Business Analysis - Third edition

2      THE COMPETENCIES OF A BUSINESS ANALYST

Craig Rollason

INTRODUCTION

Good business analysts can make the difference between a poor and a great investment in business and IT improvements. They can also help to resolve issues without jumping to premature conclusions. But what exactly is a good business analyst? This chapter aims to address this question by identifying and describing the competencies that business analysts need in order to be effective in the modern business environment. Competence has been described as ‘the ability to do a particular activity to a prescribed standard’ (Working Group on Vocational Qualifications, 1986). For the purposes of this chapter, we shall define a competence as an ability a business analyst needs to ...