10 Key Skills That Every Good Business Analyst Needs

Before starting your career as a business analyst, it’s important to have a wide selection of different skills in place and to know how to adapt to a forever changing environment. Bringing a blend of unique skills and experience to the role can only be a good thing, helping you to succeed in your chosen field. With that in mind, here are 10 key skills that every good business analyst needs.

Understand Your Objectives

First and foremost, being able to understand direction is crucial. If you don’t fully understand why you are being asked to do something, the chances are you won’t get very far as a business analyst. To succeed in this role, you will need to be able to work to a brief, so if it isn’t very clear, it’s important that you ask for further information. The last thing you want to do is get anything wrong, so engaging with your client is crucial. 

Strong Communication Skills

Regardless of the method, it’s vital that you’re a good communicator. Being able to demonstrate your points clearly and cohesively can set you apart from competitors. As a business analyst, you will need to understand how to ask questions that are insightful, ensuring you retrieve the information you require from stakeholders. For instance, if the stakeholder you’re working with isn’t a technical specialist, you will need to structure your questions in plain English, meaning that you must avoid using acronyms and jargon that they won’t understand. Knowing how to communicate information effectively is key, especially as some stakeholders will require more detailed information than others.

Know How to Run Stakeholder Meetings

While using email can be a useful audit trail, in some cases, it’s not enough to get your message across to stakeholders. You should never underestimate the value and benefits of a face to face conversation, as they can allow you to get your points across, discuss problems in further detail, and clear up queries. In many cases, you will learn more about your project in a face to face environment than you would in an email. When in a meeting, being confident, focused, and driven is essential.

Presentation Skills

It’s very likely that you will need to facilitate a workshop or present some work to a project team or stakeholder throughout your career as a business analyst. To do this effectively, you will need to take time honing your presentation skills, ensuring you’re confident and ready to present your findings. Make sure that what you’re trying to get across matches the objectives of the meeting. For example, you may find that the meeting is to discuss requirements gathering, so there’s no point providing information and implementation methods. Extracting more information or clarity from your stakeholders is crucial, so knowing how to run a successful presentation is important.

Time Management Skills

With a wide range of tasks and projects to complete, working to a deadline is crucial as a business analyst. Ensuring that work is completed on time is vital, so being organized and understanding time management can be a huge help. Another important skill to possess is the ability to multi-task, allowing you to work on a range of tasks simultaneously. Being able to identify which projects are more important than others will mean you can put your full concentration into what needs to be done. 

Listening Skills

Another key skill that every business analyst should have is the ability to listen. If you aren’t listening and absorbing information, you will struggle when working on projects and tasks. When engaging with stakeholders, you must thoroughly analyze what they’re saying, helping you to stay on track with your work. While it’s important to listen to what’s being said, you will need to understand the context behind their message too. Body language and tone of voice can make all the difference, enabling you to further understand the message behind their words.

Stakeholder Management Skills

It’s crucial that you know how to manage your stakeholders and let them know how much influence and power they have on your work. While stakeholders can be your biggest critics, they can be your strongest supporters too, so having the right people behind you is key. An experienced business analyst will know how to analyze how much management a stakeholder needs, as well as how they should be individually managed. Whether it be conducting face to face meetings or providing high-level reports, you will need to fully understand your stakeholder and how they work. It’s important that they stay supportive of your project, helping you to work side-by-side to complete tasks accordingly to plan.

Writing and Documentation Skills

Whether it be reports, plans, specifications, or requirements documents, knowing how to deliver a range of documents as a business analyst is important. Ensuring that your documents are presented in a clear and concise manner will make sure that your stakeholders can read your findings correctly. If you have just started out as a business analyst, it’s likely that you won’t have the experience needed to write requirements documents, but having strong writing skills in place can be a great starting point. The more experience you gain, the better you will become at your documentation and writing.

Modelling Skills

It goes without saying that a picture paints a thousand words. Learning techniques like process modelling can be a great tool to convey large quantities of information without the need of relying on text. There are several different levels that a typical process model will have, enabling you to work with stakeholders in a language that they know.

Gaining Qualifications

Having the right qualifications behind you can be a huge help, especially when it comes to finding work as a business analyst. You may be interested in completing a business intelligence mba to help you find work as a business analyst in various sectors, including government, investment, and healthcare.

To become a successful business analyst, having the right skills and experience behind you is crucial. Whether it be understanding time management, knowing how to engage with stakeholders, or perfecting your writing and documentation skills, these are just a few key traits that every successful business analyst needs.