Business Analysis, 4th Edition

2 THE COMPETENCIES OF A BUSINESS ANALYST

INTRODUCTION

Good business analysts can make the difference between a poor and a great investment in business and IT improvement. They can also help to resolve issues without jumping to premature conclusions. But what exactly is a good business analyst and which competencies should a good business analyst possess? This chapter addresses these questions by identifying and describing the set of competencies that business analysts need in order to be effective in today’s business environment.

Competence has been described as ‘the ability to do a particular activity to a prescribed standard’ (De Ville, 1986). For the purposes of this chapter, a business analysis competence is defined as: ‘an ability needed ...