IIBA BABOK Soft Skills Every Business Analyst Needs
Summary
This webinar outlines essential soft skills for business analysts, emphasizing their value across all professions. It delves into six key areas from the IIBA's Body of Knowledge: analytical and problem-solving skills, behavioral characteristics, business knowledge, communication skills, and interaction skills. The presentation details specific skills within each category, suggests relevant training, and explains how these competencies enhance current job performance, position individuals for promotions, and facilitate career pivots into roles like project management or product ownership. It highlights the importance of soft skills for organizational success and professional growth.
Key Insights
Technical expertise alone is insufficient for success; interpersonal skills are crucial.
Referencing a quote attributed to 'What Got You Here Won't Get You There', Bloom emphasizes that while technical knowledge is important, it's not enough for true success. Interpersonal connections are vital, particularly in roles like business analysis and project management.
Analytical and problem-solving skills involve strategic, creative, and decision-making abilities.
This competency involves identifying business problems, assessing solutions, performing root cause analysis, and understanding stakeholder needs. Key skills include strategic and creative thinking, decision-making (even 'not making a decision is a decision'), problem-solving, prioritization, innovation, and creativity. Design thinking is mentioned as a valuable methodology.
Proactive engagement in 'what should we do' enhances a BA's role beyond reactive 'what are the requirements'.
By moving from defining requirements (reactive) to questioning 'what should we do', business analysts become more proactive, positioning themselves for senior management roles. This aligns with concepts like digital transformation, which involves re-architecting businesses based on digital technology.
Business knowledge is increasingly critical for support roles, moving beyond technical functions.
Bloom stresses that business knowledge is essential even for IT and other support roles. The evolution from data processing to MIS, Information Technology, and potentially Business Technology signifies a shift towards understanding and leveraging business strategy, not just technical execution.
Sections
Introduction and Context
Webinar hosted by New Horizons, featuring MC Cindy Velasquez and presenter Eric Bloom.
Cindy Velasquez, Marketing Coordinator at New Horizons in Chicago, introduces the webinar and presenter Eric Bloom. She explains that questions can be submitted via the chat window. New Horizons is highlighted as the largest independent IT training company.
The IIBA's Body of Knowledge (BABOK) serves as the foundation for the webinar's content.
Eric Bloom introduces the International Institute of Business Analysis (IIBA) and its Body of Knowledge (BABOK), noting it as the basis for the webinar's material. The IIBA is described as a large organization with numerous chapters, members, and certification levels.
Focus is on soft skills, valuable for all professions, not just business analysis.
Bloom clarifies that the webinar will focus on soft skills related to business analysis, which are applicable and valuable for all professions, not exclusively for BAs. He cites his own belief and research across various certifications like Agile, Scrum, ITIL, and PMI.
Technical expertise alone is insufficient for success; interpersonal skills are crucial.
Referencing a quote attributed to 'What Got You Here Won't Get You There', Bloom emphasizes that while technical knowledge is important, it's not enough for true success. Interpersonal connections are vital, particularly in roles like business analysis and project management.
IIBA BABOK Soft Skill Competencies
Six core soft skill areas defined by IIBA's BABOK 1.7.
The webinar outlines six underlying soft skill competencies from the BABOK 1.7: Analytical Skills, Problem Solving, Behavioral Characteristics, Business Knowledge, Communication Skills, and Interaction Skills. Bloom states he will elaborate on each.
Analytical and problem-solving skills involve strategic, creative, and decision-making abilities.
This competency involves identifying business problems, assessing solutions, performing root cause analysis, and understanding stakeholder needs. Key skills include strategic and creative thinking, decision-making (even 'not making a decision is a decision'), problem-solving, prioritization, innovation, and creativity. Design thinking is mentioned as a valuable methodology.
Proactive engagement in 'what should we do' enhances a BA's role beyond reactive 'what are the requirements'.
By moving from defining requirements (reactive) to questioning 'what should we do', business analysts become more proactive, positioning themselves for senior management roles. This aligns with concepts like digital transformation, which involves re-architecting businesses based on digital technology.
Behavioral characteristics focus on ethics, trustworthiness, and personal organization.
This area covers ethics and trustworthiness, emphasizing being a good person and building professional trust to avoid accumulating enemies. Personal organization, including time management, is also crucial for meeting deliverables. Training can involve building a professional brand and understanding business acumen.
Business knowledge is increasingly critical for support roles, moving beyond technical functions.
Bloom stresses that business knowledge is essential even for IT and other support roles. The evolution from data processing to MIS, Information Technology, and potentially Business Technology signifies a shift towards understanding and leveraging business strategy, not just technical execution.
Communication skills encompass verbal, non-verbal, written, and active listening abilities.
This includes one-on-one interactions, understanding body language (non-verbal cues), ensuring all written communication is professional, and active listening from multiple perspectives (ears, eyes, heart – involving empathy). Training may focus on active listening and interpersonal communications.
Interaction skills involve higher-level communication for collaboration, leadership, and influence.
These skills build upon communication and include working with large stakeholder groups, facilitating decision-making, identifying future states (strategic thinking), influencing others, negotiation, conflict resolution, and leadership. Training in facilitation, leadership, influence, and negotiation is recommended.
Collaboration software facilitates remote and team-based work environments.
Various tools are discussed, including video conferencing (Zoom, Skype) for building rapport, webinar tools (WebEx, Adobe Connect), instant messaging/collaboration platforms (Slack), project collaboration tools (Basecamp), and shared document editors (Google Docs) to enhance productivity and communication.
Application and Career Advancement
Soft skills enhance current job performance and position for promotion.
Improving skills like negotiation, strategic thinking, and proactive problem-solving leads to better job performance and makes individuals more visible for senior positions or transitions to new roles.
Pivoting careers, such as from BA to Project Manager or Product Owner, relies on developing specific soft skills.
Transitioning into new roles like Project Manager or Product Owner (an Agile BA equivalent) requires focusing on skills such as business knowledge, leading without authority, and different perspectives on existing skills. This often involves combining technical craft with interpersonal skills.
Developing soft skills is key for specific roles like BA, PM, and Scrum Master.
For BAs, strong questions and understanding answers yield better requirements. PMs benefit from negotiation, mentoring, and influence. Scrum Masters need effective meeting facilitation, and Product Owners require negotiation, strategic thinking, and consulting skills.
Effectively managing change and organizational adoption requires strong soft skills.
Addressing the common resistance to change, Bloom notes that possessing the right soft skills allows individuals to guide people through organizational transitions, ensuring the adoption of new processes and technologies.
Strategic career planning involves defining desired roles and acquiring necessary skills.
To achieve a promotion, one should define the target role, observe individuals in that position, identify required skills (including business knowledge, leadership, and interpersonal skills), and then acquire them through training, mentorship, observation, and practice.
Soft skills are universally applicable, transcending specific industries or environments.
In response to a question about government agencies (healthcare, financing), Bloom asserts that soft skills like conflict resolution, communication, and change management are life skills applicable in any professional or personal context, regardless of industry or whether the environment is corporate or governmental.
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