Young BA course: Job search and resume creation. Young BA Course: Job Search and Resume Creation Business Analysis Theory and Techniques

And again hola to all our amigos!

We continue our series of articles for beginner analysts, and today we will talk about what steps should be taken if you have already formed a clear and conscious desire to become a business analyst. We remind you that in we briefly reviewed the essence of the work of an IT analyst and weighed the main pros and cons of this young and interesting profession.
So, the simplest and most effective way is to find a vacancy for a novice analyst or intern, send a resume to this company, then successfully pass an interview (by the way, we will talk about preparing for interviews, common selection criteria and the most frequently asked questions in one of the following articles) and voila: you are an aspiring business analyst aka business analyst trainee (we want to warn you in advance that the term "business analyst", as the most common, is hereinafter used to refer to all types of IT analysts in our companies; the differences between business, system and requirements analysts have been outlined.) ... In fact, everything is not as simple as it seems ...

And that's why:

1. The IT world needs fewer analysts than programmers, and therefore the demand is lower.
2. It is rather expensive to train novice analysts due to the fact that:
2.1. ROI (return on investment) is very distant in time and absolutely not guaranteed.
2.2. Rare people have at the input a combination of all those qualities and skills that are practically required for a given position.

Based on this, this ideal option is not available to everyone and depends both on your skills and perseverance, and on a trivial case. Let's take a closer look at the options search vacancies / internships:

1) Look for ads on job search portals such as dev.by, rework.by, rabota.by, etc. (hereinafter, non-Belarusian analysts are invited to make an amendment for the north-west wind, i.e. take into account that many advice is given in the context of Belarus). Send your CVs even to those firms that do not have an analyst job at the moment. Who knows, maybe in a month they will need it or they will organize courses, and your resume will already be in the company's database.
2) Track announcements in the forum section of the site. Our analyst community is growing every day, and vacancies, internships and courses are posted on this thread with increasing frequency. It is likely that a corresponding section on the site will appear soon.
3) If you have friends or acquaintances who work in the IT field, ask them to let you know if their firm starts in-house analyst courses or internships. The fact is that not all companies advertise such events, preferring to hire "trusted" people on the recommendation of one of the employees. And some, although they advertise, do not do it very well, so you can easily miss them, unless you are a maniac combing even the least logical locations of such ads.
4) There are firms that periodically run massive courses in business analysis. These courses, for the most part, are not free, secondly, you are unlikely to become a full-fledged analyst after completing such courses, and thirdly, no one will give you guarantees of employment. But you will definitely get some knowledge there, and this, of course, will give you an advantage over people who do not have such knowledge, and will increase your chances of getting a job as an analyst in the future. Analyze the value of your investment: paid courses, especially if you are confident in them and have good reviews about them, no matter how much they cost, give you a start in life; even as an intern, you will beat them off in a couple of months (this is still not an MBA and its price is unlikely to be exorbitant).

We repeat once again that due to the fact that the profession of a business analyst is quite young and not so widespread in our country, it is much more difficult for a new BA to find a job than, for example, a tester or even a programmer / layout designer. And that's why there is an opinion that if you can't find a job as an analyst, you can get any other position in IT (“like, for a start, and then I will grow up uuuh”). The authors of the article also agree and fully support this position. To do this, of course, you need to have knowledge of IT and it is very desirable to have the appropriate education (but if you don't have it, it's not all that scary, because patience and work ... you get the idea). The choice of this path is good already because this way you will learn the software development process “from the inside”, learn to work in a team, see with your own eyes the process and results of analysts' work, gain real knowledge and the opportunity to retrain in BA in the future. The main thing is not to miss the chance. And this is where the main disadvantage of this path lies - you may not become an analyst. Because you may not have enough energy, time, desire to read literature on business analysis, study this site and forum; because the opportunity to retrain in BA may not appear; because even if it appears, you may be afraid to change something and start your BA career from scratch; because you just realize that this is not yours (by the way, this is a perfectly reasonable option), etc. So, whether to choose such a long path is left to your discretion. Keep in mind that based on our personal experience, most good IT analysts grow from programmers and testers. Having been in the shoes of those with whom you will have to interact carefully, you will gain + 100 XP to the experience and understanding of the software development process :).

Now let's say that you have found a company with a desired vacancy or have made the TOP-10 companies in which you would like to work / intern. The next step is compiling summary... Your resume is the first indicator by which the employer evaluates you, so your chances of success depend on how well your resume is written.

Typically, a resume contains the following sections:

1) Desired position;
2) Personal data, contact information;
3) Education;
4) Knowledge of languages;
5) Professional skills and knowledge;
6) Work experience;
7) Additional information (personal qualities, recommendations, publications, certificates, additional education).

Main part of the resume for a person with work experience - this, of course, "Work experience", well, and the corresponding professional knowledge. However, if you are a student and you have nothing to impress the employer with, focus on personal qualities, motivation, dedication, the desire to develop professionally, etc. Just do not try to fill in the column "Work experience" on the principle "well, let there be at least something there", since "a 4th year student of BSU Mehmat" - although hard work, but this is not what employers expect to see in this column.

Resume templates can be found on the website of any IT firm, however, we would highly recommend that you make your own template, in which you include exactly those sections in which you can profitably present yourself. Also, do not send a resume in a template of any company to other companies. You’ll be lucky if your resume is read at all after this. There are an infinite number of recommendations for writing a resume (at least), so we will not dwell on this issue in detail. We will only advise you to work out this topic in as much detail and thoroughly as possible and treat your resume with great care. A couple of helpful tips:

1) Think over the structure of your resume and stick to it. Express your thoughts clearly and in a structured manner.
2) Spelling, punctuation, construction of phrases - all this will make it possible to compose a picture of you as the future author of project documentation. Needless to say, these are extremely important aspects of your resume.
3) The humor in the resume is usually not welcome, except for individual readers, the chance to stumble upon which is not so great.
4) Target the resume to the target vacancy. Focusing on the fact that you have mega-experience in cross-stitching, focusing on the position of a novice BA, will only show the employer that you either read the vacancy text inattentively, or send template resumes to dozens of companies.
5) Show you are serious about business. Contact mailboxes a la [email protected] or Skype accounts like sexykitty89 (just in case, we apologize to potential victims of a coincidence :)) are unlikely to add plus signs to your piggy bank.
6) If you decide (or are dictated by requirements) to write a resume in English, then check it several times either yourself or with the help of your friends / girlfriends who know English well.
7) Re-read your resume and try to answer the following questions yourself:
a. "Is this person suitable for the position of analyst?"
b. "Would I take this person to my job?"
c. "What would attract me to this person?"
d. "What could turn me off?"
e. "What is special about this person that distinguishes him from other candidates?"
Adjust your resume based on the answers to these questions.

Now let's turn to the people who are already working in IT and have decided to become business analysts. We hasten to assure you that you will look very advantageous against the background of students with no experience or people with experience, but not in the field of IT. You have at your disposal a baggage of knowledge, work experience, desire, connections, colleagues and all the same recommendations for finding vacancies. Do not rush to change your place of work: perhaps your firm has a large project where analysts work and where you can be taken as an apprentice without interrupting work on your main project. Talk to the resource manager, HR department, analysts in your firm - and we are sure that there will be a way to smoothly change your real profession to the analyst profession.

