Difference Between Business Analyst and System Analyst

Mismaria
3 min readSep 29, 2020

--

Business analysts and System analysts may have similar titles but the focus of their work differs greatly. This blog would help you in understanding the responsibilities of these professionals. Once you go through the blog, you may understand well which role suits your professional abilities more. Let us first understand each of the roles in a brief one by one.

System Analyst Roles

A system analyst can look at the program or utility and see the code. He identifies where changes need to be made. He can incorporate new data into the existing program for benefiting the company. The system analyst collects data and transforms it into a meaningful state for the new project or program. He analyses where the problems exist in the code itself and then rewrites the code to solve the issue.

Business Analyst Roles

The role of a Business Analyst is a bit complicated one. He not only understands how IT speaks but how the stakeholders speak. He is more of a liaison between the IT team and management. He can look at all aspects of the Company and discover underlying causes for system failures.

A business analyst retrieves reports or data from IT and transforms it into meaningful information that is needed to develop a project plan or program. Further, a business analyst is also able to perform the necessary research to help the other departments as well. In brief, a business analyst is always more creative and flexible to manage multiple things together.

Business Analyst vs System Analyst

He is the person who pulls several teams together to focus on the outcome of a project. He is good at heading up meetings to present information in an easy understand format. He is the driving force behind the project plan. Both are really essential for a Company. The system analyst may need a business analyst to check what is needed for the code to work effectively and at the same time, the business analyst needs system analyst to make the code work effectively. While working together, these two roles bring wonderful revolution to the Company. Let us understand the differences in little more detail in the below sections.

What Does A Business System Analyst Do?

He utilizes IT systems to achieve strategic business goals. He may design or develop new systems by configuring new hardware or software programs or use existing systems in different ways to accomplish goals and desired outputs. A set of typical tasks performed by the system analyst include:

Read: How Writing Good User Story For A Business Analyst Can Increase Your Profit!

  • Consult with management or users to determine the needs of the system.
  • Design a system to achieve complex business goals.
  • Specify inputs and format outputs to meet the tough user needs.
  • Use techniques like sampling, structured analysis, modelling, along with accounting principles to ensure the solution is cost-effective and financially feasible.
  • Develop specifications, flowcharts, or diagram to follow by programmers.
  • Oversee implementations, coordinating tests, and observe system initiation to validate performance.

Education Requirements For Business System Analysts

The person should have at least a bachelor’s degree when applying for the system analyst post. It is great if you are a graduate in computer science, IT (Information technology), or other similar fields. A few employers prefer background combined with computer skills. Others seek industry-related experiences like finance, telecommunications, healthcare, or any other technical skill.

--

--