Underlying Competencies

This chapter discusses the underlying competencies that support the successful execution of business analysis as a discipline in the workplace. It outlines the key behaviors, characteristics, knowledge, and personal qualities that every business analyst should aspire to express in their role.

By the end of this chapter, you will know what the underlying competencies are and understand each core competency that a business analyst should include in their daily work. More specifically, we will cover the following key topics in this chapter:

• The purpose and context of the underlying competencies
• Analytical thinking and problem-solving
• Behavioral characteristics
• Business knowledge
• Communication skills
• Interaction skills
• Tools and technology
• A real-world case study
• Testing your knowledge

The concepts you will learn are as follows:

• Understanding the context...

What are the underlying competencies?

You may be tempted to pass through this section of the study material quickly, but I suggest you stop and absorb the true scope of the underlying competencies in order to gain a much deeper and more well-rounded understanding of what this chapter is trying to teach you about business analysis as a whole.

This chapter outlines the core behaviors, observable characteristics, and inherent—and sometimes assumed—knowledge and personal attributes that underline the entire practice of business analysis.

Although these underlying competencies are not necessarily unique to business analysis, they are described here to help you fully appreciate the fundamental skills and knowledge required to be a genuinely successful business analyst.

There are six main categories of underlying competencies to be aware of, shown in the following diagram...

Analytical thinking and problem-solving

As a business analyst, you need to develop your ability to apply analytical thinking and problem-solving in order to resolve the challenges and opportunities that you encounter as part of your role. These competencies are fundamental when identifying the best opportunities for delivering the most value to a business. They are also of key importance when helping your stakeholders understand the changing impacts within their business when pursuing these opportunities.

The analytical thinking and problem-solving core competencies include the following:

• Creative thinking
• Decision-making
• Learning
• Problem-solving
• Systems thinking
• Conceptual thinking
• Visual thinking

Let's now consider each of these core competencies and understand what they mean and how to apply them effectively when performing business analysis functions.

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Exploring behavioral characteristics

Behavioral characteristics are common to everyone and are not exclusive to business analysis. They improve personal and professional effectiveness in the practice of business analysis.

The underlying competency category referred to as behavioral characteristics refer to a core set of personal characteristics that every professional in the workplace should have in order to support themselves in a way that will guarantee positive outcomes.

The behavioral characteristics of core competencies include the following:

• Ethics
• Personal accountability
• Trustworthiness
• Organization and time management
• Adaptability

Let's now outline each of these core competencies in more detail to gain an understanding of what skills they describe for a business analyst to perform effectively.

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Business knowledge

The underlying competency of business knowledge refers to the ability of a business analyst to make sense of and perform well in their business, industry, solution, and methodology. It is an important competency because it enables the business analyst to relate their work in a change initiative back to the higher-level context of the business in terms of its benefits, structure, and the value delivered.

There are a number of specific core competencies identified as part of the category of business knowledge. These include the following:

• Business acumen
• Industry knowledge
• Organization knowledge
• Solution knowledge
• Methodology knowledge

Let's now consider each of these core competencies and understand what they mean and how to apply them effectively when performing business analysis functions.

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Communication skills

Let's start by considering a basic definition of what communication skills are:

"Communication is the act of a sender conveying information to a receiver in a method that delivers the meaning the sender intended."

Being able to communicate effectively as a business analyst is of vital importance and a clear success measure is having a truly consistent and agreed-upon understanding of the requirements. To be an effective communicator requires a business analyst to be an active listener, being able to adapt their communication styles to suit stakeholder audiences and have an understanding of tone, body language, and context when attaching meaning to words.

There are a number of specific core competencies identified as part of the communication skills category. These include the following:

• Verbal communication
• Non-verbal communication
• Written...

Interaction skills

When we refer to interaction skills, we are referring to all types of interaction with every type of stakeholder across every level of an organization. A business analyst is placed in a unique position where their role requires them to be able to engage with different types of stakeholders in ways that are most suitable to the individual. Interaction often involves demonstrating leadership and encouragement and promoting the value of a particular change or initiative.

There are a number of specific core competencies identified as part of interaction skills. They include the following:

• Facilitation
• Leadership and influencing
• Teamwork
• Negotiation and conflict resolution
• Teaching

Let's now consider each of these core competencies and learn how to apply them effectively when performing business analysis functions.

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Exploring tools and technology

In order for a business analyst to be effective in their daily roles, there are certain types of tools and technology that they should master in order to convey the results of the information they discover in an effective and efficient way. They need these tools and technology to convey information in the form of artifacts, models, and diagrams; to track issues and risks, and to increase their overall productivity.

There are a number of specific core competencies identified as part of the tools and technology category. These include the following:

• Office productivity tools and technology
• Business analysis tools and technology
• Communication tools and technology

Let's now consider each of these core competencies and learn how to apply them effectively when performing business analysis functions.

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Summary

In this chapter, you learned about the underlying competencies that every business analyst must possess and develop during their career.

The following are the key concepts and tasks we covered in this chapter:

• The purpose and context of the underlying competencies
• Analytical thinking and problem-solving
• Behavioral characteristics
• Business knowledge
• Communication skills
• Interaction skills
• Tools and technology

In the next chapter, we will learn about the techniques that every business analyst should master and improve during the course of their professional business analysis careers.

Make sure you revise these key learnings before completing the knowledge quiz at the end of this chapter.

You now have an understanding of the importance and purpose of the underlying competencies and know what the scope of each core competency is, as well as the importance of developing these...

Knowledge quiz

Consider the following real-world scenario and complete the micro mock exam based on this chapter.

Case study – a day in the life of a business analyst

As business analysts, we encounter a variety of different situations every day that require us to perform and apply different core competencies. Consider each of the following situations that you have had to respond to today.

Situation 1

You are faced with a business problem that requires you to apply new ideas and approaches in order to solve it.

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