Fast forward to the present and you’ll see everyone from the International Institute of Business Analysis to the Project Management Institute emphasising the importance of business skills. A recent article by Jas Phul posted on the Business Analyst Times makes exactly the same point. Jas’s article identifies 6 critical business analyst skills essential for your current job and your future career:

1. Understanding your organisations business model
2. Understanding your organisations customers and competitors
3. Understanding how your organisation makes money (or delivers value)
4. Communication and collaboration skills
5. Helping your organisation re-think it’s business processes
6. Helping to achieve the benefits described in a project’s business case

Before you get to cynical and say this doesn’t apply to me, I only work on the maintenance of XYZ system, just ask yourself “Do you still want to be working on the XYZ system in 5 years time?”

To read Jas’s full article, go to The Emerging BA Role.

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The post Six Business Skills Every BA Needs appeared first on IRM Training.

And it’s not just business analyst job interviews. On many projects you’ll come across a user who’ll say “I haven’t got the time to explain to you how my business works”.

Nobody can be an expert at everything but as a business analyst you’ve actually got some real advantages – tools and techniques to understand any business and any process by modelling them.

Here’s a useful article from Modern Analyst on how to use an entity relationship diagram to build a picture of the business – and how to use a context diagram to describe the system under consideration and how it interacts with other entities.

If the person interviewing you is any good, they’ll realize that what they’re looking for is not an industry expert on XYZ business but someone who can take a detached, analytical approach and offer fresh ideas.

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The post Modelling and Your Next Interview appeared first on IRM Training.