Business analyst — skills, knowledge and links
Where this job sits in the official classifications, what those classifications say it demands, and what it connects to. Every block names its source: our own judgements, the U.S. Department of Labor's O*NET, or the U.S. Department of Education.
How it connects#
O*NET also lists (no page here yet): Information Technology Project Managers · Document Management Specialists · Chief Executives · Training and Development Managers · Operations Research Analysts · Industrial-Organizational Psychologists · Computer Systems Engineers/Architects · Database Administrators
In the official classification#
Management Analysts
Fit with this page: closest match, not the same job
Job Zone 4: considerable preparation
See it on O*NET OnLine ↗Computer Systems Analysts
Fit with this page: closest match, not the same job
Job Zone 4: considerable preparation
See it on O*NET OnLine ↗In Europe, internationally and in Singapore
business analyst
Fit with this page: closest match, not the same job
See it in ESCO ↗ICT business analyst
Fit with this page: closest match, not the same job
See it in ESCO ↗Management and organization analysts
Fit with this page: closest match, not the same job
Business consultant
Fit with this page: closest match, not the same job
What O*NET rates highest#
From O*NET 13-1111.00 (Management Analysts). Ordered by O*NET's importance rating; the words are O*NET's own scale anchors.
Transferable skills
- Complex Problem SolvingVery important
- Judgment and Decision MakingVery important
- Social PerceptivenessVery important
- CoordinationVery important
- Systems EvaluationVery important
- Systems AnalysisVery important
- PersuasionVery important
- InstructingImportant
Knowledge
- English LanguageExtremely important
- Administration and ManagementVery important
- Customer and Personal ServiceVery important
- MathematicsVery important
- Education and TrainingVery important
- Computers and ElectronicsVery important
Work activities
- Getting InformationExtremely important
- Communicating with Supervisors, Peers, or SubordinatesExtremely important
- Establishing and Maintaining Interpersonal RelationshipsExtremely important
- Making Decisions and Solving ProblemsExtremely important
- Providing Consultation and Advice to OthersVery important
- Analyzing Data or InformationVery important
Abilities
- Oral ComprehensionVery important
- Written ComprehensionVery important
- Oral ExpressionVery important
- Problem SensitivityVery important
- Written ExpressionVery important
- Deductive ReasoningVery important
Essential skills
- Reading ComprehensionVery important
- Active ListeningVery important
- Critical ThinkingVery important
- WritingVery important
- SpeakingVery important
Each task in O*NET's terms#
O*NET describes work as detailed activities. Each of this page's 5 tasks is matched only against the activities O*NET lists for this occupation, with a stated fit; 5 match at least one. The alignment and its fit are this site's judgement, made task by task by its AI agent (Claude) on 2026-09-26; O*NET does not align tasks like ours. The activity names are O*NET's, the translations ours.
- Eliciting requirementsCollect data about customer needs.the closest O*NET has, not the same · Getting Information · O*NET 31.0Analyze jobs using observation, survey, or interview techniques.covers part of this task · Analyzing Data or Information · O*NET 31.0
- Writing requirements and user storiesAnalyze project data to determine specifications or requirements.the closest O*NET has, not the same · Analyzing Data or Information · O*NET 31.0The same activity in: Junior software developerDocument design or development procedures.covers part of this task · Documenting/Recording Information · O*NET 31.0
- Mapping and analysing processesDevelop diagrams or flow charts of system operation.the closest O*NET has, not the same · Thinking Creatively · O*NET 31.0Gather organizational performance information.covers part of this task · Getting Information · O*NET 31.0The same activity in: Project manager
- Workshops and stakeholder alignmentCollaborate with others to determine design specifications or details.the closest O*NET has, not the same · Communicating with Supervisors, Peers, or Subordinates · O*NET 31.0The same activity in: ProductConfer with personnel to coordinate business operations.covers part of this task · Communicating with Supervisors, Peers, or Subordinates · O*NET 31.0The same activity in: Management consultant
- Acceptance and change managementDevelop testing routines or procedures.the closest O*NET has, not the same · Drafting, Laying Out, and Specifying Technical Devices, Parts, and Equipment · O*NET 31.0The same activity in: Software testerTrain others in computer interface or software use.covers part of this task · Training and Teaching Others · O*NET 31.0The same activity in: Business systems owner
Tasks O*NET proposes to add#
O*NET's analysts propose new or reworded task statements for future data collection, drawing on what surveyed workers write in, research into new technologies and professional associations. They are candidates, not yet part of the rated task list, and they say nothing about whether automation is involved. This site does not fold them into its own task judgements.
- Write code to perform desired actions.New task · 2023-08 · reported by surveyed workers · O*NET 31.0
Our task judgements#
O*NET says what this job demands. It does not say what automation is doing to it — that is what this site's 5 task judgements are for: 1 backed by a verified event, 4 platform inference. VOLO judgement
Sources and rules#
- Each block says where it comes from: this site's own judgements, O*NET, the U.S. Department of Education's CIP–SOC crosswalk, the European ESCO classification and its official crosswalk to O*NET, the ILO's ISCO-08, Singapore's SSOC 2024, or something computed mechanically from those. Nothing on this page is a rating we made up.
- O*NET's importance ratings are used only to order and shorten the lists. They are never combined with this site's impact index or evidence counts.
- The fit between our page and an O*NET occupation is our judgement and is stated per code: same job, broader, part of it, or only the closest there is.
- The ESCO and ISCO-08 fits are derived mechanically from the official ESCO–O*NET crosswalk; where we override it, we say why in our data (for example, the crosswalk pairs radiologists with radiographers, which is a different job). The SSOC 2024 fit is our reading of the Singapore Department of Statistics' own titles and definitions. Official names are shown as their publishers write them; we do not translate them.
- Each task is matched only against the detailed work activities O*NET lists for the codes this page maps to. Where nothing fits, the page says why instead of forcing a match: work O*NET does not describe yet (used only for tasks we judge to be emerging), or nothing in O*NET's list for this occupation. An alignment never changes a task's direction, its basis or the impact index.
- Rules are read only from this site's verified records. A rule's official name must appear word for word in a record that reads it, so no name is made up; a policy mandate is read only as 'must', 'must not' or 'funds', because 'should' and 'in principle' are not a mandate. Reading a rule never changes a task's direction, its basis or the impact index.
- How these pieces fit together — objects, links and the actions that change them — is drawn as one diagram: The VOLO ontology
- ESCO (European Commission), occupation records from the ESCO API; CC BY 4.0. ESCO–O*NET crosswalk, ESCO Secretariat with the U.S. Department of Labor/ETA, version 1 (Sep 2022), O*NET-SOC 2019 ↔ ESCO v1.1.0; CC BY 4.0. Singapore Department of Statistics, Singapore Standard Occupational Classification 2024 and its correspondence with ISCO-08.
- O*NET 31.0 Database, August 2026 release, U.S. Department of Labor/Employment and Training Administration, CC BY 4.0. O*NET® is a trademark of USDOL/ETA. The translations of O*NET descriptors on this page are ours, not O*NET's.