An efficient Business Analyst needs to be a person who may perform as a System Analyst, Business Planner, and Project Manager, Organization Analyst, Subject Area Expert, Financial Analyst, Data Analyst, Technology Architect, Application Designer, Process Analyst, and Application analyst.
The various essential skills that business analysts needs to possess are: The ability to gather different groups and make them work efficiently on a project, Documenting the scope of the project using business terminologies, Being a good listener, A leader, Having the ability to ask right questions, Forecasting of the business requirement, Interviewing techniques, Analysis skills, Modeling technique, Categorizing skills, Good communicative skills, Understanding of software, and etc.
To date, no defined way has been suggested to become a Business Analyst. It is often seen that the business analyst is from a technical background. Either he has worked as an engineer or as a programmer, or has completed a degree covering computer science. Others must have moved to a business analyst after contributing for a certain period of time to some business role. They are often considered to be experts in their subject matter or they might have some analytical skills, making them suitable as business analysts. Some companies do not see business analyst as a post, instead they count it as a position like that of a consultant or project manager.
A Business Analyst can be from an IT background, but it does not mean that he needs to work only on IT related projects. As an analyst he is required to look into marketing as well as finance related roles also.
There various general responsibilities that a business analyst has to complete with full commitment. He must review the data of the company and should be well acquainted with the current working culture, so that he is in the position to make suggestions which would increase the overall efficiency of the job. A business analyst has a major responsibility to provide training to its employees at appropriate intervals and also develop the procedure that is standard for the overall workforce.
With the growth of globalization the demand for every Business Analyst has increased. There are more jobs available in the market. The reason is that the business analyst shows the broader picture of the processes to the company, so that it becomes easier for the company to know where they stand, after having made the necessary improvements and changes.