The “best” business analysis books are subjective and dependent on your specific demands and tastes.
Here are a few highly rated books that many professionals rank as among the best in the discipline of business analysis:
- “Business Analysis Body of Knowledge (BABOK)” by IIBA: The International Institute of Business Analysis (IIBA) has released a comprehensive guide that includes the essential knowledge areas and practises in business analysis.
- Kupe Kupersmith, Paul Mulvey, and Kate McGoey’s “Business Analysis For Dummies”: A user-friendly guide that introduces the concepts and practises of business analysis.
- “Requirements Engineering: Fundamentals, Principles, and Techniques” by Klaus Pohl and Chris Rupp: While not strictly about business analysis, this book dives into the critical element of acquiring and documenting requirements, which is an important part of business analysis.
- “Eric Ries’ “The Lean Startup”: While not a traditional business analysis book, it provides excellent insights about applying lean concepts and verified learning in startups and new companies, which might be helpful to business analysts.
- “Agile Estimating and Planning” by Mike Cohn: While this book is mostly on agile processes, it can also be valuable for business analysts working in agile environments because it provides techniques for estimating and planning project work.
- “Business Analysis Techniques: 99 Essential Tools for Success” by James Cadle, Debra Paul, and Paul Turner: This book takes an in-depth look at numerous business analysis approaches that can be used in a variety of circumstances.
- “Jeff Patton’s “User Story Mapping: Discover the Whole Story, Build the Right Product”: This book is about user story mapping, which is a strong technique used by business analysts to analyse user demands and develop effective product backlogs.
- “Axel van Lamsweerde’s “Requirements Engineering: From System Goals to UML Models to Software Specifications”: This book delves into requirements engineering, a fundamental component of business analysis, and offers practical approaches for obtaining and managing requirements.
- “Howard Podeswa’s “The Business Analyst’s Handbook”: This extensive book covers every area of business analysis, from communication skills to methodologies for analysing and documenting requirements.
- “Eric Ries’ “The Lean Startup”: Although it is not precisely a business analysis book, it does provide useful insights on iterative development, validated learning, and customer-focused techniques, all of which are aligned with business analysis principles.
- Kevin Brennan’s “Mastering Business Analysis: A Complete Guide to Scrum, Agile, Kanban, and Beyond”: This book discusses a variety of approaches and practises useful to business analysts, such as agile, Scrum, and Kanban.
Keep in mind that the appropriate book for you will be determined by your background, level of experience, and specific areas of interest in business analysis.
To obtain a well-rounded grasp of the area, it’s a good idea to look at a variety of resources.