What Makes A Good Business Intelligence Analyst?

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!