The Model Explained

Business Improvement

Professional Skills

At this level, the business analyst is concerned with business change and transformation, with taking an organisation forward and helping it to adapt and thrive in an ever-changing environment.

Already having a mastery of the range of analytical techniques and of business issues, a business analyst operating in the business improvement sphere needs to be able to understand how organisations operate from a strategic perspective, identify where the potential for business improvement exists and help the organisation through the pains and pitfalls of a business change programme.

This programme provides you with a framework and techniques that, allied to well-developed interpersonal skills, will enable you to operate effectively at this level. Theory is presented but the emphasis of the programme is very much on the application of techniques through the use of a realistic running case study assignments

Personal Skills

Increasingly Business Analysts are being asked to lead. Often when Business Analysts are working at a strategic level they need to be able to introduce and lead change strategies firmly, yet sensitively. Some changes will be small; others may transform an organisation’s very culture.

Business Analysts needs to fully understand the implications and the consequences of their pivotal role, and that the turbulence and ambiguity of change is vital to future organisational success.

When this is managed in an effective manner, it can be highly motivating for staff. A well-rounded Business Analyst knows how to make the right choices, to make a positive difference and inspire others.

Business Skills

By now, a business analyst should have achieved recognition within their own organisation – and perhaps more widely within their business domain – for their understanding of business issues and the way in which change can be brought about within it. They will also have acquired, through experience and/or attendance at relevant training, a broader understanding of the world of business in general.

Development of an analyst’s business skills is now a matter of working at an increasingly senior level and of gaining exposure to larger and more complex business problems and issues. This involves understanding the strategic issues facing their organisation and the sector in which it operates and of the technical, financial and political movements and trends to which it is subject.

In addition to tackling more challenging assignments, a business analyst typically reads widely to broaden and deepen their knowledge. Such reading would include relevant books, industry or professional journals and business publications. The analyst will use such reading as a source of ideas and, just as importantly, as a stimulus to the development of their own thinking about their organisation and its sector.