How to become a business analyst

How to become a business analyst Agenda Demystifying the business analyst role The skills needed to become a business analyst Learning paths to become a business analyst Best practices for standing out as a business analyst Closing notes and Q&A “A business analyst is a person who processes, interprets and documents business processes, products, services and software through analysis of data.” The skills needed to become a business analyst Business Analyst is one of the many data roles available for you

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I’m Adel Nehme, Data Science

Best practices for standing out as a business analyst Closing notes and Q&A

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Demystifying the business analyst role

1

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“A business analyst is a person who processes, interprets

and documents business processes, products, services and

software through analysis of data.”

Wikipedia

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“A business analyst bridges the gap between the business

and IT.”

Wikipedia

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The Business Analyst Persona

DATA SKILLS

Beginner

■ Draw common visualizations and

extract simple descriptive statistics from data.

■ Understand the business applications

of data.

Business Analysts: Tying insights to actionable results to increase profitability & efficiency

Intermediate

■ A deep knowledge of the

business domain (e.g Finance) and the ability to report and communicate insights using data

■ A strong grasp of BI tools.

Advanced

■ Democratize access to data

insights

■ Close collaboration with

business leaders to influence business decisions

COMMONLY USED TOOLS EXAMPLE JOB TITLES

Data Analyst Business Analyst Marketing Analyst Supply Chain Analyst Financial Analyst

Spreadsheets

Excel Sheets

Business Intelligence Tools

Tableau PowerBI

Databases

SQL

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What business analysts do

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What business analysts do

Agile & scrum

CHANGE & PROJECT

MANAGEMENT

Driving engagement

STAKEHOLDER ALIGNMENT

Data Analysis Functional Analysis

What business analysts do

Quantitative & Qualitative Methods

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What business analysts do

Quantitative & Qualitative Methods

Constant iteration

PROCESS OPTIMIZATION

What do we need?

REQUIREMENT GATHERING

Agile & scrum

CHANGE & PROJECT

MANAGEMENT

Driving engagement

STAKEHOLDER ALIGNMENT

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Exploratory Data Analysis

Calculate metrics effectively

Share data visualizations that uncover characteristics of data and feature

relationships with stakeholders

✓ Filtering and analysis

Ensure data cleanliness and quality

2

Clean data to ensure accurate analysis

✓ Missing values in data

Ensure that results and activities are aligned with business objectives

✓ Business strategy & Objectives

✓ Critical Thinking

✓ Strategic thinking

✓ Prioritization

✓ Translate technical results

✓ Develop reports & presentations

✓ Craft audience specific stories

✓ Leverage data visualizations

Clear recommendations based on insights

2

Create recommendations based on data insights

✓ Business strategy & objectives

✓ Appropriate business context

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What business analysts do

Quantitative & Qualitative Methods

Agile & scrum

CHANGE & PROJECT

MANAGEMENT

Driving engagement

STAKEHOLDER ALIGNMENT

Data Analysis Functional Analysis

Understanding business processes and impact of recommendations

✓ Create user stories

✓ Process maps and charts

✓ Stakeholder interviews

✓ Business Processing Modelling

Deliver a project plan

Ensuring that project is measured accurately and iterated upon

✓ KPI setting and definition

✓ Measurement & Analysis

✓ Improvement & Control

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Change & Project Management

Avoiding scope creep and constant iteration

1

✓ Stakeholder alignment

✓ Stakeholder acceptance

✓ Aligning change initiatives

Developing minimum viable products and iterating from there

Keeping projects on track

✓ Translate technical results

✓ Develop reports & presentations

✓ Craft audience specific stories

✓ Leverage data visualizations

Clear recommendations based on insights

2

Create recommendations based on data insights

✓ Business strategy & objectives

✓ Appropriate business context

Active feedback and alignment

3

Update project plans based on stakeholder feedback and ensure alignment

✓ Coordination & user feedback

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Where do business analysts work?

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Where do business analysts work?

