A Business Analyst is an agent of change. Know how to assess a Business Analyst.

1. Interview Mocha www.interviewmocha.com
How to screen a BusinessAnalyst
We must understand the role of a Business Analystbeforewe get into the
screening process.
Primarily, a Business Analystis responsiblefor the following:
 Unearthing business needs –Discovering thebusiness need and project
requirements, mainly through conversations with stakeholders.
 Studying Requirements–The business analystneeds to understand the
business needs of the stakeholder and analyzethem thoroughly.
 Documenting Requirements –Documenting the requirements accurately
and in such a format that can be shared with all stakeholders.
 Getting the Requirementsapproved –After documentation the
requirements must be approved and understood in the same senseby all
the stakeholders.

2. Interview Mocha www.interviewmocha.com
 Business analysts fill an interesting role in ITorganizations. They act as a
bridge between the users and the ITdepartment.
 Their role in the development of ITsolutions is crucial. They are not
involved in the hands-on work of the users or the ITteam but act as a
liaison.
 Business Analyst’s often get criticism fromthe ITdepartment for not
appreciating or even understanding their work.
 The users invariably accusethem when the ITdepartment’s solution is
properly executed but in spite of that it does not meet their requirements.
So quite often they are at the receiving end from both the sides.
 Managing this interface between ITand users can be a huge challenge for
Business Analysts.
 Identifying the criteria to effectively screen a business analystcandidate is
somewhatcomplex.
There must be clarity on the skills which are essential for successfulperformance
in the job role.
Skills tolook for ina Business Analyst
CommunicationSkills:
Business analysts mustbe effective communicators. The Business Analystwill
need to engage with stakeholders and organizemeetings. The Business Analyst
needs to probe deeply to unearth the business problems through open and closed
questions. The ability to listen and absorb is crucial. The ability to be a strong
communicator using the latest communication tools such as Skype, conference
calls etc. is important.
Critical Thinking Skills:
Business analysts areresponsiblefor outlining and evaluating multiple options
before helping a team arriveat a solution. While unearthing the problem,
business analysts mustask the stakeholders probing questions until the real need
surfaces and is truly understood.

3. Interview Mocha www.interviewmocha.com
DocumentationSkills:
The Business Analystshould be able to generate accurate, clear and easy to
understand documents.
Analysis Skills:
Business analysts usea variety of techniques such as business process models to
analyzethe problem and the solution.
Visual Modeling:
The ability to create visualmodels such as work-flow diagrams is useful.
FacilitationandElicitationSkills:
BAs need to possess theability to schedule meetings. The most common kinds
of meetings a Business Analystfacilitates are interviews and observations.
Business Analysis Tools:
As a new business analyst, the ability to usebasic office tools such as Microsoft
Officeis a sufficient criterion. Other technical skills include the ability to use
modeling tools, requirements management tools or projectand defect
management tools.
Relationship-Building Skills:
The ability to forge strong relationships with stakeholders is an essential skill.
Since the analystneeds to liaison between the user and ITteams the ability to
build relations is at the core of his job.
Mentally strong enoughtotake Criticism:
BAs receive a barrageof feedback – on their documentation and ideas. A
successfulbusiness analystwillseparatefeedback on the documents and
proposals fromfeedback on the analystpersonally.
Technical Skills:
Itis not necessary for a business analystto be able to writesoftware
codes though understanding the softwareproductlife cycle will definitely be
usefulfor a business analyst.

4. Interview Mocha www.interviewmocha.com
Industry and Domain Expertise:
A business analystdoesn’tneed to be an expert in every domain or industry, but
knowledgeor experience in the industry he will be engaging will be very useful.
A Strongly RecommendedBusinessAnalyst Test
In order to screen a candidate, it is vital to design a test which covers all the
above skills.
The test mustcontain well balanced and meaningfulquestions on Analytical
Thinking, Data Interpretation, Data Sufficiency, Listening, Comprehension and
Writing Skills to accurately assess thebasic, intermediate and advanced
knowledgeof each test taker.
An ideal test would contain the following sections –
Analytical Thinking – Questions on analytical thinking to assess thecandidate’s
ability to successfully analyzeand solvea wide variety of business problems. If any
candidate is good in analytical thinking then he is good in problem solving and
requirement analysis.
Data Interpretation –Data interpretation is part of daily life for mostpeople.
Interpretation involves understanding numericaldata and graphical data.
WrittenCommunication – Questions on Sentence Correction, Selecting Words,
Spotting Errors, and Reading Comprehension.
*******************************************************************