Must have skills to be a successful Business Analyst

Every Business Analysts should have certain set of qualities which are befitting for the Job. The reason for practicing such competencies for a business analyst is the nature of this Job. A BA is a bridge or a rope which is tying two ends together. These ends are the Clients/ stakeholders and the Technical Resource. Managing both ends without breaking the bridge is the ultimate task for a business analyst. The BA Should be analytical in his or her thinking along with a good judge of what the client requires. Few of the Key competencies are: Stakeholder Management: Identify and manage. These are the words a BA has to follow to manage all the stakeholders in a project. BA should be able to identify all stakeholders and know what are their names, jobs, duties, which team they belong to, who they report to, what will be their work during project etc. This intel should be gathered by BA and he or she should have an excellent working relationship with the stakeholders so that tomorrow if any information is required at a critical moment, the BA should know whom to contact. Communication- A BA should be an excellent orator as well as a Listener. Any time a BA communicates with a client or a stakeholder it should be unambiguous in nature, clear and precise. Not more nor less. Likewise, BA should be very attentive as a person to listen to what the client is speaking so that there is no confusion to be taken ahead. Domain& Business Knowledge-BA Should know the in and out of the industry for which they are working. They should be very clear on what the business is what is their operation, what products do they develop and who their clients are. They should poeses all the knowledge, current news and practices of that domain. Whether the product will be sustainable for this domain or not, a BA should be capable enough to judge the same. Requirement Management is one of the key competencies a BA should hold. Sometimes a client unconsciously will not provide the complete picture to the BA. Here is where they should possess the art of getting the information out of the client smoothly. Elicitate the requirements from clients via workshops or interviews, conduct and schedule them, document what has been said, understand them and then convert it to a specific requirement is a skill which a BA should practice. Problem solving should be the attitude within a BA doing his or her Job. Instead of repeating what has been wrong, something should spring within them to think only towards the solution which is required at that critical moment. Their aim should be very clear that they want to reach towards the root cause to identify and fix the problem instead of playing blame games. Critical and Analytical Thinking- A BA should never believe plainly about what is being said. They should have the capability to investigate and identify what is actually the problem. Rather they should be able identify what nobody can see. They should be able to clearly understand the problem however complex it might be and should analyse how all of this is linked, which parts in a problem can be solved first, which to prioritized etc. Negotiation: One of the toughest skill a BA should have is the ability to negotiate for a living. People are complex in nature and it is never possible to make everyone happy with the decisions we make. Enter a BA with a tough negotiation skill. They should be prepared to answer to each and everyone of the stakeholders and also find such solutions so that everyone can have a win-win decision. Attention to Detail is one of the strongest points of a BA. Listening and documentation is important but identifying what we are missing or what are the gaps in the process proposed is of equal importance. Understanding ambiguity, identifying process lapse, longer routes to solutions being taken, ambiguous requirements, etc are some of the ticks which a BA should identify in order to save time and budget of the project.