What Is Business Analytics? | Introduction to Business Analytics | Simplilearn

Introduction

The video introduces the Simply Launch YouTube channel and provides an overview of what will be covered in the session.

• Simply Launch is a YouTube channel that provides daily updates on multiple technologies.

• The video covers business analysis, including what it is, who a business analyst is, their roles and responsibilities, required skills, important tools used by business analysts, and real-time training from Simply Learn.

• Aspiring business analysts can check out Simply Learn's postgraduate program in Business Analysis from Purdue University in collaboration with Amazon Google Microsoft for online training and certification.

Understanding Business Analysis

This section defines business analysis and explains its importance.

• Business analytics and intelligence are two of the fastest-growing markets in the world.

• Business analytics involves collecting, analyzing, and drawing valuable conclusions from vast volumes of data available to improve business performance through fact-based decision making.

• Business intelligence (BI) is a technology that enables data preparation, mining, management, visualization, analysis with queries to create reports and dashboards with charts and graphs for use by business leaders.

• BI provides meaningful insights into past and current states of businesses to make smarter decisions.

Importance of Business Analytics

This section explains how companies can benefit from using business analytics.

• Companies generate data at a rapid rate today; there is a need to use this data to make smarter decisions.

• Organizations are looking for methods/tools to turn their data into actionable insights.

• Using cutting-edge tools such as Microsoft Excel SQL power bi Tableau can enhance customer experience improve efficiency conduct competitor analysis accelerate growth.

Top Skills Required for Business Analysts

This section outlines the top skills required for aspiring business analysts.

• Communication skills: ability to communicate effectively with stakeholders, team members, and management.

• Analytical skills: ability to analyze data and draw valuable conclusions from it.

• Problem-solving skills: ability to identify problems and provide solutions.

• Technical skills: proficiency in tools such as Microsoft Excel SQL power bi Tableau.

Importance of Business Analysts

This section explains the importance of business analysts using a story.

• Rob runs a cafe that was doing well until the onset of COVID-19. Due to the pandemic, he had to shut down his cafe, which resulted in a huge loss for him.

• Business analysts can help businesses like Rob's by analyzing data and providing insights into how they can improve their operations.

Conclusion

The video concludes by summarizing what was covered.

• Business analysis involves collecting, analyzing, and drawing valuable conclusions from vast volumes of data available to improve business performance through fact-based decision making.

• Business intelligence (BI) is a technology that enables data preparation, mining, management, visualization, analysis with queries to create reports and dashboards with charts and graphs for use by business leaders.

• Aspiring business analysts require communication skills analytical skills problem-solving skills technical skills.

Hiring a Business Analyst

In this section, Rob hires Ted the business analyst to help him sort out his current business problems. Ted's first step is to have a discussion with Rob and understand the business problems and objectives.

Hiring Ted the Business Analyst

• Rob hired Ted the business analyst to help him with his ongoing business problems.

• The first step Ted took was to have a discussion with Rob and understand the business problems and objectives.

• Ted learned that the business objective was to reopen the business and get at least 80 percent of the customer base back in addition to finding sustainable ways to continue amidst the pandemic.

Suggestions by Ted

In this section, we learn about some of the suggestions made by Ted for Rob's Cafe.

Suggestions by Ted

• Develop an exclusive home delivery app for Rob's Cafe.

• Add work from home meal boxes to his menu.

• Provide discount coupons that can be utilized by customers.

• Facilitate home delivery orders through drop staff.

Role of a Business Analyst

In this section, we learn about how a business analyst can take up different approaches depending on the situation. We also see how after accepting suggestions from Ted, he collaborated with IT teams and held regular meetings with Rob.

Role of a Business Analyst

• Depending on the situation, business analysts can take up different approaches.

• After accepting suggestions from Ted, he collaborated with IT teams and held regular meetings with Rob.

• Ted made sure that the entire case was well documented and made presentations that showed Rob the business growth after implementing the changes.

Positive Change in Rob's Business

In this section, we learn about how Ted successfully brought about a positive change in Rob's business which was highly beneficial.

Positive Change in Rob's Business

• Ted successfully brought about a positive change in Rob's business which was highly beneficial.

• Such an approach not only helped Rob reopen his business amidst COVID-19 but also helped him get 80 percent of his customer base back.

A Day in the Life of a Business Analyst

In this section, we meet Angela who is working as a business analyst in an application development firm. We also see how she helps Rob with his e-commerce app creation.

A Day in the Life of a Business Analyst

• Angela is working as a business analyst in an application development firm.

