The Model Explained

System Improvement

Professional Skills

The role of the business analyst is very broad and requires an extensive skill set – both professional and personal. The professional business analyst strives to build a toolkit.

Where the work is concerned with the introduction, replacement or enhancement of an IT system, it is vital that the business analyst is able to understand how to elicit, analyse and manage requirements. Further to this, the business analyst needs to be able to use modelling techniques that will provide clear representations of the system for agreement with both the business users and the systems developers.

This programme will provide you with a wide range of skills that will enable you to provide an effective, professional service to your customers.

Personal Skills

To be a successful Business Analyst today, you need more than just an understanding of the tools and techniques - ‘the Knowledge’ – you need the personal skillset of a credible, rounded professional.

First and foremost, to be truly effective in diagnosing system issues and identifying improvements on behalf of the business, you must be a competent communicator both verbally and non-verbally. Listening and questioning skills, with the ability to create a good rapport with stakeholders (both customers and suppliers) are critical. You also need to be supremely well organised. When those key communication skills are combined with the ability to effectively plan and prioritise work, the improvements in your performance will be rapid.

This programme will provide you with a solid foundation to step up from being a good technical Business Analyst to a well-rounded professional with an edge.

Business Skills

A business analyst at this level is typically fairly new to their role and perhaps to their organisation or industry as well. Their business knowledge is probably limited to those parts of the organisation in which they have undertaken assignments and, in those areas, they have developed a good general understanding of the issues and pressures faced by business managers on a day-to-day basis.

To enhance this basic knowledge, the business analyst now needs to be exposed to a wider range of business problems and issues and their organisation can assist in this by the planned choice of their business analysis assignments. At the same time, the analyst should themselves identify more experienced business analysts and also business managers who can – and are willing to – act as mentors and to help them in the development of their business knowledge.

Many organisations also stage internal events designed to impart information about the organisation’s business strategy, development plans and the market in which it operates. Business analysts should also make efforts to attend such sessions, as they both broaden their knowledge and help them to develop a network of valuable business contacts.