The business analyst position requires both hard skills and soft skills. Business analysts need to know how to pull, analyze and report data trends, and be able to share that information with others and apply it on the business side. Not all business analysts need a background in IT as long as they have a general understanding of how systems, products and tools work. Alternatively, some business analysts have a strong IT background and less experience in business, and are interested in shifting away from IT to this hybrid role.
According to IIBA some of the most important skills and experience for a business analyst are:
? Oral and written communication skills
? Interpersonal and consultative skills
? Facilitation skills
? Analytical thinking and problem solving
? Being detail-oriented and capable of delivering a high level of accuracy
? Organizational skills
? Knowledge of business structure
? Stakeholder analysis
? Requirements engineering
? Costs benefit analysis
? Processes modeling
? Understanding of networks, databases and other technology