• She helps Rob with his e-commerce app creation by looking into his business requirements and coordinating with him to get the app running.

Roles and Responsibilities of a Business Analyst

In this section, we will understand the typical roles and responsibilities of a business analyst with respect to Angela's approach in delivering Rob's project smoothly.

Understanding Business Objectives, Problems, and Requirements

• A business analyst like Angela understands the problems related to Rob's business and comes up with the right solution to achieve the goals of the business.

• Angela gathers all the necessary requirements by understanding Rob's requirements and makes sure that they are on the same page regarding the project and its goals.

Allocating Resources

• Once Angela has an in-depth understanding of Rob's project and gathers all the necessary requirements, she starts allocating resources by keeping in mind the budget of the project.

• She recognizes and allocates tasks and resources to the development team.

Finalizing Software and Tools Required

• Along with the development team, she finalizes software and tools required to build the project.

Monitoring Progress

• Angela monitors progress constantly providing feedback to improve application layout design features.

• She collects feedback from users on Prototype version of app validating if it requires more work or is fine.

Building Reports

• Data visualization is a key skill for any BA in order to gauge performance of app. Angela builds reports using various data visualization tools like Tableau power bi etc.

Conducting Regular Meetings

• Regular meetings help solve problems quickly while maintaining transparency on completion of the project.

Documenting and Presenting Project Findings

• Angela documents and presents the project findings to Rob, generally presenting the project outcomes to stakeholders and clients along with maintenance reports.

Learning from Project

• Angela notes all the project learnings and details in a concise manner. This will help her take better decisions in the future, saving time while implementing the next project.

Delivering Final Product

• After completing all her duties and responsibilities with respect to Rob's project, she delivers the final e-commerce application to Rob for use.

Business Analyst Overview

This section provides an overview of the role and responsibilities of a business analyst, as well as the skills required to become a successful business analyst.

Role and Responsibilities of a Business Analyst

• A business analyst works closely with the technology team to improve the quality of services being delivered.

• They assist in integration and testing of new solutions.

• A BA should successfully identify and recognize the organization's business objective, understand the business problems, collect requirements from clients and stakeholders, allocate resources, improve existing documentation, interact with development teams to design solutions for solving particular problems, give feedback on software application layout and features needed.

• They implement newly designed features that a business needs while identifying needs, defining features right use cases uncovering business rules and managing issues.

• BAs run meetings with stakeholders discussing issues face-to-face which can help solve problems quickly.

• They engage with Business Leaders and users to understand how data-driven changes to products Services software and Hardware can improve efficiency and add value.

• They verify if projects are running well through user acceptance testing ensuring solutions are in line with client requirements.

• Finally they develop informative coherent usable documents for project success.

Skills Required for a Successful Business Analyst

Understanding Business Objectives

• It is important for a BA to know the goals and objectives of their organization's operations.

• Business analysts should understand the problems related to the business and come up with the right solution.

Analytical and Critical Thinking

• A business analyst would be able to analyze and interpret the client's requirements clearly.

Communication Skills

• BAs need to have excellent communication skills, both written and verbal.

• They should be able to communicate effectively with stakeholders, clients, developers, and other team members.

Technical Skills

• BAs should have a good understanding of technology trends and tools used in their industry.

• They should also have knowledge of programming languages, databases, data analysis tools, etc.

Time Management Skills

• BAs need to manage their time effectively in order to meet deadlines for projects.

• They should be able to prioritize tasks based on their importance and urgency.

Leadership Skills

• BAs often lead teams of developers or other professionals working on a project.

• Therefore they need strong leadership skills such as delegation, motivation, conflict resolution etc.

Skills Required for a Business Analyst

In this section, the speaker discusses the skills required for a business analyst.

Critical Thinking

• Critical thinking is essential for a business analyst to distinguish between requirements that add value to the business and those that should be given low priority.

• A business analyst must not take all statements of stakeholders for granted.

Communication and Interpersonal Skills

• Communication and interpersonal skills are crucial for a business analyst to understand and be understood by stakeholders.

• Listening, reading, writing, verbal and non-verbal communication skills are critical.

• Business analysts use communication skills at every point in the project lifecycle.

Negotiation and Cost Benefit Analysis

• Business analysts negotiate at every turn during the course of a project.

• Negotiation skills help determine which requests become requirements with higher priority as the project progresses.

• Business analysts perform cost-benefit analysis to assess benefits and costs anticipated in a project.

Decision Making

• Good decision-making skills are important because they have a direct impact on the company's business.

• A business analyst should think from all aspects before presenting decisions or strategies.

