In this post, we are going to answer the question – Who is an RPA Business Analyst? This post will help you understand the career profile of an RPA BA, salary, skills needed, role, etc.
RPA stands for Robotic Process Automation.
A business analyst is a person who acts as a translator between the technical team and the business user. Such a profile in the IT sector requires a person to be a techno-functional expert i.e. someone who understands the requirement of the customer and translates it into instructions that coders can understand and create software based on the understanding and documentation provided by this person.
Most often a business analyst is the voice of the customer and s/he understands the needs, desires, and motivations of the customers and translates it into technical requirements.
Now, with the advent of RPA tools and the growth of the RPA sector, we have a new profile in the job market and it is that of an RPA business analyst.
You might ask, do we require an RPA Business Analyst when RPA is nothing but just a new tool? Surely, existing B.As are more than capable of implementing RPA tools with the current implementation methodology. Well, let’s explore all aspects of the RPA Business Analyst Profile.
Why Do We Require a Business Analyst Specializing in RPA?
Robotic Process Automation (RPA) is a specialized type of project with a focus on automating repeatable tasks. Organizations want to automate such processes to minimize operations/support costs.
Unlike a normal Software Development Project where a Business Analyst is required to visualize the UI screens and workflows. No such thing is required in RPA project as RPA projects start with the assumption that the process being automated is stable, well defined, and has a standardized input. Also unlike a normal software development life cycle, RPA projects are short in duration and typically take six to nine months to complete. So, how do we do documentation of software where we are creating no new screens or workflows, what questions do we ask the stakeholders and where do we start? And this is exactly why we need this profile?
Read More – Top 10 Challenges faced by Business Analysts
Here are Some Benefits of a Business Analyst Specializing in RPA:
- RPA will allow the business analyst to speed up and increase the quality of his or her job. It also helps them to be more productive as they are automating a task, the machine can work longer and more precisely than a human, making everything go faster.
- Manually dealing with large amounts of data is really difficult. Using RPA, on the other hand, will make a business analyst’s job a lot more manageable because it can work with large databases. Whether the data is structured or not, RPA will rapidly process it and assist your company in making sense of it.
- With the help of an RPA, a business analyst can reduce the workload of his or her team members by automating data-driven tasks.
Required Skills of a Business Analyst in RPA Environment
An RPA BA should be a process-oriented person. Someone who understands the purpose of existence of the process. This is why most companies prefer to hire people from Six Sigma or audit background and train them in RPA. However, the good news is that we now have RPA business analyst training available that solely focuses on RPA tool implementations.
A Business analyst is required to gain a few skills if he or she wishes to work in the RPA environment. Here are few skills that are absolutely necessary for a business analyst working in the RPA environment.
- Communication skills- A business analyst has to act as a bridge between various departments, and this requires them to efficiently communicate with members across departments.
- Strategic planning- In order to meet business needs, a business analyst must possess strategic planning skills.
- Logical thinking- Logical thinking skills are required for a business analyst to locate any hidden opportunities for a business process.
- Leadership skills- In order to effectively manage the team, a business analyst must have good leadership skills.
Read More – Data Analysis Skills for Business Analysts
Responsibilities of an RPA Business Analyst
Here are some key responsibilities of an RPA business analyst that will give you an overview of what your RPA business analyst job role will look like.
- Identify and give support for solution designs for production challenges and enhancements in collaboration with the business and the RPA team.
- Identify the scope, benefits, restrictions, and risks associated with RPA automation projects, as well as capture and document present manual operations.
- Develop a detailed end-to-end understanding of processes targeted for automation and identify the impacted processes and business needs in collaboration with the Business Process Owner(s) and Process Excellence Team members.
- Work with cross-functional teams to generate business requirements documentation for the process to be automated that is easily understood by business users and can be shared with RPA solution design and development teams.
- Identify and document best practices for RPA adoption in the long run.
- Facilitate requirements-gathering workshops with stakeholders.
- Consider the consequences of change management when implementing new RPA processes.
- Deliver critical business analysis artefacts for the design, solution, and execution of medium and large projects, using best practices and techniques.
- Conduct process diagnostics and identify opportunities
- Assist with the design, documentation, and upkeep of system procedures.
- Developing a business case and return on investment that may be submitted for assessment and approval.
Learn More – What are the Roles & Responsibilities of a Business Analyst?
Who can Become an RPA Business Analyst?
