Required Skills and Competencies of a Business Analyst
This post will give you an outline of the skills and competencies of an effective business analyst. It will help you identify areas that you need to focus to progress your career. As it addresses the underlying competencies specific for a BA – which are not all unique to the BA profession – it may not address everything that you will need to fulfil your career goals. However, it is a starting point that will help you identify areas that you need to develop.
The competencies required of a business analyst can vary depending on the organisation, industry, and specific job requirements. However, here are some common competencies that are typically expected of business analysts:
- Analytical skills: Business analysts need to have strong analytical skills to be able to evaluate complex data, identify trends, and draw conclusions from the data.
- Communication skills: Effective communication is critical to the success of a business analyst. They need to be able to communicate clearly and concisely with stakeholders, including technical and non-technical audiences.
- Technical skills: Business analysts need to have a solid understanding of technology, including software development methodologies, databases, and programming languages.
- Project management skills: Business analysts are often involved in project management activities such as planning, scheduling, and monitoring project progress. They need to be able to manage multiple tasks and prioritise their workload effectively.
- Business process knowledge: Business analysts should have an understanding of the business processes of their organisation or industry, including workflow, business rules, and organisational structure.
- Problem-solving skills: Business analysts are often called upon to identify problems, analyse them, and propose solutions. They need to be able to think critically and creatively to come up with effective solutions.
- Domain knowledge: Business analysts should have knowledge of the industry or domain they work in, including trends, regulations, and best practices.
- Interpersonal skills: Business analysts often work with teams across the organisation, so they need to be able to build relationships, collaborate effectively, and resolve conflicts.
- Adaptability: Business analysts should be adaptable and able to adjust to changing business requirements, technologies, and project scope.
- Attention to detail: Business analysts should have a high level of attention to detail to ensure accuracy and completeness of project deliverables.
These competencies are not exhaustive and may vary depending on the organisation and specific job requirements
The BABOK® Underlying Competencies
The word competency means to be adequately qualified for a role. By defining business analysis competencies organisations will be able to:
- Better assess candidates during the recruitment process
- Better define an individual’s role and hence assess their performance and improvement against agreed key performance indicators
- Structure training and mentoring programs around those areas of competency which an individual is not yet competent and/or an organisation is generally lacking
- More efficiently predict and structure the resource pool for future projects.
The underlying competencies outlined in the Business Analysis Body of Knowledge (BABOK®) are important to a business analyst for several reasons. They
- Provide a framework for success: The underlying competencies help to establish a framework for success in business analysis. They provide a clear set of skills, knowledge, and behaviours that a business analyst needs to be effective in their role.
- Ensure consistent performance: The underlying competencies provide a standard for performance that helps to ensure consistency across projects and organisations. This allows stakeholders to have a clear understanding of what they can expect from a business analyst.
- Support continuous improvement: The underlying competencies encourage continuous improvement and development of skills. This helps business analysts to stay current with industry trends, technologies, and best practices.
- Enhance collaboration: The underlying competencies promote collaboration and effective communication with stakeholders. This helps to build trust and credibility with stakeholders and ensures that project requirements are clearly understood.
- Facilitate career development: The underlying competencies help business analysts to identify areas for improvement and plan for career development. This can help to increase job satisfaction and retention.
The underlying competencies outlined in the BABOK® are important to a business analyst because they help to ensure consistent performance, promote collaboration, and support continuous improvement and career development. They provide a framework for success that can help business analysts to be effective in their role and contribute to the success of their organisation.
The BABOK® defines 6 key groups of competencies that a business analyst is expected to possess. Use this list to identify areas that you may need to develop for further development.
# |
Competencies |
Sub Competencies |
| 1 | Analytical Thinking & Problem Solving
The business analyst must be able to understand and decipher requirements elicited and devise solutions to overcome problems faced by stakeholders. The BA must logically reason and make judgments based on evidence and assumptions and propose new and alternative solutions to problems. | Creative Thinking
Decision Making Learning Problem Solving Systems Thinking |
| 2 | Behavioural Characteristics
The business analyst is expected to uphold the trust placed on them, and they work with the highest level of integrity regarding the security and safety of sensitive information. To cope with high demands placed on them, the BA must also be meticulous in their personal organisation and prioritisation of their workload. | Ethics
Personal Organisation Trustworthiness |
| 3 | Business Knowledge
The business analyst understands common business principles and practices (e.g. HR, finance, IT). They also have industry, organisational and technology knowledge that contribute to developing good requirements and project outcomes. | Business Principles & Practices
Industry Knowledge Organisational Knowledge Solution Knowledge |
| 4 | Communication Skills
The business analyst has excellent oral and written communication skills, so they can express complex ideas as clearly and simply as possible to assist with decision-making. | Oral Communication
Teaching Written Communication |
| 5 | Interaction Skills
The business analyst facilitates workshops and meetings to ensure information is gathered in a manner that is considerate of stakeholder’s time. Communication is an important factor in this role and the BA must be able to lead and influence effectively to guide stakeholders through decision-making. | Facilitation & Negotiation
Leadership & Influencing Teamwork |
| 6 | Tools and technology
The business analyst has knowledge in applications that help carry out day-to-day project tasks and, depending on project requirements, is capable in specialised tools such as document management systems and content management systems. | General Purpose Applications
Specialised Applications |
The BABOK® Knowledge Areas
The Business Analysis Body of Knowledge (BABOK®) Knowledge Areas are important to a business analyst for several reasons. They:
- Provide a comprehensive framework: The BABOK® Knowledge Areas provide a comprehensive framework for the practice of business analysis. They cover all aspects of the business analysis process, from planning and elicitation to solution evaluation and validation.
