Top Business Analyst Skills to Succeed [2024]

Business analysts tread the best of both worlds — business and IT. Essentially, they strive to help companies improve their business operations, product offerings, strategies, and software by performing in-depth data analysis. Their main aim is to improve business efficiency. 

The role of a business analyst is to dive into market analysis by looking into all the product lines of the brand and assessing the overall profitability of the firm. Additionally, they monitor and develop the metrics of data quality and make sure all the reporting and data needs of the business are fulfilled. Strong analytical, technological, and communication skills are some prerequisites for a business analyst.

Typically, business analysts have strong business acumen and an expansive range of soft skills like empathy, emotional intelligence, effective communication, smart decision-making, and team spirit.

Responsibilities of a Business Analyst

The term “business analyst” is self-descriptive and fairly easy to understand. However, let’s take a deeper look into their job profile by understanding their core responsibilities:

1. Analyzing an organization’s business prospects and documenting the different processes and operations related to the business
2. Assessing the functionality of the business model and understanding how well the business is integrated with the latest technology 
3. Identifying and prioritizing technical and functional requirements
4. Defining business requirements and reporting the same to relevant stakeholders

Top Business Analyst Skills to Succeed

Let’s come to the point and look at the in-demand business analyst skills.

1. Strong communication abilities

Strong communication skills are the biggest strength a business analyst can have. They need to project their viewpoints assertively and command their teammates/subordinates while delegating duties – none of this is possible without solid communication skills.

Business analysts should make their plans known to their colleagues and superiors with extreme clarity. Moreover, they must be curious enough to ask insightful questions and extract the correct information from different stakeholders. For example, if your stakeholder does not work in a technical profile, you need to ask the questions in plain and straightforward language.

2. Effective listening skills

The key to being a good business analyst is being a skilled listener. Business analysts must attentively listen to what others are saying and absorb information. This quality helps enhance a business analyst’s ability to analyze the data thoroughly to specify the business requirements.

Additionally, active listening allows one to better understand the context of what is being said, including its objective, its motivation, and the surrounding circumstances of the matter at hand.

3. Interpretation of delegated objectives

Being a good listener doesn’t solve any purpose without having the ability to interpret the given message. Therefore, it is also crucial for business analysts to observe the tonality of the speaker’s voice and understand their body language. Here, they must use their communication and listening skills to ask the right questions required for decoding the speaker’s message correctly.

4. Ability to conduct meetings with team members

Holding and organizing meetings is a quintessential part of a business analyst’s job. They are often required to send emails to team members regarding meetings. Apart from this, they must be assertive and transparent with their meeting agendas and effectively address the viewpoints of the other attendees. 

5. Thorough knowledge of the firm’s business objective

Having an understanding of the business’s objectives is a very crucial business analyst skill. So often, the middle and higher management communicate about the duties vaguely by only outlining the business requirements. This gives the teammates only a faint picture of the organizational expectations. Now, it’s the analyst’s role to translate this silhouette of vague ideas to a clearer picture of employee expectations.

6. Effective time management skills

Time management is a crucial skill for business analysts. Since they need to multitask, they must know how to organize and prioritize their work. Also, business analysts must learn how to balance their work and personal life. Efficient time management skills help them perform their professional duties accurately while also devoting ample time toward personal development.

7. Documentation and reporting skills

Business analysts must be experts in documenting meetings, writing reports, and creating tabulated content on business development. Additionally, they must know computer operations, particularly Microsoft Office. Business analysts also need to prepare presentations for meetings

Due to the heavy reliance of all sectors on data and business analysis, business development skills come in handy for organizations across all industries. If you are looking to build a promising career in business analytics, getting a degree in Business Analytics is your best bet. You can check out upGrad’s Certificate in Data Science and Business Analytics from the University of Maryland.

This course on upGrad has more than 40,000+ paid learners in 85 countries and more than 500,000 working professionals impacted by the expert guidance provided with the curriculum. In addition, it has workshops and projects with industry experts that give learners a total round of exposure to business analysts.

Conclusion

Business analysts require a good combination of technical and soft skills. They must be skilled business professionals who can deftly multitask and create value for organizations. IT and e-commerce giants rely heavily on business analysts for their day-to-day business requirements, and other companies are following suit. Consequently, the demand for certified business analysts is increasing by the day. 

So, what are you waiting for? Connect with upGrad to embark on your business analytics journey today!