Business Analyst/Consultant

Business analysts help to develop solutions to business and technical problems that may arise in various organisations. These may be strategic, financial, related to the workforce or a variety of other areas. The role of a business analyst will vary according to the size, type and complexity of an organisation and the project on which they are working. Business analysts need to be able to:

• <div>Complete business process analysis by working closely with clients to identify business needs, costs and benefits of implementing solutions</div>
• <div>Create detailed project objectices and system requirements</div>
• <div>Work with IT experts to address networking and hardware needs </div>
• <div>Propose and document a general system design based on client requirements.</div>

A person who takes on this role will need to have creative thinking, good interpersonal, leadership, negotiation and communication skills. Additionally, business analysts will often need to have some level of IT and/or business systems knowledge. As such, undertaking study in a combination of disciplines may be an advantage. This could mean for example, studying human resources and psychology or combining an arts degree with business, commerce or IT.

Business analyst roles are often a precursor to consulting positions which involve more autonomy and can be obtained with experience. Positions are more readily available in cities; within human resources and IT departments, and in consulting agencies.