Hiring High-Paying Business Analysts Roles | Aniday

1. What is an IT Business Analyst (BA)?

An IT Business Analyst works in both areas which are Information Technology and Business Management. Their main responsibility is to use data to synthesize information about the business situation as well as the market and propose necessary changes for businesses or organizations. BA also suggests solution directions for businesses to improve processes, services, and software.

As a result of its application in process evaluation, requirement identification, proposal creation, and the preparation of reports for senior management and stakeholders, data may be considered a key component of business analysis processes. 

To help businesses optimize costs and improve operations, a Business Analyst needs to understand future trends affecting both the overall market and target user groups specifically. By gaining insights from data, they can evaluate processes, identify needs, and propose ideas to enhance performance and increase the value of products, services, software, and hardware for their organization. Close collaboration within teams, such as financial reporting and IT, allows the analyst to synthesize information on business situations and markets and then recommend necessary changes.

2. What are the responsibilities of an IT Business Analyst?

• Liaising between the IT department and operational branches.

• Working as an information and communication hub between business units.
• Understanding strategic business needs and growth plans.
• Improving the quality of IT products and services.
• Analyzing system designs and business models.
• Leveraging IT data to gain deep insights into business situations.
• Analyzing business requirements.
• Sourcing and implementing new business technologies.
• Finding technical solutions to meet business requirements.
• Producing reports on development and application deployment.
• Running A/B tests and analyzing data.
• Analyzing data to inform business decision-making.

3. What skills does an IT Business Analyst need?

The business analyst’s role requires both hard and soft skills. Business Analysts need to know how to handle, analyze, and report on data trends share this information with relevant departments, and apply it to the business. Not all BA require an IT background as long as they have a broad understanding of how systems, products, and tools function. Additionally, some business analysts have strong IT foundations but less business experience and are interested in transitioning from IT roles to this IT Business Analyst role.

Some of the most important skills and experience for a BA include:

• Communication skills, both written and verbal
• Analytical and problem-solving thinking
• Attention to detail and ability to deliver high accuracy
• Knowledge of business structures
• Using SQL or other database query languages
• Programming skills like Python and R
• Project management skills
• Requirements gathering
• Cost-benefit analysis
• Process modelling
• Understanding of networks, databases and other technologies

4. International certifications related to Business Analyst

Although business analysis is a relatively new specialty in information technology, some organizations provide certifications to help impress employers and demonstrate your capabilities. Organizations such as IIBA, IQBBA, IREB, and PMI all provide their appropriate certifications for business analysts. Including:

• IIBA Entry Certificate in Business Analysis (ECBA)
• IIBA Certification of Competency in Business Analysis (CCBA)
• IIBA Certified Business Analyst Professional (CBAP)
• IIBA Agile Analysis Certification (AAC)
• IQBBA Certified Foundation Level Business Analyst (CFLBA)
• IREB Certified Professional for Requirements Engineering (CPRE)
• PMI Professional in Business Analysis (PBA)

5. What are the roles of the IT Business Analyst position in software development?

The IT Business Analyst uses analysis programs and real-time user data to identify user trends and issues that users have with applications. As data becomes more valuable to organizations, business analysts do as well.

A BA working in the Waterfall model - a model that focuses on the logical progression of steps in the software development life cycle, gets involved more at the front end, when collecting, analyzing, and prioritizing user requirements, before handing them over to developers and then moving to another software development project.

6. Aniday summarises some requirements for the Business Analyst position:

• Bachelor's degree in Computer Science or Information Systems

• Logical, systematic thinking
• Mastering processes, and standards for writing requirement specification documents
• Excellent time management and task management skills
• Teamwork and effective communication skills
• High initiative in carrying out assigned tasks and responsibilities
• Knowledge of SQL and data modeling
• Presentation skills
• Analytical and structured working method with attention to detail
• Strong, flexible communication skills and team spirit
• Certification in process or technical or business analysis
• Experience in building business process models.
• Testing experience