A business analyst's skill set can comprise of various components like excellent analyzing skills, good conversation and mannerisms, concise in teaching, etc. In this field one can perform the roles of system analyst, application analyst, process analyst, data analyst, business planner, project manager, organization analyst, technology architect, application designer, financial analyst, and subject area expert. There can be many more depending on the company. Hence, a Business Analyst, who can work as a generalist and can perform well in diverse roles competitively, is of great value to the company.
These people can work in specific industries, so the domain knowledge of that particular industry is of great help in order to understand business processes and commonly used jargon in that industry. There are various traits which a Business Analyst should possess to get the best of them. Firstly, one should be a keen observer and analyze things properly. He should be able to find where the company is going wrong and also figure out the current state of the company is. Another major thing – good comprehensive skills are required so that they can go through various document-like manuals, graphs and charts, understand them thoroughly and extract relative data and evaluate the information.
There are many specific duties also which should be completed as a daily activity. Firstly, they should meet with the client along with the management; find people necessary for doing analysis and find which area should be addressed first and which needs to be given more attention. Once the meeting is done, the Business Analyst needs to analyze the business records, business guides, operating manuals, and other related documents. Then the actual action should be taken to form new procedures and manuals and guide the employees through training sessions.
One must prepare graphs and charts to analyze documents showing the changes needed to be done by the company. A business analyst is also permitted to take any outside help if required for the company's benefit. At the end one should present a report and a presentation on the whole study showing the steps that can be taken for the improvement of the business of the company.
A company's ultimate objective is to have an improved situation in any condition so that it should move in the direction of profit maximization. Hence, business analysts should always be able to provide a useful remedy, which can only be done if one can go through every minute detail and pick out potential problems in the business and then fix them up. Being a Business Analyst is a good career option if one wants to utilize a wide range of skill and is willing to work on different interesting tasks.