Inga Davids, a Business Analyst at TFG, talks about taking on the business analysis challenge with Rafieqah Isaacs, in business analysis: the job, the role and the career.
What would be the key difference between a good Business Analyst and a great one?
A good BA is curious to learn, to understand and continually growing their toolbox of skills.
Unfortunately, a good business analyst sometimes falls into the trap of using their go-to tools and making it work for every situation; getting the job done but perhaps not in the most efficient manner.
A great business analyst has a comprehensive toolbox of skills to exploit, tailoring their toolkit for each project, confident to apply a wide variety of techniques in order to get the job done efficiently.
A great business analyst is a creative and critical thinker who has the competency to extract and analyse information, a good translator of information with the ability to connect the dots to understand how the pieces fit and impact each other. A great business analyst is a visionary, getting the 50,000 feet view and stepping in to show the bigger picture – to learn, to understand, to question and not merely accept at face value.
What do you enjoy most about being a Business Analyst?
What I enjoy most about my role is that every engagement is different. The diversity of projects and interactions with people provides me with the opportunity to learn about new business areas with the intent to effect positive change, never a moment to get bored.
What aspects of being a Business Analyst are you most passionate about, and why?
For me it is looking at the bigger picture from all angles, creating a shared understanding with a room full of people on a particular problem. It is satisfying bringing people together, collaboratively to reach a ‘win-win’ situation. In addition, playing a role in contributing to the achievement of the strategic business objectives is rewarding.
Why did you become a Business Analyst?
I love a good challenge, passionate about technology, an inquisitive thinker and people person. It’s a role that touches on all of the above, allowing me to develop and harness my business and technical acumen; the best of both worlds.
What has been the most difficult part of your job?
The most challenging part of the job is to facilitate trust and buy-in among stakeholders at various levels of responsibility with different views on ‘what success looks like’. The soft-skill component of facilitating shared understanding is an art. As much as I enjoy interacting with people in various roles it is also the most challenging and unpredictable!
‘The Business Analysis Challenge with Inga Davids‘ was first published in the 2015 Inter-View Report. Talk more about the business analysis challenge on Twitter with @Inga_Davids and @Raf_Sunshine.
