Business analysis has evolved over the years. Businesses, companies, and organizations who utilize IT in their operations have embraced it as a key principle in helping them grow.
Business Analyst Solutions defined Business Analysis as the task of understanding business change needs, assessing the business impact of those changes, capturing, analyzing and documenting requirements and supporting the communication and delivery of requirements with relevant stakeholders.
Using this definition, I like to compare a business analyst to an architect. While the architect asks questions about design, budget, and personal preferences of a person who wants to build a house; similarly, the business analyst interacts with business owners to know and understand their needs.
A business analyst also produces requirements which clearly state the needs of a business and ensures that those align with its business processes, just as an architect would draw up plans and have an agreement with the owner before reaching out to builders.
In the same vein, as an architect is always on site to monitor the changes with the building and also make modifications to the plan, a business analyst is available to help businesses implement the required changes needed to make effective use of its system.
Having employed business analysts in the past in my company, I strongly believe that any business that intends to grow must hire business analysts for their projects.
In this post, I will share with you four things you must consider before you decide on hiring a business analyst for your next project.
1. Good Communication Skills
A business analyst is usually engaged in critical discussions within a company’s business system. This is one thing you must consider before hiring one. The business analyst interact with people most of the time, just like a communication channel between the company’s stakeholders and the team working on the project.
If the business analyst you’re hiring isn’t a competent negotiator and is not comfortable with asking the relevant stakeholders what they want to achieve with the company’s system, he’ll find the job difficult to execute well.
The analyst also needs to communicate adequately and regularly with all the team members, responding to their queries and making them understand the importance of the job at hand, and when they’re expected to deliver.
2. High Level Of Engagement
Aside from communicating, you must consider a business analyst that has a high level of engagement.
To do this, you must look for someone who is ready to engage with all strata of the company’s stakeholders. Your analyst will have to get to know the company culture, and also relate to their needs on a personal level.
It’s usually a difficult task to convince stakeholders to work with a business analyst and make it a top priority as it introduces a new personality into the mix.
However, if you hire someone who knows what they are doing and is able to relate and engage well with the stakeholders, they will find it easy to convince the stakeholders to work with them.
One of the traits you should look for before assuming that the business analyst you want to hire will get the job done easily is the passion they have for the work they do and the project you’ve assigned them.
By doing this, you’ll effectively hire someone who ultimately is an asset to the organization, has a coherent understanding of what happens in the company, and can bring on everybody in the company together to achieve a common goal.
3. Highly Analytical and Resourceful
Just as the name implies, it’s a no-brainer that a business analyst should be analytical.
Before you decide to hire one, you must look out for someone who has a strong analytical mind, can deduce results from graphs and data, and can make conclusions from those analysis.
You need to look for someone who has the capability to see the big picture, someone who can extrapolate great goals from seemingly simple and mundane circumstances.
The business analyst you need will be someone who is resourceful, willing to learn from mistakes, and make use of the skills and knowledge of the team members.
He should also be made aware of past conflicts within the organization, helping him to head off tough situations that may arise as change is effected.
When you hire a resourceful business analyst, he’ll not only help your business to stay ahead of its competitors but also help you connect with opportunities that’ll benefit your business.
4. Considerable Level Of Experience In Multiple Roles
When hiring a business analyst, you should look out for someone who is able to liaise with various departments and stakeholders in the company.
You should consider someone who has some previous experience with the type of project that you want to hire them for and understands the basic concepts that make your business tick.
When you hire someone who is knowledgeable in the area they are working in as they already have a clear understanding about it, hence helping the business greatly in the long run.
Wrapping It Up
Over the years, business analysis has evolved. In my experience of employing business analysts for the projects in my company, I view a business analyst as a strategic thinker that drives change within the company.
Hence, any business that is interested in growing in this day and age needs a business analyst.
In this post, I’ve shared with you four things you must look out for as a company before you hire a business analyst.
Author: Owen McGab Enaohwo is the CEO and Co-Founder of SweetProcess
Owen McGab Enaohwo is the CEO and Co-Founder of SweetProcess; an easy-to-use and intuitive business process management software founded in 2013 that makes it possible for company executives and their employees to collaborate together to quickly document standard operating procedures, processes, and policies.
He is the author of The Ultimate Guide To Business Process Reengineering, a resourceful guide on how business process re-engineering has involved and how to implement it in your company.