And, finally, I would like to give a couple more job search recommendations from my own experience:

1) Do not lay out all your cards, in particular not trump cards :). If, for example, you are still a student and cannot work full-time, or you are a young mother, or you have no IT knowledge, do not tell this to the HR department employees who call you to invite you for an interview. Any flaw can be presented in a more rosy light in personal communication with the interviewer. Running a little ahead, here are some examples:
a. You cannot work full-time right now, but in a month (two or three) you will be able to, but for now you will be able to devote 6 hours a day to work, which is better than 4.
b. So what if it's a mom, but you are ready to work 8 hours a day, and even overtime, because you have a nanny or grandmother who looks after the child (anything can happen).
c. The fact that you do not have knowledge in IT right now does not mean that they will not be there in a week when you are called for an interview. A week is a whole 7 days (and nights too), you know how much you can read with a desire and a cherished goal.
In general, do not say too much, but go to the interview and show your best side, trying to convince the interviewer that your flaws are temporary, or easily eliminated, or these are not flaws at all. After all, if the HR department was given dry information about the required candidacy and having learned that you are a student (and God forbid, you will also have a distribution), they will immediately lose interest in you, then at the interview you have a real chance - after all, the human factor , the gift of persuasion and personal sympathy has not been canceled. We will talk in more detail about the interviews themselves in one of the following articles.
2) Don't be discouraged. Times are, of course, difficult now, IT specialists are trained in many universities, and the demand on the labor market clearly exceeds the supply. But we are sure: he who seeks finds.

Outcome: in order to find the door through which it will be possible to enter the IT-sphere, and to pick up the key to this door, you will need persistence, patience and more persistence. Convince the firm, the interviewer, the analyst guru and everyone on their way that you are what they need, that you can and should invest effort and money. And they will believe it.

If you have not been actively looking for a job in the last couple of years, then your knowledge of the form, design and content of a resume is no longer relevant. Use the guidelines in this article to write a modern resume for the following positions:

• Analyst Technologist
• Systems Analyst
• Business analyst

1. Preparation
2. Search target
3. Business Analyst Job Profile
4. Duties
5. Examples of Results / Key Projects
6. Skills
7. Professional quality
8. Examples for the section "About me"
9. Download Resume Templates

1. Preparation

Before looking for a new job, you need to conduct a SWOT analysis of professional competencies and, on the basis of this case, create a resume that will be adapted to the modern labor market requirements for your position / area / specialization. Before you start creating your resume, read the article:

In this publication, you will get acquainted with a case that will help you collect all the information you need to write a selling resume. A selling resume is created for a specific search goal, meets the requirements of vacancies for similar positions and contains a specific set of keywords.

2. Purpose of the search

The wording of your search goal should be at the beginning of your resume. If you want to apply for a vacancy whose position name differs from your current position, then change it to the one indicated in the vacancy.

List of positions, for which you can use the examples in this article:

First level positions (1):

• Analyst Technologist
• Systems Analyst
• Junior analyst
• Business Planner

Second level positions (2):

• Business analyst
• Senior Business Analyst
• Lead Business Analyst
• Project / direction manager (analysis and optimization of business processes)
• Business Process Optimization Project Manager

Positions of the third level (3):

• Analyst Team Leader
• Team Leader of the Project Office
• Head of Analytics
• Head of Business Analysis Department
• Head of Organizational and Business Processes Department

3. Business Analyst Job Profile

Job profile - this is the standard of the ideal candidate, which contains a list of requirements for knowledge, skills, qualifications of the candidate necessary for the successful fulfillment of official duties. Job description - a short version of the job profile, which includes a list of mandatory requirements for the initial selection of candidates by resume.

Job profile: Business Analyst

Requirements:

Work experience:

• at least 1 year experience as a business / systems analyst;
• higher education;
• experience in writing and conducting presentations;
• experience in negotiations;
• experience in working with applied packages for designing business processes;
• experience in Agile teams;
• experience with BI tools at the analyst level: SAS software, OBIEE, SAP BO and others;
• experienced user of MS Word, MS Excel, MS Visio, MS PowerPoint.

Knowledge and skills:

• deep understanding of business processes;
• knowledge of business process modeling notations (EPC, BPMN, UML) and the ability to apply them in describing and modeling processes;
• skills in analyzing and describing As Is business processes and building To Be processes;
• skills of evaluating the effectiveness of the implemented To Be processes;
• skills in collecting requirements and developing technical specifications for modifying information systems;
• knowledge of the stages of the change management (ITSM) process, skills in using the principles of ITIL;
• knowledge of PC at the level of an advanced user (products based on the 1C platform, MS Office);
• knowledge of business processes in manufacturing, commercial, financial, trading companies;
• knowledge of application integration technology.

Tasks:

• Identify, define and manage business requirements using a variety of requirements analysis methods (interviews, document analysis, requirements workshops) and tools (use cases, user stories).
• Translating high-level business and user requirements into specific feature requirements specified at the appropriate level of detail.
• Analysis of existing business processes in the company, requests for changes, clarification of business requirements.
• Development of proposals for changing processes, their coordination and implementation.
• Calculation of preliminary economic and other effects of the changes being made. Tracking the actual effects of implementing changes.
• Analysis of business needs in process automation, preparation of technical specifications, testing, verification of results.
• Critical assessment of requirements in terms of the feasibility of their implementation.
• Participation in monitoring the compliance of the implemented functionality with the stated requirements.
• Development and implementation of effective requirements management methods, including the use and continuous improvement of processes for collecting and formalizing requirements.
• Development of business processes for the accounting system.
• Description of business processes in the "AS-IS" view.
• Development of business processes in the "TO-BE" view.
• Development of practical recommendations for correcting errors.
• Audit of error correction results.
• Development of standards and monitoring of their implementation.
• Formation of proposals on opportunities for improvement, optimization and automation of business processes.
• Development of a plan for the implementation of business processes.
• Implementation of business processes in the activities of the Company.
• Development of regulations for end-business users.
• Organization and training of participants in the business process.
• Analysis of the impact of changes on the efficiency of business processes.
• Development, implementation and monitoring of KPIs and control procedures.
• Development, approval of KPI's for employees.
• Preparation of training materials, training, methodological support and quality control of processes.
• Development of technical documents (TOR, TCH), presentations and computer demonstrations for customers.
• Participation in process audits.

4. Responsibilities

Below are lists of responsibilities for positions at different levels. These are keywords / phrases used by HR managers to select candidates for their resume. Select from the list below those that match your experience and assign them to your place of work.

Analyst Technologist
Analysis, formalization and optimization of existing business processes.
Development and approval of business process models (ARIS) and preparation of proposals for their optimization.
Development of normative documentation (provisions, regulations, instructions).
Formation and coordination of functional requirements for business processes and systems.

Business analyst
Analysis and formalization of customer requirements (front office, middle office, risks).
Preparation of specifications and setting development tasks.
Creation of technical documentation (FT, TK, manuals).
Consulting analysts, developers, testers, sales managers, user training.
Participation in the implementation of software products: support in the process of integration with other systems, system tuning, error analysis.
Analysis of the mathematical base for calculating financial instruments with subsequent implementation.
Modeling, analysis, optimization of AS-IS and TO-BE business processes.
Work on the automation of business processes.
Analysis, development and approval of proposals for improving business processes.
Formalization of requirements for processes and automation.
Formation of functional requirements and technical specifications for the automation of business processes in information systems.
Checking the compliance of the automation results with the assigned tasks.
Formation of process and functional instructions for the implementation of business processes.
Business process execution audit (primary and periodic).
Writing business requirements for information systems for process automation and reporting.
Research and analysis of market trends to assess potential applications in a company.

Business analyst
Analysis, modeling and description of business processes.
Detailed description of functional requirements.
Calculation of the economic feasibility of the project.
Defining and managing project expectations, identifying risks, benefits and opportunities.
Organization of work on a project (drawing up a project passport, coordinating participants, tracking statuses).
Assessing the impact of failures on business processes and preparing workarounds.
Change management.
Resource planning and task allocation for project implementation.

Head of
Diagnostics of business processes.
Assessment of the cost of business processes.
Description of business processes in the "as is" and "as should be" model.
Development of a system of indicators of business processes to assess the effectiveness and efficiency of business processes.
Planning and implementation of measures to implement the target / transition model of business processes, monitoring the achievement of the set goals for changes.

