1. Modelling

To understand a company's organization structure, operational processes, opportunities for growth, and bottlenecks, Business Analysts use various modelling techniques. To be seen as competent in modelling, a BA should be able to create:

Business process models;
Entity-Relationship (ER) diagrams;
Statechart diagrams;
Block-schemes and algorithms;
Sequence diagrams;
Class diagrams;
Activity diagrams;
Data-flow diagrams (DFD);
Domain vocabularies: taxonomy and ontology.

2. Technology stacks

Since one of the BA's responsibilities is to formulate a project's scope, it's useful to be acquainted with the technology stack used in the project, learn about the pros and cons. Finally, it's nice to have some knowledge about certain technologies and justify the choice to the developers' team.

3. Programming basics

Knowing the basics of programming, testing, and algorithmization is helpful for BAs as it lets them offer more competent technical solutions, allows to see a broader picture of a system, notice functionality inconsistencies, and prevent redundant features.

To keep up with a development team and communicate thoughts clearly, it’s useful for a Business Analyst to master:

Basic programming concepts;
Writing of simple scripts;
Knowledge of one of the programming languages like Python, R, and Kotlin;
Basics of object-oriented programming;
BDD, TDD, and unit testing basics;
Web technologies basics.

4. Software architecture and design

Knowledge of typical architecture solutions, their advantages and drawbacks provides BAs with independence in technical decisions, helps communicate the architectural goals clearly, and enables them to resolve issues during technical implementation of the project.

Moreover, a well-documented architecture helps approve changes with a client, discuss those changes with a development team, and compare various available options.

Here's the list of typical architecture solutions that stands a BA in good stead:

Service-oriented architecture;
Client-server architecture;
Peer-to-peer;
Onion architecture;
Data buses;
Cloud computing;
SaaS, PaaS, IaaS.

Additionally, a BA should be able to describe the enterprise architecture, use basic frameworks and enterprise architecture standards (TOGAF, Zachman, FEAF, and Gartner), and be familiar with mechanisms of systems integration.

5. Database management systems

Another useful technical skill for a BA is the basics of database design and SQL to write simple requests. For middle and senior-level Business Analysts the bar is higher. They should be able to design complex databases (with segmentation, clusterization, distributed data storage, etc.) and write complex requests and procedures in SQL.

It's great to know the peculiarities of database management systems (DBMS) like MS SQL, DB2, Oracle, Postgres, MongoDB, OrientDB, and MySQL; administrate a respective DBMS, and design a document-oriented database.

To optimize the performance of an IT infrastructure, BAs need to operate normalization and denormalization concepts and understand their consequences.

6. Software testing

Quite often, Business Analysts start their careers by switching from quality assurance. Thus, they get a competitive advantage among other BAs. Ex-QAs that switched to business analysis are aware of the inner workings of the software development process, know the basics of programming, and distinguish well-written requirements from poorly written ones.

Whether a BA already has a quality assurance background or not, it's great to know and apply the following:

Basics of software testing – types, domains of application, and the main artifacts
Functional testing
Testing automation;
Acceptance testing
ISO2500 specific;
Requirements testing

7. Interface design

A skillful BA is also a bit of a UX designer. UX skills help BAs find a compromise between client's requests, designer's solutions that might not correlate with business goals, and end-users demands. Moreover, knowledge of interface design basics, principles of user-centered design and task center design, and creation of simple prototypes help Business Analysts communicate with UX designers and find the most relevant solutions.

8. Business intelligence

Business intelligence (BI) is another useful skill for a BA that helps transform insights derived from the market an organization operates in and the data on internal organization's state.

For starters, BAs learn a data lifecycle from the system source to an end display in BI systems, online analytical processing (OLAP), simple MDX requests, common data storage schemes, and mechanisms of data updates in such storages.

Common BI tools that help BAs design data storages, build integration mechanisms, and apply different protocols of data exchange include SSAS, SSRS, SSIS, Oracle BI, Tableau, and Qlikview.

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