IT profession: what does a Business Analyst do and how to become one
A Business Analyst (ВА) is a professional responsible for collecting, analysing and interpreting complex data sets to help companies make informed business decisions.
According to the worldwide job search network Indeed, in the US, such a specialist earns $83,000 a year on average, and $100–126,000 in top companies. In Ukraine, according to DOU statistics, the median monthly salary of a Business Analyst is $2,250.
We asked people with a lot of experience in the business analytics segment about what specialists in this position do, what knowledge they need, the advantages and disadvantages of the profession, and how to become a BA.
Our interlocutors: business analysts Khrystyna Stankevych, Sviatoslav Penhryn, Anna Shvedova, Yurii Honcharuk, Dmytro Lypovets, Anastasia Koval, Kseniia Zinkova, Mykola Makhrov and Valeriya Kolomiiets. Mykola and Valeria are lecturers at the online university Choice31, and Yuriy and Dmytro teach business analytics at IAMPM.
In the article we will consider the following questions
— Who are Business Analysts and what do they do?
— How to get into the profession.
— What knowledge and experience does a Business Analyst need.
— How to become a Business Analyst.
— What books should a future Business Analyst read.
— Stages of work on the project. The difference between working in an outsourcing company, out staffing and a product company.
— What does a Business Analyst’s working day consist of?
— Pros and cons of the profession.
— The most complex and interesting project.
🧐 Who are Business Analysts and what do they do?
A business analyst is a “bridge” between the business and the development team. The functions of BA may differ depending on the size of the company, the size and the duration of the project.
There are six overlapping BA task areas:
- communication with customers and stakeholders to determine business needs, gathering and analyzing requirements;
- documenting requirements and tracking changes;
- strategic analysis, which involves immersion in the client’s business;
- designing solutions during joint work with the development team, taking into account the client’s business processes;
- planning own tasks and tasks of the development team, tracking results;
- evaluation of decisions.
Dmytro: BA is a specialist who builds a connection between the business customer and the technical team. BA must have a good understanding of the client’s niche, the concepts he operates with, business processes and needs, and the limitations imposed on the product. Sich a specialist have to know the technical intricacies of all stages of the implementation of an IT project, to speak with developers in the language of technology, to be able to argue the requirements for them, based on the needs of the client.
Depending on the specifics of the project and top management’s perception of the role of a business analyst in their company, their duties may vary. A BA may be partially engaged in research, team management, process building, or sales as a consultant.
Yurii: A business analyst collects and identifies requirements for a future product or functionality, and then translates them into a language understandable for the development team. That is, on the one hand, BA understands how business models are formed, knows the economy, business priorities and interacts with the client. On the other hand, he has technical expertise.
Khrystyna: BA creates project documentation, communicates with stakeholders and the team, maintains a dashboard (Jira, Asana, etc.). Such a specialist understands the initial and final stages of the decision, the customer’s request, and logically in detail describes all the functions and mechanisms of the future product. Every BA should be prepared for the huge number of meetings that BAs often organize by themselves.
💼 How to get into the profession
Khrystyna: I had previous experience in digital marketing. I was good at communications and documenting processes and really wanted to dive into project research. Therefore, I decided to send my resume to one of the largest IT companies — SoftServe. I successfully passed all the interviews and have been working here for two years.
Anna: I studied information technology at the institute for six years and got my first job through the pre-diploma practice program. At first, I combined the roles of project manager and business analyst, after I focused on BA.
Sviatoslav: Before becoming a business analyst, I worked as an accountant for two years. Switching the profession was driven by friends, many of them work in IT. First, I decided to figure out what the specialities are and settled on non-technical ones – data and business analysis. After watching webinars about each of the professions, I chose BA. In May 2022 I entered courses at SoftServe, and in August started looking for a job. My first offer as a business analyst I got in November.
Yurii: I built my IT career as an Automation QA. Then moved on to business analysis. Such a transition is quite common since the tester knows the product well, and communicates with the development team and the customer. In addition, a technical background helps in the work of a business analyst.
Dmytro: I never thought that I would become a BA. When I started my journey in IT, I was a Research Analyst and planned to build a career as a developer or tester. Coding was easy, but I quickly lost interest. Therefore, I decided to try myself as a Business Analyst, especially since some tasks in these professions coincided.
It was 6-7 years ago when the role of VA was just emerging in Ukraine. Then there were almost no courses and vacancies.
I spent more than a year reading professional literature, failed more than 12 interviews and made a lot of conclusions until I found my first project at a small company.
Ksenia: I started my journey in business analysis with courses at the Netcracker company, which were designed to prepare BA from scratch. Although I already had non-commercial experience with requirements formalization and prototyping, the course provided a good foundation and understanding of how and where to develop further in business analysis.
The courses consisted of lectures (3 months) and a month of practical training.
