I belong here i believe, in few years with God, i'll be a Business Analyst.
@nnaiah, thanks for the picture/chart.

The Top 10 Skills for a New Business Analyst to Shore Up On.

Have you recently accepted your first business analyst position? Are you starting a new business analyst role and wondering what skills you should work on first?

While it’s always a good idea to customize your professional development plan by working with your manager, what follows are the 10 skills that new business analysts tend to need to work on first. Invest in improving in these skill areas and you’ll be well on your way to becoming a valued and successful business analyst.

1 - Facilitating Meetings

It’s pretty rare to be a business analyst and not facilitate meetings. The meetings you schedule, plan, and facilitate could be small (just you and a stakeholder or two for a half hour discussion) or large (10+ stakeholders for several hours or even a couple of days). Or they could fall anywhere in between. My experience has most typically involved facilitating 3-5 person meetings that last about an hour, maybe 1 ½-2 hours, some of which include conference call attendees or are completely virtual.

As a new business analyst you’ll want to get the basics of facilitating meetings down and then work on making them more productive over time. I call productive meetings working meetings – because real work gets done.

2 - Analyzing the Problem

When you are new, it can be easy to accept the solution, scope, or project idea at face value. More mature business analysts tend to question assumptions and challenge stakeholder’s solution ideas. The skill behind this line of questioning is analysis and it takes critical thinking skills.

Experimenting with different requirements models, such as business process flows and use cases, can help you improve your analysis skills. So can developing a healthy curiosity for how things work and thinking through problems in a logical way.

But analyzing is only part of the requirements process. The other half of the requirements process involves getting answers to the gaps you find, and that involves asking good questions. That can be tougher than it seems.

@nnaiah, i'm very impressed with your post. I'm a Business Analyst, cant find myself doing something else. I LOVE Business Analysis, it makes you to critically think, have a broader understanding on problems before proffering a solution.

3 - Asking Good Questions – And All of Them

Asking questions can be nerve-wracking.

What if the question we ask is stupid?

What if we are expected to know the answer?

What if our stakeholders don’t know the answer?

Learning to ask questions is essential to conducting business analysis. This part of business analysis is called elicitation.

You can build confidence in your elicitation skills by first asking questions of a sympathetic stakeholder or fellow business analyst, perhaps the one assigned to mentor you. Then build your way up to asking challenging questions in a small

i cnt even read all dix

World's shortest woman www.nairaland.com/1438066/meet-guinness-world-records-shortest#18111029

Its good too see fellow nigerian brothers trying to think out of the box. Nice thread

Am loving this . . .

Its good too see fellow nigerian brothers trying to think out of the box. Nice thread

:OP kudos to you for bringing up informative thread like this, it's this type of thread that will make all these End Time Tinz crooners to be serious atleast for once..as for mr Seun,we need more of this type of thread gracing the front page,pls!

akinjosh: This thread has been the most useful thread to me on NL. Dating bk 2 months ago, i neva knew who or what a business analyst does until i was invited for a interview at a telecomms coy for a business analyst, though the interview wasn't successful, i have been determined to learn all i can learn and take up a career as a business analyst. I have a Bsc degree in biochemistry with high knowledge of SQL. Can anyone help with directions(courses, degrees, skills) to take in order to have a career as a business analyst?

Whaooo great taking up a course on sql will definitely need your help.

luckgood: :OP kudos to you for bringing up informative thread like this, it's this type of thread that will make all these End Time Tinz crooners to be serious atleast for once..as for mr Seun,we need more of this type of thread gracing the front page,pls!

It is true, i think i will repent and start getting real serious, mr seun, you hear that! now all you ETT boys, it is time to repent o!
I wont say it again, i hereby repent from ETT permanently (but i know i shall surely get banned still)!

More like Xavi, Iniesta things.

My problem with BA is that you can be dormant for long time. No movement up the ladder, just like Xavi & Iniesta in the Fifa football awards.

I better be a striker.

I don't know of Nigeria but been competent in Business Analysis with a concentration on Business intelligence in the United States, can get you close to earning $200k as a consultant. Business intelligence is the fastest growing career in the United states and Canada. You don't have to be certified, and all you need is training and some hands on experience. Get a training in Relationship Data Base management system, Oracle-SQL, and any BI tools (microstrategy, SAP, Cognos, sportify). Companies will hire you as a business system analyst and pay you huge some of money for helping them solve some analytical challenges. I don't know about such career path in Nigeria, I won't make any suggestions or what industry in that country requires or are looking for a BA

bootlegaz: I don't know of Nigeria but been competent in Business Analysis with a concentration on Business intelligence in the United States, can get you close to earning $200k as a consultant. Business intelligence is the fastest growing career in the United states and Canada. You don't have to be certified, and all you need is training and some hands on experience. Get a training in Relationship Data Base management system, Oracle-SQL, and any BI tools (microstrategy, SAP, Cognos, sportify). Companies will hire you as a business system analyst and pay you huge some of money for helping them solve some analytical challenges. I don't know about such career path in Nigeria, I won't make any suggestions or what industry in that country requires or are looking for a BA

presently taken a course on informations management system hopes it helps later

Thanks Op... and a big thanks to the moderator for doing the needful.

This is what nairaland was back then.

Funpeter: presently taken a course on informations management system hopes it helps later

Where(country) do you plan on pitching that course? Putting it to practice is what matters the most. Information technology is ambiguous, you have to choose area of specialty that aligns with your Major.If you love numbers then Analytics would be best bet for you. Hadoop, no sql, mysql and machine learning are all under information technology but used mostly by engineers.

akinjosh: This thread has been the most useful thread to me on NL. Dating bk 2 months ago, i neva knew who or what a business analyst does until i was invited for a interview at a telecomms coy for a business analyst, though the interview wasn't successful, i have been determined to learn all i can learn and take up a career as a business analyst. I have a Bsc degree in biochemistry with high knowledge of SQL. Can anyone help with directions(courses, degrees, skills) to take in order to have a career as a business analyst?

@ Akinjosh, you said you have Bsc in Biochemistry? and knowledge of SQL, the question is do you want to go into IT?

Well from my point of view, with your knowledge of SQL, go for ORACLE 11G , ORACLE ERP OR SAP
Degree wise you need to go for Business Admin....during your course of research, you will learn more

Nice Thread, i wish we can have more threads like this, Please anyone can help with information on ORACLE ERP, SAP, BI, CISA etc and the career path to follow.
can anyone help with an advice for someone with Oracle database SQL, OCA, OCP but confused about the career path to follow between Information System Audit and IT business Solution with our present Nija situation.
currently umemployed but want to equipped myself with more skills
Thanks

akinjosh: thanks so much @nnaiah, u av really spurred my interest.

I was able to do some research and i also contacted osconcepts but i wasnt satisfied with the response i got from them.

I need you to help me answer some questions;

1. Do i have to go through any of these education providers before i get certified, i mean caan i just read on my own and write the CCBA by IIBA?

2. Like i said in a earlier post, i am a fresh graduate with no work experience in business analysis, how can i meet the professional requirements of the IIBA before i can take the CCBA/CBAP exam e.g the works hours required and also 2 referees who are certified business analysts?

send me a PM I can recommend where you can get your training. I have 2 years experience as a BA from some professionals.