A business analyst is someone who studies an enterprise or company domain and records its systems, processes, or objects, analyzing the entire business domain or its integration with technologies. To become a business analyst, one must hold a degree in business administration or a related discipline and acquire extensive training and experience in analyzing business information. Business Analyst can work for privately for a company or for a publicly traded firm as a consultant.
As business analysts to work on different projects for different companies, they are required to be versatile enough to perform the job of any given project manager, depending on the requirements. Generally, business analysts have broad knowledge of business processes and a strong ability to interpret business reports, preferably in the form of Excel spreadsheets, so that they can be effectively utilized by project managers. The primary duty of business analysts is to gather and compare information from various sources and then analyze the information, reporting on the issues or problems that need urgent attention. Business analysts also help project managers in improving business processes, products, services, or software via data analysis.
The analysis results are used by project managers to plan and implement better processes and to resolve problems affecting the stakeholders. In order to become an effective business analyst, it is important for the professionals to acquire a good knowledge, understanding, and experience of all business processes. It is also necessary for the professionals to be good communicators and extroverts. Most importantly, they must possess the ability to identify the stakeholders, analyze the issues affecting them, and make recommendations for improvement to the stakeholders.