What is a business analyst? Roles, responsibilities, career and salary

Key takeaways:

• To bridge the gap between the business and IT, business analysts (BAs) are responsible for applying data analytics to review business processes, establish requirements, and offer data-driven recommendations and reports to executives and stakeholders

• Business analysts create a comprehensive business study, identifying issues, opportunities, and solutions for a company

• Business analysts plan and forecast the activities of the business

• Business analysts helps in arranging and keeping track of projects

• Analysis of differences in between process

• Business analysts records pricing and reporting status of the projects

• Business analysts define requirements definition and communication to stakeholders

A business analyst is someone responsible for understanding the needs of a company or an organisation and then providing the best possible solutions to meet those needs. 

They work with IT professionals, managers, and other stakeholders to gather requirements, analyse the current state of the IT system, identify gaps in functionality or performance, and recommend solutions. They are often trained in business, economics, or engineering and have significant experience in the field.

A business analyst’s role is to work with stakeholders to understand their requirements and then develop a strategy for meeting those requirements and goals by analysing data, identifying problems, making recommendations, and implementing changes. A business analyst will typically work closely with other project team members, such as developers and project managers.

Some companies may require that their analysts have specific qualifications before they can be hired. For example, a company may require that its analysts have at least three years of experience in the field or hold a degree in engineering or computer science.

What are the roles and responsibilities of a business analyst?

The business analyst role is to provide accurate, timely, and thorough information about a company’s business needs. They are also responsible for ensuring that their recommendations are based on the best available information and will not negatively impact the company’s bottom line.

Business analysts should be able to collaborate with multiple departments to make sure their recommendations reflect the full scope of a company’s needs. Along with having strong technical skills, they must have excellent communication skills as well. Business analysts should also work effectively with clients or customers to understand their needs and how they can best meet them.

A business analyst is often called upon to create models of how customers interact with products and how those products relate to each other. Problem solving is one of the key skill for a business analyst.

Business analysts are also responsible for creating budgets, projects, reports, and other documents that help a company run more smoothly. They’re usually expected to be able to use their creativity to come up with new ideas for marketing campaigns and ways to improve efficiency within the company.

A business analyst is a professional who uses their expertise in business to help teams make better decisions and take on new projects.

While you might not be an expert in every aspect of your company’s business, you can still become a business analyst. Business analysts work with teams and clients to understand the problems they’re facing and how to solve them.

Business analysts are responsible for helping other people make better decisions. This means they’re required to use their expertise — not just in the field of business but also in IT. The best way to develop this skill set is through education and experience, but it is also essential to understand what you’ll be doing on the job.

Business analysts have to play a vital role in helping organisations reach their full potential. They are responsible for identifying business opportunities and developing plans to capitalise on them. They also play a crucial role in identifying and solving business problems. In addition, they provide valuable insights and recommendations to decision-makers.

The specific responsibilities of a business analyst will vary depending on the organisation they work for, but in general, you can expect to perform the following tasks:

• Conduct business analysis to identify opportunities and develop plans to capitalise on them
• Identify business problems and develop plans to solve them
• Provide valuable insights and recommendations to decision-makers
• Prepare reports and presentations to communicate your findings
• Serve as a liaison amid business and technical teams
• Manage projects and ensure they are completed on time and within budget
• Determining the goals of a product or service
• Evaluating the feasibility of a project
• Creating user requirements
• Business analysts have many responsibilities, including:
  • Determining the goals of a product or service
  • Evaluating the feasibility of a project
  • Creating user requirements

If you have the skills and qualifications for the job and are passionate about helping businesses achieve their goals, then a career as a business analyst could be the perfect fit for you.

How to become a business analyst?

Becoming a business analyst is a process, not a single step.

It is important to understand that becoming a business analyst is not the same as “making yourself” into a business analyst. It is more like building a house: you must start with the foundation and work your way up.

The first step in becoming a business analyst is to define your interests. An excellent start is through formal education or training in related fields, such as management or accounting. You’ll likely find that these types of skills for business analysts will help you better understand the industry or company you’re targeting, so it is essential to be able to articulate what you already know about it.

Becoming a business analyst can be challenging, but don’t worry; we’ve covered you.

• Be willing to learn

If you are not willing to train yourself, then there is no point in starting this process. You will only end up wasting your valuable time and money. 

• Find a mentor

If you’re looking to become a business analyst, you first should find someone who can guide you through the process and help you through the ups and downs of your career path. Someone who has been in your shoes before or who has been there for years and knows what they’re doing? Either way, they’ll help keep you on track when times get rough—and they’ll also be able to answer any questions that pop up along the way.

