Best Business Analysis Books In 2024
Readers and clients often look to us to help them with all aspects of business analysis and to identify which business analyst books to read and which are the best books to learn business analysis.
Business analysis is one of the most dynamic and ever changing aspects in the operation of modern companies. New methods, techniques, and principles in the BA appear ever so often. For a successful analyst, the value of staying up-to-date with the latest developments in the field can’t be overestimated.
Fortunately, there are plenty of respected authors who are at the forefront of every new development. Keeping up with your reading enables you to learn about new breakthroughs in the business analysis and allows to implement them in your day-to-day work. Also, with time, as you create your own library of business analysis books, it will always serve as a reminder and help with any doubt you may have.
We love books as a model for learning and of course there is a great array of business analysis literature available. We know that it can take some time to read books – but if you dedicate some time a day perhaps on your journey to work, you will be surprised how quickly that you can and develop.
One of the best ways to start is by being aware of best business analysis books and the best business analysis books for beginners. Keeping your eyes open for new publications as they are published, especially those that take into considerations new ways of working.
We have put together a list of the best business analysis books that are relevant for 2024 and listed books to improve their ways of working (WoW) including in agile books and product management books.
Many of the books refer to industry standard business analysis templates
which many business analysis have to learn and use.
There is also an excellent fictional book, Brainy Glue Making Change Stick, written specifically for the business analysis community that is definitely worth checking out.
We have also included the best product management books and the best product management books for beginners. These books are useful for those transitioning from business analyst roles to product ownership or product management roles and looking for product management books to read and best books to learn product management.
Where do you Start?
Take a look at the lists below, books for business analysts which you can purchase from amazon (our disclosure) by clicking on the images on this page, and let us know what you think. Did we miss any of your favourites? Are there other topics that we should include? Can you share a review / feedback on a book that you have read?
Table of Contents
This is still my go to book on business analysis. An updated collection of works by renowned experts in the field, this book delivers an overview of the role and know-how of modern business analysis. A thorough examination of problems and solutions in the contemporary business environment has proven to be very useful for both students and experienced professionals.
The development of business analysis as a professional discipline has extended the role of the business analyst who now needs the widest possible array of tools and the skills and knowledge to be able to use each when and where it is needed. This new edition provides 123 possible techniques and practical guidance on how and when to apply them.
A must for every aspiring business analyst. This book is a great guide for everyone entering the field. It explores the necessary tools, techniques, and methods to make in the world of modern business analysis. It also features career case studies of some of the successful professionals working today.
Both authors are very experienced in the business analysis and explain different useful business analysis techniques in a way that anyone can understand them. The book contains s wonderful case study and different characters to explain different business analysis techniques. The book is a good way to learn business analysis techniques and other important information regarding business analysis.
This business analysis book offers practical guidance through business analysis by identifying and explaining the tools and templates used to solve arising problems. It will help you deal with many issues arising during everyday work.
A great insight into what it really means to be a business analyst. The business analysis book explores the skills and personal traits needed to be successful in the field. It will help you discover the best ways to contribute to your organisation.
A perfect roadmap for anyone who desires to become a business analyst. With plenty of practical advice, Laura Brandenburg’s book can be a great companion throughout your career in analysis.
In-depth investigation of business analysis techniques, problems, and concepts. This book covers various approaches to becoming a master business analyst. It has, also, proven to be of big help in preparing for certification exams.
A comprehensive explanation of the role of a business analyst within the organisation. It contains advice on how to deal with project managers and customers, which methods to use, improving communication, and many more issues in your day-to-day work.
Easy to understand guide through activities, tasks, and responsibilities of a business analyst. I cover everything from the basics of analysis to advanced techniques used by experienced professionals.
New Ways of Working
To get get guidance on new ways of working, for example, agile, check out the following titles including best books on agile business analysis.
The Lean Startup offers an exploration of an innovative approach to starting a business. It concentrates on efficiency and the best possible use of human resources. Through many stories and examples, it preaches continuous testing and adapting.
When Eric Ries publishes a book it is worth reading as its content provide transformative content. I had the opportunity to listen to Eric when he spoke about the book to a packed audience. In this book Eric reveals how entrepreneurial principles can be used by businesses of all kinds, ranging from established companies to early-stage startups, to grow revenues, drive innovation, and transform themselves into truly modern organisations, poised to take advantage of the enormous opportunities of the twenty-first century.
