The BABOK talks of the underlying competencies for a Business Analyst at length. At the core of all those competencies is the ability to build relationships. In other words, it is the foundation. The aptitudes are not noticed unless you have a relationship with the stakeholders. Demonstrating these capabilities helps enhance your relationships even further. So, I will even say relationship building is a prefix and a suffix to competencies. Everything revolves around your ability to build relationships.

A change request (CR) is basically any change in the initial set of signed-off requirements. So, typically in a waterfall model implementation, the requirements phase ensures that all the requirements (features/functionalities/functional and non-functional) are agreed upon and documented before development starts. After that, any new scope brought or requested by clients becomes a change request. There is an additional cost associated with implementing a change request.

Even in the agile model of working, although there is flexibility in the implementation of the project, vendors ensure that a high-level set of requirements are discussed and agreed upon. The iterative way of working ensures that clients have their eyes on the product as it is developing and can suggest corrections or alignments. However, no vendor can work with entirely flexible requirements. It's not feasible from a budgeting standpoint.

The job of a business analyst is possibly one of the most diversified and can barely fit into a fixed set of tasks and responsibilities. While most business analysts have been turning around initiatives and solutions in their organization, many work with the sales and marketing team to make the products and solutions a winner in the market by bringing out features based on market needs.

Most business analysts play a key role in facilitating digital transformation projects in their organization by designing systems that align with business goals. They also play a pivotal role in implementing new business processes, removing inefficiencies from the existing processes, and reducing operational costs.

Have you ever wondered how global a career in Business Analysis might be? So, you roll up to your desktop or laptop every morning in an office or these days mostly likely at your workspace at home. You check your emails, plan the day, speak to your colleagues and manager, attend meetings and work your BA magic all within the boundaries of your project, client or organisation. Everyone speaks the same language and I’m not talking about English or Spanish, I mean tech speak, industry speak and BA buzz words like ‘moment of truth’. But what if you were to take your desk and move it halfway across the globe to a different country and time zone? Would organisations even face the same challenges most BAs are helping to solve and would teams use the same techniques to help solve them? I can answer that question with a resounding ‘Yes!’

Agile project management describes an iterative approach that targets project management in a given setup. Usually, Agile project management focuses on subdividing large projects into smaller and more manageable tasks. These tasks are completed in some sort of short iterations that cover the entire project life cycle. 

If your team takes advantage of agile methodology, it will have higher chances of finishing the work faster, optimizing the workflow, and adapting to ever-changing project requirements. 

Agile project management enables your team to re-evaluate every single task it is undertaking. The Agile project management also lets the team members adjust in increments to keep up with the shifting customer landscape.