Click here to Skip to main content
65,938 articles
CodeProject is changing. Read more.
Articles / analysis

What Makes A Good Business Intelligence Analyst?

3.11/5 (2 votes)
2 Sep 2015CPOL1 min read 13K  
A quick list of requirements for a good BI recruit

Introduction

I was recently asked for my thoughts on the fundementals to look for when filling a new position of a data focused business analyst - these notes are a starting point some others might find useful if asked the same question!

Notes

Fundamentals a good data/Microsoft technology focused BI recruit would need to have:

  • Ability to quickly grasp business concepts and produce models to represent, measure and analyse same in a quantifiable manner
  • Solid, demonstrable SQL skills (not with drag/drop tools, in plain basic ANSII SQL code)
  • Knowledge of the fundamentals of data quality
  • Good understanding of database relational theory
  • Power user of Microsoft Excel, to include pivots, advanced filtering, macros, advanced manipulation functions – demonstrable
  • Extremely good communicator, written and oral
  • Very good presentation skills (PPT and other tools)
  • Solid insight into data visualisation, and charting
  • A curious mind
  • Attention to detail
  • Be able to work with ambiguity
  • Persistance

Nice to have:

  • Experience with SQL BI enterprise tools such as:
    • SSIS (etl data loading)
    • SSRS (reporting services)
    • SSAS (data mining / analytical services)
  • Experience with BI tooling such as Pentaho, Tablaeu, Qlik, Birst, etc.
  • Experience with OLAP / MDX (multi-dimensional expressions)
  • Experience with working with data from different sources (eg: sql, no-sql, csv/tabular, dirty data)

Additional

For an interesting article on skills/knowledge versus simply being a tool user, read this…

http://sonra.io/essential-skills-any-bi-consultant-should-have-or-why-a-fool-with-a-tool-is-still-a-fool/

Feel free to add other insights in comments!

License

This article, along with any associated source code and files, is licensed under The Code Project Open License (CPOL)