Extra Skills Making Business Analysts More Competitive in the Job Market

To stay competitive, business analysts need to continuously update their skills, from Agile methodologies and brainstorming techniques to programming and software architecture basics.

Just documenting requirements and connecting stakeholders with development teams is not enough. A proficient business analyst needs to be an expert in their domain (fintech, e-commerce, healthcare, etc.) and deeply understand the software development lifecycle. This expertise enables them to effectively translate customer ideas into actionable features and tasks for developers.

Below is the list of extra skills that can enhance your resume and boost your competitiveness in the job market. 

Extra technical skills for a business analyst

Modeling

To understand a company's organizational structure, operational processes, opportunities for growth and bottlenecks, business analysts should utilize a range of modeling techniques. 

Based on the type and stage of the project, these are some widely used modeling techniques in a BA’s daily work:

• Specify business processes using a business process model.
• Identify interactions with various actors and the system across different business processes with use case diagrams. 
• Use a data flow diagram to depict data movements through the system (including data stores, data flows and the processes involved). 
• Use an entity relationship diagram to identify entities (e.g. customer, product, order), data requirements and their relationships or to design backend systems.

Programming basics

Understanding the basics of programming, testing and algorithmization is valuable for business analysts as it enables them to provide more knowledgeable technical solutions, grasp a wider view of a system, identify functional inconsistencies and prevent redundant features.

To effectively collaborate with a development team and articulate ideas clearly, it’s beneficial for a BA to have a solid grasp of basic programming concepts. Whenever the project requires technical analysis during the initial phase, a BA needs to collaborate closely with architects and tech leads to discover the requirements, so these technical skills will help BAs to deliver on tasks effectively.

Software architecture and design

Understanding common architecture solutions, including their benefits and limitations, provides BAs the autonomy to make informed, technical decisions, effectively communicate architectural objectives and address issues during project implementation. Moreover, well-documented architecture facilitates client approval of changes and discussions with the development team, as well as allows for comparison of different available options.

Additionally, a BA should be able to explain the enterprise architecture, utilize fundamental frameworks and adhere to enterprise architecture standards (TOGAF, Zachman, FEAF and Gartner). They should also be familiar with systems integration mechanisms.

Database management systems

Another important technical skill for BAs to have is a good understanding of database design and SQL in order to write simple requests. BAs at middle and senior levels should also be able to design complex databases (with segmentation, clusterization, distributed data storage, etc.) as well as be able to write complex requests and procedures in SQL.

Interface design

A skilled BA should also have some UX design skills. These skills enable BAs to strike a balance between the client's requests, the designer's solutions and end-users’ needs. Moreover, understanding the fundamentals of interface design, user-centered design principles, task center design and the ability to create basic prototypes help BAs effectively communicate with UX designers and identify the most relevant solutions.

Business intelligence

Business intelligence (BI) is a valuable skill for BAs as it enables them to transform insights obtained from the market in which an organization operates and the internal data of the organization. This skill is essential for BAs in the projects involving ETL processes, data collection and integration, data analysis, reporting & visualization and real-time monitoring.

Soft skills

Negotiation skills

Since a BA acts as an intermediary between a client and a software development team, excellent negotiation skills are essential. During negotiations, a proficient BA should be able to reach compromises on discussed topics and advocate for their perspective in order to create a product that meets the needs of the customer, the development team and end-users.

Managing expectations

To manage customer expectations effectively, a BA collects product requirements, documents them and then translates them into a scope of work. While discussing requirements, some clients might propose pre-existing solutions, or provide detailed description of the finalized  product. However, it is a BA's responsibility to interpret requirements as business objectives and determine which challenges need to be addressed.

In other words, to manage client expectations and build a desired product, a BA must figure out the business objectives behind each desired feature and product requirement and, if necessary, formalize client expectations.

Problem-solving skills

Conflicts and unexpected issues are a natural part of any project. This is when the skills of problem-solving and conflict resolution become essential.

Mentoring

A professional BA always shares their expertise with others, mentors colleagues, devises curricula and educational programs and organizes the learning process within the team.

While onboarding junior BAs, experienced mentors pass down knowledge related to domain expertise, technical skills, best practices and real-world challenges and provide feedback throughout the mentorship period. Overtime, the mentee gains confidence and ability to address critical tasks, leading to successful project outcomes and recognition within the team and the organization.

Learn more about our award-winning upskilling and learning opportunities at EPAM in this detailed walk-through. 

To recap

As you can see, a skillful business analyst is a T-shaped specialist who, besides their core knowledge, should possess some extra technology-related skills to stay competitive in the job market and be in demand. At EPAM, we encourage versatile professional growth and offer numerous learning opportunities and career development options. That's why we're always looking for people whose values coincide with ours. 

If you’re interested in a career with EPAM, explore our open business analyst jobs today.