What Are the Skill Sets Required to Pass ECBA Certification?

Important Skills Required to Pass ECBA Certification

The ECBA or Entry Certificate in Business Analysis is the first level within the business analysis certification program from the IIBA or International Institute of Business Analysis. The ECBA certification is recognizing the individuals who enter the field of business analysis and those professionals engaged in supervising business analysts and have the desire to understand the needed knowledge & competencies of a good business analyst. An interested applicant is required to meet some eligibility requisites so that he or she will be admitted to take the examination. There is a set of skills needed for one to achieve the ECBA certification. This set of skills includes the following:

• Communication
• Business Knowledge and Critical thinking
• Problem Solving
• Technical Skills
• Methodology Skills
• Stakeholder Management
• Decision Making
• Elicitation Techniques

The business analyst skills that were mentioned above are applicable either the analysis is carried out in the agile or in a more outdated plan-driven approach. It is a suitable course for people who want to get on business analysis or to level set a business analyst in the organization or for the senior analysts who have to refresh their own skill set.

Skill Sets to Pass ECBA Certification

Communication skills

Business analysts should work in teams, gather information and provides it to wide-ranging stakeholders in the company, translate and negotiate between parties, and also provides the solutions in an accessible approach. Business analysts should have strong communication and written skills, and feel assured during a leadership position to get approval for plans from superiors in the company.

Business knowledge and critical thinking 

Business analysts should perceive several angles of the organization for whom they are working. They need to be ready to perceive the roles of various people and departments, and the way these departments interact and rely upon one another. They should also understand the single organization in a broader context of the entire industry. This knowledge will help them to build successful strategic plans in the future.

Problem Solving Skills

A Business Analyst should understand the problems, should be able to come up with possible solutions and determine the scope of the project. To understand the problem, you should be a good listener. You should be able to listen and absorb the source of the problem. This will help you to analyse the problem and to resolve it with the possible solutions. Also to understand and solve the problems in business, you must maintain a good relationship with your stakeholders.

Technical skills

Business analysts could use a large vary of technical programs,  including programs in diagramming, data crunching, wireframing, management of requirements, and for presentation of results. A lot of, business analysts are increasing their technical proficiency with knowledge of computer programming, big data mining techniques, database management, and systems engineering.

Methodology Skills

There are different methodologies in Business Analysis. For example, Six Sigma, Agile Business Analysis, Business Process Modeling Notation etc. You can choose and get specified in it or if you have the knowledge in more than one specific methodology, it is your great advantage while searching for a job.

Stakeholder Management

It is important to know how to manage all of your stakeholders and know how much influence they have on your project. Stakeholders may either support you or criticize you. An experienced Business Analyst should be able to analyse how much management each stakeholder needs and how the stakeholders should be individually managed. Sometimes they may need face to face meetings and detailed information accordingly you have to proceed. This will help you to manage your stakeholders and the wider project.

Decision Making

The quality of the decisions taken by a Business Analyst is very much important because it has a direct impact on the organization and business. Before deciding it is very important for a Business Analyst to analyze the issues and solution at all angles. Identify the problem in the business, understand it deeply, think about the problems and solutions in every way, evaluate it in various approaches and finally implement the decision.

Elicitation Techniques

The success or failure of a business depends on the elicitation techniques. An analyst’s project’s business needs and the stakeholder will determine what elicitation method is best to choose and proceed. Elicitation occurs throughout a project during discovery, modeling, and testing. Some of the important elicitation techniques are 

Brainstorming 

Here you will gather all your stakeholders to produce many new ideas, and to derive a solution. A Business analyst should try to secure a representative from each stakeholder group in the brainstorming gathering. Record all the ideas which will help you in future. According to BABOK, the brainstorming method is very useful if your project has no clear solution. The brainstorming process is used to come up with the best possible solution for the business problems.

Document Analysis

 Analysing and reviewing all the documents related to the business are very much important to find the solutions for the business problems and to make a decision. According to BABOK, documentation may include, “business plans, market studies, contracts, requests for proposal, statements of work, memos, existing guidelines, procedures, training guides, competing product literature, published comparative product reviews, problem reports, customer suggestion logs, and existing system specifications, among others.” In other words, the hard copies related to the business. 

Interface Analysis 

Interface analysis is an elicitation technique used to analyse the way how user interacts with an application, or the way an application interacts with another. According to BABOK, interface analysis will describe the purpose of each interface involved and elicit high-level details about it. Interface analysis is necessary for software solutions, which almost involve applications interacting with one another and/or users interacting with applications. 

Interviews

Interviews are nothing but a discussion between a Business Analyst and stakeholders, so that the Business Analyst will get to know the views and thoughts of the stakeholders for the business needs and solutions. Interviews are the best way of eliciting requirements. 

Prototyping

Prototyping is valuable for stakeholders such as business owners and end users who are not sure about all the technical aspects of requirements, but will better relate to the end product. Prototyping may be an interactive screen , a mock-up like powerpoint presentation, a navigation flow, or a storyboard. 

Requirements Workshops

A requirements workshop is again a gathering of stakeholders, which is very similar to brainstorming. Requirements workshops must include a recorder to record participant’s input, which will be helpful to find immediate and effective solutions to the business needs.

Survey/Questionnaire 

Survey/Questionnaire are very useful for gathering data from a large group. Surveys are an inexpensive way to gather objective input from customers or potential end users.