• Major steps followed while making decisions include defining problems, finding alternative approaches, evaluating them, making decisions based on these approaches, testing them, and finally implementing solutions.

Importance of Programming Languages for Business Analysts

In this section, the speaker talks about programming languages' importance for business analysts.

Understanding Programming Languages

• A basic understanding of programming languages is essential for business analysts to communicate effectively with technical teams.

Benefits of Learning Programming Languages

• It helps in better collaboration with technical teams

• It helps in understanding technical requirements and constraints

• It helps in identifying potential issues and risks early on in the project lifecycle.

Popular Programming Languages for Business Analysts

• Python, R, SQL are popular programming languages used by business analysts.

• Python is widely used for data analysis and visualization.

• R is used for statistical analysis and machine learning.

• SQL is used to manage databases.

Skills Required for a Business Analyst

This section covers the top skills required for a business analyst.

Data Manipulation, Visualization and Analytics

• Numpy, Pandas, Seaborn, Matplotlib are some of the libraries used for data manipulation and visualization.

• Understanding statistical software like SAS and SPSS is also important.

• Programming languages such as Python, R and SAS can be used to analyze and visualize large datasets.

Creation of Reports and Dashboards

• A business analyst should be proficient in using various business intelligence tools for creating reports and dashboards.

• Reports created by business analysts can be general or dashboard reports depending on the business requirements.

• Knowledge of Tableau, Power BI, and ClickView are required to make different types of reports.

Database and SQL

• Business analysts often work with structured data hence knowledge of relational databases such as Microsoft SQL Server, Oracle database mySQL database as well as nosql databases is important.

• Having hands-on experience with SQL is a must for a business analyst to access retrieve manipulate and analyze data.

Microsoft Excel

• Excel is one of the oldest and most popular analytics and reporting tool used in industries for working with data.

• Business analysts use Excel to perform various calculations budget analysis and data analysis to derive meaningful insights.

• They sort filter create pivot tables to summarize the data.

Documentation and Presentation

• A business analyst must be able to document their project learnings in a concise form.

• They should also be confident about presenting the findings in front of stakeholders.

• Organized documentation will help communicate technical concepts to non-technical employees.

Business Analyst Courses Overview

In this section, the speaker provides an overview of two courses related to business analysis.

Business Analyst Masters Program

• This program is endorsed by the International Institute of Business Analysis (IIBA).

• The program covers various courses such as Introduction to Business Analysis, Certified Business Analytics Professional, Agile and Scrum, Business Analytics with Excel, SQL Training, Tableau Training and a Capstone Project.

• Tools covered in this course include Microsoft Excel, Zera Tableau, Power BI Postgres SQL, Planbox Target Process and others.

• After completing the course you will receive a certificate.

Postgraduate Program in Business Analysis

• This program is in partnership with Purdue University and endorsed by the International Institute of Professional Analysts (IIPA).

• Key features of this course include Purdue postgraduate program certification Alumni Association membership master classes from Purdue faculties enrollment in simple lunch job assist there's 170 Plus hours of Blended learning 11 plus Hands-On projects custom projects in three domains.

• Tools covered in this course include Microsoft Excel Zera fogbers plan box that's rally power bi process SQL that's version one target process and others.

• Industry-related projects that you will get to work on once you enroll in this course are Canteen Ordering System for Unilever Library Management System for Stanford University WhatsApp Pay Hospital Management System for Mayo Clinic.

Skills Required to Become a Business Analyst

In this section, the speaker discusses what skills are required to become a business analyst.

• A fresher needs to possess a graduation degree in a related field, knowledge of SQL and relational database, good hands-on experience with programming languages, and good communication skills.

Business Analysis Knowledge Areas

This section covers the six knowledge areas of business analysis.

Business Analysis Planning and Monitoring

• Describes tasks used to organize and coordinate business analysis efforts.

• Includes planning business analysis approach, stakeholder engagement, governance, and information management.

Elicitation and Collaboration

• Describes tasks used to prepare and conduct elicitation activities.

• Confirms results and communicates business analysis information.

• Engages stakeholders.

Requirements Life Cycle Management

• Describes tasks performed to manage requirements throughout their life cycle.

• Covers creation, changes, prioritization, traceability, and governance processes.

Strategy Analysis

• Describes tasks used to identify the business need address that need and align the change strategy within the Enterprise.

• Analyzes current state, defines future state, assesses risks, and defines change strategy.

Requirements Analysis and Design Definition

• Describes tasks used to organize requirements specify and model requirements.

• Validates and verifies information identifies solution options.

