5 Business Analysis Trends to Define the Future

Business analysts make digital products as close as possible to what users, investors and other stakeholders expect. So, what skills should a business analyst have in the modern tech world? What is the future of the business analyst profession? Carlos Cardona, Senior Business Analyst at EPAM, shares the significant business analysis trends shaping the profession now and in the future. 

Five trends shaping the Business Analyst role:  

1. Deeply understand the customer journey  

Understanding the customer journey is a prerequisite for business analyst success. How we interact with products in our daily lives has drastically changed in recent years.  

Customer journeys and needs have become more complex, spanning multiple channels and requiring real-time, and even predictive modeling to create a unified, seamless user experience.  

Business analysts are integral to helping teams design competitive, relevant, data-driven user experiences, making organizations’ customer-focused efforts more fruitful and long-lasting. 

2. Make data-driven decisions 

To be competitive, businesses must continuously improve their processes using insights from data and automation. As a result, there is a demand for professionals proficient in data management skills.  

Business analysts must apply decision intelligence, a discipline combining social and management science elements, to help companies make more informed decisions. 

The business analyst synthesizes end-user, business and technological development data. Their unique insight and perspective enable them to guide company leaders in decision-making, shape customer strategies and overcome technological challenges.  

To optimize our ability to extract, analyze and share data trends with others, business analysts must develop technical skills including: 

• Statistical analysis software (e.g., R, SAS, SPSS, or STATA) 
• SQL databases and database querying languages 
• Programming skills such as Python and R 
• Survey/query software 
• Business intelligence and reporting software 
• Data mining 
• Data visualization 
• Database design 

3. Evolve with Agile to lead the future 

Businesses, markets and customers are constantly evolving, and Agile methodology must evolve in response.  

One of the central tenets of Agile is its emphasis on evolution, which makes it such a valuable tool. Agile practices are adaptable and designed to meet the demands of new environments. 

As more developers familiarize themselves with project management tools, agile adoption becomes more accessible. Because of this, companies are constantly seeking tools and solutions to improve agile processes. 

Companies that adopt an agile approach prioritize the development of user-friendly interfaces for their tools, which are typically known for their steep learning curves. Furthermore, companies are increasingly shifting toward cloud-based solutions to take advantage of the ease of access and availability that this technology provides over locally hosted tools. 

Agile methodologies such as the Scaled Agile Framework (SAFe) and Scrum (or the Scrum of Scrums) are the most popular ones globally. 

In contrast to the Scrum of Scrums, which is primarily focused on team-level productivity improvements, SAFe provides a general guide to help improve productivity at the organizational level. As a result, Scrum is useful for smaller teams, while SAFe is better suited for large development teams.  

4. Communicate masterfully to facilitate across teams 

As a business analyst, you must ensure communication between colleagues and stakeholders, both remotely and face-to-face. 

The value you can add is an understanding that goes beyond technology platforms. Your role is about building trust in a non-contact environment, transforming client cultures, and helping facilitate remote collaboration without decreasing productivity.  

The business analyst plays a crucial role in the digital transformation of a company as a facilitator and communicator.  

Given the fast pace of change, business analysts must foster a culture of innovation by soliciting ideas from a diverse group of employees and stakeholders. Additionally, they should familiarize themselves with conflict resolution techniques and strive to remain neutral in all their interactions. 

5. Note the multiple career paths to pursue 

The evolution of the ever-expanding role of business analysts relies on combining digital skills, business acumen and specialized knowledge to drive better outcomes across industries. 

The impact of these evolutionary changes has caused the traditional analyst role to branch out and include a variety of possible career tracks. 

When choosing your primary specialization, it’s important to answer this question: ‘What value do you want to offer to your customers?’  

The future of business analysis 

Business analysis integrates skills, technologies, processes and applications that offer insight into data.  

Together with statistics, this helps market developers optimize revenue streams and better understand consumer behavior. Moving forward, business analysts will continue to be responsible for translating requirements, designing processes, and refining them. Coordinating between internal and external stakeholders and possessing descriptive and interpretive skills will become increasingly important. 

Technical business analytics skills will continue to be crucial, and social, interpersonal, leadership, and critical thinking skills will be required to maximize the impact of the business analyst role. 

If you’re ready to embrace this change and follow the latest trends in your job as a BA, explore our business analyst jobs and apply to join EPAM.