The better. Business Analysis.
Institute. Presence the Better Business
Analysis podcast. With Benjamin Walsh and I'm your
host. Benjamin Walsh, we are going to
continue on our BA Bytes. Series because they're short,
they're. Punchy and they get straight to.
The point and they also. Are able to be done.
In a hectic. Week so.
Today we're going to be talking about Hidden Gems 10.
Underrated skills. Every better.
Business Analyst should master. That's right, I have compiled.
10 skills. That I.
Don't think any BA. Has.
I think these are 10 skills that make.
You better than the average BA. So let's work.
Through them one to 10 #1. Is so.
Important. It's managing up.
You need to influence stakeholders.
And higher ups. Without.
Formal authority. OK, so you may not have an A.
Reporting line to these people. But going.
Through your. Team leader isn't.
The right. Way of doing it your team leader
is. Sometimes a people lead.
As well. So you've got your project
manager, but. But really, you should.
Be presenting as ABA. Back to POS.
Or sponsors. Of projects.
OK, you need to be able to present your ideas in a way
that. Aligns.
With leadership. Priorities.
Objectives. Benefits.
Realization the business. Case.
And you need to balance upward communication with the needs of
the team. OK, this is.
Really really important. I think this probably is my
number one. Strength and.
I think this. Is the area where I see a lot of
BAS. Not doing well really.
Well, in and I don't expect a. Junior BA.
To do this, OK, this is a senior BA skill, but if you're a
junior, get good at this now #2. Great presentation skills and
look, this is what everyone's saying.
I'm going to be. More.
Specific here. You need to create compelling
data. Driven presentations.
That resonate. With a diverse audience.
OK, stakeholder. Person on the street.
The minister, you know, if you're working.
For a government department. You need.
To use. Storytelling.
You need to use the techniques involved in storytelling.
To engage with stakeholders, persuade.
Them you need to know. How to leverage visuals?
And infographics like a marketer would.
To simplify complex problems. I I think the trick.
Here is to play the marketer your job.
Is to play the marketer. That's one of the roles of BA.
#3 is team connector. Your job is to.
Bridge gaps between departments and teams.
And facilitate. Communication it's around
building networks within the organization to ensure.
That all voices are heard doesn't matter where they.
Are in the hierarchy and it's. Your.
Role is really like. Acting as the glue.
That keeps cross functional teams aligned.
This is so true. The glue a lot of times be as
described as the glue. Between teams. #4 which relates
to #3. Is peacekeeper.
You need to mediate conflicts between stakeholders.
Because there's. Usually complex issues here.
And they might have competing interests and and sometimes the
answer. Is not.
Black and white, it's usually grey in our profession.
You need to facilitate, compromise and foster a.
Positive. Team environment, that's.
Part of your job. You are the good cop.
And usually the PM is the bad. Cop now the roles we.
Play so you need. To help with.
That team culture and you need to maintain focus.
On the project goals. While addressing personal and
team dynamics, you could say this is team leader but in a.
Project sense. You've only really got the.
Project manager and they're kind of managing up and doing risk
management and they're really. Focused on the.
The deliverable and they don't understand some.
Of the. Dynamics BS generally find that.
Play that place. Or change manager if you've got
that on the team. #5 is treating the project like.
Your. Own baby.
I do. This and this can be detrimental
to your mental health and your work life balance, but I'm going
to throw it in there. You should take.
Full ownership and accountability.
For project success. In your heart, you should care
about it. Good BAS care about projects,
OK. Maybe they.
Those good BAS are also. Crazy in their head and don't
have a good work. Life balance, but I would say
and from a skills point of. View not a well-being point of
view. Those BA's who do treat their
projects like a baby are. The ones who I think are best.
You need. To be deeply.
Invested in every phase of the project from inception all the
way to completion. And you need you.
You start worrying about every detail that needs to be attended
to. You nurture.
It like a baby. You know this has caused me.
Lots of hours of non. Sleep.
And sometimes I give too much. But generally, BA's who are
better treat their projects like a.
Baby number. 6 Strategic focus. And strategic.
Foresight, OK. So it's around anticipating.
Future blow roadblocks. And preparing contingency plans.
So if this happens, we should do this.
Like risk mitigation for example, aligning the project
outcomes with long term business.
Goals that. Is a. 100% your job.
B. The BMBA is that or.
Otherwise, you're just. An analyst and you should really
understand market trends with the impact on your project and
your organization. Again, strong.
Capital B. If you're a business analyst and
you are locked into that. Organization. #7 is treating
your in customers with. High levels of empathy, or
empathy for end users is another way of saying that.
You need to. Advocate for the needs and pain
points of end users or customers during development.
That is totally your job. You need to help.
Design solutions. And quotations that are user
centric. Customer centric and.
Intuitive they. Should be easy to use.
And you may be involved in conducting user research to
inform. Decisions.
If you're in a customer centric product or an environment.
Your product will either succeed or not based on customer
feedback. OK, but if you're just internal?
That. Still matters what end users
think about your project, and your job is to advocate for
them. #8. Is adaptability.
That's right. This is probably what we've
taken. From Agile.
In terms of the culture side. Quickly adapting and adjusting.
Project. Scope, resources, and goals.
Remaining flexible and open to. New ideas and methodologies,
regardless of what they are, and never.
Gaining uncertainty? With.
Confidence and poise. OK.
So you should be adaptive, you should know about that and
that's. Really.
Where? The adaptability agile culture.
We should. We should.
Definitely remain. And so you need to be adaptable.
#9 is data-driven decision making.
Use your analytics ability DA. Capital A.
Leverage analytics. And metrics to.
Guide project. Decisions you.
Should have. Facts behind your decisions.
You can translate data into actionable insights.
For stakeholders. You can ensure.
That every. Business decision.
Is backed by solid evidence. And I would say this area #9.
Can be done. A lot.
Easier with AI now. OK, so you should utilize big
data and AI to. Strengthen #9 which is
data-driven decision making, and finally #10 is.
Holistic. Holistic.
Problem solving. Look beyond the immediate issues
to understand. The root causes the five whys.
You're not an incident manager, you're a problem manager.
You should. Be looking at integrating
multiple perspectives to developing comprehensive
solutions in a road map kind of way and you should be addressing
both technical and business challenges with a.
Balanced. Approach.
Look, the best projects, the hardest projects, the ones where
you've got good conflict high. Performing teams.
As where there is. Helpful tension.
Between the BA and the architect and you're.
Making compromises. And then as a result.
You get. You're balancing.
All those things like like the scars of justice, if you like to
have the best outcome that you can possibly do with the
permutations. And the inputs and outputs and
resources. You have got OK there. 10 gems
there. Hidden gems.
That better BAS have I'll. See you.
Next week.