Organizations across industries are realizing the importance of Digital Transformation now more than ever. With the pandemic acting as a catalyst, organizations are now faced with the need to enhance customer experience, and operational processes and change legacy business models. The quickest and most efficient way to expedite this process of transformation is through the adoption of agile methodology, which helps launch digital experiences at an accelerated rate by prioritizing the features based on importance to the business and delivering in an incremental way using rapid, iterative cycles.

So, what does this mean for a Business Analyst (BA)? Gone are the days when business analysts were expected to only rely upon their business skills. As technology has become the core driver for organizations to streamline operations and lower operational costs, business analysts are expected to have a high level of fluency in digital technology.

The functions of a business analyst include many facets in a transformation project, these include:

• providing data-driven recommendations to change from legacy applications and business models,
• identifying opportunities to improve user experience,
• driving value-driven innovation in services and products, and
• creating digital transformation roadmaps, and translating business requirements to user stories

Based on these it is clear just how necessary it is to develop expertise in emerging digital technologies. To effectively meet increased expectations, BA professionals must cultivate a deep understanding of the following emerging technologies and apply them to improve customer experience and operations processes:

Customer Experience

There is much excitement surrounding new technology in customer service, support, and success. The progress of video, real-time messaging, self-service, and cryptocurrencies all present the potential for big changes in the day-to-day workings of customer success practitioners. Therefore, business analysts should have a deep understanding of customer experience-related technologies like mobility, chatbots, social networking platforms, omnichannel experiences, payment gateways, digital documents, etc.

Operational Processes

Business analysts rely on extensive business operations and process knowledge to demonstrate why redesigning a process will help an enterprise achieve its goals. They are experts at identifying the parts of a business that can benefit from an update in technology. For this reason, business analysts must be adept at operational process-related technologies like Robotic Process Automation (RPA), Blockchain, Cloud (PaaS, SaaS, IaaS), Artificial Intelligence, Machine Learning, Analytics/Business Intelligence, Infrastructure Automation (Infrastructure as code), etc.

Along with the above emerging technology knowledge, business analysts should be knowledgeable about JSON/XML, Data Analysis/Database, DevOps culture, domain knowledge, design thinking, etc. As information technology takes on a more prominent role in business operations, organizations that are moving toward digital transformation look for business analysts who possess the right balance of technology and business skills to help them update their processes, adapt to new technology and create more effective business models.