How To Become A Business Analyst in Nigeria: In today’s data-driven environment, businesses use data to identify trends in their operations and generate insightful conclusions.Also, businesses aim to optimize operations and make important decisions using the data at their disposal. The assistance of a business analyst has made all of this feasible.
By comprehending and analyzing business issues and presenting solutions that will maximize a company’s value to its stakeholders, a business analyst facilitates these transformation inside an organization. Business analysts use analytics to evaluate processes, establish requirements, deliver data-driven solutions, and generate reports for executives and stakeholders. They act as a bridge between IT and business teams.
They collaborate closely with the tech team to raise the caliber of the services offered in an organization. They also support the testing and integration of new solutions.This is reason why a business analyst’s position is becoming increasingly crucial. They rank among today’s highest-paid occupations. However, there are a few skills you would need in order to become a business analyst. We’ll walk you through a business analyst’s role and how to become one in this article.
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Who Is a Business Analyst?
Business analysts agents of change ; they are specialists who examine businesses and organizations by analyzing their systems and processes, evaluating their business models, spotting their weaknesses, and coming up with remedies.A business analyst carefully examines data sets in search of opportunities to boost productivity inside a firm. By identifying ways to improve organizational procedures, the business analyst frequently serves as a liaison between various divisions within an organization.
Roles of a Business Analyst
a. Examining and evaluating an organization’s current business procedures to find room for improvement.
b. Examining and researching new IT developments and current business processes to modernize systems.
c. Making ideas and discoveries known during meetings
d. Educating and mentoring employees
e. Developing initiatives in accordance with the demands and needs of the business
f. Creating projects and keeping track of project results
g. Working with stakeholders and users as well as maintaining close communication with senior management, partners, clients, and technicians.
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How To Become A Business Analyst In Nigeria
1. LEARN BUSINESS ANALYSIS FUNDAMENTALS: Understanding what your desired position entails and the profession as a whole is the first step in any career journey. The fundamental tenet of business analysis is to discover a company’s needs and issues and transform them into opportunities for growth. System analyst, process analyst, business architect, management consultant, requirements engineer, product manager, quality assurance, and data scientist are just a few of the positions that call for business analysis skills.
However, even if you’ve probably had some exposure to the concepts behind business analysis through your work experience in a similar industry, you’ll need to transform those impressions into a thorough comprehension of data analysis principles before you make a career-changing choice. To do this, you should do some background research on the various ways that business analysts can benefit an organization, inluding through market analysis for untapped opportunities, data modeling, budgeting, and forecasting, as well as through communications, HR and training, supply chain, business architecture, and process management.
2. EARN A BACHELOR’S DEGREE: To work as a business analyst at the entry level, you typically require at least a bachelor’s degree. However, since there aren’t many undergraduate programs that are specifically designed to teach business analysts, most companies look for employment candidates with business-related degrees.
Operations management, human resources, finance, accounting, and business administration degrees are all good options for employment in this field, as are business analytics and business information.
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3. TAKE A DATA ANALYTICS COURSE: Business analysis relies heavily on data analysis.When you start analyzing hard data, business administration, accounting, or any of the other subjects mentioned above become business analysis. Business Analysts define, research, and resolve problems using data as the source of their ideas. You could even say that a business analyst is, in many respects, a data analyst with abilities that are specifically targeted towards enhancing an organization’s operations.
The main difference between the two positions is that, in contrast to data analysts, who are primarily interested in finding significant patterns within data, business analysts are only concerned with what those patterns may accomplish to advance a business’ goals. So, as a business analyst, having fundamental knowledge of data analysis is very crucial.
Additionally, as a company moves more and more of its operations online, it also has access to an ever rising amount of data. It is now possible to measure metrics that evaluate a business’s operating costs, performance, traffic, sales, and overall efficiency with exceedingly fine accuracy. Business Analysts must have a good grasp of data analytics techniques in order to accomplish this.
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4. DEVELOP YOUR BUSINESS ANALYST SKILLS: Here are some skills you’ll typically want to have as a business analyst.
a. COMMUNICATION SKILLS: Business analysts must work together to gather and occasionally convey complicated technical knowledge to a variety of internal and external stakeholders. Clear communication and negotiation with the parties concerned are all required when offering solutions. Additionally, to persuade senior management of the soundness of their initiatives, business analysts must consequently possess strong leadership qualities and effective written and verbal communication abilities.
b. DATA VISUALIZATION SKILL: Even the best analysis is meaningless if you can’t communicate your views to others. For this, business analysts rely on strong written communication skills as well as the ability to transform data into beautiful charts, graphs, and other visualizations. They may even create interactive dashboards that let users easily query and interact with the data they’ve collected.
c. TECHNICAL SKILL: Business analysts can employ a variety of technical tools, such as applications for diagramming, data processing, wireframing, managing requirements, and presenting outcomes. Business analysts are increasingly developing their technical expertise by learning computer programming, large data mining methods, database management, and systems engineering.
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d. ANALYTICAL SKILLS: Business analysts need to be analytical thinkers who can also use logic and critical thinking. This aids in analyzing business requirements and determining the ideal response to a complex business problem.Additionally, business analysts need to be knowledgeable about many facets of the company they are working with. They must be able to understand the roles that different individuals and departments perform as well as how those departments interact and depend on one another.
e. DATA ANALYSIS: Data gathering, tracking, and analysis will be essential components of a business analyst’s job. It can be helpful to have a solid understanding of data analysis and visualization technologies like Tableau, Excel, and BI Tools. Also helpful might be some understanding of a programming language like SQL.
f. BUSINESS KNOWLEDGE: You can identify operational problems and choose the best ways to solve them with a thorough grasp of finance, accounting, and business fundamentals.
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5. GAIN PRACTICAL REAL-TIME EXPERIENCE: Once you are fully conversant with the concepts, methods, and abilities required for business analytics, you should develop your practical skills by working on some real-world projects based on business analytics. You’ll be able to better grasp how to be a business analyst by learning more about the tools and technology available and how firms use them.
You will also learn about how firms operate and what a business analyst’s functions and responsibilities are in order to perform better in future careers with higher responsibility. You can start by working as a junior business analyst. So, if you’re unclear of how to become a junior business analyst, don’t fret; all you need to do is improve your technical and interpersonal skills, apply for a position as a junior business analyst, and strive to do well while being under supervision.
6. DEVELOP A BUSINESS ANALYST PORTFOLIO TO SHOWCASE YOUR WORK: Once you’ve gained these essential skills, it’s critical that you demonstrate them by posting the projects and code you’ve created (even as a result of coursework) on GitHub or another comparable online platform in order to demonstrate your abilities and start developing your professional portfolio. You may showcase your skills, dazzle potential Hiring Managers, and make your portfolio stand out from the crowd by completing an ambitious and well-executed project on your own.
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Conclusion
This article outlines the relevant education and skills necessary for a position as a business analyst, including a bachelor’s degree. Candidates for this position are preferred to have a degree and expertise in finance. Additionally, this job description indicates that strong verbal and written communication skills are necessary, just like they do for the majority of business management positions.
Edeh Samuel Chukwuemeka, ACMC, is a lawyer and a certified mediator/conciliator in Nigeria. He is also a developer with knowledge in various programming languages. Samuel is determined to leverage his skills in technology, SEO, and legal practice to revolutionize the legal profession worldwide by creating web and mobile applications that simplify legal research. Sam is also passionate about educating and providing valuable information to people.