Project manager (analysis and optimization of business processes)
Modeling business processes and developing proposals for their optimization.
Preparation of methodological support for the creation, development and operation of automated information systems.
Work with regulatory legal acts, standards and other documentation that determines the activities of the Customer.
Development of analytical reports and notes.
Planning and control of project implementation, including: planning the project budget, drawing up a detailed work schedule, taking into account the workload of performers.
Collection of requirements from the Customer and development of technical specifications.
Interaction with analysts, co-executors, coordination of their activities.
Interaction with representatives of the Customer.
Preparation, delivery and presentation of the project results to the Customer.

Project Manager
Analysis and technological expertise of the requirements of the Company's structural divisions for the automation of business processes in the direction of back-up when implementing third-party systems.
Participation in the collection, development and approval of business requirements, setting tasks for revision / implementation / integration of information systems, preparation of business cases (testing methods).
Interaction with business units and IT departments in order to develop optimal solutions for automation requirements.
Assessment of the consequences of changes in processes, technologies, information systems for the systems being introduced.
Project management (drawing up plans, protection, control of the implementation time, interaction with departments in terms of project implementation).
Project budget management.
Risk and change management within the project.
Development and implementation of the project methodology in the bank during the implementation of projects.

Head of Business Analysis Department
Organization and management of project activities of the Business Support Unit (directions: Customer Service, AXO, Document Management, HR, etc.).
Assessment of the economic efficiency of business processes, construction of financial models.
Optimization of business processes - creation of “as is” process models and “to be” process models, development and approval of regulatory documents.
Automation of processes, preparation of technical specifications and functional requirements.
Development of business analysis methodology, necessary instructions, templates and processes.
Process improvement.
Training and development of a team of analysts.
Knowledge base maintenance.
Effective interaction with other participants in the project or operational activities (including with an internal team or with an external contractor).
Identifying customer needs.
Drawing up requirements for the product.
Analysis, optimization and design of business processes.
Analysis, formalization of various types of requirements.
Analysis of problem areas and suggestions for improvement.
Collection, systematization and formalization of development requirements (with detailing to the design level of business processes, interfaces and database models).
Requirements management (processing of requests for changes, analysis and description of the impact on existing processes).

Head of Back Office Processes Organization
Development, approval, implementation, maintenance and optimization of business processes and internal regulatory documents.
Business analytics in the implementation of intrabank projects to assess the impact of the introduction of new products and processes on the Bank's performance.
Optimization of projects in order to maximize the effect of their implementation.
Development of measurable metrics of business processes in accordance with the strategic goals of the Bank, determination of KPIs for the main business processes.
Implementation of projects for technological development of the Bank.
Formation of business requirements, technological study of applications for the modification of banking products / services and related software, drawing up process flow charts, introducing new functionality.

Head of Process Office / Head of Business Analysis Department
Consistent implementation of a process approach to management in the company.
Creation and management of a process office.
Creation of a system for managing process and organizational changes and innovations.
Portfolio management (control of the compliance of projects with the organization's / division's strategy, ensuring the formation of a project portfolio, balancing and monitoring it).
Carrying out a full cycle of analysis, optimization and implementation of changes in the existing business processes of the company.
Development of methodology for analysis and modeling of processes.
Creation and organization of maintenance of a single base of processes and regulations.
Development and implementation of standards for describing requirements and setting objectives in terms of business processes.
Implementation of process modeling tools.
Arrangement of work on continuous optimization of business processes in the company, independent management of a number of projects.
Consulting and organizing training for company employees on process management issues and within the framework of changing business processes.
Active participation in the development of KPIs for various departments of the company.
Selection and implementation of software for organizing the work of the department.
Business process modeling.
Formation of a register of projects and summary reporting of projects.
Participation in planning and monitoring the implementation of individual projects on request or on an ongoing basis.
Knowledge management in the field of project management (collection, analysis, generalization and dissemination of knowledge between participants in project activities).

4. Examples of achievements / key projects for a business analyst resume

The main points of attraction in a resume are achievements. Give specific examples of what you have been doing in your current / previous jobs. Use the examples below as a basis for creating your own results. They should reflect the main KPIs of your job, given the objectives of the position you are currently applying for.

Key performance indicators of business analyst

Economic and financial indicators for each business process adopted by the Company.
% of fulfillment of key performance indicators of the department / unit.

Key performance indicators of project management

Project profitability (ROI)
Increasing project profitability
The amount of deviations from the plan and budget of the project
Compliance with project deadlines
Customer / Customers / Users Satisfaction
Number of customer complaints
Reduced time to market
Improving resource loading during project implementation

Sample Results

• Launching a process office from scratch to form a common approach to managing processes and aligning them with the Company's strategy, goals and objectives.
• Creation of a centralized back office: staff reduction by 20% was carried out, 90% of operations were standardized.
• Creation of a middle office for retail credit products in branches: key labor-intensive processes were automated, staff reduction was carried out by 50%, the budget was cut by 40%.
• Implementation of the Internet banking system based on "ABC". The project has been moved to the functional testing phase.
• Creation of a matrix of working hours rationing for the front office - headcount optimization up to 12%.
• Comprehensive automation of business processes and accounting procedures in 1C:
  Launching of modules "Sales" and "Accounting and tax accounting" in one system.
  Implementation of a new order processing management algorithm. Labor productivity increased by 40%.
  Optimization of business processes "Logistics and warehouse". Implemented plans to improve the delivery of products by 30%: reducing delivery time by 2 times, costs by 35%, stocks of raw materials and materials by 20%.
• Reengineering of the “Sale of finished goods” business process. Increased the speed of shipping finished products to customers 2 times.
• Implementation of the ERP-system X. Increased the speed of receiving orders by 2 times.

Key projects

• Having successfully completed projects as a business analyst with personal participation.
• Development of business processes for the "Voice Assistant" project (using artificial intelligence in the Bank's contact center). Optimization of current business processes in the voice channel for departments: customer service, collection and sales.
• Participation in projects with the following information systems:
  1. System of delivery of tasks;
  2. System for work with documentation;
  3. System for working with software versions (version control system);
  4. System for accounting requirements for business processes and automation tools.
• Integration of production development and testing systems.
• Participation in projects for the implementation of your own solutions as an analyst and task manager.
• Automation of procurement activities of the Government of the Moscow region.
• Comprehensive automation of construction processes in the Moscow region (budgetary, shared, non-budgetary construction).
• Automation of the processes of the Ministry of Ecology and Natural Resources Management of the Moscow Region (solid waste control system, projects for the construction and reclamation of landfills).
• Implementation of BI information and analytical systems (112, MFC, Procurement, Departmental BI systems).
• Implementation of project management systems.
• Portal and integration solutions.
• Participation in the implementation of strategic projects using the tools of the Production System (Lean / Lean Manufacturing). Independent implementation of the following project tasks:
  - description of the process As Is and modeling of To Be;
  - visualization of the processes As Is and To Be;
  - identification of process problems;
  - development of proposals for eliminating process problems;
  - generation of non-standard solutions to complex problems.
• Working on a process automation project as an industrial analyst.
• Examination of digital data and customer projects.
• Participation in projects to minimize fraudulent transactions together with the bank's security department.
• Designing custom solutions based on the Directum RX system.
• Implementation of electronic document management systems.
• Project management for the implementation of automated information systems:
  - analysis of business processes;
  - development of project documentation, implementation plan;
  - development of methodological materials for implementation and operation;
  - Carrying out technical work on installation (full cycle);
  - organization and conduct of training courses;
  - organization and control of making improvements (collecting user expectations, compiling a description of a business process, implementing improvements).
• Development and implementation of an insurance accounting system.
• Analysis and technological expertise of the requirements of structural units for the automation of business processes in the direction of back-up when implementing third-party systems.
• Setting up a process for developing new / modifying existing processes. Reducing the development and implementation time of products to 2 weeks, reducing the time for product testing to 3 days.
• Transfer of operational processes to the EDM system: development of a new process for accounting and processing of incoming and outgoing documents of the Company.
• Development and automation of a new process for providing services to the Client. Provided the formation and receipt of documents for obtaining a tax deduction within 4 days.
• The use of online cash registers (54-FZ): setting up the acceptance of insurance payments in accordance with 54-FZ. Development of a new process for accepting insurance payments, taking into account the use of online cash registers.
• Optimization of the process of receiving regular payments, including increasing the share of receipt of regular payments to 50%.
• A comprehensive financial market monitoring system for X. The system was developed in cooperation with companies Z and Y (2017-2018). What was done:
  - carrying out research work on the analysis of key approaches to the organization of monitoring systems for financial and stock markets;
  - development of guidelines for the implementation of indicators for monitoring the financial market (including in terms of non-standard transactions);
  - development of reporting templates for monitoring indicators.
• Boxed solutions “Forecast. Credit risk "and" Forecast. Loan Portfolio Management "(2016-2017). Results:
  - development of guidelines for the implementation of economic models (in terms of assessing the credit risk of legal entities and resident banks) in software products;
  - implementation of basic settings for box-based solutions (loading reports, setting up algorithms for calculating risk factors, clarifying algorithms for calculating econometric models for determining the probability of borrowers' default, etc.);
  - organizing and conducting demonstration and training seminars on working with software products;
  - preparation of marketing research of the market for specialized software products: analysis of the target audience, analysis of competitors' products, SWOT analysis, etc.
• Data processing and analysis system (ALVIS, ALMPro) - creation of a unified data warehouse on bank transactions for the purpose of preparing management reports for the unit as a whole (management balance sheet, OPU), according to the Treasury performance indicators. The main objectives of the project:
  - development and writing of commercial proposals;
  - development and writing of technical specifications for software developers;
  - implementation of basic system settings in accordance with the requirements;
  - examination of software products for errors and malfunctions;
  - training customers to work with software products - writing user instructions, consulting by phone, training at the customer's office;
  - writing a user manual, including a description of the calculation methodology.
• Analysis of regulatory documents of regulatory bodies with subsequent application in the company's products.
• Implementation of software products: support in the process of integration with other systems, system configuration, error analysis.
• Formation of requirements for the new banking system.

