Chapter: 9 Underlying Competencies

Analytical Thinking and Problem Solving: One of the competencies that are required by a business analyst is analytical thinking and problem-solving skills to identify the problems and opportunities successfully, to recognize which changes may affect the most and bring those changes to the system.

 Analytical thinking and problem-solving competencies core include:

• Creative thinking: Creative thinking is helpful in producing new ideas, approaches, and alternatives to problem-solving. It includes generating new ideas and finding and connotation between old and new ideas.·        
• Decision making: A business analyst must be good in decision making and helping others to make well decisions, which is most beneficial for the organization and stakeholder.
• Learning: To work in a fast-paced and changing environment, it is important for a business analyst to adapt fast learning skills to absorb new methods and knowledge as fast as possible.      
• Problem-solving: Problems present the opportunity to bring value to our customers and organization. Without the crucial skill of problem-solving, we're limited in our contribution to the organization as well as career growth. 
•   Systems thinking: It allows business analysts to determine the root cause of the problem and nip the problem at the root as opposed to building out temporary solutions.
•  Conceptual thinking:  It includes how to fits a large number of information in a context with proper details and to connect seemingly abstract information.
•  Visual thinking: Visual thinking permits the audience to engage and connect the concepts more easily and understands other concepts as well. Moreover, a business analyst must possess this ability to communicate about complex concepts into an easy visual representation to engage stakeholders and understand the concept.

 Behavioral Characteristics: The behavioral characteristics help to enhance personal effectiveness in the work of the business analyst. These behavioral characteristics can have an influence on the result of a practitioner's efforts. This puts its more focus on the skills and behavior that help the business analysts to gain stakeholder’s trust.  

      Behavioral Characteristics of core competencies include:      

•       Ethics: Ethical behavior requires understanding and focus on equality, consideration and moral behavior throughout all practices of a business analyst. Moving further, thinking of ethical impacts on the system and behaving ethically can help the business analyst to receive the respect of stakeholders. 
•       Personal Accountability: It includes the planning of business analysts to work efficiently that it meets its targets and goals. It helps in completing all the tasks on time and meet the needs and expectations of customers and stakeholders. 
•      Trustworthiness: Being trustworthy towards the stakeholder can eliminate the fear of change experienced by many stakeholders. 
•       Organization and Time management: Business analyst is acquiring a ton of information, so they must have organization skills that can help them to use and reuse that information efficiently. In addition to this, Time management includes prioritizing to work, perform and manage them proficiently in order to use work time productively.  
•        Adaptability: In order to succeed, a business analyst should have ability to change the methods, style and approach to work in fast-paced and quickly changing environment and number of different stakeholders.

        Business Knowledge: A business analyst should have the knowledge of business to work productively in their organization, business, solution and industry and it helps to better understand the concepts related to value, benefits and structure.

      Business Knowledge underlying competencies include:

•       Business Acumen: It is the skill to understand the business needs using experience and knowledge got from different situations, because each organization have the kind of the same set of practices, such as legal and regulatory requirements, finance, logistics, and sales. 
•       Industry knowledge: It is the knowledge of how a company is positioned within an industry. This knowledge provides the business analyst the easiest understanding of current activities going across the industry. 
•       Organization knowledge: It includes the understanding of the business analysts of the formal and informal communication channels, how to generate the profit, achievement of goals and structure of management and organization. 
•       Solution knowledge: It helps the business analysts to implement change by understanding department, system, technology and surroundings and helps to advance the existing solutions. 
•       Methodology knowledge: It governs the timing, goals, role, and features of how a change is managed. It gives information about context, opportunities, and constraints to improve the approach.

1      Communication skills: A business analyst must be a good communicator. It is the art of sending information to the receiver. Effective communication skills include better attitude, body language and change the meaning of words. Understanding and gaining the information about the concepts of communication skills can lead to a meaningful benefit.

      Communication Skills core competencies include: 

•           Verbal Communication: Business analyst use verbal communication to forward messages, ideas, facts, and concepts to stakeholders. It can be paired with written and non-verbal communication. A sender should pay more attention to the tone of speaking to know whether it is positive or negative and how it impacts the receiver. 
•       Non-Verbal Communication: These communication skills send messages to the receiver by body language, eye-contact, face expression, gestures, and posture. Using these skills help in enhancing the confidence, trust and capable behavior. 
•       Written Communication: It uses texts, shapes, symbols, and models to represent the ideas, context, and messages. It requires to use correct words so that the reader can understand the meaning of the information provided. 
•       Listening: A business analyst must have good listening skills to understand the information that the speaker is saying. Moreover, it helps in representing what the speaker is saying is important.

1      Interaction Skill: It is the skill characterized by the business analyst to cooperate and communicate with different kind of people like stakeholders, sponsors, vendors, learning and development professionals, end-users, team members, and customers.

      Interaction Skills core competencies include: 

•            Facilitation: Business analysts enable the relations between stakeholders in order to make decisions, share ideas and information, solve problems, negotiation and conflict resolution. 
•       Leadership and Influencing: To achieve goals in an organization, it is necessary for a business analyst to lead the team-members, encourage and influence them. 
•       Teamwork: Business analysts, stakeholders, project managers, and other team members often work in a team and these skills help them work effectively. 
•       Teaching: Its benefit business analyst by understanding the business analysis information, concepts and ideas to the stakeholders. 

        Tools and Technology: Business analysts often use a lot of tools, software’s and techniques to assist their information, facts, track issues, models and concepts to enhance their output.

      Business Analysis Tools and Technology core competencies include: 

•       Office Productivity Tools and Technology: Business Analysts use these tools to track information, artifacts, and document. Some of these office tools and technologies include:

Ø  Word processing and presentation programs

Ø  Presentation software

Ø  Spreadsheets

Ø  Communication tools (e-mail and instant messaging programs)

Ø  Collaboration and knowledge management tools

Ø  Hardware

•       Business Analysis Tools and Technology: For business analysis there are various tools and technologies used by business analyst for documents, models and manage the results of activities of analysis. These tools are mostly used for modeling, diagramming, documenting, analyzing and mapping requirements. 
•       Communication Tools and Technology: To work together with stakeholders, perform business analysis activities and manage team’s communication tools is used. Business analyst must choose appropriate according to the state and group of stakeholders.

      

 

   

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