A guide to self evaluation of Business Analysis skills

The previous two articles focused on business analysis activities and documentation.  This article sets out the skillsets a business analyst must have as a result.

Below sets out 10 of the main skills.  Each heading is then broken down into measures to either enable self evaluation if you are a business analyst or the level of skills to expect to aid assessment if you are a manager.  Business strategy is the only skill below that applies to more senior business analysts or business architects.

 

Business Strategy

• Understands and has knowledge of the strategic view of the business and how the project solution can be met to fit with this.
• Can articulate the benefits and outline estimated costs to justify the project

Communication skills

• Develops stakeholder focused relationships through building trust with and understanding of the stakeholder and issues important to them
• Gathers and acts on feedback from the stakeholder
• Manages expectations through timely, appropriate and consistent communication
• Can present to an audience and keep their attention
• Shares relevant knowledge of information clearly, concisely and confidently with the rest of the team members and other key individuals
• Develops stakeholder focused relationships through building trust with and understanding of the stakeholder and issues important to them
• Ensure health of relationship through consistent delivery and effective handover
• Shows political awareness to anticipate potential risks to the relationship
• Gathers and acts on feedback from the stakeholder
• Informs relevant parties of progress of project milestones
• Uses plain language and avoids unnecessary jargon
• Messages aligned with project manager
• Issues escalated appropriately
• Uses communication to reduce risks, time and costs to the project
• Professional manner showing an awareness of diversity and sensitivity to others
• Clearly identifies and highlights key messages
• Uses information persuasively to win active support to a course of action

Meeting facilitation

• Setting up meetings
  • Meetings and resources required are identified in advance and applied appropriately
• Meeting preparation
  • States clear objectives and agendas in advance of meetings
  • Prepares plan of what to cover in meetings e.g. prepared questions
  • Identifies all stakeholders required in advance
• Manages meetings/workshops
  • Objectives and background communicated clearly at the beginning of the meetings
  • Manages meeting duration effectively
  • Controls meetings by keeping the meeting to subject
  • Can obtain involvement from everyone
  • Can handle disruptive attendees
  • Can resolve any conflict
  • Achieves the objectives set for the meeting
  • Post meeting tasks
  • Minutes and actions documented and distributed
  • Actions raised in minutes chased and closed

Requirements elicitation

• Arranges workshops or interview with the correct stakeholders and stakeholders identified
• Identifies current and proposed business processes and responsibilities
• Requirements gathering is gone into enough detail (see requirements analysis)
• Uses a variety of sources used to gather the requirements e.g. users, documentation, data analysis etc.
• Uses a variety of elicitation techniques and applies in the right situation e.g. brainstorming, workshops, interviewing, surveys, documentation review, prototyping, observation

Requirements analysis

• Analyses effectively whether stated requirements are unclear, incomplete, ambiguous, or contradictory and resolves these issues
• Assesses the impact, if any of the requirements have on other areas and communicates to the stakeholders where appropriate
• Ability to categorise requirements against business processes to identify gaps
• Provides traceability throughout the project lifecycle back to business requirements and monitors against success criteria

Requirements management

• Understands how to manage an evolving requirements document
• Requirements document clearly states the scope and what should be excluded
• Demonstrates can document requirements in various forms such as natural language, use cases, process specifications etc.
• Requirements documented are actionable, measurable, testable, related to business needs or opportunities defined to a level of detail sufficient enough for the design phase
• Documents exceptions and business rules

Requirements validation

• Ensures requirements accepted into project are justified, feasible and fall within the scope of the project.
• The source, justification and priority are always included against every requirement specified.
• Ability to get all requirements agreed and signed off by the relevant stakeholders.

Problem solving

• Ability to identify, communicate and solve complex problems.
• Can communicate issues, uncover and understand options and makes recommendations to help get an issue resolved.

Estimation and planning

• Understands and can apply estimation techniques
• Can document estimation and assumptions gathered

Business process modelling

• Can put together business process model diagrams during workshops with stakeholders.
• Can use business process modelling to identify problems and opportunities by documenting the as is and to be processes.
• Knowledge of business process techniques such (BPMN) Business Process Modelling Notation.

 

Thoughts? Questions? Please share in the comments.

 

If you have found this article useful then you might like my book – The Business Analysis Handbook – Techniques and Questions for better Business Outcomes.  The book is available from www.koganpage.com and all major print and e-book retailers.