Disparity between Business analysts and Data analysts

Business analysts and data analysts are the fields which involve working with data. The major difference is in the way of working with the data. Initially data analysts gather huge chunk of data from which they identify useful information and structure their findings into easy to understand format which may be in the form of charts or tables. Analyzing data is their end point. Business analysts will however use the data analysis to make strategic business decisions.

Though both business analysts and data scientists are data concerned roles both the roles requires people who should be problem solvers. A business analyst analyzes data and assesses requirements from a business point of view related to an organization(s) overall system. However a data analyst is more concerned on the relationship of the data in an organization’s database. The main aim for a data analyst is to compare data to competitors in the industry. They perform statistical analysis on data and provide insights based on that analysis.

Business analysis is one of the prime roles in today’s organizations as it will involve a lot of communication with the client and the project stakeholders. At its core, business analysis is a strategic role which involves using elicitation techniques to gather requirement from client in from of business language and then will convert the business information to a functional document which will be easy to understand by technical team to develop a solution. Analysts will use data to identify problems and solutions. Business analysts operate at a conceptual level – defining strategy, implementing new work flows and communicating with stakeholders.

In contrast to business analyst, Data analysts are the gatekeepers of the organization’s data. The main aim of data analyst is to extract data from various sources, inspect, clean and model the data to discover useful information that the business may need. A huge portion of the job is making charts and creating visual presentations so that others can understand the data, and can use it to make strategic business decisions.