6. Key skills of a business analyst

Business metrics analysis
Statistical analysis
Data analysis
Economic modeling
Analytical research
Business process analysis
Optimization of business processes
Business process modeling
Risk analysis
Business modeling
Project management
Business process reengineering
Producing a presentation
Negotiation
Integration of automated systems
Business requirements development
Formation of functional requirements
Development of technical specifications
Setting tasks for developers
Development and implementation of policies and procedures
Writing regulations
XML, XSD, WSDL
1C
CRM
ERP systems
VisualBasic for App
MS Project
MS Word
MS Power Point
MS Excel
MS Access
MS Dynamics
MS SharePoint
MS Visio
MS DAX
Agile Project Management
Scrum
Kanban
Waterfall
PMI
PMBOK
PRINCE 2
PME
CBT
Lean
CCPM
ARIS
Diasoft software
UML
ARIS
Redmine
Atlassian Jira
VBA
MindManager
Trello
SAS
Oracle
SQL
OBIEE
SAP BO
ETL tools (SAS DIS, Informatica PowerCenter)
Business Studio

7. Professional qualities of a business analyst

A list of personal qualities that are required for the required level of performance of official duties. Pick 3-4 qualities that you possess and include in your resume / cover letter of your choice. This is an optional resume section to fill out.

Analytical mind.
Sociability.
Mindfulness.
Conflict-free, ability to find compromises.
Result orientation, striving to bring it to the end, “pushing”, including in conditions of uncertainty.
Positive thinking is focusing on what can be achieved rather than what cannot be accomplished.
Structuredness.
Strategic thinking.
Systems thinking.
Ability to think outside the box in difficult situations.
Ability to analyze a large amount of information in a short time.
Ability to switch between diverse tasks.
Ability to analyze, structure and organize information.
Ability to see the automated process as a whole and to provide reasons for the proposed solution.
Ability to divide a task into parts that are convenient for monitoring its implementation.
Ability to manage the economic indicators of the project and estimate labor costs, taking into account the approaches to project implementation, constraints and risks.
Ability to quickly understand new applied areas.
Ability to clearly express your thoughts in the form of presentations, diagrams, tables.
Ability to interact with other departments within the organization within the framework of tasks.
The ability to get to the bottom of the problem.
Ability to follow through.

8. Examples for the section "About me" for the resume of a business analyst

The "About Me" section is a general description of your professional background. It can be in the form of a short paragraph of 1-4 sentences or a bulleted list. Indicate those aspects of your qualifications that are integral components of the vacancy, such as areas of activity, areas of specialization, key competencies, technical skills, licenses, certificates of additional education. For example:

• Significant experience of participation in projects to describe, reorganize and optimize business processes, including in projects for the implementation and improvement of the management system. Expert knowledge of agile and project management approaches (Agile, Scrum) and traditional project management methodologies (Waterfall). I am able to creatively use complex and mixed methodologies.
• 5+ experience in analyzing, modeling and describing business processes and IT system requirements. I am able to manage customer expectations, manage product and project requirements, and adequately communicate them to the development team, as well as prevent any difficult situations. I have a good command of the following tools: VisualBasic for App, MS Excel (analysis tools, writing routines in VBA), MS Access (building databases, programming VBA algorithms based on SQL queries). I know project management technologies (PMI, TOC, lean and CCPM).
• Experience in the banking sector in the following areas: business process management, methodology and banking technologies. There are 10 employees in direct subordination, 60 in functional subordination, including experience in remote control. I have practical experience in the successful implementation of projects and organization of business processes of operational management from scratch.
• Practical experience of participation in projects for the implementation of information systems and software for business (CRM, ERP systems, etc.). Deep knowledge of the methodology of analysis, description, optimization and automation of business processes (sales processes, accounting and sales support). I have experience in conducting internal negotiations and balancing conflicting requirements of different departments.
• I have professional knowledge and skills: methods of analysis, modeling, optimization of business processes, notations for describing business processes (IDEFo, BPMN). I have experience in formulating requirements for the automation of business processes, drawing up process and functional instructions for performers. Experience with Business Intelligence tools.
• Experience as a business analyst on financial projects (Treasury, FNU). Deep knowledge of the basics of financial, management accounting and budgeting, integration of banking systems and processes.
• More than 3 years of experience in the field of optimization of business management processes. Setting up a process management system and creating a process office from scratch. I have the skills to describe a variety of business processes. Experience in the development of performance indicators for various activities, regulations, regulations, standards and their successful implementation. Experience in managing cross-functional projects of organizational change.
• Experience in working with tasks from the field of business analysis for more than 3 years. Experience of successful project implementation in the field of optimization and automation of business processes. Skills of working with specialized software (Aris / Visio). Knowledge of the internal processes of the Bank, understanding of the principles of operation of banking products.
• I have an expert knowledge of systems / programs / techniques / standards in the field of computer-aided design and basic concepts in the field of relational databases, normalization requirements and basic SQL constructs. I am well versed in the methodology of modeling complex systems: UML2.0, BPMN, IDEF (IDEF0, IDEF3, DFD standards) and can read UML 2.0 diagrams and descriptions of business processes in BPMN and IDEF0 notation, tmForum.org organization models (ETOM, SID and TAM). I am proficient in modern requirements management tools, business process modeling and description of IT solutions, as well as basic programming skills (SQL, VBA, JavaScript, C #).
• 5 years of experience as an IT / e-commerce analyst. Knowledge of the theory of relational databases, BPMN, UML; principles of project management (Waterfall | Agile). I have the skills of interviewing and business correspondence. Experience in IT project management systems (Redmine | Jira | Trello).
• Experience as a business / systems analyst for software products and information systems for over 6 years. Experience in leading a team of analysts. Experience in describing and designing business logic in the context of automation cases and logic of information exchange between components of different systems and data sources. Understanding the basics of traditional and agile software development methodologies.
Coach-consultant for job search and career building. The only trainer-interviewer in Russia who prepares for all types of interviews. Expert in resume writing. Author of the books: "I'm afraid of job interviews!"