✓ Forecasting & Modeling

✓ Sales data & revenue

and cost targets

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Salary range for business analysts

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The skills needed to become

a business analyst

2

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Modern analysts are experts in going wide

PROJECT

MANAGEMENT KNOWLEDGEDOMAIN BUSINESS ANALYSIS BUSINESS CASE WRITING COMMUNICATIONSTORYTELLING &

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Modern analysts are experts in going wide

✓ Project planning and timeline analysis (e.g Gant chart)

○ Assign different tasks to different team members

○ Work with milestones

✓ Discuss timelines and dare to push back

✓ Stakeholder focused

PROJECT MANAGEMENT KNOWLEDGEDOMAIN BUSINESS ANALYSIS BUSINESS CASE WRITING COMMUNICATIONSTORYTELLING &

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Example of a

Gant Chart

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Modern analysts are experts in going wide

✓ Become an expert in your field

○ Upskill yourself if necessary

✓ Know your strengths and weaknesses

○ Know when to ask for help

✓ We live in a complex world Be aware you can’t know everything and that that’s ok.

PROJECT MANAGEMENT KNOWLEDGEDOMAIN BUSINESS ANALYSIS BUSINESS CASE WRITING COMMUNICATIONSTORYTELLING &

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Modern analysts are experts in going wide

✓ Written analysis documents carry more weight than conversations in chats or email

✓ Speaking language <> Writing language

○ Spontaneous vs planned

✓ Create a logical flow in your document

PROJECT MANAGEMENT KNOWLEDGEDOMAIN BUSINESS ANALYSIS BUSINESS CASE WRITING COMMUNICATIONSTORYTELLING &

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Example of a business case

writing document flow

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Modern analysts are experts in going wide

✓ Technical and non-technical stakeholders

○ Business leaders and data consumers

○ Data teams or engineers

✓ Create compelling presentations

PROJECT MANAGEMENT KNOWLEDGEDOMAIN BUSINESS ANALYSIS BUSINESS CASE WRITING COMMUNICATIONSTORYTELLING &

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Modern analysts are experts in going wide

BASIC STATISTICS

ANALYTICAL TECHNIQUES

DATABASES &

PROGRAMMING

BUSINESS INTELLIGENCE TOOLS

✓ Summary statistics

✓ Probabilities & distributions

✓ Correlation, confidence intervals, outlier

detection

✓ Hypothesis Testing (Optional)

✓ Not a statistics expert

PROJECT

MANAGEMENT KNOWLEDGEDOMAIN BUSINESS ANALYSIS BUSINESS CASE WRITING COMMUNICATIONSTORYTELLING &

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Modern analysts are experts in going wide

✓ Strong use of Excel and/or Google sheets

✓ Basic knowledge of forecasting &

machine learning (optional)

BASIC STATISTICS

ANALYTICAL TECHNIQUES

DATABASES &

PROGRAMMING

BUSINESS INTELLIGENCE TOOLS

PROJECT

MANAGEMENT KNOWLEDGEDOMAIN BUSINESS ANALYSIS BUSINESS CASE WRITING COMMUNICATIONSTORYTELLING &

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Modern analysts are experts in going wide

✓ Data Management (SQL)

✓ Low-code data wrangling platforms

(Tableau Prep, Power BI DAX)

✓ Command line tools (Optional)

✓ Python and/or R (Optional)

BASIC STATISTICS

ANALYTICAL TECHNIQUES

DATABASES &

PROGRAMMING

BUSINESS INTELLIGENCE TOOLS

PROJECT

MANAGEMENT KNOWLEDGEDOMAIN BUSINESS ANALYSIS BUSINESS CASE WRITING COMMUNICATIONSTORYTELLING &

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Modern analysts are experts in going wide

✓ Data visualization & dashboarding

(Power BI, Tableau)

DATABASES &

PROGRAMMING

BUSINESS INTELLIGENCE TOOLS

PROJECT

MANAGEMENT KNOWLEDGEDOMAIN BUSINESS ANALYSIS BUSINESS CASE WRITING COMMUNICATIONSTORYTELLING &

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Learning paths to become

a business analyst

3

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The skills needed to succeed as a business analyst

