Tools are not skills

I’ve read a lot of CVs (resumés) presented by people who are looking for work as business analysts.

It always surprises me (I guess it shouldn’t at this stage) that when they list their skills, they almost never list the kinds of technique you might find in the BABOK; rather, they list the tools they have used, Visio often appearing at the top of the list.

I hate to break it to you, kids, knowing how to use Visio makes you a business analyst in the same way that knowing how to use Word makes you a writer (don’t get me started on Powerpoint/presenter). I once drew a conceptual data model relating to insurance products on sand using a stick (not in a formal setting, of course). What was my skill? iStick? MS Sand?

If you present a list of tools instead of a list of BA skills that you expect to be tested on, then you don’t know what a BA does or what skills a BA should have and I won’t even read past the word “Visio”.

Next.