Business analyst: perspectives and features of the profession

2024 Author: Howard Calhoun | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 10:16

Modern society has a lot of different professions. Now you can choose any of them, guided by the satisfaction of intellectual needs, career prospects or economic stability. This article focuses on a special profession called a business analyst. It is in demand in a field that opens up new opportunities for this world, develops your mind, teaches the ability to communicate and think, and also helps any financial company to develop.

About the profession, its main characteristics

A business analyst is a specialist working in a particular company who studies its structures, trends, opportunities, growth forecasts, analyzes information and actively communicates with the opposite side - customers. He must know what is required of his company so that its products are in demand, revenues grow, and buyers do not make claims. Therefore, the terms of reference of this specialist include close communication with customers in order to clarify all their requirements.

The duties of a business analyst include the following functions:

• Analysiscompany opportunities.
• Developing new work models.
• Defining perspectives.
• Activity automation.

It can be rightly argued that this profession is an integral part of every company and helps it develop, earn prestige in society and improve its reputation among customers.

History of Appearance

Western Europe and the United States of America became the official initiators of such an interesting profession. It was they who realized 20 years ago that companies around the world are completely lacking new ideas for growth, prospects for improvement, and visual distribution. From this it follows that they began to look for qualified personnel who would help them in this. It can be concluded that the profession of a business analyst is quite young and is a developing and productive speci alty.

Responsibilities

A business analyst, like any other company specialist, has a list of duties that he must treat with responsibility. He must understand that the future of the company depends on his assessment of the market and the work of the enterprise. Also, a business analyst needs to maintain close business cooperation with the customer, find out what he wants to see the products supplied to him, and resolve all disputes related to this issue. He must:

• For the benefit of the enterprise of which I am an employee, analyze customer requirements for the product, study standards, discuss production conditions and improve products, collectinformation and perform its formalization, as well as coordination, to be a confident PC user.
• Work with business models. Compile, analyze, process company development models.
• Develop new efficient business practices. Consideration by a business analyst of the company's promotion processes is an important point in his activity.
• Be able to work with documents. This type of activity will become an integral part of the professional activity of an analyst.
• Make presentations for entrepreneurs, customers, employees of this company to evaluate the developed ideas.
• Actively compare the achievements of different companies to promote the cause more effectively.

As we can see, the duties of an employee include a fairly decent number of functions that he must perform in the course of his professional activities.

Are there any specific requirements

Each highly paid and promising vacancy implies high requirements for applicants. The business analyst profession is no exception. Often people cannot find a job due to the lack of some items that are on the list of requirements:

• Availability of higher education.
• Experience as a business analyst. He will be needed. Knowledge in the banking sector and activity as an information data analyst are also welcome.
• Experience in writing and maintaining documentation governing regulations.
• Correct andeffective analytical thinking.
• Competent speech, both oral and written.

If you are the owner of all these favorable qualities, your calling is to work in this area. You do not need to get involved in activities in which you are completely ignorant. This applies not only to this profession.

How to become a good specialist

Anyone who graduated from mathematical, financial, economic, technical universities, as well as those who have analytical skills in drafting regulations and submitting demanded proposals can apply for a business analyst vacancy.

Karl Vigers in his book Software Requirements Engineering says that analysts are born, not trained to be. To work in this rather complex area, you need to have your own distinctive features, and not learned material. Thus, the author emphasizes that there are only a few real analysts, namely those who were born for this business.

Business Analyst Salary

Since this is a highly demanded profession that requires a special mindset and skills, it is perfectly fair to assume that the employee's salary will be high. This is true, especially in the field of information business intelligence. Depending on the level of your skills and abilities, education and opportunities, length of service, nature of production and other factors, the salary may vary somewhat. The average salary of a worker in this field in Russia is 80 thousand rubles. But he may beat the level of 40 thousand and reach up to 150 thousand rubles a month.

As you can see, BI training is sure to pay off once you get started. In addition, the profession is in many ways useful and interesting, with the prospect of self-development, which is a very important criterion for those who care about self-improvement.