What a sample analyst resume looks like

Analyst resume example

The right analyst resume sample

Agapov Konstantin

Career objective:analyst
Desired income level:70 thousand rubles

Date of birth: 03/22/1984
Accommodation: Moscow, metro station "Slavyansky Boulevard"
Ready for business trips.

Contact Information:
Phone: +7 (9xx) xxx-xx-xx
Email: [email protected]xxx.ru

Key knowledge and skills:

• Knowledge of investment analysis methods;
• Knowledge of the basics of analysis and planning of the movement of inventory;
• Skills of work in MS Office, 1C, Oracle, VBA;
• Skills of drawing up reports with conclusions and recommendations;
• Ability to work with large amounts of information;
• Responsibility, scrupulousness, attentiveness.

Work experience:

07.2011–05.2015 Analyst

LLC "First" (www.first.com), Moscow

Company profile: wholesale of food products

• Analysis of financial and economic activities;
• Strategic management;
• Preparation of weekly reports for procurement planning;
• Analysis of the effectiveness of the campaign.

Achievements:automated most types of periodic reports.

04.2006–06.2011 Analyst

Altai-service LLC (www.altai-service.com), Moscow

Company profile: food sales

• Participation in the formation of reporting;
• Preparation of data for financial accounting;
• Preparation of technical specifications for development in part 1C.

Achievements: created an advanced order planning system.

Education:

2012 Russian Academy of National Economy and Public Administration under the President of the Russian Federation, Moscow

MBA, Graduate School of Financial Management / Corporate Finance, Investment Management, IFRS, diploma

2006 Moscow Economic University, Moscow

Specialty: "Economics", higher education, diploma

Additional Information:

Foreign languages: English - Advanced, German - Pre-intermediate.

PC knowledge: confident user of MS Office; 1C; SAP.
Recommendations are available upon request.

Last year a conference of business and system analysts in software development was held in St. Petersburg. There was a rather interesting report from Minsk dwellers Maria and Sergei Bondarenko entitled “Useful skills of analysts. How to become a professional ”. Below we publish an article based on the report.

A video of the report is also available:
http://video.yandex.ru/users/sqadays/view/8

My topic is useful analyst skills and aims to show you professional development opportunities in the field of business analysis.

Briefly about yourself

Maria Bondarenko, director of the Belarusian-German-Russian company GP software for software development in the field of tourism; has been working in IT for over 10 years
Sergey Bondarenko, works for Itransition (almost 1000 people), is engaged in management tasks (including in analytics departments)

Objectives of the report

What I want to show and tell in the report:
For beginners (analytics experience less than a year) - to give a general understanding about the industry, what skills may be needed and what development horizons are
For Experienced Analysts: Open up unknown horizons that you couldn't see in the context of your tasks, and show the power and breadth of the field of business analysis

Where do analysts come from?

Only a few of those present at the conference answered the question “Which of the analysts received a professional education?”
Much more has come from testing and development. Some even came from the linguistic university.
In general, the field of business analysis is quite young now.
And not many are getting professional education in this field. And just as it turns out, so it becomes: there is such a vacancy, you decide "why not try?" and your business analyst career begins.

How are analysts evolving?

What happens next? Then you start to work, perform some tasks and step up the career ladder within the company. But your range of tasks is usually limited only to those projects that a given company performs. Accordingly, if you come to one company and ask: “There are business analysts here, but what are you doing? What is business analysis? " Or come to another company and ask "What is business analysis", you can get 2 completely different answers.
In order to somehow improve this situation, you try to read books, read information on the Internet and somehow gain this experience, but, nevertheless, again, this all happens quite chaotically. Accordingly, there is such a composite hodgepodge in your head, you are stewing in your own juice and there is not enough completeness in understanding the context of business analysis.

What can this lead to?

I have repeatedly seen at interviews when specialists came to me to get a job (and in our company there is a widespread position in which a project manager and an analyst are combined) and the guys said: “In general, in business analysis I already know everything, now I want to try myself in areas of management ". In general, they come to the conclusion that seeing only some subdomain of business analysis, they conclude that this is all that can be. The second possible reaction is that you do not know where to go next, you feel sad, you are not effective enough on your projects and, perhaps, you do not even know that there are some means how to increase this efficiency in order to increase the context of understanding this area.
We will move on to this next.

Maybe this is better?

I would like to show you the possible roles of a business analyst in projects, possible areas of activity and the necessary skills, personal characteristics and tools that may be useful to you. Below I will briefly indicate what may be needed, since for each of them, you can arrange a separate report or a separate training, so further I recommend that you dive into those areas that you find interesting for yourself.

What is an analyst?

In the process of preparing the report, it turned out to highlight several areas in which business analysts work:
Requirements Management
Research & Analysis (Research and data analysis)
Processes Engineering
Modeling & Design (IP Design)
Delivery
Consulting (Consulting)

Requirements management

The most obvious is requirements management... This is the person who collects the requirements, who analyzes them, manages changes and who makes sure that all project participants are aware of the current requirements, that they are communicated correctly to the development team and that the result of the work corresponds to the wishes that the client initially had. ... But that's not all.

Data exploration and analysis

There are about 6 more areas that analysts are doing. The next area is data exploration and analysis: general task of working with data. Analyze what systems are already on the market with similar functionality, find these systems, compare them, provide information, which one is better suited to the current tasks of the project. The second slice of this role of the analyst is the analysis of the system and the development of certain conclusions. Those. general analytical tasks.

Process modeling

The next possible role of an analyst on projects is the area process modeling... Not always business analysts who work in IT and are directly involved in the development and management of requirements and systems design know that, in general, the primary sources of their tasks lie in the area of \u200b\u200bbusiness processes, in the area of \u200b\u200bthe client's business. The client somehow performs certain operations now and does not need software right now. But in the process of analyzing your current situation, you can come to the conclusion that the processes are not optimal, that they need to be reorganized and, accordingly, the task of developing software appears. Here, in fact, who will help the client look at his business processes, describe and transform them into a more optimal state? This is also the task of a business analyst.

IC design

The next area of \u200b\u200bbusiness intelligence is information systems design... Moreover, the design is different. And depending on the skills of your analysts, you can dig deeper into this area or less. For example, the simplest level of system design is to sketch mockups or screen prototypes and then pass this on to usability specialists or designers so that they can work out in more detail. On the other hand, if you have a deeper understanding of these skills, for example, usability, in terms of usability, you can combine the role of a usability specialist. Those. in principle, this can be part of the business analyst's job.

Software implementation

The next possible area of \u200b\u200bactivity for analysts is software implementation, in particular, when a product has already been developed, this product needs to be implemented, it needs to be customized by the client (if we are talking about large systems). This is a field of activity that requires special skills and abilities.

Consulting

AND consulting... The deeper you work in the industry, the better and higher your practical skills, the more difficult tasks you can be assigned and the more you can act as an expert in the eyes of the client, and not just a conductor of his requirements to developers. Moreover, consulting may not even be directly related to the implementation of the project. Simply consulting the client on technological issues, on business issues. This is also the field of business analyst.

Hard & Soft Skills

In connection with this range of possible tasks, certain skills are highlighted that allow them to be performed more professionally. The classic division of skills is hard and soft. Hard skills are knowledge of tools, technologies, techniques or notations, or what can be learned. Soft skills are personal and interpersonal characteristics that are given to him from birth, but they also develop and they can also be trained and there are development methods according to them.
Within the framework of these skills and the section of possible analyst roles on projects, the following dependencies can be identified (see table).

1. Hard skills

For convenience, we divided all skills from the hard skills group into 7 groups: basic competencies, theory and techniques of analysis, business fundamentals, knowledge of IP development, documentation, additional competencies, foreign languages. At the intersections of roles and competencies, it is indicated for which tasks the analyst needs certain skills.
As for foreign languages: there are question marks because, in principle, you can be a smart analyst, work in the local market and he will only need Russian to do his work. But given that the field of business analysis is quite young and there are not many literatures, forums and communities in Russian in which you can learn information, of course, knowledge of foreign languages \u200b\u200bwill allow you to develop better and get more professional knowledge than you know only 1 language ...
As for soft skills, they were divided into several groups and criteria were defined for which roles certain soft skills are most important.
Below we will tell you more about all the listed hard and soft skills.

