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The 3 Types of Business Analysts

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by Emal Bariali
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One of the most important decisions you have to make is about what type of business analyst you want to become. This is a pivotal decision that can stay with you for the rest of your career.

That’s what I cover in this video.

You can also read the related article that provides examples of the BA, BSA, and BPA.

What Are The 3 Types of Business Analysts?

The three Business Analyst archetypes are:

  1. Business Process Analyst (BPA): focuses on the business side of things rather than on the I.T. side.
  2. Business Systems Analyst (BSA): focuses on the system side of things, typically on the polar opposite side of a BPA.
  3. Generalist Business Analyst (GBA): started off as a BPA or BSA and has grown their skill set into the area they didn’t start off in.

What Type of BA Are You? 

Let’s talk about the most important thing that you have to consider when you’re trying to make a decision. What is the right fit for you? My advice to you is to choose your BA Type based on wherever your existing strengths lie.

Type 1: Business Process Analyst 

Chances are you’re going to be a much better fit for the business process analyst role when you’re starting out if:

  • you like bringing people along with you to certain conclusions about how things should work
  • you like to work a lot more with people than with software
  • you like to negotiate

If your natural instinct and your natural aptitude is to work a lot more with people than with software then you want to go for the BPA role.

Type 2: Business Systems Analyst

The flip side of the BPA role obviously is that if you like tinkering around with data. If you’re the type of person who:

  • Enjoys trying to figure out how the software works or how devices work in general, or,
  • If you’re an engineer then you want to aim for the business systems analyst type of role.

Developers interested in moving into an analysis role go for the systems analyst role. They can carry over a lot of the skills that they have as a developer as you are the primary one.

Type 3: Generalist Business Analyst

The Generalist BA is what I like to call a well-rounded business analyst. I cover the benefits and drawbacks of becoming a generalist business analyst. As someone who has become a GBA and it’s not a role that anyone fits in.

Casandra started off as a QA Analyst. Casandra transitioned into a BSA role performing technical systems analysis. Casandra was put on a project where she learned how to work a lot more with the business. She learned how to do a lot of process design work. She also learned a lot of the softer skills like objection handling. An essential skills that you need to be a good process analyst. Over time Casandra has grown into a well-rounded business analyst.
 
Career Strategy Perspective
 
Understand from a career strategy perspective if you want to become an analyst. The type of business analyst you choose really sets the stage for your BA Career. There are many paths to getting into the business analysis profession.
 
Chances are you’ve already started thinking about the future of your career if you’re a new graduate or have been a BA for a couple of years.
 
In another video, I cover some options you have for any business analyst career path. These are paths you choose to take or have already started but thought about changing.

How Much Does Each BA Type Earn?

The business systems analyst typically earns more than the business process analysts. There are a few different reasons why that is.
 
The main reason being systems analysis work tends to be a lot more gruelling. System analyst roles are more difficult to learn than process analysis work. The pressure that a systems analyst has to deal with in most companies is a lot higher than the pressure that a business process analyst has to deal with.
 
That’s not to say that the Business Process Analyst job is easy. Trying to help the company figure out how they’re going to function is not by any means an easy task. But technically speaking systems analysis skills are in a lot more demand and they’re harder to get.
 
So compensation, it’s a systems analyst that wins out on the compensation side of things.

Job Difficulty Level For Each BA Type

Let’s talk about the job difficulty level.
 
The Business Systems Analyst (BSA) role is more difficult. That’s why the compensation for BSA roles tends to be a little bit higher.
 
Technical Skill
 
Technically speaking, in the business systems analyst role you’re going to have to learn some harder technical skills.
 
These are skills like SQL for example. SQL is the key skill that systems analysts have to know. SQL lets systems analysts tinker around inside a database without having to work with the application itself. So you can open up the hood of a piece of software and troubleshoot issues or solve problems using SQL.
 
Difficulty Level
 
Omit difficulty levels, the business systems analyst role is a lot more difficult. Obviously, that’s part of the reason why the compensation for it is a little bit higher. 
 
Understanding these key points are going to help you a lot. Choose the right path for your business analysis career.
 
My goal here is to make sure that you don’t waste your time and effort on things that are not going to help you. The chances of you spending your time and your effort and your money needlessly increase a lot. Especially if you do not have direction.
 
If you are starting out, this is the right time to be thinking about these types of questions because it’s going to affect all the decisions.
 
For example, where are you going to invest a lot of your time and effort in picking up skills?
 
What kind of skills do you need?
 
Skill-building and Career Direction
 
A lot of new analysts have a very difficult time trying to figure out where they should be investing their time and effort.
Choosing the right type of analyst is going to help you narrow down the set of options for the kind of courses you want to take.
 
With clearer direction, you can start to hone in on specific skills. Hone in on what it is that you need and you can start to achieve your career goals. Doing it much more quickly and a lot less expensively than you would if you didn’t have any career direction.

Look At Job Postings

Looking at a company’s job postings is like a treasure trove of information about what kind of business analyst that company hires and gives an idea of what are their biggest needs.

I’ll start to review some job postings and I’ll help you to decrypt them. Start to understand what it is that this employee or hiring manager is actually looking for and what kind of insight the job posting actually gives you about how the company actually functions.

I’ll explain to you why and how that can help you.
Even if you have no intention of applying for the job. Start to scan some of the job postings that you see that are available on recruiter websites. Go to find a target company that you’re interested in working for and start to scan their career section to try to find job postings because in another video.

There is an article specifically that I’ve written called The Three B.A. Archetypes. Read that article because in that article what I do is I give actual examples of a company that would have a business process analyst a business systems analyst and a well-rounded business analyst and I give you a more clear description of some of the types of tasks each of those different roles might do.

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