- Ensure consistency and quality: The BABOK® Knowledge Areas help to ensure consistency and quality in business analysis activities. By following a standard set of practices and techniques, business analysts can produce consistent, high-quality results that meet the needs of stakeholders.
- Promote stakeholder engagement: The BABOK® Knowledge Areas emphasize the importance of stakeholder engagement throughout the business analysis process. By involving stakeholders in the analysis and decision-making process, business analysts can ensure that their requirements are fully understood and met.
- Support communication and collaboration: The BABOK® Knowledge Areas promote effective communication and collaboration between business analysts and stakeholders. By using a common language and set of techniques, business analysts can ensure that they are effectively communicating with stakeholders and working collaboratively to achieve project success.
- Facilitate continuous improvement: The BABOK® Knowledge Areas promote continuous improvement in business analysis practices. By staying up-to-date with industry trends and best practices, business analysts can improve their skills and techniques, and deliver better outcomes for their organization.
The BABOK® Knowledge Areas are important to a business analyst because they provide a comprehensive framework for the practice of business analysis. They promote consistency, quality, stakeholder engagement, communication and collaboration, and continuous improvement, all of which are critical to the success of business analysis activities.
The BABOK® Knowledge Areas are briefly described here. It is not intended to reproduce the BABOK® which varies from version to version, but to provide a checklist of areas that you may need to identify for further development.
# |
Knowledge Area |
Core Tasks |
| 1 | Business Analysis Planning and Monitoring
This knowledge area covers the activities which a business analyst should follow to determine the efforts involved in the future steps. It mainly covers stakeholder analysis, managing risk, issues, and requirements. It also covers the techniques to manage the requirements and the track of the project progress. | Plan Business Analysis Approach
Plan Stakeholder Engagement Plan Business Analysis Governance Plan Business Analysis Information Management Identify Business Analysis Performance Improvements |
| 2 | Elicitation and Collaboration
Requirements are the most important aspect of the project and understanding them correctly is of utmost importance. There are several elicitation techniques like brain storming, prototyping, interviewing etc to collect the most precise information. The actual purpose of the elicitation is to record the correct requirements of the stakeholders to avoid unwanted and superficial demands in future. | Prepare for Elicitation
Conduct Elicitation Confirm Elicitation Results Communicate Business Analysis Information Manage Stakeholder Collaboration |
| 3 | Requirements Life Cycle Management
This covers the tasks that business analysts perform in order to manage and maintain requirements and design information from inception to retirement. These tasks describe establishing meaningful relationships between related requirements and designs and assessing, analysing and gaining consensus on proposed changes to requirements and designs. | Trace Requirements
Maintain Requirements Prioritise Requirements Assess Requirements Changes Approve Requirements |
| 4 | Strategy Analysis
Describes the business analysis work that must be performed to collaborate with stakeholders in order to identify a need of strategic or tactical importance (the business need), enable the enterprise to address that need, and align the resulting strategy for the change with higher- and lower-level strategies. | Analyse Current State
Define Future State Assess Risks Define Change Strategy |
| 5 | Requirements Analysis and Design Definition
It covers the tasks that business analysts perform in order to manage and maintain requirements and design information from inception to retirement. These tasks describe establishing meaningful relationships between related requirements and designs and assessing, analysing and gaining consensus on proposed changes to requirements and designs. | Specify and Model Requirements
Verify Requirements Validate Requirements Define Requirements Architecture Define Design Options Analyse Potential Value and Recommend Solution |
| 6 | Solution Evaluation
This covers the assessment of the available solutions which can help the stakeholders select the most appropriate solution to implement the requirements. Once the best solution is selected the business analyst makes sure that it meets those requirements throughout the lifecycle of the project. | Measure Solution Performance
Analyse Performance Measures Assess Solution Limitations Assess Enterprise Limitations Recommend Actions to Increase Solution Value |
| 7 | Underlying Competencies
The underlying competencies described in the above section are one of the BABOK® knowledge areas. | Analytical Thinking & Problem Solving
Behavioural Characteristics Business Knowledge Communication Skills Interaction Skills Tools and Technology |