Investigation of agile approach in the IT industry. The book examines the role and methodology of business analysis in the agile environment.
The book tries to answer how to make the business analysis more agile and efficient. It helps you find a way to quickly identify and solve problems, wasting a minimum amount of time.
Jonathan Smart, business agility practitioner, thought leader, and coach, reveals the patterns and antipatterns that will help organizations from every industry deliver better value sooner, safer, and happier through high levels of engagement, inclusion, and empowerment. Through his decades of experience in the technology world, Smart provides business leaders with a blueprint for creating a world-class organisation of the future.
Based on his own experience, the author explains a variety of scrum management practices. A must-read for every prospective product owner looking to maximise the value.
An in-depth look at the best possible way to plan and strategise your product management. Plenty of real-life examples will help you better understand and apply the best practices suitable for the modern business environment.
Essential reading if you want to become a successful product leader, The book covers the most effective ways of developing a productive relationship with all of the stakeholders involved in the product management in order to create the best value.
Going through every stage of product development, this book helps you create the product that the customers will fall in love with. Inspired contains testimonials by many product managers from the world’s most renowned tech companies.
This book examines how to incorporate user needs into software development. It will teach you to develop “user stories” as a way of determining what is valuable to the customers and use them in your product management to create the best value. This is still my goto book for user stories.
The book serves as an intro to Discipline Agile Delivery, a hybrid method in software development. It covers its application in the agile process from its initial phase to the very end.
A book that helps you determine the way of working that best suits you, guides you through it and instructs you how to analyze and reflect on a completed task. It does so through many practical experiments set in the agile business surroundings.
As the title says, this book shares the business principles of one of the most successful companies in the world. Lesson learned from Toyota will help your workplace become more productive, efficient, all with minimal cost.
In the form of a novel, Kim delivers lessons about handling challenges and problems of running a business. While very entertaining, the book is also very educational, putting its protagonists into life-like situations that you will encounter in your day-to-day operations. A book that I read several times and still one of the most important books in recent times for new ways of working and DEVOPS.
Though the protagonist, Maxine, Kim tells a story of business in the digital age, and obstacles developers and managers must overcome to become successful. A sequel to The Phoenix Project, it digs deeper into challenges of creating a well-run business.
Developing Soft Skills
Many aspects of business analysis also requires developing the soft skills – the following titles are worth checking out:
This book is a great resource when it comes to communication and understanding people, especially in a business environment. You will learn to better at deciphering what the others want and learning how to use it, thus making you better at business, management, and marketing.
Learn how to be an outstanding leader by taking lessons from people who have proven to know the secret of being successful. This book will help you achieve success and balance not only in business but also in life.
In this book, Clear introduces the concept of atomic habits: small decisions and changes to your everyday life that will help you become more accomplished and satisfied with yourself. Through stories of established CEOs, scientists and Olympians, you can learn how to better your life.
Requirements
| Through numerous examples, this book explores a wide area of requirements management and development methods and activities. It’s intended for managers, business analysts, and developers already familiar with software development. |
A deep dive into requirements in Agile business surroundings. It offers solutions and models for devising Agile requirements for all parts of the development process and all sorts of company structures.
One of the finest books about requirements, it deals mostly with the most important issue – getting requirements right from the get-go. Robertson sets out detailed strategies for setting the requirements both for the traditional and agile business environment.
Data Modelling
In-depth coverage of analytical data modelling for businesses. The book is extremely useful for all business analysts who wish to learn through examples of data modelling techniques to improve their performance.
Process Modelling
The importance of process modelling to the better understanding and success of a business is in the focus of Holt’s book. He delivers plenty of helpful insight on every aspect of business process modelling while keeping the book very enjoyable and easy to read.
A very helpful guide to business process modelLing especially focused on background and tools for using BPMN. Plenty of helpful examples and diagrams will help you get a better grip on the subject.
This book will teach you how to use BPMN to model processes, but also how to apply it to real-life problems. The author draws from his vast experience from Camunda, a company that was one of the pioneers in the BPMN field.