At the stage of the first completed tasks on the project, I was invited to an interview (although it was supposed to happen after its defence). As far as I know, most of the candidates who took the course with me got the offer. That is, everyone who was interested in it and made an effort.
Mykola: I wanted to be a project manager and already worked in a similar position. But while working, I became interested in business analysis. The impetus to become a BA was the customer’s inefficient business processes, which I began to fix. So I gradually moved to this position in two new projects for that client.
Valeria: I am a switcher and got into IT after 30. Before that, I worked as a technical designer in heavy machinery. This field is very conservative, and I wanted something more modern and dynamic. I began to look at other options, and when I got a child I find some time to study a new area. At first, I didn’t consider the BA profession simply because I didn’t know it existed. Four years ago, there were very few analysts.
When I came to the interview for the position of project manager, I was offered to try myself as an analyst. My previous experience turned out to be relevant: I worked in the project field and dealt with technical documentation and sketches.
My advice to other switchers: don’t think that you start from scratch in IT. Analyze your background.
🧠 What knowledge and experience does a Business Analyst need.
The first things that are expected from a BA are a high level of spoken English, knowledge of business analysis and the ability to communicate with customers. It is important to have analytical skills, know Agile, Scrum, Kanban methodologies, be able to facilitate, and create presentations, documentation for the team and the client (detailed User Stories, Use Cases), have a good command of office tools, know business process modelling (BPMN, UML), etc.
Dmytro: I distinguish five groups of BA skills: Core, Hard, Soft, Tech, and Business Domain skills. Technological skills are largely based on hardware and depend on the technologies used in a specific IT company.
Core skills: structuring of information (search, processing, analysis), a broad outlook and a “packed suitcase” of techniques and models, the ability to choose them correctly, the ability to resolve conflicts, learn and build one’s own development strategy, critical thinking, systemic thinking. It is important to understand that a team of specialists, business clients, and third-party stakeholders are different systems with their own processes. BA’s task is to figure it out and combine it into a single large supersystem.
Hard skills: understanding of analytical approaches to work, knowledge of business analysis tools (Visio, Excel, Confluence, Jira, Balsamiq, SQL), project management approaches and tools (Agile and Scrum, kanban boards, Gantt chart and other BA-tools), planning and moderation of communication sessions etc.
Tech skills: Needed as a bonus, which will give greater flexibility and independence. Do not forget that some projects may not have an interface and basic technical skills will come in handy.
Business Domain skills: A BA cannot be an expert in any domain, but he must have the ability to quickly learn and understand different domains.
Soft skills: After getting some experience, soft skills become the most important in the BA’s arsenal. The ability to work in a team and know the strengths and weaknesses of each specialist, to look for constructive approaches to the client and stakeholders. These are active listening skills. The flexibility of thinking and adaptability of behaviour. Ability to provide feedback and build strong relationships with all stakeholders.
Mykola:
BA must definitely like to communicate. To hate it later [smiles].
Among other soft skills, it is important to have empathy, to be able to think systematically and creatively and to quickly adapt to different circumstances.
Among the hard skills are English at the Intermediate+ level, knowledge of SDLC and understanding of basic concepts in the IT sphere, modern methodologies for working with requirements.
BA must be able to describe and analyze business processes according to the BPMN standard (at least), use the most common tools in the work of each IT team (Slack, Jira, Confluence, Figma, etc.).
🧑🏻💻 How to become a Business Analyst
Experienced BAs recommend first understanding what kind of profession it is, and for this, listen to webinars of experienced business analysts, and have a look at YouTube course for beginners.
Svyatoslav: Watch webinars about this profession, and read general articles. After that, you should choose courses for at least three months, where the teachers are business analysts with extensive work experience.
And even after receiving the first offer, continue to read books and forums to expand the knowledge base
Valeriya: There is a misconception that there is a lot of information on the Internet today that will help you master everything. But when you start learning, you are bombarded with information that often contradicts each other, and it is difficult for a beginner to figure it out. I would advise you to use the courses. Not so that they teach everything (let’s be honest, no courses will teach in just 2-3 months), but to get knowledge in a structured form. Then you can expand them yourself.
Anna: All my known colleagues studied for this speciality. Therefore, the cases I know about are university – work for experience – normal work.
Mykola: To become a business analyst, the first thing you need to do is get a basic education. It’s best to take a basic BA course. This will give an undeniable advantage in any interview. Read articles about BA. This is necessary in order to hear different points of view and form a general picture for yourself.
Screen your own skills. Look at junior business analyst job offers and analyze at least 5-10 of them to find out what potential employers want from you. Try to consistently pump yourself in these directions.
Prepare your CV and cover letter. Browse IT companies, choose 10-20 that you like and write a personalized letter explaining why you want to work with their team and what you’ve already managed to achieve (for example, how much time per week you spend studying). Send a letter along with your resume. Most of the successful job offers I know of are related to this approach.
