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What Business Analyst Skills Do You Need?

August 10, 2017 By Emal Bariali 23 Comments

by Emal Bariali
August 10, 2017January 20, 2021Filed under:
  • Articles

One of the most stress-inducing questions that new and aspiring business analysts face is: “What business analyst skills do I need to learn to do this job?”

In this series of articles, I’m going to guide you through the process of skill-selection so you can determine for yourself what skills you will need based on the situation you’re likely to face.  My goal with this series is to have you get a sense of direction by understanding the basics of the BA career and exploring the different options available to you for your career.

Related Video: 3 BA Career Paths

Peterson & Baker

Peterson & Baker is a consumer products company that has been in business since 1876. They produce everything from soap and shaving foam, to dishwashing liquids and laundry detergent.  The most important thing for us to know about P&B is that THEY NEED BUSINESS ANALYSTS.

A quick glance at their organization chart shows us that, in fact, they hire three different types of business analysts:

  1. Business Process Analysts (BPA)
  2. Business Systems Analysts (BSA)
  3. Well Rounded Business Analysts (BA)

I call these the BA Archetypes because they serve as perfect examples of the types of BAs that other companies also tend to hire.

Let’s take a close look at each of these three business analysts to see how they got to where they are today, what they do as part of their job, and how they differ from one another.

BPA: The Business Process Analyst

Meet Min-Yee. She hasn’t always been a business analyst. In fact, she used to work as an accounts payable (AP) clerk in the AP department of the Finance division that she now supports through her BA work.

Her bachelor’s degree in business had prepared her with the accounting knowledge she needed to do the AP job, but it was her willingness to step out of her comfort zone, and her strong motivation to learn new skills that propelled her into the BA role that she’s doing today.  Her domain knowledge in AP came in really handy. She relies on it regularly to make sure that she’s asking the right questions to get to the bottom of issues.
On any given day, she could be doing one or more of the following tasks:

  • Clarifying roles and responsibilities for some department in Finance using a RACI Matrix.
  • Helping the other two BA’s (Dorian and Amit) perform stakeholder analysis on their projects. She knows the business side much better than they do, and always points them in the right direction.
  • Helping some department in the Finance group clarify their operations by mapping out their business processes.
  • Trying to influence her boss Sandra to include some more features in the system that Sandra owns (product owner).  She lobbies her boss on behalf of her clients on a regular basis when she thinks the value is there.
  • Writing business requirements for a project.
  • Detailing out use cases and mocking up screens for another project.

BSA: The Business Systems Analyst

Meet Dorian.  A passionate developer early in his career, he’d swore that he’d found his calling in life. Coding.

That was well before he found out what the BSA role was all about. When his boss told him about the BSA job posting coming up in his company, he realized it was an opportunity for him to broaden his skills, and his network inside the company, all-the-while still keeping one foot firmly in the technical world.

He couldn’t resist. He jumped at the opportunity and has been happily working as a BSA for the last 6 years.
On any given day, you can find him doing one or more of the following tasks:

  • Querying the database using SQL to troubleshoot a major bug that’s been a pain point for the business for a while.
  • Writing detailed specifications for the data mapping and the ETL process so that the developers can build the system interfaces and reports the business has been asking for.
  • Helping Min-Yee think through the data structure of a project that she’s been struggling with. She’s not so good with entity modeling just yet, but she’s decided it’s something she wants to start learning because she sees the value in entity modeling for her projects.

BA: The Well Rounded Business Analyst (aka Generalist BA)

Meet Amit. He always gets into door #1 of subway car #3 in the morning on his way to work.

Is this just some quirky habit of his?

Not a chance.

Amit knows full well that the first door of the 3rd car stops right in front of the subway station exit doors, saving him at least 45 seconds every day.  He’s analyzed it. He’s also found that he can take the freight elevator up to his desk instead of the elevator everyone else uses during the morning rush. He’s always looking for a better way of doing things.
You could say that he was born with analysis is in his blood. And his manager Peter is glad it was.

Peter knows who to send over when the business is feeling anxious about a very challenging problem that they just can’t figure out. Amit’s good at easing their concerns, finding the root of the problem, formulating a solution & getting buy-in for the proposed solution (often a technical solution, but sometimes a plain old workaround). And once he gets the nod of approval for the customers, he elaborates on his proposal down to the level of detail that Marty (development lead) and the team need to build out the technical solution.

On any given day you can find him:

  • Trying to convince Mindy (Head of Applications) why the company should be investing in SharePoint instead of just creating more shared network drives.
  • Trying to get a slice of Dorian’s time so Dorian can help him figure out how to write his SQL statement properly.
  • Meeting with Johnson (the CIO) and Isabel (the CFO) to kick off a new business case proposal for a problem that Isabel’s deciding to fix in her group.

Which One Of These Is The Right Fit For You?

In the next article I’m going to re-introduce you to the solution stack, but this time, I’ll be talking about the skills you will need at each level of the stack.

Each of these 3 BA Archetypes works at a different level of the stack, so spend some time understanding these Archetypes and choose the best fit for your BA career.

This is the first step to get some clarity for your career.
Step #2 coming up in the next article.

