What Software Do Business Analysts Use?

Business Analysts rely on various types of software, tools, and applications to collect data on their organization’s business processes and systems. This article will explore some of the most popular software being used by Business Analysts in 2023.

Why Do Business Analysts Need So Many Software Options?

Behind every successful Business Analyst are tools that help them perform their job efficiently and effectively. These tools are essential for facilitating project management, collaboration, workflow management, user case analysis, and other vital tasks. To decide which tools are most helpful for performing these tasks, a Business Analyst must have a comprehensive understanding of the requirements and needs of the organization where they work.

The following are some of the most popular and useful tools and software for business analytics in 2023:

Microsoft Visio

Microsoft Visio is a tool with applications for business modeling and project management. Visio can create many professional-grade diagrams, such as floor plans, flowcharts, organizational charts, network diagrams, Gantt charts, timelines, data models, project schedules, and process diagrams. 

Rational RequisitePro

Rational RequisitePro is considered by some Business Analysts to be the best tool for managing their requirements. This software is especially helpful for managing the various business requirements of large projects. It also comes with word processing and the capability to query and sort data. In addition, Rational RequisitePro includes features designed for performing impact analysis.

Google Docs 

Google Docs is a collaboration tool that facilitates document sharing. Business Analysts can use it to share various documents and file types with internal and external stakeholders, making collaboration easy no matter where team members are located.

Nifty

Nifty is a leading tool for workflow management solutions and business analysis. It allows Business Analysts to see all projects in their dashboard and an overview of the progress occurring with each project. This ensures they can monitor task completion as it occurs by different team members within their organization. In addition, Nifty also includes a time-tracking feature designed to monitor how long it takes for tasks to be completed, which is helpful for meeting project deadlines.

Microsoft Excel

Microsoft Excel has a variety of applications that are helpful for business analytics. This spreadsheet application is a valuable tool for data storage and manipulation, resource and operations management, and management tracking. Those working with Excel can discern patterns, visualize data, document spreadsheet systems, and work with industry-specific functions when performing data manipulations.

Balsamiq

Balsamiq is a valuable tool that helps Business Analysts create wireframes. It incorporates brainstorming sessions that allow for instantaneous feedback from stakeholders. This software creates templates and component libraries that are usable. It also allows projects to host online. Balsamiq’s intuitive user interface contains links that help Business Analysts find prototypes for usability testing and demos. In addition, this tool presents mockups with embedded links.

Enterprise Architect

Enterprise Architect is a graphical tool used to create models and strategies and to work on and review various business processes. Business Analysts who work with this software can collaborate with other professionals around the globe. Large business systems and models can be created in Enterprise Architect in just seconds with the help of this tool.

Microsoft Power BI

Microsoft Power BI is a collection of various business analytics tools, technologies, and services that are useful for extracting insights from data and creating data visualizations based on the findings. Once visualizations and data reports have been updated, Business Analysts can share them with others who use the Power BI service. This software comes with an assortment of cloud-based applications and services that are useful for collating and analyzing data. In addition, this product provides Business Analysts with powerful AI capacities such as machine learning models, textual analytics, and image recognition. 

Tableau

Tableau is a visual analytics platform that helps Business Analysts simply raw data to create customized dashboards and visualizations based on findings. Tableau is considered to be the leading platform for business intelligence currently available. This software includes capabilities for performing complex calculations, rapid cohort analysis, and predictive analysis and incorporates Python and R integration. This dynamic tool allows Business Analysts to continue to ask “Why?” for questions that grow in complexity or scope, then to share their findings with other stakeholders.

ClickUp

ClickUp is a project management tool that helps handle various documents and business tasks. Business Analysts can use this software to establish work priorities and assign and resolve comments on each task, depending on their organizational needs. Users can also filter tasks to prioritize those most pressing or with looming deadlines. ClickUp can also assign multiple tasks to team members with just one mouse click, facilitating collaboration. 

Infogram

Infogram is a drag-and-drop visualization tool that helps Business Analysts who may be new to document design create stunning data visualizations. Once visualizations are complete, they can be exported into various formats, like JPGs or PDFs. Those who want to embed interactive visualizations into websites or apps can also do so with Infogram. Designer, ready-to-use templates are also available through this application. You can even customize templates to include your organization’s colors, fonts, brand, and logo.

Plotly 

Plotly is an open-source library with tools for statistical and online graphing and libraries devoted to scientific graphing. This library helps Business Analysts create data visualizations by providing them with an array of options for designing their visual data depictions. This resource offers a robust collection of graphs, including 3D charts, contour plots, histograms, heatmaps, and network graphs.

monday.com

monday.com helps Business Analysts create workflows. This software helps track organizational performance, increasing efficiency and overall work output. Some of this tool’s most helpful features are its automation capabilities for daily work tasks, its ability to integrate with Gmail, Google Calendar, and other applications, as well as the collaboration options that make it easy to correspond with team members. 

Learn More About Business Analytics by Enrolling in Hands-on Classes

If you want to learn more about business analytics, a variety of courses are available for beginners and more advanced students. Noble’s Business Analyst Certificate is a great learning option for any aspiring Business Analyst. Relevant tools and skills such as data analysis, Excel, Tableau, and SQL are covered in this hands-on program. Those enrolled in this intensive course can elect to study online or in person in Manhattan. This class comes with the option of a free retake for learners who wish to revisit course material. 

Those interested in finding learning options close to home can also use Noble Desktop’s Classes Near Me tool to search more than 250 live online and in-person business analytics courses in topics such as SQL, PowerPoint, and Excel for Business, among others.