What are some technical skills a business analyst should have?

[Phokus]

I'm interested in being a business analyst after one of the threads here at ATOT... what skills should a business analyst have? I worked with MS Visio and Project a bit and i assume those would be used a lot...

 

[d3n]

I dunno, most of the BA's I deal with just need to know technical details related to the work flows they need to model and improve. 'How much does this scan per hour' 'how many keystrokes can fit in here' That kind of stuff.

Designers/Engineers/Solution Architects generally do the nitty gritty details.

 

[halik]

Originally posted by: Phokus
I'm interested in being a business analyst after one of the threads here at ATOT... what skills should a business analyst have? I worked with MS Visio and Project a bit and i assume those would be used a lot...

Disclaimer: I work for an ibank, I'm assuming you wanna be an analyst.

A degree in finance / economics is a good start. You need to know accounting; excel in and out; bloomberg is preferred. Great communication skill and good stamina required.

 

[Phokus]

Originally posted by: halik

Originally posted by: Phokus
I'm interested in being a business analyst after one of the threads here at ATOT... what skills should a business analyst have? I worked with MS Visio and Project a bit and i assume those would be used a lot...

Disclaimer: I work for an ibank, I'm assuming you wanna be an analyst.

A degree in finance / economics is a good start. You need to know accounting; excel in and out; bloomberg is preferred. Great communication skill and good stamina required.

err, are you talking about being a financial analyst? I think that's different than business analyst.

 

[Jawo]

I am somewhat of a business analyst and I know Office inside and out, VB, C++, Project, Visio, among others...

 

[Feldenak]

I'm not sure exactly what skills I need to become a BA but I am currently a jack-of-all-trades and master of none. I'm seriously considering a move from IT management to a BA type position.

 

[FoBoT]

email
powerpoint
visio to make laminated timelines
excel
outlook to setup lots of meetings

conference calls and webinars

 

[mugs]

Originally posted by: Phokus

Originally posted by: halik

Originally posted by: Phokus
I'm interested in being a business analyst after one of the threads here at ATOT... what skills should a business analyst have? I worked with MS Visio and Project a bit and i assume those would be used a lot...

Disclaimer: I work for an ibank, I'm assuming you wanna be an analyst.

A degree in finance / economics is a good start. You need to know accounting; excel in and out; bloomberg is preferred. Great communication skill and good stamina required.

err, are you talking about being a financial analyst? I think that's different than business analyst.

Yeah I think he is. I think what you're talking about is sometimes called a systems analyst. At my college you could take just about any degree an add a ~20 hour "systems" concentration to it. Most people who did that were either business majors or computer science majors. I was a C.S. major, and I did the Business Information Systems track in addition to the general "systems" concentration, so in the end I had about 40 hours of computer science and 40 hours of systems analysis and design oriented classes.

You'll need
- Good communication skills (like the guy in Office Space who got hit by the truck)
- An understanding of the business processes you're trying to improve. This depends entirely on what field you want to work in.
- An understanding of software development, particularly databases

Basically you're the middleman between the people who have a problem and the people who can fix the problem, and you need to be able to capture all of the requirements and convey them accurately.

 

[HamSupLo]

you'll be handing the specs from the customer to the engineers

 

[WildHorse]

Get really good at taking a sea of seemingly amorphous data and depicting it in a meaningful form.

At taking a lot of data and using it to build a strong case, as rationale for negotiation positions.

Charts, graphs, reports. Database / mining.
Of course, accounting, project management, and excellent communication & presentation skills are a given.

Companies are awash in floods of data that they need help making understandable sense out of.

 

[tfinch2]

Originally posted by: mugs

Originally posted by: Phokus

Originally posted by: halik

Originally posted by: Phokus
I'm interested in being a business analyst after one of the threads here at ATOT... what skills should a business analyst have? I worked with MS Visio and Project a bit and i assume those would be used a lot...

Disclaimer: I work for an ibank, I'm assuming you wanna be an analyst.

A degree in finance / economics is a good start. You need to know accounting; excel in and out; bloomberg is preferred. Great communication skill and good stamina required.

err, are you talking about being a financial analyst? I think that's different than business analyst.

Yeah I think he is. I think what you're talking about is sometimes called a systems analyst. At my college you could take just about any degree an add a ~20 hour "systems" concentration to it. Most people who did that were either business majors or computer science majors. I was a C.S. major, and I did the Business Information Systems track in addition to the general "systems" concentration, so in the end I had about 40 hours of computer science and 40 hours of systems analysis and design oriented classes.

You'll need
- Good communication skills (like the guy in Office Space who got hit by the truck)
- An understanding of the business processes you're trying to improve. This depends entirely on what field you want to work in.
- An understanding of software development, particularly databases

Basically you're the middleman between the people who have a problem and the people who can fix the problem, and you need to be able to capture all of the requirements and convey them accurately.

Basically you'll be a documentation whore.