• Learn as much as possible

If possible, take classes or workshops on getting started as a business analyst. You don’t need to have formal training, but this will help set you apart from other candidates going into interviews and ensure that whatever experience gaps you have are filled in by taking classes with other people in similar positions. The more knowledge base and experiences you have, your career will be better off. 

Take business analyst courses covering the basics of accounting and finance, including algebra, statistics and financial modelling. You’ll learn how to analyse data and make sense of it to identify opportunities for growth or profitability.

Here are the top-rated courses in business analytics –

1. Two-year Master of Science in Business Analytics (M.Sc. in Business Analytics)
2. One-year Postgraduate Certificate Programme in Business Analytics (PGCP in Business Analytics)

• Take the plunge!

Get a bachelor’s degree in business or computer science. This will help you understand what businesses need and how they work.

• Gain experience

Gain experience working with clients by interning at small companies that use your skill set before applying for jobs at larger companies where you can demonstrate your knowledge through projects that use your skill set.

• Completing an internship

Complete an internship with an established company (one that is not too large or too small), so you can get real-world experience working on projects that require data analysis skills like yours within an established company structure and culture.

YOU MAY ALSO LIKE: Career options with an M.Sc. in Business Analytics

What is the difference between data science and business analytics?

When it comes to data science, there is a significant difference between Business Analysts and Data Analysts. Because of their many similarities, these two functions may be interchangeable depending on the organisation’s size. However, some data-specific activities are exclusive to each analyst function. Let’s take a closer look at them.

Business Analytics	Data Science
The field of business analytics does not require nearly as much coding.	Data science requires a significant amount of coding expertise
Business analytics is the statistical analysis of business data	Data science benefits the scientific study of data through algorithms, statistics, and technology.
Business analytics is essential for management to use when making important choices.	The results of a data science analysis can’t be used in the day-to-day decision-making of the company
Business analytics is not dependent on data available significantly.	Data science is highly reliant on the available data.
Business Analytics is cheaper compared to data science.	Data science is an expensive field to make an investment in.
Business analytics emphasises structured data.	Data science uses both structured and unstructured data.
A business analyst cannot cover all aspects or standards of a data science employee.	Data science encompasses all aspects of business analytics. Therefore, a person with skills in data science benefits can do business analytics
Business analytics provides answers to business-related questions particularly financial ones.	Data science does not answer a clear-cut question. The majority of the questions are broad in scope.
Business analytics is required for a company to understand how its business operates and obtain insights.	Data science benefits are currently one step ahead of business analytics

READ MORE: Scope of M.Sc. in Business Analytics

What is the difference between business analysts and business intelligence?

“Business analytics” and “business intelligence” are frequently used interchangeably, but they are not synonymous. 

• Data collection and preparation for Business Analytics is a component of Business Intelligence.

• When it comes to making data-driven decisions, business intelligence is more of a first step. 

• Business intelligence is the process of analysing the data it generates. 

• In contrast to Business Intelligence, Business Analytics seeks to determine why something occurred and whether or not it will occur again. 

• In business analytics, examples of statistical and quantitative analysis include data mining and predictive modelling, as well as multivariate testing and multivariate testing.

What are the limitations of data science over business analytics?

• Collecting valuable data in real-time

Risk managers can use automated technologies to configure data gathering and analysis by adjusting metrics. Analysts may devote more time to providing valuable information to organisations that can help them generate leads by collecting, processing, and arranging data without human intervention.

• Grasping with the constant flow of information

Due to the ever-growing volume of data, corporate growth is hindered by issues related to data management. Data is a problem for every firm that decides to go digital. As they expand, more data is added, leading to chaos if not correctly structured.

• The process of making raw data understandable

In addition to the challenge of collecting data, organisations are finding it increasingly difficult and time-consuming to turn data into images that communicate. It is hard to tell anything from the raw data gathered online. Decoding or translation is required to make data usable in its original form. Analysts must create their own graphs using sophisticated formulas if they don’t have the right software.

• Organising and utilising data from many sources

Data abounds on the internet and is all mixed up and intertwined. It is a mind-boggling idea to grasp, yet it may cause organisational problems and impede progress. The inaccurate analysis is caused by the failure to combine data from several sources into a single database. Analysts have less time to study and understand the larger picture if they are forced to manually sort through data from over the internet.

• Inadequacy in analytical abilities

Business analysts and engineers are sometimes expected to have all the answers to their data-driven problems. As a result, they face an extensive range of issues for which they are ill-prepared. Companies do not understand their employees’ challenges, so they do not provide adequate training.

Final word

Finding the best business analysis education might be difficult. It is challenging to know where to begin with so many options. Online Manipal offers a plethora of  courses to help you kickstart your business analysis journey. We provide a wide choice of business analysis courses, from beginner to advanced.