  We investigate the X-ray variability characteristics of hard X-ray selected
AGNs (based on Swift/BAT data) in the soft X-ray band using the RXTE/ASM data.
The uncertainties involved in the individual dwell measurements of ASM are
critically examined and a method is developed to combine a large number of
dwells with appropriate error propagation to derive long duration flux
measurements (greater than 10 days). We also provide a general prescription to
estimate the errors in variability derived from rms values from unequally
spaced data. Though the derived variability for individual sources are not of
very high significance, we find that, in general, the soft X-ray variability is
higher than those in hard X-rays and the variability strengths decrease with
energy for the diverse classes of AGN. We also examine the strength of
variability as a function of the break time scale in the power density spectrum
(derived from the estimated mass and bolometric luminosity of the sources) and
find that the data are consistent with the idea of higher variability at time
scales longer than the break time scale.
