Analytical thinking and problem solving

Analytical thinking and problem solving are fundamental skills which help any individual perform in an effective manner in an organization .As a Business analyst when a client needs a solution for an existing problem in their business a Business analyst should have the ability to think critically, analyze the problem, split the problems by asking more questions, have the ability to think creatively to come up with a solution .Analytical thinking involves the following tasks

1. Identify the problem
2. Define the problem
3. Do a root cause analysis to identify the key factors causing the problem
4. Create an action plan for arriving at the proposed solution

As a business analyst when the client needs an effective solution for their business we can come up with the solution by conducting workshops ,Organizing JAD sessions ,doing an enterprise analysis ,gap analysis  and engaging everyone right from the stakeholder and the client to come up with more ideas and each idea has to be mapped logically to arrive at the end solution .We can use the help of surveys and questionnaires to probe more and get more inputs from the stakeholders, clients and the technical team and analyze all the data and make a list of the unique solutions proposed and analyze them in terms of costing and resources required .We can also create a flowchart with all the steps involved in coming up with the proposed solution and based on the flowchart we can realize how complex or simple the problem is and create an effective business flow logic .Once we arrive at proposed solutions we can test the solutions and by testing we will be able to identify the roadblocks and challenges in each of the proposed solution which we have analyzed and eliminating the roadblocks and resistances in all of the varied solutions we will be able to arrive at one complete solution .All the proposed solutions are communicated with the clients and stakeholders and feedback is taken . We would be able to decide on the effective solution considering various factors such as time and resources and the budget involved .From the client’s perspective the budget constraints should be understood and the solution proposed should be in alignment to the time involved and the resource involved .Once the solution has been decided upon discussion with the client the implementation would happen and the various challenges identified at each and every stage will have to be worked upon by eliminating the common patterns and providing effective training and mentoring if there is any roadblock for the resource in terms of learning the technology or understanding the domain effective support is provided.