Is Business Analyst an IT Job?

Opinion article by Dr Andrew Lancaster

Working as a business analyst is technically not an information technology (IT) role. Although data is essential for business analytics, the IT tasks required to make data usable – such as database management and software development – are usually performed by specialised IT professionals.

The role of Business analysts is to interpret data, identify business needs, and propose solutions. They may collaborate with IT staff to ensure data is available to support analytics. But they should normally not be programming, configuring systems, or managing network issues.

Role of the Business Analyst

A business analyst (BA) identifies inefficiencies and areas for improvement in a company's operations. They analyse data to spot trends and use these insights to enhance decision-making.

BAs connect data with strategic actions. They use their analytical expertise to facilitate operational improvements. This often involves collaborating with IT departments to ensure data is being collected and is easily accessible to users like them.

A key task for BAs is to connect analytical insights to organisational behaviour. They communicate the meaning of their analytical findings, linking them to company performance. A good BA is able to illuminate leaders on what changes could improve the bottom line.

What Various Data Professionals Do

The table highlights the distinct role of business analysts, contrasting their work with the jobs of data analysts, data scientists, IT specialists, database administrators.

Table 1. Responsibilities and Skills of Data Professionals

Role	Main Responsibilities	Key Skills	Data Interaction
Business Analyst	Identify inefficiencies and improvement areas; Use data to enhance strategic planning	Analytical thinking, communication	Interprets data to improve processes and inform decisions
Data Analyst	Collect, process, and perform statistical analyses on large datasets; Report findings	Statistical analysis, detail-oriented	Handles raw data and extracts actionable insights
Data Scientist	Build models to predict and solve complex problems; Use data to create algorithms	Machine learning, programming	Uses sophisticated data modeling techniques
IT Specialist	Manage IT resources and infrastructure; Ensure data security and support data accessibility	Technical troubleshooting, networking	Maintains and secures data infrastructure
Database Administrator	Oversee database management; Optimise database performance and ensure data integrity	Database management, system administration	Manages and optimises databases

We can see that, while there is plenty of IT work to do, business analysts have a non-IT role.

Business analysts identify and report data patterns of operational significance.
Data analysts handle, process, and analyse datasets to extract insights and report findings.
Data scientists develop predictive models and algorithms to address complex problems.
IT specialists oversee tech infrastructure, ensuring data security and accessibility across networks.
Database administrators manage databases for data integrity and smooth operations.

Business and data analysts have superficially similar roles. However, data analysts are not expected to formulate business strategies or influence decision-making directly. Data analytics is about providing the data in a clear and actionable format. There is a purer focus on numbers and trends.

Data science differs from business analytics in its focus on deep technical skills like programming and complex model-building. It’s more demanding, requiring long hours to develop algorithms that can innovate and enhance business models. It is more removed from company decision-making.

Do Business Analysts Need IT Skills?

A high level of IT proficiency is not essential to work in business analytics; a business degree is sufficient to become an analyst. Essential skills include data analysis expertise, communication abilities, knowledge of business intelligence tools, and understanding the perspectives of decision-makers.

Nonetheless, having some IT skills is beneficial for a career as a business analyst. Indeed, some analysts enter this field with just an IT degree, demonstrating that it can be built on a technical skills foundation.

Without any IT skills, analysts might struggle to engage effectively with IT professionals they depend on. They may reach erroneous conclusions due to a lack of understanding of data transformation issues. Importantly, they could find themselves in situations where strong IT support is not available.

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Why Business Analysts Should Avoid IT

If you are really suited to being a business analyst, my advice would be to move away from IT work fairly early in your career. While an information technology foundation is good and beneficial, this area of work can be limiting.

I found being immersed in data and coding very different from, say, sitting in the boardroom canvassing spending ideas. The skills required and mentality are vastly different. The former is cool, logical, and mathematical; the latter is about storytelling, message simplification, and charisma.

Moreover, people are inclined to think of you as either a strategist or a data nerd. And rare are the people who can effectively present themselves as both.

If you can persuade people with data without doing data work all day long, that is a more exciting and potentially rewarding line of work. Someone who can help steer a business within an industry is generally more valuable and harder to replace than someone who crunches data. This especially so when AI is set to take over coding and other technical tasks.