School of Information Systems

Difference Between Business Analyst and System Analyst

There are many professions nowadays that give us a chance to participate in many different jobs. The most common job that we are going to discuss is an analyst. The general knowledge that we get from the word analyst is about analyzing something to help an organization achieve their goals. After knowing about what analyst do, we must differentiate between two common analysts, which are business analyst and system analyst. Hereby is the explanation for each job that differentiate them:

  • Business Analyst
    A business analyst might start “bridging” further up the stream in terms of business needs and problems and stop “bridging” at the functional requirements specification or at what the system will do and leave it to a systems analyst or a senior developer to determine how to do it. The business analyst has a more complicated position. He or she must not only understand the way IT speaks but also how the stakeholders speak. The business analyst is more of a people person. He or she acts as a liaison between management and IT. A business analyst will be able to look at all aspects of the company and discover underlying causes for system failures. He or she may not be able to write the code to fix the issue. The business analyst can at least come up with the concept of what the code is supposed to do. 
  • System Analyst
    A systems analyst can look at a program or utility and see the code. They can go in and pinpoint where changes need to be made. They can incorporate the new data into an existing program for benefiting the company. The systems analyst can collect data and transform it into usable code for a new project or program. They can recognize where problems may lie in the code itself. They can rewrite this code to alleviate the problem. Usually, the systems analyst can consult with other IT members in technical jargon foreign to the business stakeholders. The stakeholders are just grateful the job is being done. Systems analysts tend to dig into the details of how a requirement might be implemented in code. This is still “bridging the gap” but it is bridging the gap at a different level of detail. They tend to start “bridging” with a set of good business requirements.

Both are essential for good business. The systems analyst may need the business analyst to determine what is needed for the code to work effectively. The business analyst needs the systems analyst to make the code work effectively. Working together, these two people can accomplish great things for the company.

Amelia Anggraini