Solution Evaluation

• Measures solution performance analyzes performance measures SS solution limitations recommends actions to increase solution value.

Agile Methodology

This section covers agile methodology in project management.

Steps Involved in Agile Project Development

1. Planning the project in terms of business goals budget time duration for completing the project and resource needed.

2. Designing the solution for the problem at hand.

3. Developing the solution which could be a software a website an application etc done by the development team.

4. Testing the product.

5. Deploying the developed product to check if it's working fine.

6. Reviewing the product and getting feedback from customers clients stakeholders etc.

Sprint Methodology

• Work is broken down into several sprints after each sprint we get a shippable product.

• Product is reviewed by client or stakeholder, suggestions are incorporated in the next sprint.

Scrum Methodology

This section covers scrum methodology in project management.

Three Rules

1. Product owner owns the product backlog and writes user stories and acceptance criteria.

2. Responsible for prioritizing the product backlog and deciding release date.

3. Development team estimates effort required to complete tasks.

Scrum Concepts and Practices

• Empowers development team and supports working in small teams like 8 to 10 members.

• Significantly increases productivity and reduces time.

• Enables organizations to adjust smoothly to rapidly changing requirements and produce a product that meets evolving business goals.

Scrum Framework Overview

This section provides an overview of the Scrum framework, including its three categories and four ceremonies.

Development Team and Artifacts

• The development team builds the product and includes all the expertise necessary to deliver the potential shippable product each Sprint.

• The second category comprises of three artifacts:

• The product backlog is an ordered list of features and requirements needed to complete the project.

• The Sprint backlog includes only what needs to be completed during the current Sprint. It often has greater detail and more complete user stories than the rest of the product backlog. Once created, no one can add to it except for the development team.

• The product increment is a prototype or working version of the final product expected by the customer. It details the outcome of all that work.

Sprint Ceremonies

• There are four ceremonies in total:

• In Sprint planning, the team meets and decides what they need to complete in the coming Sprint.

• In Sprint review, the team demonstrates what they shipped in the Sprint.

• In Sprint retrospective, they review their work identifying what went well and what didn't go as planned so that they can make improvements for next time.

• Daily scrum is a stand-up meeting or a very short like 15 to 20 minutes meeting for everyone on a team to make sure that they are all on track with their tasks.

Business Analyst Overview

This section provides an overview of the role of a business analyst, including their average annual salary and companies that hire them.

Average Annual Salary and Companies Hiring

• According to PayScale, the average annual salary of a business analyst in the United States is $68,973 while in India it's nearly 6 lakh rupees per annum.

• Companies hiring for business analysts include:

• Indian e-commerce payment system and financial technology company Paytm

• American immensely cognizant

• British Dutch multinational Oil and Gas Company Shell

• Cisco

• The search engine giant Google

• Dell

• Ernst and Young Global limited

• American multinational computer technology corporation Oracle

• British multinational Investment Bank and financial services company Barclays.

Business Analysis Tools

• Business analysts use various tools such as:

• Microsoft Excel for structured data analysis.

• Trello for web-based kanban-style list making.

• Relational database management systems such as MySQL, Microsoft SQL server, and Postgres SQL.

• Bug tracking and agile project management product Zera.

• Tableau Software for data visualization.

Demo on Business Analyst Training

This section provides a demo on how business analysts work with structured data using Excel to prepare reports and dashboards.

Sales Data Set Analysis

• In this demo, we will work on a sales dataset from the United States and analyze the total revenue, total profit, and quantity sold for different categories and subcategories of products across various regions, segments, cities, etc.

• The sales dataset has nearly 9994 rows and 17 columns. It includes information such as order date, shipment date, shipment mode, customer name, segment, country name (only United States), different cities from the US, state names, categories of product and subcategories.

• Business analysts use pivot tables to see the sales by region and year. They create pivot tables to summarize and analyze data to find trends and insights that help make critical decisions.

Creating a Pivot Table and Line Chart

In this section, the speaker demonstrates how to create a pivot table and line chart in Excel.

Creating a Pivot Table

• Drag columns onto different sections in the pivot table fields.

• To know the region and year, drag order date first and delete the quarter column by clicking on "remove field."

• Drag region column under columns.

• To know sales for all years in different regions, drag sales onto values.

Creating a Line Chart

• Go to the insert tab and select recommended charts. Choose line chart.

• Analyze data better with this chart.

Creating a Bar Chart and Pie Chart

In this section, the speaker demonstrates how to create a bar chart and pie chart in Excel.

Creating a Bar Chart

• Click on any cell, go to insert tab, choose pivot table, let it be new worksheet.