Let's describe hard-skills that involve purely technical skills. They are the easiest and most important to train. are at the heart of the analyst's effective work.

1.1 Core competencies

What are the core competencies?
These are a number of things that you should learn before you even start stepping into the field of business analysis. They will allow you to shape your thoughts. These are fairly simple things, but the main ones that no one will teach you separately. The implication is that you must have it.

a. Business ethics

First, general business ethics, telephone communication skills, and writing skills. Namely, such tasks as: how to write a letter correctly (start with a greeting, at the end put a final phrase encouraging the client to take action, and a signature), how to communicate with the client by phone. This, of course, must be known to you in advance. Why am I talking about this - I personally saw situations when analysts came to the project and the letters looked like this: "Can you send us up-to-date project documentation?" Neither hello nor goodbye. It's just not pretty. This is a basic skill that you should have and don't even need to talk about.

b. Internet skills

The next skill is the ability to work on the Internet, work with instant messengers (Skype, for example, is very popular now). Due to them, you shorten the distance and the client can contact you online. In Skype, you can form group discussions, connect the entire team to communicate with the client, and then issues on the project are resolved faster. You should also know what screen sharing is, how to transfer files, etc.

c. Collaboration

The next block is the ability to work together. Knowledge of tools such as Google Drive will help you
Goggle Drive is an affordable, free tool through which it is possible to exchange documents with the client and the development team. If your company does not have a collaboration tool installed, this is the easiest choice to give clients access to documents. And what is more important - you can work simultaneously and jointly on the same document. We use this technique - together with the client, we open a document with requirements and discuss what should be implemented and in what order. You change the priorities in your document and the client sees it on his screen in a couple of seconds.

d. Online conferences

The same group includes tools for online conferences. It is very useful when the analyst does not just send documents to the client, but demonstrates, in particular, intermediate versions of the system's performance, shows prototypes. To do this, you need some kind of platform. Of course, there is an option that you come to the client if he is in the same country and city. But we often work with Western customers or remote teams. These online conferencing tools include GoTo Meeting and GoTo Webinar (this is from the same series), WebEx, and others. Moreover, they can be useful not only for presenting the results, but also for collecting requirements.

e. Wiki repository

A tool like MediaWiki can also be helpful. It is an online library, like the well-known Wikipedia, that you can deploy locally for your client and the entire team by your administrator. In it, you can keep documentation and what is good is that you do not need to save files to the repository to track versions, send them to colleagues, you cannot forget the file - current content is always available. For example, user manuals or specifications can be written in MediaWiki.

f. Reading and printing speed

Another block of basic skills for hard skills is speed reading and typing (although there may be controversy over whether this can be attributed to soft skills).
An analyst needs to process a lot of information: on the one hand, read a lot (study and comprehend), and on the other hand, write a lot (record the results), so it will be extremely useful for you in your professional career if you train these 2 skills. For example, you can compare - the average typing skill is 100 characters per minute, I type at 400 characters per minute. If everything is clear what to write in the document and you only need to fix the agreements in words, write the protocol of the agreement with the client, then you can imagine - it takes me 4 times less time than the average specialist. Accordingly, by increasing this skill in yourself, you make yourself more effective and save time on your projects.

g. Office tools

Also, within the framework of basic skills, I would like to mention a number of other tools, such as office tools (Word, Excel, PowerPoint and Visio), which allow you to present the results of your work in a high-quality and visual way. If you can open a Word document and can type text there, but do not know how to customize heading and table styles, style notes, use templates and document properties. Or you can open an Excel document and you know what a spreadsheet is, but do not know formulas, macros, conditional formatting, then, believe me, you still have where to dig within these tools. Just for the sake of interests, you can open the help about the program or some test for this program, and you will learn a lot that, it turns out, you did not know before. Accordingly, there is always room for development here.

h. Visualization

The next tool is MindManager. It is also a fairly useful program that belongs to basic skills and allows you to structure information in the form of a mindmap.

i. Graphic editor

Analysts can also be useful and graphic editors - not only complex Photoshop, but, for example, classic Paint. There is an even more powerful program - SNAGIT - I recommend.

j. Multimedia Editors

Of course, PowerPoint can be used for presentations, but the Prezi tool is becoming quite popular in today's environment. It makes presentations more interesting and interactive. Plus, if you master the creation of video clips, in particular, the Camtasia Studio program, which allows you to record a video series of demonstrations of applications, then this will be useful in terms of the fact that the client cannot always give you time now, but you can provide him with a video -file, and the client is more likely to look at it than if he begins to independently click on the system buttons.

1.2 Theories and techniques of business analysis

The next block is the theory and technique of business analysis. These are the skills that help you become a business analyst directly.
In this context, knowledge and skills are considered in the following areas:
Requirements management
Change management
Development of design artifacts
Appropriate toolkit

a. Requirements management

The first block of knowledge is requirements management. Here it is important to know how to identify sources and how to identify requirements, and what to do with them after that: analyze, specify (document), check.

b. Change management

This is a sub-block of requirements management, but I brought it out separately to draw your attention to it. The point is that it is very important to understand traces (there is a separate talk on this topic at the conference). It is important to know how to manage the scale of the project.

a. Project artifacts

Next - the ability to describe Vision, Software Requirements Specification, prepare a user manual. Sometimes I have heard the opinion that the analyst should not write user manuals, that this is the job of a technical writer. I think this is a rather narrow view of the world, because, in general, the task of an analyst is to contribute to the creation of a product that will be successful and useful, and a technical writer is not always highlighted in the team. Those. no need to "outweigh the dogs" on each other. An analyst can most effectively write a system manual and user documentation. Even if he does not write, then he must have a general understanding of what user documentation is and how it differs from baseline documentation, specifications.

b. Tools

In the field of theories and analysis techniques, tools for requirements management are also highlighted, such as Enterprise Architect, Borland CaliberRM (a separate stand was presented at the conference, and a presentation was read), etc. For requirements management, non-specialized tools are also used - Excel, Jira

1.3 Business Basics

What can be useful for you in knowledge of the basics of business for your development?

a. Fundamentals of Economics

Knowing what TCO (total cost of ownership), ROI (Return on Investment), EBIDAT (Earnings before depreciation and taxes), ABC (Activity-Based Costing), etc. These terms should be learned because you, as a business analyst, must contribute to the success of the business, and understanding the fundamentals of economics (understanding what software is made for and how the effectiveness of software implementation will be evaluated) is extremely important for the analyst to make correct decisions. You need to not only collect and manage requirements, but do it within the constraints of the project (which are often associated with economics - resources are not unlimited, as is money).

b. Business process engineering

Business process design skills can also be helpful. Moreover, this also includes the understanding that business processes are main and auxiliary, as well as that their design takes place in the AS IS (as now) and TO BE (as recommended or as should be) paradigms.
I will not dwell in more detail, because for my purposes - to identify the points of development of the analyst, and then it is supposed to independently study these areas.

c. Process modeling notations

For business process engineering, you will need knowledge of certain notations in which you will describe the processes. Of course, they can be described simply in words, but the following notations for modeling business processes are also quite common: BPML (Business Processes Modeling Language), IDEFx, CFF (cross-functional flowcharts) and ordinary flowcharts.

d. Tools

The corresponding toolkit in the field of describing business processes and economic planning (which I have come across) are BPWin and Business Studio.

