What are the few primary skills for a business analyst?

The most important skills for a business analyst are logical reasoning and communication. Define; if any requirement is the client’s need or want is very important during the requirement gathering phase. You can ask the right question to determine, what problem the customer is trying to solve without thinking about the solution at all.

There is a saying “A problem understood correctly, is the problem 50% solved”. This should be the mantra of every business analysts’

Communication is another very important aspect of business analysis. And listening skill is the first thing one should command on. Your job is to understand the need of customers and recommend appropriate solutions. Sometimes even customers are not sure about what they really want, but they are aware of the problem they want to solve. Listeners are primary of 2 types:

1. People who listen to respond
   
2. People who listen to understand/ comprehend
   

A business analyst should be a listener of the latter type. One should listen to comprehend, and you can always come back to ask questions. Listening to clients, customer and other stakeholders is the primary source of requirements, which are not available otherwise.

An analyst should listen and communicate the same requirements to other team members without any modification, changes, and ambiguity.

Any gap in the communication process ends up in a state like below:

1. Perform initial testing of a product
   
2. Approve or suggest changes to the team
   
3. Demo application to the client
   
4. Take client approval/signoff
   
5. Record customers’ feedback and take appropriate action/s
   

Other important skills a business analyst should have –

1. Good facilitator – Required for effective coordination with stakeholders and project team
   
2. Time management
   
3. Document Writing skills
   
4. Presentation skills
   
5. Problem-solving
   
6. Some level of Domain Expertise