Data Analyst vs. Business Analyst: What Is the Difference Between the Both?

Intro

Many people believe that there is no difference between the profile of a business analyst and a data analyst. Thus, many people use these job titles interchangeably. But this is not true, and both the profiles are completely different from each other. So, to remove this confusion once and for all today, we are going to learn what is the main difference between a business analyst and a data analyst.

Here’s everything that you need to know about both a data analyst and a business analyst.

Who Is a Data Analyst?

A data analyst is a professional who analyses business data and helps organizational leaders in making more informed decisions. His responsibilities include:

• Developing and maintaining databases/data systems.
• Administering and troubleshooting databases, networks, and data systems.
• Data mining and data preparation for doing data analysis.
• Analyzing data and discovering useful insights.
• Preparing reports for communicating findings to organizational leaders, etc.

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Technical skills that a data analyst must posses

• A bachelor’s degree in fields like mathematics, computer science, or statistics.
• Data mining skills.
• Expert in working with and analyzing Big Data.
• Strong interpersonal skills.
• Proficient in working with tools like Excel, MS-SQL, Power BI, etc. To master all these tools, feel free to join the Data Analyst Training in Gurgaon.

Who Is a Business Analyst?

A business analyst is a professional who analyses business data for helping organizational leaders in making important strategic decisions. A business analyst may also work as an operational research analyst or a management analyst in an organization. His responsibilities include:

• Examining various business processes for measuring their efficiency and cost.
• Communicating findings with business teams and organizational leaders.
• Preparing strategies for process adjustments and performance improvements, etc.

Technical skills a business analyst must possess

• A bachelor’s degree, preferably in business administration.
• Critical thinking.
• Problem-solving skills.
• Stupendous communication skills.
• Strong understanding of the procedures and goals of their organizations.
• Proficient in advanced mathematics/computer science, etc.

What Are the Key Differences Between a Data Analyst and a Business Analyst?

Following are the key differences between a data analyst and a business analyst:

1. Responsibilities: A business analyst has to identify business problems and search for possible solutions for solving them. He doesn’t analyze data in-depth. Instead, he works at a conceptual level. He defines business strategies and communicates them with stakeholders. In contrast, a data analyst has to spend the majority of his time working with and analyzing data in-depth. He is responsible for collecting data and cleaning/transforming it for extracting useful information from it.
2. Expertise: A business analyst must have expertise in domains like e-commerce, healthcare, etc. The work of a business analyst is not that technical, but he must be proficient in mathematics and statistics. On the other hand, the work of a data analyst is very technical. He has to spend the majority of his time working with and analyzing data in-depth. Furthermore, he must be proficient in working with statistical tools, programming languages, databases, etc. Besides this, he must be an expert in working with complex algorithms and statistical models.
3. Background: Background plays a very important role in the career of a business analyst. A business must have a bachelor’s degree in fields like management, IT, business administration, etc. On the other hand, the educational background does not play a big role in the career of a data analyst. However, many companies prefer to hire analysts that have bachelor’s degrees in fields like mathematics, computer science, or statistics.
4. Other skills: A business analyst must be proficient in gathering business requirements and modelling. In contrast, a data analyst must be proficient in data mining and working with machine learning and artificial intelligence. To become proficient in machine learning and AI, feel free to join the Data Analyst Training Institute in Delhi.

Conclusion

There are lots of differences between the role/responsibilities of a data/business analyst. The work of a business analyst is not that technical, and he does not analyze data in-depth. On the other hand, the work of a data analyst is very technical, and he has to analyze business data in-depth for finding useful information. In short, both the profiles are completely distinct from each other. So, make sure you don’t get confused between both the profiles and believe that they are similar to each other.