7 Skills for a Strong Technical Business Analyst Resume

Writing a strong technical BA resume starts with including all of the right types of skills on it. Here are the top 7 types that every IT business analyst should include on their resume.

Writing a strong business analyst resume requires the right keywords on your resume. The best way to do this is to cover the types of keywords that employers are looking for on your resume with illustrations of how you have shown them in the past. Employers are looking for a lot more information about your experience as an IT business analyst in today's competitive market. Here are the top 7 types of skills that every great IT business analyst should include on their resume:

#1 - Technology Skills

IT business analysts focus on new technologies and working with a variety of solutions. The details about what systems you have worked with, the data, and how it was used in the organization are critical. Make sure to include the details about the systems involved in your projects on your resumes.

A lot of times, these systems can be proprietary. In that case, you should make sure to include the systems on your resume. However, the names of the systems do not matter. Instead, it is what they do and how they are used that matters. Provide a general context for the system so that others can relate to what it is  and it is likely that you will find other employers that are encountering similar issues.

Notables software to include on your resume that matter to a lot of employers include:

*JIRA

*Tableau

*Microsoft Project

*PowerObjects

*Salesforce

*JDEdwards

*AWS

*Oracle

*ERP (of any variety)

#2 Cross-Functional Collaboration

The second skill to include on your IT business analyst resume is cross-functional collaboration. The times that you have worked cross-functionally and what the results are can make some great achievements for your resume. The ability to partner across an enterprise is particularly important as so many employers need people that can influence without direct authority.

To cover this skill effectively on your resume,  include details about who you partnered with, why, and the result of those collaborations. For example, identify the root cause of the business challenge and articulate your role in writing the technical specifications of the project plan. You can also include information about what data you used, who was impacted, and how the resulting technology solution enabled the business to meet its goals. To do this right, you had to collaborate with the end-users and the business stakeholders to understand their requirements and to define the scope of the project. This is precisely the type of achievement to include on your resume to illustrate your ability to collaborate cross-functionally.

#3 Leadership

The third skill to include on your technical business analyst resume is leadership. You can incorporate this on your resume by including business analyst resume examples of leadership skills in action. For instance, describe how you created an innovative technical solution to address the business' business problems. You can also capture details about how you lead, who you have led, and the results of that leadership. This leadership may be in an official capacity with a title like Scrum Master or it may be unofficially to support the project manager or PMO. Whatever it is, include these details to show your leadership capabilities.

The business analyst also often has the difficult task of managing people in addition to managing projects. This can be directly (the people on the project team) or indirectly (the stakeholders or business leaders). To do this effectively, the technical business analyst needs excellent people management skills as they will oversee the entire process of defining business requirements, prioritizing user stories, interviewing stakeholders, documenting findings in coherent reports or presentations and attending meetings with all of the involved people. A person with strong leadership skills will keep these efforts focused so that they can maintain the technical project momentum to move forward.

#4 Continuous Improvement

Process improvement is a huge focus of every great technical business analyst. Make sure to include details about how you supported continuous improvement on your resumes. You can do this by capturing details about your efforts to identify workflow changes, using data to identify trends or supporting the project development that led to the transformation.

A technical business analyst will often play a role in changing operational workflows as well. So, outline what your role is across the project and what was required on your resume. Don't forget to include the numbers wherever you can - was money saved? time saved? greater sales? accounts retained? customers satisfied? Whatever the answer, try to convey the results of your continuous improvement efforts on your resume to stand out as a technical business analyst.  

#5 Problem Solving & Decision-Making Skills

The best IT business analysts understand that they are there to solve the problems of the business using their skills. In fact, an IT business analyst will often be the link between the business stakeholders or end-users and the technical teams. They will work to define the root cause that prompts the need for the solution so that they can create or assist in the creation of the technical specifications. This requires strong problem-solving skills and the ability to prioritize critical business objectives. The technical business analyst will decide on what solution best fits the business needs, the solutions, and work to maximize the potential ROI. This could be through a data-driven approach to solving the problem or through a collaborative approach to understanding how the situation impacts the business. The ability to adapt your problem solving skills to the situation is also a great skill to include on your technical business analyst resume.  

#6 Methodologies

The next type of skills to include on your technical business analyst resume is your experience and knowledge of the different types of project management methodologies. Your experience, expertise, and application of each of the major methodologies are critical to standing out as a strong business analyst candidate.

The major methodologies are Agile, Scrum, Waterfall, and Lean. A strong technical business analyst can work across all of these methodologies and understand how each of these works together. In some cases, the BA may have to explain these to the stakeholders in order to keep them engaged through the delivery of the key milestones.

It is ok if you don't have formal experience with these methodologies. Focus your resume on the experience that you do have and understand that each methodology can be adapted by different organizations to better cover their needs and cultures. Make sure that you account for this when covering the details of your knowledge and experience with each methodology on your technical business analyst resume.

#7 Project Details

Finally, and probably most importantly, make sure that your IT business analyst resume includes the details about the projects that you have worked on and your skills. It is not enough to say that you have done the functions of a BA. Employers today need to know the details in order to compare you to other candidates and to ensure that you bring the right skills to the table.

Here are some things to think about when fleshing out the details of your project or product experience on your technical BA resume:

*How big was the team size?

*Was the team all internal? Or, were there external or outsourced resources on the team?

*What was the budget?

*Who are the end users?

*Are the end-users in the US or globally dispersed?

*What methodologies were used?

*What tools were involved in the project? Were the systems custom-built or integrated solutions with a vendor?

*Did you work with any external vendors or clients?

*What was the commercial impact of the initiative?

*Were you working on other projects or products at the time?

*Who advocated for the end-users during the execution?

*Were you involved in process documentation? What about end-user training?

Including these 7 types of skills listed above on your resume will definitely help to make your technical business analyst resume stand out. More details and strategic use of keywords on your resume will get it past the applicant tracking systems. This information will also help you to create talking points for the interview if the details are properly conveyed on the resume. So, make sure that you include all of these skills on your IT business analyst resume.

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