1.4 Development of IS

An analyst who develops information systems must be proficient in the techniques and methods of their development.

a. Basics of architecture

The first block - the basics of architecture - a general understanding of what an IS is, understanding of client-server technology and building databases, knowledge of the structure of sites (including understanding of HTML, CMS devices, knowledge of ready-made CMS), as well as understanding the protocols and data transfer formats (XML, CSV and so on).

b. Design notation

You may find design notations such as UML, DFD, flowcharts useful.

c. Ergonomics

In addition to general knowledge of IS development, you will need knowledge of ergonomics (usability), and in this regard, pay attention to standards such as web-style guide, mobile-style guide. IC development for iPhone and Android has a set of best practices and standards for how mobile applications should be designed. In particular, on the AppStore, you will certify your application, and if it does not meet the standards, it will not be missed.

d. Tools

The toolkit allows you to design efficiently and conveniently from the point of view of the project and from the point of view of those for whom this project is being done. In particular, these are prototyping tools (Balsamiq Mockups, Axure, JustInMind - including mobile interfaces). Also for these purposes MS Visio is used.

1.5 Documentation

a. Competent language and correct design

The next block of skills is documentation. Analysts write documents and they (documents) must be literate both in terms of language, correct use of technical style, competent writing, and in terms of design. This factor is determined by how pleasant your document is to pick up, how neat and uniform it is, how well it is prepared for printing. By the way, this is a very important point - 90% of the documents that external analysts send me, when trying to print (especially for Excel tables) are displayed on 10 sheets in a chaotic order. Then you have to manually try to collect them, which is practically unrealistic. But the fact is that Excel does not format the page for printing by default. Analysts should be aware that there are special settings for the structure and appearance of the page, in which the format for printing, the order of pages, and their numbering are set. Pay attention to this - we prepared a document, then printed it out and saw if it is convenient to use it or if the document needs to be put in order.

b. Ergonomics

For paperwork, there is also a set of standards in the field of ergonomics (or usability, as it is more popular to say now). In particular, among technical writers, one of the proven standards is the MS Manual of Style. At the moment there are more than 400 pages and he is very good in terms of how to write English-language technical documentation - what terms to use (for example, "click the button" or "click on the button"), how to properly design, structure.

c. Tools

And of course, the toolkit for preparing documents. It can be MS Word, OpenOffice (for Linux). It also requires software to generate PDF documents (Acrobat). And the Wiki is also useful for documentation. In particular, knowledge of wiki markup (a specific language that is quickly mastered) will allow you to better understand in which case a document should be drawn up in Word, and in which case - in Wiki.

1.6 Additional competencies

Additional competencies in the field of hard skills that I would like to draw your attention to are the following.

a. Management Basics

One way or another, the analyst always accompanies the manager on the project and somewhere shares areas of responsibility with him, somewhere he can replace him, somewhere, communicating with the client, he somehow makes decisions on the inclusion of requirements in the project. Those. this is, on the one hand, analytics, and on the other, management.

b. Knowledge in the subject area

Here it can be very useful (and more often it is also fundamental) - this is a domain examination. Whatever project you start doing, specify in which domain it will be carried out - it can be finance, insurance, tourism - and carefully study this subject area. Of course, in terms of general development, it is impractical to grasp at all areas, because There are a lot of them, and it can be useful to dive into the domain in which you are running a project.

c. Applied expertise

Applied expertise is also important as additional competence. Moreover, from project to project, a different application area can be important. For example, if the project is carried out in the field of tourism, then knowledge of the "traveling salesman problem" in graph theory, which is studied in applied mathematics, will be useful. Namely, you need to understand how to transport tourists from the airport to hotels, provided that the team and hotels are located in 10 points of the city. With this expertise, the analyst will be able to offer a more competent solution than he would not be in the subject.

d. Business toolkit

Knowledge of the tools that the business uses, such as ERP systems, CRM systems, etc. can be helpful.
We also included the foreign languages \u200b\u200bmentioned above in the group of additional competencies. In addition, it should be clarified that it is highly recommended to learn English at a decent level - at least because this will allow you to understand a lot of useful literature that is published in English, but, unfortunately, is not always translated into Russian, as well as communicate with colleagues on forums -analysts from other countries.

2. Soft skills

Next, I propose to move on to a review of personal characteristics that develop more difficult and longer. Let me remind you that my task is to pay attention to key skills. Development tips - read relevant literature, attend trainings, try in practice.
So, among the soft skills, the most important are, first, basic skills.

2.1 Basic skills

Among them, first of all, are:
independence,
learnability,
good memory,
clarity of presentation of information.

a. Independence
Analysts rarely run a project in large teams. Usually, the analyst either completely leads the project himself, or, even if he works in a team of analysts, each analyst is still responsible for one area. Accordingly, the analyst should be able to independently manage his entire project.

b. Learnability
The analyst's work is always research, i.e. a large amount of information passes through it and you need to quickly grasp, process and transmit it.

c. Good memory
It is needed for the same reasons as learning - in the mind you have to keep a lot of details.

d. Clarity of presentation
When transferring information to the customer or developer, there should be no misunderstanding. The information should be clearly structured.

2.2 Analytical skills

First of all, this is analytical thinking, which implies the ability to be critical of the situation, the ability to transform what you receive into a data structure, and not directly convey what is received at the input.
The analyst also requires the ability to work with large amounts of information, the skill of working in conditions of uncertainty and presentation skills.

2.3 Personal skills

a. Activity
It is important for an analyst to be active: when the project moves forward, he must take an active position, find out the requirements. Also during the acceptance of the project results, he cannot afford a passive position.

b. Pedantry
Analysts must be attentive to detail and must not lose sight of critical things. Those. the phrase "and so it will do" is not about a real analyst - he must be different in character.

c. Creativity
The fact is that analysts always not only receive information, but also create something: either they determine the reengineering of processes (then it is necessary to come up with the most optimal method for it), or they come up with new systems (that is, they create from scratch).

2.4 Interpersonal skills

a. Sociability
In the field of interpersonal skills for analysts, first of all, communication skills, sociability, the ability to ask questions and correctly convey information, the ability to tune in to the client's worries are important.

b. Teamwork
It is also important that the analyst knows how to work in a team. Those. someone morose who loves working with computers rather than people is unlikely to be an analyst. In this case, I would recommend developing your sociability and teamwork skills.

c. Organizational abilityand
Self-organization and team organization skills are also important enough for the analyst.

2.5 Business skills

Next, we will explain what should be included in the business skills of an analyst:
Customer focus
Business acumen
Ability to negotiate
Stress tolerance
In particular, many books have been written on the topic of negotiation skills. It is highly recommended for analysts to know how to effectively talk and persuade in something (for example, often some features cannot be included in the release, and in such a situation the analyst needs to be a diplomat).
As for stress resistance, let me remind you once again that analysts, as a rule, work in conditions of uncertainty and this quality will be very useful.

3. We increase efficiency

How can you improve the analyst's performance? I can give 2 basic advice besides the basic tools.

3.1 Analyst assistants

First, there are quite good analyst assistants - all kinds of collections (icons, graphic primitives). For example, they found what you like and saved it to disk, or asked the designer to draw. In this case, it will be easier then to prepare documents and depict prototypes using these elements (i.e., during development, you will not look for where to get or where to draw - the images will look nice and neat).
Email templates and functional patterns also help analysts. Where can they come from? After completing previous projects, save the results (best practices) to your knowledge base. Thus, from project to project, you will accumulate not only experience in your head, but also a good base of ready-made developments that can be used in future projects for better efficiency.
Analytical materials (eg market reviews) are also a good source of knowledge.

3.2 Objective assessment of reality

And the second clue about what can improve your performance is an objective assessment of yourself. You need to understand how well you master certain analytic skills (you can use the above list to test your hard and soft skills). This check will allow you to understand where to go next.
There are a lot of examples in life when people think they are cool, but they are not. Most often, self-esteem is overestimated. But when an analyst thinks he is cool, then he cannot work more efficiently. Remember the words of Socrates "I know that I know nothing" and their continuation: "But others do not even know this." If a person believes that he is already at the top, then you will not climb further. For example, with regards to MS Word, 90% will say that they are fluent in it, although they do not know how to use either fields or macros.