BASIC STATISTICS

ANALYTICAL TECHNIQUES

DATABASES &

PROGRAMMING

BUSINESS INTELLIGENCE TOOLS

PROJECT

MANAGEMENT KNOWLEDGEDOMAIN BUSINESS ANALYSIS BUSINESS CASE WRITING COMMUNICATIONSTORYTELLING &

June 30, 2020

Presentation Title to be adjusted on the 1st master page

The skills needed to succeed as a business analyst

BASIC STATISTICS

ANALYTICAL TECHNIQUES

DATABASES &

PROGRAMMING

BUSINESS INTELLIGENCE TOOLS

PROJECT

MANAGEMENT KNOWLEDGEDOMAIN BUSINESS ANALYSIS BUSINESS CASE WRITING COMMUNICATIONSTORYTELLING &

June 30, 2020

Presentation Title to be adjusted on the 1st master page

The data skills needed to succeed as a business analyst

BASIC STATISTICS

ANALYTICAL TECHNIQUES

DATABASES &

PROGRAMMING

BUSINESS INTELLIGENCE TOOLS

PROJECT MANAGEMENT KNOWLEDGEDOMAIN BUSINESS ANALYSIS BUSINESS CASE WRITING COMMUNICATIONSTORYTELLING &

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Maximizing learning for data skills

Consistency in learning is key

Project-based learning approach will maximize your chances of success

Share your work and develop a community

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Statistics resources

BEGINNER RESOURCES

INTERMEDIATE & ADVANCED RESOURCES

EXTRA RESOURCES

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Analytical techniques resources

BEGINNER RESOURCES

INTERMEDIATE & ADVANCED RESOURCES

EXTRA RESOURCES

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Databases & programming resources

BEGINNER RESOURCES

INTERMEDIATE & ADVANCED RESOURCES

EXTRA RESOURCES

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Business Intelligence tools resources

BEGINNER RESOURCES

INTERMEDIATE & ADVANCED RESOURCES

EXTRA RESOURCES

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Self paced online learning

Business Analyst Role is for

you if you enjoy

Decide if this is the right

path for you

Projects & portfolio

Develop a portfolio for your resume

Share your work

More learning resources

tutorials, cheat sheets, articles

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Modern analysts are experts in going wide

BASIC STATISTICS

ANALYTICAL TECHNIQUES

DATABASES &

PROGRAMMING

BUSINESS INTELLIGENCE

TOOLS

PROJECT

MANAGEMENT KNOWLEDGEDOMAIN BUSINESS ANALYSIS BUSINESS CASE WRITING COMMUNICATIONSTORYTELLING &

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Improving “soft” skills

Domain knowledge

1

Ensure you upskill on your field of choice, and perform and share

projects in your domain of choice

Project management

2

Consider upskilling paths in project management — but more

importantly, work on your own projects and learn to prioritize

Business Case Writing &

Storytelling & communication

3

Take up public speaking opportunities, share reports and writings

online, and work on your data visualization skills

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Best practices for standing

out as a business analyst

4

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Stand out as a business analyst

Prove you can do the job

1

Prove you can do the job by pursuing certifications and creating

relevant portfolio projects

Never neglect the business skills

2

Always adopt an outcomes-first mindset and approach

Business value

alignment business intuitionProduct and

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Business analyst: The backbone of a

data-driven organization

An essential part of a data-driven team

1

Business analysts are an incredibly important part of a data-driven

organization, as they are the layer between insights, and business

stakeholders within the organization

Insights driven, outcome focused

2

Business analysts leverage statistical analysis, modeling, analytics,

data communications, project management and more to deliver

insights that lead to improved business outcomes

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Business Analyst is one of

the many data roles

available for you

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LEARNING RESOURCES

CAREERS RESOURCES

Resources for you

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Q&A

LEARNING WITH YOUR TEAM?

CHECK OUT DATACAMP FOR BUSINESS

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Thank you