Anyone with a basic college education can undergo RPA BA training. Most of the courses focus on orienting you to become more process-oriented and look at the processes from a performance and resource points of view. RPA Business Analyst training courses also teach you about tools & techniques to capture process details and evaluate the process from an automation point of view.
RPA BA can be from a technical or functional background, unlike a traditional business analyst who must be a domain expert. RPA business analyst has no such constraints. The process he/she wishes to automate must have proper existing documentation that a B.A can refer to. That being said, an RPA business analyst is still required to learn some traditional B.A skillset. In my experience, a traditional Business Analyst with proper training can easily become an RPA business analyst. Developers and Testers (Manual & Automated) can also become RPA business analysts, as a matter of fact software testers make good RPA Business Analysts as they already have process-oriented mind-set because they are required to break the process by using various combination of ways in which S.W feature can be used.
How Can I Become a Business Analyst in RPA Projects?
One can do the RPA BA course, plenty of which are also available online. Most of the courses are between 12 to 20 hours and one can easily complete RPA BA training in one month. However, it is necessary that you choose the course from a reputed training provider and it’s always best to go for Instructor-led courses.
You can also check our RPA Business Analyst Certification course.
Here is a list of eligibility requirements for becoming an RPA business analyst.
- 2-5 years of experience working with business owners and SMEs on business process documentation across several geographically dispersed teams.
- In a fast-paced delivery environment, a team member who is willing to learn and adapt.
- A bachelor’s degree in engineering, information technology, data science, business administration, or a similar discipline is required.
- A personality that is adaptable and dynamic
- Excellent communication skills, both verbally and in writing. With senior folks, be assertive and confident in raising action points.
- Working on large projects is a plus.
Tips to Become an RPA Business Analyst
If you want to work as an RPA business analyst, here are some tips that you can consider to kickstart your RPA business analysis career journey.
- All you need is RPA training if you have a background and experience in business process design and the responsibilities that come with it. RPA certification classes are available from a variety of companies and institutes, that offer both online and offline classes.
- RPA training can be tailored to your specific background, whether technical or non-technical. Conduct some research to identify RPA training that meets your company’s needs and your academic background.
- If you don’t have a history or experience in business analysis, or if you want to pursue a career in RPA, there are courses available both online and offline that are tailored to your needs.
- Starting with the fundamentals and critical components of RPA implementation will help you understand RPA roles and responsibilities as well as the fundamentals before enrolling in an intensive RPA course.
- To become an RPA business analyst, you must focus on the necessary skills that are absolutely crucial for this role, such as communication skills, leadership skills, and so on. Go through the skills section mentioned above.
How Much Do They Earn?
RPA BA earns on average 40% more than regular business analysts on the account of the fact that RPA Projects helps save millions for the companies that are implementing them. Also, RPA being a high demand for niche skill has better earnings prospects. A typical RPA Business Analyst earns anywhere between 8 to 18 lakh P.A depending upon his skills and experiences.
Here is a salary structure of an RPA business analyst that you could look into to get an idea about how much you will be early as you become a business analyst in an RPA domain.
According to Glassdoor, the average annual salary of an RPA business analyst is Rs 9,84,822 in India and $96,738 in the USA.
What is the Scope of the RPA Business Analyst Profile Outside of India?
Being an RPA business analyst gives you international mobility as there is a very high demand for RPA Business analysts in countries like Ireland, Canada, the USA, UK & Australia. The opposition to offshoring of jobs and the shortage of skilled labour for mundane jobs have made RPA adoption a must-have for companies across the globe, and the fact that COVID has shown us the weakness in processes in case of calamity has only hastened the resolve of companies to adopt RPA. As a matter of fact, RPA is one of the most growing fields in the year 2020.
Some countries have more RPA BA jobs than others. E.g the USA has the most number of RPA BA jobs followed by countries like the UK & Ireland. Australia also offers good opportunities for RPA Business Analysts while Canada has very few RPA Business Analyst opportunities but they are growing rapidly.
Other countries like Singapore, Malaysia & South Africa also offer RPA Business Analyst opportunities but sometimes get overlooked because of less job visibility, language barriers, and the local environment. But never the less there is no dearth of such opportunities in the international job market.
Conclusion
Let us conclude by saying that an RPA business analyst profile is indeed a great career path. It not only offers a good career path and rapid growth but also a sense of satisfaction as you help a company save millions of dollars and make it more lean and agile.
Hopefully, you now have a better understanding of the roles and responsibilities of an RPA business analyst. RPA is now used in a variety of areas and businesses, including banking, IT, human resources, marketing, and so forth. RPA has a lot of potential in the corporate world.
