How do IT Business Analysts Help Businesses With Technological Advancements

This is the digital transformation era; it is one of the top strategic business priorities today because of its transformative abilities. But digital transformation is not only about installing software and training employees. A company’s IT requirements must align with its business goals to succeed. Your IT business analysts armed with a good team can make your digital transformation a resounding success. But does that actually happen? As per a 2021 Dynatrace report, 49% of all CIOs believe that the business and IT teams work in silos, which is the biggest blocker for digital transformation. Achieving a strong business and IT relationship is essential to maximize the effectiveness of technology in supporting the company’s strategic objectives. This can greatly improve if an IT business analyst aligns technology solutions with business objectives.

Let’s understand the impact of skilled IT business analysts in bridging the gap.

How Can IT Business Analysts Add Value to a Business?

Retail behemoth Amazon is one of the finest examples of digital transformation. What began as a small mail-order bookstore in 1994 is one of the most powerful businesses operating across five continents. Its dogged obsession with satisfying customers became the focal point of its digital transformation. The usage of robots in warehouses, building cannibalistic products like Kindle, its ‘1-click checkout’ option, and thousands of other moves have made Amazon a force to reckon with. That’s what digital transformation can do, and this is where IT Business Analysts (BA) can make a difference.

IT Business analysts use data analytics to bridge the gap between business and IT. They engage with business leaders to understand the process and articulate technically feasible and financially reasonable ideas.

As explained by Bob Gregory, Professor and Academic Program Director at Bellevue University- “Elicitation of requirements and using those requirements to get IT onboard and understand what the client really wants, that’s one of the biggest responsibilities for BAs. They have to work as a product owner, even though the business is the product owner.”

Here are the different ways in which IT analysts work towards adding value to businesses.

1. Understanding Requirements

Having a strong understanding of IT, they can properly understand and translate requirements, ensuring that proposed solutions align with the company’s goals. This enables informed decision-making during business development.

2. Evaluating and Selecting Technology

IT business analysts can assess software, tools, and technologies to meet business needs. Their expertise allows them to conduct feasibility studies, providing insights into potential benefits and drawbacks.

3. Improving Processes

With their deep understanding of business processes, they can identify opportunities for improvement, streamline workflows, and enhance productivity. Their insights can help reduce costs and eliminate bottlenecks through automation and optimization.

4. Managing Projects

They take on project management responsibilities, ensuring projects are completed on time and within budget. By collaborating with cross-functional teams, they streamline development processes, mitigate risks, and ensure successful project delivery.

5. Liaising With Stakeholders

Acting as intermediaries between business stakeholders and technical teams facilitates effective communication and collaboration. They manage expectations, consider all perspectives, and foster a collaborative environment for success.

Five Important Skills IT Business Analysts Need to Bridge the Gap Between Business and IT?

To successfully bridge the gap between IT and business, IT Business Analysts require diverse skills encompassing technical and business domains. These professionals serve as a vital link, translating complex technical concepts into understandable business terms and vice versa. The following skills are crucial for business analysts to effectively bridge this gap and facilitate seamless communication between IT teams and business stakeholders

1. Management Skills

Great project management skills are key in bridging the gap between two or more teams, especially between the IT and business teams. It can help IT business analysts ensure effective communication, manage expectations, and foster collaboration.

2. Familiarity with tools

With the help of powerful business intelligence tools like Tableau and Power BI, IT business analysts can gather and analyze data and then provide valuable insights. These tools facilitate effective communication, align business requirements with IT solutions, and enable data-driven decision-making, fostering collaboration and success.

3. Data Analysis

With the help of data analysis, BA can gain insights into processes and systems, identify improvement areas, and provide data-driven recommendations. This helps implement solutions, monitor impact, and drive informed decision-making for continuous improvement.

4. Critical Thinking Skills

Critical thinking is a  major skill that helps IT Business Analysts carefully analyze complex problems, make smart decisions, and communicate effectively between IT and business teams. This enables them to find the best solutions that connect IT with the overall business goals.

5. Communication and Negotiation Skills

By leveraging their communication and negotiation skills, IT business analysts can facilitate effective dialogue between IT and business stakeholders. This helps bridge the gap by ensuring that both parties understand each other’s perspectives, aligning business needs with IT capabilities, and ultimately fostering collaboration and synergy between the two domains.

What are Some Useful Data Science Techniques for IT Business Analysts?

Since the core functions of an IT business analyst is to identify, analyze and liaise, using effective data science techniques helps their cause. These techniques help enhance their analytical capabilities and provide valuable insights to bridge the gap between IT and business.

Here are a few techniques that can come in handy:

Data Mining

IT Business Analysts can explore and analyze large datasets to uncover patterns and correlations. With data mining, they can extract valuable information from diverse data sources. They can drive decision-making by applying data mining techniques.

Data Modeling

This helps anticipate future outcomes by creating statistical or machine-learning models using historical data. IT business analysts can predict customer behavior, identify trends, and anticipate business challenges or opportunities.

Data Visualization

Charts, graphs, and interactive dashboards can help communicate insights visually. This makes complex data easy to understand and grasp important information quickly. Additionally, it helps in avoiding communication gaps.

Cluster Analysis

IT business analysts employ cluster analysis to identify groups or segments in a dataset based on similarities in attributes. This technique aids in understanding customer segmentation, grouping similar products/services, or categorizing data points for better decision-making.

ALSO READ: What is Data Science

How Can Business Intelligence Tools Help IT Business Analysts in Bridging the Gap

BI tools greatly assist IT business analysts by providing powerful data analysis and visualization capabilities. These tools allow analysts to integrate and transform data from various sources, uncover meaningful insights through advanced analytics techniques, and create visually appealing reports and dashboards. By leveraging BI tools, IT business analysts can efficiently gather and analyze data, communicate insights to stakeholders, make informed decisions, and bridge the gap between different teams, ultimately driving organizational success through data-driven strategies.

What are the Benefits of Upskilling for IT Business Analysts?

Based on a 2022 Data Science Skills Survey report, 84.4% or 4 out of 5 IT professionals stated that recruiters consider machine learning the most crucial skill when hiring. Gaining or upskilling your data science knowledge is an important assessment criterion. Here is how upskilling can help analysts.

More Job Opportunities

By acquiring new skills and staying updated with emerging technologies, IT business analysts can unlock a wider range of job opportunities. Upskilling allows them to take on more challenging roles, explore different industries, and remain competitive in the job market.

Improved Performance and Efficiency

Upskilling equips an IT business analyst with the latest tools and techniques, making him/her perform their tasks more effectively. This leads to improved performance, enhanced problem-solving abilities, and increased efficiency in analyzing business requirements and translating them into IT solutions.

Enhanced Adaptability

The ability to adapt to changing technologies and business environments is the key to success in a business analyst role. By upskilling, IT analysts can quickly learn and apply new skills and embrace emerging trends, thereby becoming valuable assets to their organizations.

Professional Growth and Job Satisfaction

Upskilling enables IT Business Analysts to continuously grow and progress in their careers. By acquiring new knowledge and skills, they experience personal and professional development, leading to increased job satisfaction, higher job engagement, and a sense of fulfillment in their roles.

Becoming a Business Analyst With Emeritus

Emeritus offers a range of data science courses that can benefit IT Business Analysts looking to enhance their skills and knowledge. These courses can help you stay abreast of industry advancements and enhance effectiveness in bridging the IT and business gap.