THE ROLE OF THE BUSINESS ANALYST
Whilst the specific duties of a business analyst will vary from organisation to organisation, the principal role is as the communicator between business users and the solution provider. The solution provider can be the internal software development team, a software house or an offshore supplier.
The analyst’s role in the design cycle:
WHAT SKILLS DOES THE BUSINESS ANALYST NEED?
The skills needed by the analyst when communicating with business users include the “soft” skills of client communications and relationship management. They also need investigative and analytical skills to identify problem areas and creative thinking skills to design optimum business solutions.
To then communicate the business user’s requirements to a solution provider, the analyst needs the “hard” skills of process analysis, process modelling and process design to produce accurate, unambiguous specifications.
The hard/soft continuum showing business analysis skills:
(Adapted from ‘Teaching Hard, Teaching Soft’ by Colin Corder (Gower, ISBN 0566028654) )
THE TRAINING ROADMAP
Core Skills training will give business analysts a solid grounding in the fundamentals of business analysis. It is suitable for new business analysts as well as those who have learnt “on the job” and now want to formalise their skills.
In addition business analysts are often called upon to perform more technically-oriented work, ranging from data modelling through to use case modelling and documenting complete specifications for a project. Technical Skills training focuses on these specific areas with 1 and 2 day “single topic” workshops.
However business analysis is not just about requirements gathering and technical skills. It’s the value add that a business analyst offers which can make the biggest impact. Problem solving, creative thinking and successful workshop outcomes are all proven contributors to optimum project outcomes.
The courses above are all endorsed by International Institute of Business Analysis (IIBA®) and are compliant with Version 3 of the Business Analysis Body of Knowledge (BABOK®). They can be taken in any order depending on your workplace priorities. See how they map to the BABOK® here.
All IRM courses are maintained and updated in Australia and every effort is made to keep them relevant and appropriate for Australian organisations. If you have any suggestions or comments about future directions in the business analysis field, we’d love to hear from you. Please contact us with your suggestions, comments or queries.