Skills generally fall into two main categories: hard skills and soft skills.
Hard skills are technical abilities acquired through education and practice. They are tangible, visible, and easily measurable. These skills are gained from external sources. For business analysts, hard skills might include:
◼ Requirements documentation
◼ Wireframe creation
◼ Glossary or data dictionary development
◼ Mind mapping or functional decomposition
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Soft skills, on the other hand, are personal attributes or behaviors developed over a lifetime, shaped by experiences. They are less visible and harder to measure. Soft skills are cultivated from within. Examples include:
◼ Personal accountability
◼ Time management
◼ Teaching and mentoring
◼ Active listening
◼ Conflict resolution
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When completing business analysis activities, it might be relatively easy to see and recognize that someone is lacking a hard skill. For example, if you need to create an entity-relationship diagram but have never done it before, you might need to read about the notation, watch instructional videos, and possibly get help from another business analyst on the team with your first ERD.
With soft skills, it might not be so obvious and easy to recognize gaps. For example, a business analyst may conduct an interview but lacks well-developed active listening skills. As a result, the stakeholder might feel that no one is listening to what they are saying, share their concerns, and feel like they are just wasting time. This can lead to further consequences; the next time the same business analyst needs to conduct another elicitation activity with that stakeholder, the stakeholder may be unwilling to participate.
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The important thing is that professional development requires balanced, continuous attention to both hard skills and soft skills improvement. Soft skills do not improve on their own over time; they require attention, planning, and action.
Developing soft skills requires honesty, the ability to recognize areas for improvement, and a willingness to take action.
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Imagine two pillars holding up a roof—one representing soft skills and the other representing hard skills. Balanced development of both types of skills allows your professionalism to grow consistently. The higher the two pillars are, the higher your level of professionalism will be.
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