As with many professions, the BA profession has a specific set of skills that are key to our success. An understanding of these skills would be useful before deciding to become a BA.

There are a couple of accreditation bodies globally that define a set of standards for the Business Analysis profession, namely British Computer Society (BCS), International Institute of Business Analysts (IIBA) and Project Management Institute (PMI). The PMI has a Business Analysis Certification (PMI-BA) My views in this article are independent of the suggestions made by the BCS, PMI or IIBA.

The Business Analyst role has changed significantly over the past few decades and has become more commonplace than it used to be. With the growth in the use of personal computers within businesses during the 80’s, the BA role has become more critical to businesses trying to leverage the power of computers, information and information technology.