Business Analysts and Data Analysts are professionals who use their expertise to help an organization make informed decisions in various fields, including finance, marketing, operations, and more. While both positions require an understanding of data analysis techniques and of business analysis, what exactly do Business Analysts and Data Analysts do? And how are they different? In this article, I’l break down the difference between the two roles!

Business Analysts and Data Analysts are both valuable to a business, but it’s important to understand how these roles differ. To begin with, BAs contribute to an organization by facilitating change that improves operations or performance. Data Analysts focus on analyzing datasets to provide strategic insights and help facilitate informed change in organizations. Both Business Analysts and Data Analysts facilitate business decisions through their generalized and specialized roles within organizations—but, while the end goal is the same, there are some key differences between their respective responsibilities.

What Does a Business Analyst Do?

A Business Analyst is a key member of a business team, and I could write a whole article on what BA’s do. Oh wait – I did! You can read about that here if you like. By clearly identifying project requirements, monitoring and managing the change process, and providing stakeholders with clear information about how the solution will satisfy their needs, a Business Analyst ensures that teams work together smoothly to produce results. They’ll also remove any major roadblocks to keep things moving forward, evaluating each step of a process for inefficiencies or gaps and making suggestions for improvements along the way.

What Does a Data Analyst Do?

Data Analysts specialize in analyzing, modeling, documenting, tracing, and creating reports on relationships among data eleents within a business. Data Analysis is a continuous process that begins with capturing data from one or multiple sources (for example, databases), but depending on how many sources are involved in a company’s digital ecosystem, it can be easy to get overwhelmed.

That’s where Data Analysts shine. 

Their job is to make sense of all these different pieces of information in the data they have by identifying patterns and trends that provide insights for projects, and even to identify opportunities or threats to the company. They work closely with other departments including IT, marketing, sales, product management, etc., which provides them with an opportunity to see how their work impacts each area of the company.

Data Analysts are, at their core, Business Analysts that specialize in data. Because Data Analysts are responsible for writing and creating reports and dashboards, they need additional analytical skills and knowledge, and require a logical mind for programming (SQL, R, Python), data mining and scrubbing, and other very technical responsibilities. So while BAs may deliver the business requirements, the Data Analyst contributes significantly to solution creation through analysis.

Why You Need Both Business Analysts and Data Analysts in an Organization

Business Analysts and Data Analysts are equally important in an organization and project team. Data Analysts help BAs collect and analyze complex data, while Business Analysts provide a bridge between departments and work to optimize processes. Both positions need strong analytical skills, but their roles operate very differently.

The big difference between them is that the Business Analyst role is more general and broad. BA’s facilitate or assist an organization in making changes to its business, processes, and systems, which could include some responsibilities that involve data analysis. But as the data analysis required becomes increasingly complex, the BA will often turn to their Data Analyst counterpart to provide them with the details and insights needed to provide the best solutions for the business and communicate those solutions to the stakeholders. Data Analysts analyze, model, document, trace, and create reports on data and relationships among data elements within a business or software system, and they provide BA’s with powerful insights.

While all Data Analysts should have knowledge of business analysis, it’s extremely valuable to an organization – and the individual professional and their career – if Business Analysts have an understanding and knowledge of data analysis too. Each contributes greatly to their organization through their respective roles, and both roles are necessary and work together to achieve one common vision: the ultimate success of the organization.

– Written by Jeremy Aschenbrenner, The BA Guide