H!i I'm Yulia Kosarenko, author of the book "Business Analyst: a Profession and a Mindset".
In this video I will try to answer the question: is business analysis for you?
What is business analysis?
Let's start with business.
Business is any organization a company that takes resources materials or inputs
and converts them to value for its customer in exchange for revenue.
And those businesses have problems - problems that need solutions.
Business analysis is a practice of analyzing organizations and their functions
to identify solutions to business problems and needs.
So when do we need business analysis?
We need business analysis anytime our organization is undergoing a change:
when we create new products, when the business model changes,
when we need to comply with new legislation, modernize technology or improve business processes
Any type of change will benefit from business analysis.
Let's define change now!
We start with analyzing the current state of our business
and understanding how it functions today.
Then we need to define the future state: where do we want to go?
Where do we want our business to be in a year, or six months, or five years?
And the transition from current state to future state is change.
And when we identify what needs to change, these become business requirements.
So a business analyst does exactly that – they analyze current state and identify the requirements
for moving the business into the future state, where business needs to go.
Business analysts are professionals that apply business analysis tools and techniques
to identify what's required to solve business problems.
Business analysts will wear many hats: leaders, change agents, devil's advocates,
facilitators, mediators and many many others.
And that's because business analysts do a variety of things.
First of all, we research and investigate and look for information a lot.
We need to ask questions, we need to understand how business works.
We'll interview experts, we'll try to understand the processes.
And then once we get all that information we need to analyze it –
analyze data, analyze process, draw the diagrams and models that capture the results of our analysis.
We need to capture the requirements.
And once the design starts to appear, we will review the design to see if it matches requirements
And when the solution has been developed and tested, business analysts help to test it,
to make sure that it indeed satisfies business requirements.
And of course, business analysts communicate a lot –
A lot of what we do requires interaction and communication and facilitation.
We will facilitate meetings and workshops, we will present and train others,
and we will spend a lot of time explaining: explaining technical details to business
and explaining business process to information technology.
What are those business analysis competencies and skills that I needed to do the job well?
Let's start with analytical skills – those are the skills that are sometimes called "hard skills",
that help you do the analysis. It's problem solving, it's an ability to see
the root cause of the problem and distinguish between cause and effect,
it's the visual thinking, ability to present complex concepts visually
through models and diagrams. It's the ability to understand complexity,
because you may be facing complexity in problems and processes and businesses,
and that complexity needs to be broken down, to be explained to others,
and to identify what is the change required.
Business analysts need business acumen: they need to understand how businesses function,
how do they make money, what happens when they are not being efficient,
and how to make them more efficient.
They need to understand their organizations, and how organizations function,
how to manage people, and how the people contribute to the success of the business change.
They need logical reasoning to identify business rules, and check for scenarios,
and validate business requirements.
And last but not the least, that sense of accountability of taking the business problem
and being accountable for delivering the right solution to that problem.
On top of that, business analysts need a lot of interaction skills – from listening and asking questions
to facilitating groups of people, communicating with different audiences, and finding ways to
communicate with audiences that have different needs.
It's the leadership, and often its leadership without authority: influencing trying to convince people,
to help them understand or reach an agreement.
It's the empathy: trying to understand the problems that users are facing,
and listening to different points of view, to help different groups of people
find a common solution.
And a lot of what business analysts do comes down to teaching: to explaining, visualizing, articulating
communicating and helping others to reach common understanding.
So, if today you listened to me and you said "look those skills actually already are around me,
and I'm not a business analyst but I do a lot of that". And you are right –
a lot of us have a little bit of business analysts in us.
And a lot of what we do has a business analysis component.
But once you are on the path of business analysis, even this job family has a lot of different titles.
you may be called business analyst, business systems analyst, product owner,
you may be a business consultant, process lead, agile analyst, requirements engineer.
There are many-many titles that have the word "analyst" in them, and sometimes don't even have that word.
What really matters is the job description – it's the responsibilities of the job.
So if you're really trying to understand what the job is about – read the description, ask questions,
apply your analytical skills.
Where do business analysts work? Well, by now I hope you will agree with me
that business analysts are needed everywhere.
In every industry where the changes happen, we need business analysis.
Every industry now is using information technology: financial industry, government, services, energy,
healthcare – you name it.
Every single industry that relies on information technology and that relies on the processes
that need to change, will benefit from business analysts helping those organizations
define the change and then execute it.
So now the main question of today: is business analysis for you? What do you think?
Let me ask you a few questions. Do you like to solve problems? Do you like to figure out how things work?
Do you like to explain and teach, simplify, find ways to get along with different personalities?
What about learning new technologies, or learning about new concepts and ideas?
What about seeing results of your work? And now – are you good at writing articulately and clearly?
Are you good at creating simple pictures and models? Can you get your point across?
Are you good at asking questions and listening?
What about standing your ground for what you believe in if someone else doesn't agree with you?
What about speaking in front of the audience presenting your ideas,
and managing groups of people even if you're not a direct manager.
If you are thinking that this job is for you, why not give it a try or why not research it more?
There is many things you can do on your journey to business analysis: you can attempt webinars,
you can read blogs and articles, you can look up LinkedIn forums on business analysis
where a lot of information is being shared.
There is a number of books published on business analysis modelling, facilitation, process improvements,
many courses. You can join a professional organization.
And don't forget your employer's learning and development system –
sometimes your employer will have a lot of resources for you, you just have to ask.
If you're ready to get some practical experience – ask for a secondment, or try to join a project,
see if you can shadow a senior business analyst and learn from them.
And of course you can also get in touch with a business analysis coach who can help you.
This is it for today! Thank you for watching!