Decoding the Differences Between a Business Analyst Vs. Systems Analyst

Everything about Business Analysts

What Do Business Analysts Do?

In short, business analysts assess processes and requirements by gathering information from both business and technical departments to enhance the quality of the software produced by their company.

A business analyst’s role revolves around an in-depth understanding of the business needs. The role focuses on a broader scope rather than the technology or application itself. When we take a closer look, it looks something like this:

Initial Phase/ Discovery Phase

After the sales team has done its job, it is the business analysts’ job to assist the customers with identifying the business problems and root causes, suggesting solutions as well as defining business goals. This can be done via meetings with stakeholders, discussions with experts, and focus groups with those that match the personas.

Development Phase

While the business analyst’s role is to analyze the requirement, business process, and software, they also join in during the development phase. Since they are the ones talking to the clients, they need to communicate such information with the dedicated development team, fill the backlog with user stories, and rank them in order of business value.

They also need to monitor the UAT (User Acceptance Testing), testing the final product in the “real world” to make sure that both the end users and stakeholders are happy with the final product and capture any additional requirements.

All in all, business analysts act as the bridge between the business and IT departments, ensuring that each understands the other’s needs and objectives.

Education

Those who aim to become a business analyst often aim to earn a bachelor’s degree in relevant fields like business, finance, economics, administration, computer science, engineering, or information technology. For more senior and specialized positions, you might be required for a master’s degree. Some organizations might accept candidates with relevant work experience or certifications in business analysis.

Competencies

Core competencies required for a business analyst include:

• Effective problem-solving skills
• Communication and interpersonal skills
• Collaboration skills
• Requirements elicitation and documentation
• Map and document business processes
• Business domain knowledge
• Data analysis
• Monitoring and planning

Career Path

As you progress further in your career with more experience, you can become a business project manager or a senior business analyst, work in a different industry, work as a freelancer, or set up your own company.

Everything You Need to Know about Systems Analysts

What Do Systems Analysts Do?

While the business analyst role focuses on the business aspects, the systems analysts focus more on the technical aspects. Sometimes, however, systems analysts’ tasks overlap with those of business analysts, which is why there is a hybrid term for it called “business systems analysts.”

Systems analysts often join after the discovery phase is completed. With the main aim of bridging the business demands with technical solutions, systems analysts take and analyze the visions, goals, and requirements during the initial phase to create working solutions.

Systems analysts are team players who work collaboratively with various teams, including business analysts, quality assurance, developers, and software architects, to ensure the smooth functioning of a software development project.

Their main responsibility is to produce flowcharts, diagrams, and specifications for programmers. They also interpret technical issues in a business language that stakeholders can understand. They possess a deep understanding of how systems communicate with each other and their impact on the overall software architecture.

When Are Systems Analysts Needed?

Since systems analysts work on more technical aspects, they are needed in cases when there are:

• Problems need solving in existing systems
• Integrations with third-party systems
• Large projects with complex components
• The need to analyze data, business rules, or demands for additional requirements
• The need to work with legacy data
• Business requirements that need an agile response.

Education

Since the tasks of a system analyst are of a technical nature, they often have degrees in computer science, business information systems, information management systems, or maths and operational research. Since the job does involve some business aspects, a business degree would work, too, but often, it is best to get IT certifications or other IT training programs with it.

Competencies

The required technical skills and soft skills of a systems analyst include:

• Knowledge of Object-oriented programming and SQL
• Knowledge of SQL application in database and DBMS environments
• Familiar with different integration styles like buses, APIs, and broker principles
• Skilled in data models, entity relationships, and UML class/ sequence diagrams
• Ability to debug and troubleshoot
• Data analysis
• System modeling/documentation (e.g., class diagrams)
• Technical writing skills

Career Path

With experience, you can work your way up to become a senior system analyst, a project manager, a consultant or contractor, or even specialize in a field like retail or finance. The starting point in a systems analyst career, however, might be a business analyst, a developer, or a junior project manager role.