4. Development plan

The fact is that as soon as you realized the depth of your ignorance, then you can develop a development plan. And if you do it honestly, then your efficiency increases most rapidly. This plan allows you to constantly run forward.
Never stand still, as whoever stands still, inevitably rolls back. And in the modern world this is, in principle, not real.

What can be done?

1. Identify your areas of interest
2. Record your current skill level
3. Form development goals and achievement criteria
4. Identify ways to achieve your goals
Above, a fairly large number of areas of activity, tools that can be useful to analysts have already been indicated. Not the fact that you own all of these and that you need them all right now. But, nevertheless, from the listed list (or maybe something else - I do not pretend to be complete) determine what is most interesting to you.

1. Identification of areas of interest

At this step, you can write down all the possible skills and tasks of analysts in a table like the attached one (the presentation file is available on the AnalystDays-2012 conference page). Then you should put a weight in front of each skill - how important this or that skill is for you (and / or for the company - depending on what level the plan is built on). You can use a scale from 0 to 5 or from 0 to 100 (the example uses a scale of 0..5). Basically, this same classification can be used in your career.
Our company uses a gradation into 3 levels of specialists - Junior, Specialist, Expert - and within them there is a division into 3 levels from R1 to R3. For each of these levels, certain criteria are introduced, what skills they need and at what level of proficiency.
As a recommendation: the plan should take into account both broad application skills and highly specialized skills. But everything is worth considering. And also those additional skills should be added to the table, which, although not fundamental in the analyst's work, but simplify life and make his work more efficient.
Also, when drawing up a plan, the following criteria should be taken into account: individuality, linkage to the certification system, specificity, measurability, consistency with management.
As a result, based on this classification, you can not only draw up a personal development plan, but at the same time determine what career opportunities you have when mastering certain skills.

The choice dilemma

When drawing up such a development plan, the question arises - speaking of analysts and the requirements for them, is it correct to mix analysts dealing with different tasks or not? And is it worth splitting on everything or concentrating on some narrow area of \u200b\u200bactivity? The question is quite philosophical, and everyone answers it independently. For example, there are personal preferences for modeling business processes and therefore I want to study this area most deeply - no one will stop you from doing this. Or, someone might want to explore different areas of business analysis more broadly, which will also be good for your career. you will understand where and what methods can be used, you will be able to flexibly select them depending on the specifics of your project.
And I would like to give a few theses of how analysts can be useful, namely wide horizon.
The fact is that with such a plan, there is practically no limit. Most likely, the whole life is not enough to master the entire width of the topic inside and out. All the same, you will concentrate on some subset of it. However, the already studied subset is of value to the market and you just have to go and agree on this with your employer.
Those. a wide horizon of skills is useful, interesting, profitable.

2. Assessment of the current skill level

After determining the weights, you should determine what your current level of proficiency in skills and knowledge of technologies and tools you have. One of the fairly convenient assessment methods is analogs of assessing knowledge of foreign languages \u200b\u200b(from Basic to Intermediate and Advanced). Each of these levels is assigned a different grade from 0 to 5. You then calculate the total score as the sum of the weighted grades.

3. Setting development goals

Then you fill in 2 more columns in the plan table - what level of knowledge and skills do you expect in yourself in a year and in a month. This approach is somewhat close to the modern trend of unification, when you subordinate your development to numerical measurements (in fact, you accumulate points). There is still room for development, how this table can be optimized, what "goodies" you can give yourself for reaching a particular level.

4. Determination of ways to achieve

After that, you determine the ways to achieve the goal. For each item that you plan to improve, you identify literature, trainings, conferences, etc. You must have a clear understanding of what you plan to do in the next month and the next year in order to develop in business analysis.

Outcome

So, business analysts can have a lot of skills and knowledge, they can be different, they can be applied in different forms to your current projects. But if you feel that you have already reached the ceiling and that you know everything within the framework of the work that you are doing right now on projects, in no case do not despair - try to remember today's report, try to look at the world wider and think that I don't know yet and where else can I develop, where I can move. It will definitely be useful for you from a career point of view, and your employer will appreciate it too. Which means you will be more professionally successful in your IT career.

Question 1

What are the criteria for evaluating the quality of an analyst's work? How to objectively evaluate the work of your subordinate analysts?

To begin with, agree with the analyst team about the same representation of work quality among all members. For example, for me one of the criteria for an analyst's work (not the main one) is the quality of the documents they provide. At the same time, it is important for me that the document is beautifully designed, meaningful and logically structured, so that there are no jumps from section to section, etc. Accordingly, we take this particular atomic unit and say with the analyst that the quality of the document should be the same, and he answers you that he did not even think about it. For example, there is no pagination and okay. He thought that the main thing was to write the text. Thus, having sat down together and having discussed these moments with him, we come to a common understanding of the quality of the document.
Accordingly, you need to go through all the steps of the analyst's work and talk over the quality criteria.
According to my assessment, I can say the following: we undergo periodic certification (1-2 times a year), the assessment for which consists of several criteria. Analysts are, first of all, communicators, i.e. they receive information from clients and pass it on to developers. A very important criterion for evaluating is what the client thinks about interacting with the analyst: how quickly he responds to requests, how clear and understandable information he provides to the client and how effective he is in interacting with the client. This questionnaire is completed by the client. A similar questionnaire is filled out by the developers (i.e. the project implementation team): to what extent the analyst is available to them, how they understand the documents provided to them, how comfortable it is for them to work with this analyst on the project.
This is one of the analysts' assessment points, and it is very important because he is a translator between the client and the developer, and if at this stage there is a weak link, then no matter how cool he is to design and write, he has not achieved his goals.
The second point is the effectiveness of the project. Of course, not only the analyst is taken into account here, but, nevertheless, we assess the entire team as a whole. But since the analyst was a translator of requirements and, together with the team, formed what a given product should do, this is also a rather important characteristic.
The third point - if possible, it is an expert assessment of documents and requirements that the analyst produces. For example, within six months he wrote requirements, but some of them were not included in the basic requirements or forgot about them. Or as applied to specifications - as far as they are clear, specific, consistent. Thus, you can expertly evaluate these documents. There is not always such an opportunity. Usually only the customer or the development team can say something about him.

Why is domain knowledge classified as an additional competency? It seems to me that this is the main thing: an analyst can draw bad diagrams, but he must understand what he is doing. There are a lot of people who draw beautiful graphs and UML diagrams, and those who do not understand the essence of the work and do stupid things are the majority.
I agree with this position. However, Sergey and I, during the preparation of the presentation, argued a lot about the grouping of skills for the convenience of their presentation and understanding by analysts. The same basic skills are the foundation that does not already allow you to become an analyst, it only allows you to start an understanding of this industry. Therefore, it may not include domain expertise. Of course, there is absolutely nowhere to successfully complete projects without it.

Question 2

At one time, I was of the same opinion that analysts can write papers until I met with a professional technical writer (from Europe). And I realized that this is a huge area, people even receive special education in this direction. And there is a huge difference between what business analysts, salespeople, project managers, developers write, and what technical writers write - in fact, it's a chasm. It seems to me that if there is an opportunity (for example, large companies have such a practice), outsource technical writing to a professional company. They give public information about a product and they immediately write professional documentation, rather than trying to do it internally.

I started my career as a technical writer, so all this is very close to me, I very clearly understand what you are talking about now. From my feelings and how I performed my analytical functions, having a technical writing base, and comparing it with analysts who do not have this base, I still believe that analysts should have the skills to write technical writing. This makes you more professional.
On account of the fact that something can be divided and outsourced, my entire report can be broken into pieces and say, for example, that the design of business processes should be given to a specialist in business process modeling (I have met such a specialist who did something which none of my business analysts could do). But this is just proof that the better you delve into the areas indicated in the report, the better your result will be and the more you will evoke a wow reaction from everyone around you.

P.S... You can meet Maria and Sergey at future conferences of the series