The Business Analyst's Toolkit

Over time, most practicing business analysts develop a toolkit of useful methods and essential skills that have proven to be valuable over multiple projects. In the past 20+ years of business and systems analysis work, I have compiled a set of tools that I teach to students and believe are essential for analysts new to the business analyst profession. Some of the basic tools in my kit are shown in the diagram below.

They are:

• Project management skills
• An understanding of systems development lifecycles
• Good communication skills in general, but specifically information gathering techniques such meeting facilitation, interviewing, survey development, note taking, research skills, etc. (this is a big one)
  
• An understanding of architectures and frameworks (such as the Zachman Framework)
• Problem solving and root cause analysis methods
  
• Use cases and persona
• Data and process modeling skills
• Document templates
  

I also found that these tools are consistent with the IIBA Body of Knowledge. Of course, as professionals, we all continue to collect and refine our toolkit, and so these will change over time. In this weblog, I hope to explore these basic tools, and more. I am new to blogging, but hope to continue to add to this site. I also hope that others will also contribute to the toolkit by posting your comments or ideas about what works for you.