Post navigation

Previous Post What Is An Enterprise Software Solution?
Next Post Project Methodologies: Whats the difference between Waterfall vs. Agile? (video)

Reader Interactions

Comments

  1. Bola Adesope says

    September 15, 2017 at 8:13 am

    Interesting article. I like the approach, very clean and practical.
    However, I would like to know what your position is about Strategic BA who works with Senior Management in crafting and drafting Strategies for the organisation

    Reply
    • emal bariali says

      September 15, 2017 at 12:26 pm

      Hi Bola,
      That’s usually the Well Rounded BA Archetype who’s already made it up (or is on his way) to the Business Architect position in the company.
      I have a feeling that Proctor & Bangle is about to open up a new position for a business architect in their company. This would give me an opportunity to write about that role as well 😉

      Reply
  2. Khalid Thaha says

    September 18, 2017 at 6:52 am

    Nice article, well defined the differences of BA roles.

    Reply
    • emal bariali says

      September 18, 2017 at 9:06 am

      Thanks Khalid.

      Reply
  3. Barbara Taylor says

    September 19, 2017 at 7:34 pm

    Good article. At different times, each role describes my role. I find that I grow and learn each time I step in another direction. This leads to a very satisfying career.

    Reply
    • emal bariali says

      September 24, 2017 at 11:20 am

      Hi Barb, I wonder how common it is for other analysts to go through all three of these roles? I first started off as a systems analysts/BSA, then swung in the total opposite direction when I started doing pure process improvement work. Over time I’ve settled somewhere in the middle.

      Reply
  4. Jeevan Kannan says

    September 20, 2017 at 8:52 pm

    Nice article. Subtly brings out the difference in each role with a simple and easy to follow example.

    Reply
    • emal bariali says

      September 24, 2017 at 11:20 am

      Thanks Jeevan.

      Reply
  5. Leke says

    September 21, 2017 at 3:16 pm

    I loved this article! Excellent! Can’t wait for the next!!!

    Reply
    • emal bariali says

      September 24, 2017 at 11:21 am

      I’m glad you loved it Leke. Next article will be out in a few days.

      Reply
  6. Ode says

    September 27, 2017 at 7:19 pm

    Very insightful article. Gives a clearer view of the different roles. I look forward to the next article.

    Reply
  7. Sid sahni says

    October 6, 2017 at 8:47 pm

    Nice article! I can realte directly to these roles. Been there done that!!! Good one for someone stepping thier foot in BA world.

    Reply
    • Emal Bariali says

      November 10, 2017 at 12:08 pm

      Thanks Sid.

      Reply
  8. Janice Nazareth says

    November 9, 2017 at 1:02 pm

    Such an insightful piece. I’m new to the BA world and still figuring out where I stand. Having a prior strong background in testing as we as development, I feel maybe I’m a BSA now. 🙂

    Reply
    • Emal Bariali says

      November 10, 2017 at 12:10 pm

      Hi Janice, you’re instinct is probably right. If you’re coming into Business Analysis from the QA world, then chances are that you spend most of your time with software and are probably more technically inclined.

      Reply
  9. Varsha says

    July 31, 2019 at 10:46 am

    Really nice article containing to the point description..

    Reply
  10. Nasir Bello says

    September 17, 2019 at 12:46 pm

    Nicely written. Gets to the description clearly. I am trying to start a career in BA and my previous was in Energy management and presently as a Inside Technical sales engineer where I do lots of requirements eliciting and value analysis to present best quotes for buyers. How would you define me?

    Reply
    • Emal Bariali says

      September 17, 2019 at 8:42 pm

      Hi Nasir,
      If you have a background in engineering, then you may be best fitted into the BSA role. This is the role that requires an good understanding of how systems work under the hood, and requires some technical skills such as SQL.
      Does this seem like path that would fit you, or are you more interested in doing process engineering/design work ?

      Reply
  11. Graziella Brincat says

    October 2, 2019 at 11:29 am

    Nice article and very helpful for people who are just starting out. Do you find that this is still relevant going into 2020? How fast does this profession change?

    Reply
    • Emal Bariali says

      October 7, 2019 at 6:36 am

      Hi Graziella,
      Our profession always evolves with new industries and system trends that come and go, but these three BA archetypes have been applicable for at least two decades and will continue to be applicable for some time to come.

      Reply
  12. banks dada says

    October 7, 2019 at 6:38 am

    This is beautiful.
    Just listened to you on the BA podcast and came here immediately
    This makes sense and i find out that as a consultant BA, its been crazy trying to be all three. Right now I am in a quagmire trying to learn Python for data science and stuff.
    I guess i need to pick my cherry and stick with it

    Reply
    • Emal Bariali says

      October 7, 2019 at 7:30 am

      Hi Banks,
      It can be very difficult trying to gain deep knowledge in all three. I’m glad that the article gave some clearer direction. Learning python suggests that you’re aiming for more of a BSA role?

      Reply
  13. Henri Nooyen says

    February 14, 2020 at 5:12 pm

    In the BPA role I would add porocess mining as a increasingly important tool, interweaving this role even closer with the BSA role.
    The generalist BA role will see an increasing use of machine readable semantic layers in the form of ontologies as part of their toolbox, making cooperation with both the BSA and BPA roles closer.

    Reply

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