Organisational Design
Through a wide range of case studies, this book explores the life of organisations on all levels. It discusses strategy management in a clear and easy to understand way. Johnson uses cases of a number of renowned companies to shine a light on organisational management.
If you feel ready to challenge traditional business models, this is the right book for you. Great source for developing a strategy that will suit the reality of the modern business environment.
The authors of the international bestseller Business Model Generation explain how to create value propositions customers can’t resist.
A book that provides a good guide to the fundamentals of requirements.
In the digital age, success is increasingly dependent on the ability to transform and join the dots to fill the gaps that exist in your problems along your journey. This requires more data and more people to co-create together to achieve more value, better and faster
A guide for developing a strategy to adopt Lean and Agile business principles, the book uses many case studies to illustrate its points. It’s perfect for anyone working in a legacy environment trying to implement modern models of business.
Overall agility throughout the whole business is in the focus of this book. By exploring real cases, many from his own experience, the author manages to cover all important aspects of implementing agile doctrine in the complete organisation.
Building a Business Analysis Service
Guidance and management of building a business analysis service.
The book looks at the business analysis from a service perspective. It uses numerous examples and case studies to show how modern analysis should be structured and operated.
Business Analysis Leadership
This book teaches you how to be a successful leader in the field of business analysis. It covers leadership in all sorts of organisations, from smallest to biggest world companies. It contains contributions from some of the most renowned people in the field on how to deal with people and earn the respect of the members of your organisation.
Measuring Outcomes
Bradley’s book deals with one of the most important aspects of the business analysis – measuring the performance of the project. It goes deep on the methodology of determining the costs and the benefits of a specific program.
A book that is all about OKRs – Objectives and Key Results. It helps the reader properly establish appropriate goals for the business and determine if those goals are met in a proper fashion.
Becoming Independent
If you have experience and looking to become an independent then the following title is worth checking out:
A book intended for those determined to develop an independent career in business analysis. It will teach everything about how to successfully establish your business, market it, get clients, all the way to the minuscule details of everyday operation. This is a must read book for freelance and contracting business analysts.
Coaching and Mentoring
Employing his extensive coaching experience, Stanier offers numerous tips, tricks, and advice on how to successfully discover and unlock potential. Thoroughly researched, this book gives a modern and scientific view on coaching in the business environment.
Certification Study Guides
IIBA Certified Business Analysis Professional (CBAP) Study Guides
The most comprehensive and essential guide for anyone getting into the world of business analysis. Very helpful for students, junior analysts, but also a great source for experts.
Set with over 300 flashcards is of tremendous help when preparing for CBAP or CCBA exam. It covers all of the important BABOK principles. techniques and concepts.
A handy, on-the-job reference filled with real-life scenarios to help you achieve the Certified Business Analysis Professional (CBAP®) and Certification of Capability in Business Analysis (CCBA®) certifications.
Helpful study guide with numerous practice exercises, memory aids, sample questions, and tips to pass the CBAP certification exam. Also, it comes with a free trial subscription to the CBAP/CCBA study exam.
Summarised key BABOK details organised in tables for quick reference. It will give structure and order to your preparation for the exam.
PMI Professional in Business Analysis (PMI-PBA) Study Guides
Great way to prepare for PMI-PBA exam, with questions offering extensive coverage of project management and business analysis.
A great guide to brush up on your knowledge of requirements and business analysis. It takes the reader through every stage of BA.
A new PMI standard detailing the distinction between project management and business analysis in terms of process and primary focus. Extremely helpful in trying to understand the PMI approach to BA.
This guide is aligned with the actual exam in structure, scope, and requirements. It includes tips from PMI-PBA experts, sample questions and memory aids.
International Requirements Engineering Board (IREB) Study Guide
An extensive guide that covers the curriculum for CPRE exam. The guide is fully aligned with the exam itself.
Conclusion – Best Business Analysis Books
This article has provided our recommendations of the best business analysis books that are relevant for 2024 and listed books to improve their ways of working including in agile.
Many of the best business analysis books refer to industry standard business analysis templates which many business analysis have to learn and use to solve common business analysis challenges.
We suggest that you start with the introduction business analysis books before moving to books that develop your ways of working in modern practices such as agile.