• To know sales value again, drag sales onto values field.

• Choose category under rows.

• Choose segment under columns.

• Create visuals out of this pivot table by going to recommended charts and selecting bar chart.

Creating a Pie Chart

• Go to insert tab and select recommended charts.

• Select pi chart.

• Edit the title of the chart as needed.

Adding Titles and Creating Pivot Tables

In this section, the speaker demonstrates how to add titles to charts and create pivot tables in Excel.

Adding a Title to a Line Chart

• Click on the chart title and write "Sales by Year and Region" to add a title to the first line chart created.

Creating a Pivot Table for Subcategories of Products

• Go to the Insert tab, click on Pivot Table, and select OK.

• Drag the Quantity column under Values, choose Ship Mode field under Columns, and select Subcategory under Rows.

Creating a Line Chart from Pivot Table Data

• Go to the Insert tab, click on Recommended Charts, select Line Chart, and click OK.

• Right-click on any field button and hide all field buttons.

• Select a style for the chart by modifying it. Choose dots for each endpoint of subcategories in order to make it easy to read.

• Add a chart title "Quantity Sold by Subcategory and Ship Mode". Reduce text size of chart title text if necessary.

Creating Field Maps in Excel

In this section, the speaker demonstrates how to create different kinds of maps in Excel.

Sorting Data in Pivot Tables

• Click on any cell in data sheet.

• Go to Insert tab.

• Create pivot table.

• Drag Country field under Rows.

• Choose State field under Rows.

• Drag Sales under Values.

• Sort data by highest sales amount (California state) to lowest sales amount (North Dakota state).

Adjusting Pivot Table for Field Map

• Click on United States.

• Right-click and go to Field Settings.

• Under Layout and Print, click on Show Item Labels in Tableau Format.

• Click on Repeat Item Labels.

• Select the table and paste it somewhere else.

Creating a Field Map

• Go to Insert tab.

• Choose Maps.

• Select Field Map.

• Format the map by changing colors or adding data labels as necessary.

• Add a chart title "Sales by States". Remove the legend if desired.

Creating a Pivot Table

In this section, the speaker demonstrates how to create a pivot table and customize it.

Creating a Pivot Table

• Drag "Country" under rows and "State" under rows.

• Drag "The Profit" column under values.

• Go to the design tab and remove subtotals by selecting "Do not show subtotals."

• Remove grand totals by going to the design tab and selecting "Remove Grand Totals."

• Populate the country name throughout by right-clicking on United States, going to field settings, clicking on layout and print, choosing select item labels in tabular form, and selecting repeat item labels.

• Select the pivot table, paste it somewhere else, go to the insert tab, choose map, select field map.

• Edit chart title as profit by states.

Building a Dashboard

In this section, the speaker shows how to build a dashboard using pivot charts.

Building a Dashboard

• Create a new sheet.

• Remove grid lines by going to view tab.

• Insert text box for dashboard title with blue background color and white text color.

• Copy all pivot charts onto dashboard sheet.

• Reduce size of each chart as necessary.

• Add slicers and timelines for filtering tables and charts.

Adding Slicers to Charts

In this section, the speaker demonstrates how to add slicers to charts in Excel. Slicers are filters that have advanced filtering options.

Adding a Region Slicer

• Click on any of the charts and go to Insert.

• Click on Slicer and choose Region.

• Click OK and move the slicer to the right.

• Reduce the size of the region slicer.

Adding a Segment Slicer

• Go to Slicer and choose Segment.

• Click OK and move the slicer to the bottom.

• Reduce its size.

Filtering by Year

• Choose a year from the timeline, e.g., 2014.

• Drag it to select another year, e.g., 2015.

• The figures displayed will reflect only those years.

Filtering by Region

• Bring up the region slicer again.

• Select a region, e.g., East or West.

• The charts will change accordingly.

Applying Filters to All Pivot Tables

In this section, we learn how to apply filters or slicers across all pivot tables in Excel.

Applying Filters Across All Pivot Tables

• Right-click on any pivot table and go to Report Connections.

• Choose all remaining pivot tables and click OK.

Using Multiple Filters Together

• Populate all pivot tables with segment data using a segment slicer.

• Select multiple segments together, e.g., Home Office or Corporate.

Conclusion

In this section, we conclude our session on business analysis in Excel.

Resources Available

If you want access to resources used in this session like data sets, code segments, or PPTs then let us know in the comment section below. Our team of experts will resolve all your queries at the earliest.

Closing Remarks

Thank you for watching this video. Stay safe and keep learning!