Business Analyst vs. Data Analyst

Although they use data, business analysts tend to have a more retroactive and descriptive approach in their analysis and attempt to define goals and requirements for programs and projects.

A data analyst uses data to recognize patterns in a dataset and make accurate predictions based on this information. Data analysts strive to answer specific questions and discover new insights for competitive advantages. Their work is usually done on an ad hoc level because data sources and correlations are constantly being discovered and changing.

The majority of a data analyst's time is spent gathering raw data from various sources, cleaning the data, and transforming it so that useful information can be extracted when needed.

There are many differences between a coordinator and an administrator including education and how they use the data.

Here are the key differences between a coordinator and an administrator:

• A business analyst uses data to identify problems and solutions, but they do not do a deep dive into analyzing the data

• A data analyst dives deep into the datasets and is responsible for not only gathering the data, but cleaning and mining it so that data can be used in meaningful ways (ie, to identify problems and solutions as a business analyst would do)

• Business analysts need a working knowledge of statistical tools but tend to have a more extensive domain or industry (e.g, healthcare, e-commerce, manufacturing)

• Data analysts must have in-depth knowledge and understanding of statistical tools, programming languages, networks, and databases

• A business analyst needs to be proficient in modeling and requirements gathering

• A data analyst needs to be proficient in business intelligence, data mining, and machine learning