As data and analytics disciplines, such as business intelligence, data analysis, data science, and business analytics, evolved they have all leveraged business analysis practices. However, significant differences exist between business analysis and analytics disciplines in terms of objective and overall approach.

Business Analysis

• Business analysis is the practice of enabling change in an enterprise by defining needs and recommending solutions that deliver value to stakeholders.
• Business analysis tools, techniques, and competencies can elevate the analytics initiatives to be more effective by providing the business context for analytics effort.
• Business analysis defines the focus for the analytics problem and sets the scope throughout the analytics initiative.
• Business analysis also aids in the collection of data and the implementation of the data collection processes.
• Business analysis activities are performed to communicate the results and facilitate the implementation of informed business decisions made as a result of what is learned from analyzing the data collected.

Analytics Disciplines

• Analytics disciplines focus primarily on data analysis in a systematic process to observe and predict trends and patterns.
• Typical practices and procedures in data analytics are used to sort, process, and analyze the data once assembled which is aided by business analysis.
• Once the analysis of the collected data is complete, business analysis activities are performed to interpret the results obtained from data analytics and transform information into business decisions.

Some consider data analytics as a specialty or subset of business analysis; one that is focused on data analysis. This viewpoint is taken since many skills and competencies often discussed when performing business analysis are equally applicable when performing data analytics work.

Here we treat business analysis and data analytics disciplines separately. We identify business data analytics as a specialized area of study that contains aspects of business analysis and analytics disciplines and is used for creating better business outcomes through evidence-driven business decisions. The business analysis and analytics concepts discussed here are useful to both business analysis and analytics professionals alike to generate value for the enterprise through analytics initiatives.