Best Business Analyst Books

Being a great business analyst isn’t easy. The job can often carry a lot of pressure, especially since high-level decision-makers look to you to solve certain problems they’re experiencing in business.

It is widely agreed that being a great business analyst requires certain personality attributes, such as the ability to communicate well. Problem-solving, critical thinking, and the ability to perform under pressure are also high on the list of qualities that you should possess before choosing this as a career path.

If you think you have what it takes and are looking for a career as a business analyst, or if you want to improve your skillset to improve your performance, then keep reading. We reveal our favorite two pieces of advice on becoming a successful business analyst and recommend some of the best business analyst books available on the subject for your reading list.

1. Be Resourceful

Being resourceful is hugely important in being a great business analyst. Don’t wait for answers to come to you. Instead, go and find the answers for yourself by involving the right people in the organization at the right time.

2. Grow Your Skills

Make sure that you’re always on the lookout for new ways to do things. Gaining new skills in different areas of your work, whether they be for presenting information or analyzing situations, will improve your marketability, and maybe more importantly, your efficiency and confidence.

If you want to grow your skills today, then take a look at this list of the best business analyst books. We spoke to some of the most successful entrepreneurs and professionals in the world of business and asked them what they would recommend. All of these books were recently published, so it should be relatively easy to get your hands on a copy. Be resourceful, and start improving your career today.

Best Business Analyst Books

The Snowball: Warren Buffett and the Business of Life

How do you explain Warren Buffett? Everyone knows that in a deep and liquid capital market like that of the US, it is just about impossible to beat the stock market averages over anything more than the short term. But Buffett has been ahead of the curve for most of the past 50 years, making him one of the world’s richest people. Alice Schroeder’s massive authorised biography, The Snowball, provides some clues about how he’s done it.

Richard Lambert

Director-General/Confederation of British Industry

Succeeding with Agile: Software Development Using Scrum

I’m a technical guy. I studied the IT field and did software development for a long time until I discovered the business world. So the path for me is to slowly adapt from the clear, technical world, to the fuzzy, way more complex, business world. All the books that I recommend help this transition.

“Succeeding with Agile” - Mike Cohn: for approaching the process involved into building a product in an organized manner.

Nicolae Andronic

Founder/Echoz

Originals: How Non-Conformists Move the World

It's always interesting just to learn different perspectives, but to be careful of not trying to just say, 'Oh this book is the Bible, and we should copy that,' [...] Instead, I want us t0 take the parts that make sense for Zappos and try to incorporate them."

Tony Hsieh

CEO/Zappos