DMAI Data Science Team Member #1: The Business Analyst

“We know that one of the first things lead business analysts need to do is to uncover the real issue, problem or business need. And then make sure that whatever requirements or ideas are suggested align with the thing we were trying to address in the first place” – The Business Alchemist

The first person to be recruited for the DMAI Data Science Team will most likely be a business analyst.

Some of they key personality traits for the DMAI BA include understanding how to use data to tell stories that elicit action. The BA has to be a great communicator who also understands data architecture and big data. Experience working in the BPO industry is a plus.

Data exploration and data visualization are the two most important responsibilities associated with the role of a business analyst. Business analysts work with front-end tools like Tableau as related to the core business and interact with the higher management of an organization. They further analyze business-level data provided by the data modeling analyst to find out insights related to the organization’s core business interests.

Another important responsibility of a business analyst is to coordinate with the big data analyst and the data modeling analyst to make them understand the business objectives and identify possible focus areas. The ultimate responsibility of a business analyst is to produce actionable insights based on the processed data and help the company leadership in their decision making process.

Ideal business analyst candidates should have expert level knowledge on the underlying business data and source systems. The ideal candidate should have an eye for details and must possess exceptional analytical skills. Moreover, solid understanding of the organization’s business model and the ability to think out of the box are two important qualities that all business analysts should definitely have. It is also important to have sufficient technical skills to come up with precise dashboards using Tableau for representing business data in a structured manner.

The DMAI Data Science Team works with businesses and schools in the Philippines to build data science teams, empower data science cultures and become magnets for analytics talent.