Become a real analyst

Many see themselves in this field, but few really want to understand what it takes to become a business analyst. The advice of people who have already succeeded in this area will help us figure it out. It should be noted that professionals in the field of analytics feel very independent and confident in the world of modern business. To achieve this, you need to follow these recommendations:

• Develop your communication. If the analyst is in the same building/room with the customer, he definitely needs to visit him, talk, clarify the details of the joint project, ask how much the customer likes this proposal, clarify with him how he wants to see the results of cooperation.
• Draw charts, tables, business situations for easier and more organized work. This very often helps people to quickly absorb all the material and make a decision.
• Create and play various situations of development of events. Analysts often have to complicate their tasks in order to achieve a more effective result. You can work equally productively with simplified options, because you need to be able to foresee all the paths of events.
• Notrefuse to make comparisons. The job of an analyst is to constantly compare the activities of different companies. Professionals should also compare their own work with the achievements of other professionals from the general field. This is one of the components of the business intelligence system. Upgrading skills, the opportunity to communicate with more experienced workers in this area - that's what you need to strive for.
• Analytical approach to solving problems. When a problem arises, the main goal of the analyst is to eliminate its root. To do this, you need to analyze all the data on the work done, "get to the bottom" of the problem and fix it.
• Correct speech. This point is important not in terms of literacy (also very necessary), but in being able to correctly and accurately state your capabilities to the customer. Misleading is a common problem, and not just in business.

How to identify your most important business intelligence tasks.

It is necessary to compare existing processes with the detailed desires of customers, offer them options for optimizing these processes, and consult with developers and testers. At work, the analyst weighs all the pros and cons, providing the economic justification for each decision he makes. People of this profession help customers and contractors (manufacturers of goods) find a common language, build a business in such a way that mutual benefit and a desire for further cooperation develop.

Vacanciesbusiness intelligence set. They can be found in completely different areas. These can be banking companies, construction companies, trade, IT, industrial enterprises. In each of these areas, these vacancies are highly paid and promising.

Work in big cities

In megacities it is much easier to find a suitable job, as there are many promising areas where you can carry out your career growth, use your knowledge and skills. Business Analyst jobs are plentiful as well, as every business needs to run their business for maximum profit.

Following all of the above clarifications about the requirements for hiring analysts, you also need to take into account some of the wishes of the employer regarding the expected work for you. Business analysts in Moscow must be fluent in several foreign languages, as capital companies quite often cooperate with foreign business partners. The work experience required to have an analytics in a leading company must be at least ten years.

The same is observed in other large cities, such as Kyiv, Yekaterinburg, St. Petersburg, Minsk. Business analysts in these major centers can also find jobs easily. Just as employers can require you to comply with their obligations, so you have the right to demand decent conditions for your work from them. Sometimes there are situations when a specialist refuses to work in a company due to unsatisfactory conditions thatprovided to him.

The work of a business analyst is multifaceted and can be used in many areas of activity. Sometimes people in this profession simultaneously perform the duties of a manager or quality manager in the company.

Cons of the profession

Analysts in the industry report the following challenges they face:

• Difficulties in communicating with customers, inability to agree or compromise.
• The need to study a sufficiently large amount of information, analyze and process it in a short time. In addition to studying and developing their projects, a specialist must keep new technologies and approaches under control, as well as be able to analyze business models.

However, business analysts in companies discuss their tasks in advance, that is, unforeseen situations most often do not happen. The employer must discuss with the applicant both the pros and cons in the future work, thereby taking responsibility for all misunderstandings that may arise in the future.

Prospects are different in every case. There is a lot to learn to become an analytics manager or a qualified professional to provide consulting services. When starting a business, it is also necessary to analyze the profitability of the business. The profession of an analyst is indeed diverse. Despite the disadvantages that are present in all areas of activity, and not just in analytics, here you can significantly raise the level of your self-awareness and implement the mostambitious projects.

Summing up

The profession of a business analyst is difficult, but quite interesting, making you think. To get a job, you need to have many skills: work experience, the ability to communicate with people, the ability to analyze the situation, be able to draw up plans, models, developments, navigate in many other areas, because all this knowledge can be useful in work. There are many business analyst vacancies, so you can always find a place for yourself.

The activity of an analyst leads to organizational change. He is responsible for determining what changes and methods will be proposed to ensure stable growth in the company's profits. The main goal of the analyst's work is also considered to be the ability not only to analyze the received data and develop new ones, but to have the ability to communicate - to communicate with people so that the offer suits both the company and the customer. Only a few succeed in this, which makes the work of a specialist so important and significant.

Summing up the information about the business analyst profession, we can say with confidence that it is very necessary in the modern world. This speci alty improves the performance of companies, positively affects their reputation, the development of new ideas and products, and also improves interaction with customers - the lifeblood of every business.

You need to love your job and give it your all. Then it will be of great benefit not only to you, but also to others.