What is a business analyst? A key role for business-IT efficiency

What is a business analyst?

Business analysts (BAs) are responsible for bridging the gap between IT and the business using data analytics to assess processes, determine requirements, and deliver data-driven recommendations and reports to executives and stakeholders.

BAs engage with business leaders and users to understand how data-driven changes to process, products, services, software, and hardware can improve efficiencies and add value. They must articulate those ideas but also balance them against what’s technologically feasible and financially and functionally reasonable. Depending on the role, a business analyst might work with data sets to improve products, hardware, tools, software, services, or process.

The International Institute of Business Analysis (IIBA), a nonprofit professional association, considers the business analyst “an agent of change,” writing that business analysis “is a disciplined approach for introducing and managing change to organizations, whether they are for-profit businesses, governments, or non-profits.”

Business analyst job description

BAs are responsible for creating new models that support business decisions by working closely with finance and IT teams to establish initiatives and strategies aimed at improving revenue and/or optimizing costs. Business analysts need a “strong understanding of regulatory and reporting requirements as well as plenty of experience in forecasting, budgeting, and financial analysis combined with understanding of key performance indicators,” according to Robert Half Technology.

According to Robert Half, a business analyst’s job description typically includes the following responsibilities:

• Creating a detailed business analysis in an effort to outline problems, opportunities, and solutions for a business
• Budgeting and forecasting
• Planning and monitoring
• Variance analysis
• Pricing
• Reporting
• Defining business requirements and reporting them back to stakeholders

Business analysts are tasked with prioritizing technical and functional requirements, identifying what clients want, and determining what is feasible to deliver. It requires a deep understanding of systems, how they function, who will need to be involved, and the necessary steps to get everyone on board.  

The role of a business analyst is constantly evolving and changing — especially as companies rely more on data to advise business operations. Every company has different issues that a business analyst can address, whether it’s dealing with outdated legacy systems, changing technologies, broken processes, poor client or customer satisfaction, or siloed large organizations.

Business analyst skills

The business analyst position requires both hard skills and soft skills. Business analysts need to know how to pull, analyze and report data trends, share that information with others, and apply it to business goals and needs. Not all business analysts need a background in IT if they have a general understanding of how systems, products, and tools work. Alternatively, some business analysts have a strong IT background and less experience in business but are interested in shifting away from IT into this hybrid role. The role often acts as a communicator between the business and IT sides of the organization, so having extensive experience in either area can be beneficial for business analysts.

According to the IIBA, some of the most important skills and experience for a business analyst are:

• Oral and written communication skills
• Interpersonal and consultative skills
• Facilitation skills
• Analytical thinking and problem solving
• Being detail-oriented and capable of delivering a high level of accuracy
• Organizational skills
• Knowledge of business structure
• Stakeholder analysis
• Requirements engineering
• Cost-benefit analysis
• Processes modeling
• Understanding of networks, databases, and other technology

For a more in-depth look at what it takes to succeed as a business analyst, see “5 essential traits of elite business analysts.”

Business analyst salary

The average salary for an IT business analyst is $73,655 per year, according to data from PayScale. The highest paid BAs are in New York, where the average salary is 16% higher than the national average. Washington, D.C., is second, with reported salaries 12% higher than the national average; Houston comes in third, with a 4% higher annual pay.

PayScale offers data on similar job titles that fall under the category of business analyst. The average salaries for various business analyst jobs are as follows:

Some skills are in higher demand than others, with the potential to boost your salary. According to Payscale, these skills are associated with higher business analyst salaries. These skills, and the amount they can boost your salary, includes:

For tips on boosting your salary, see “7 steps business analysts can take to earn more.”

Business analyst certifications

Although business analysis is a relatively new discipline in IT, a handful of organizations already offer certifications to help boost your resume and prove your merit as an analyst. Organizations such as the IIBA, IQBBA, IREB, and PMI each offer their own tailored certifications for business analysis. These include:

• IIBA Entry Certificate in Business Analysis (ECBA)
• IIBA Certification of Competency in Business Analysis (CCBA)
• IIBA Certified Business Analysis Professional (CBAP)
• IIBA Agile Analysis Certification (AAC)
• IQBBA Certified Foundation Level Business Analyst (CFLBA)
• IREB Certified Professional for Requirements Engineering (CPRE)
• PMI Professional in Business Analysis (PBA)
• Certified Analytics Professional (CAP)

For more information about how to earn one of these certifications — and how much they cost — see “Best business analyst certifications to level up your career.”

Business analyst training

While there are a number of ways that practicing and aspiring business analysts can train up on the discipline, two popular paths are business analyst boot camps and business analyst master’s programs.

Unlike certifications, which are designed to prove the skills you already have, boot camps are designed to teach you new skills or improve your current skillset. Boot camps can be anything from traditional workshops held over the course of a few days or full-fledged, instructor-led courses that run for weeks or months at a time. No matter what your preferred learning style is, you can find a boot camp to suit your needs.

Courses are often offered both in-person and online; alternatively, your organization might bring a boot camp to the company to run a four-day workshop. Some boot camps are free, while others require a subscription fee or a one-time fee that ranges from $100 to $2,500, depending on the program. They’re all designed to give hands-on experience and help you build your resume and portfolio — some even offer career guidance and mentorship.

To find a business analyst boot camp that will fit your schedule, budget and skillset, see “10 boot camps for business analysts.”

If you have a computer science or business degree, you might want to look at a master’s in business analysis. Exactly what type of degree you go for will depend on what area of BA or IT you want to work in, but there are plenty of programs designed to give you a formal business analyst education.

Business analytics tools and software

Business analysts typically rely on software such as Microsoft Excel, Microsoft PowerPoint, Microsoft Access, SQL, Google Analytics, and Tableau. These tools help BAs collect and sort data, create graphs, write documents, and design visualizations to explain the findings. You won’t necessarily need programming or database skills for a business analyst position, but if you already have these skills, they won’t hurt. The type of software and tools you’ll need to use will depend on your job title and what the organization requires.

More on business analysts:

• Best business analyst certifications to level up your career
• What is business analytics? Using data to improve business outcomes
• 5 essential traits of elite business analysts
• 6 business analyst resume tips
• 7 steps business analysts can take to earn more
• ECBA certification: An entry-level credential for business analysts
• CBAP certification: A high-profile credential for business analysts