelf life in their career. In fact, if you upgrade your skills to data science roles which is the next BIG for business analysts; wherein they can work as data analysts. It will give you the best opportunities to make a career in the hottest job field in the market. Experts say nearly 11.6 million new job openings in data science by 2026 and it surely gives a ‘CALL’ for aspirants and working professionals to upskill and get job-ready.
How Can Ekeeda Help You?
After reading our blog on business analysis skills, you may wonder how Ekeeda will help you? Let us under this. There are hundreds of business analyst courses in the market, but if you’re looking to boost your career with knowledge & skills par business analysis, then the Ekeeda data science program would be an amazing choice. This Data Science Program is designed by fortune 500+ companies’ experts and offers a perfect platform to step into the industry with experience and knowledge.
The 1:1 live classes will help you gain knowledge and clear doubts about the field. The industry-oriented curriculum is designed based on the latest trends and data processing techniques. Over 100+ assignments and capstone projects along with the course module will help you gain confidence and exploit your true potential in this hottest profession. After certification, you will get complete placement assistance in top 100+ tech and start-ups like Datascope, Cloudera, Mu Sigma, Peerbits, Brainvire, IBM, December Labs, Quantum Black, Accenture Analytics, etc. The course covers programming languages like Python, Numpy & Pandas, Python essential for ML, Data Analysis, Data Pre-processing, Basic & Advanced Deep Learning, Model Performance Metrics, work with data sets, Python Visualizations, etc. You will also work on hands-on, industry-relevant capstone projects in data science domains. Taking up this certification will help you upskill and become a job-ready data scientist.
Cheers. All the best!
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