Does a Business Analyst require Coding?

Business analysts detect the connection between business goals and technology solutions. They usually analyze business processes and identify areas where the organization can improve efficiency. People usually ask: does a business analyst require coding? The answer is always straightforward — NO.

Also, while the work requires a high-level understanding of tech, coding may not be even in play all that much. This begs the question, how much of a pull should one have towards coding while considering becoming a business analyst?

In this article, we will explore this question and discuss the necessity of coding. This article will also explain how coding knowledge could help enhance their efficacy, particularly in the UK job market.

Let’s get started!

Image source: pixabay

Does A Business Analyst Need to Code?

In short, the answer is not quite since normally business analysts do not have coding as a core skill. Business analysts, unlike data engineers or software developers, are primarily responsible for identifying business needs and translating them into functional requirements for the tech team.

Nevertheless, the proliferation of data-driven decision-making has brought to bear a new breed of tools and methods which tend to muddle traditional business-facing roles with technical ones.

Coding for Business Analysts- When?

Business analysts may also be called by code but are not compulsory. This can include roles like data anything, or technical anything if their projects require them to work with code and understanding the basics will help communicate better with development.

1. Data Analysis and Reporting

Business analysts are often required to analyze large sets of data, such as in finance/healthcare / retail industries. As we are already aware, tools such as Tableau (or Power BI or even Excel) can be used for visualization of data; and SQL/Python might come in handy to have more complex queries performed to make life easy for fellow analysts.

2. Process automation

Business analysts often re-engineer/automate workflows. Scripts and coding languages — Many of the tools like RPA (Robotic Process Automation) are pretty light, but you still need to know a little about scripting or going into programs. Scripting a few basic scripts can help analysts speed up their response by automating some common tasks.

3. Prototyping and testing

Some business analysts participate in prototyping the proof of concepts. An example would be to make a simple application mockup or database scheme.

This does not require you to know how to code at all, but a level of comfort will go a long way as having the ability to make rough, try-hard prototypes that devs can refine.

4. Data manipulation

If a Business Analyst has to prepare data for further reporting or analysis, using something like Python/R as a coding language will be very helpful. The tools help analysts clean, sort and organize data in a fraction of the time that manual methods require.

Image source: pixabay

Does a Business Analyst Require Coding?: Programming Languages a Business Analyst Can Use

This can be a powerful investment in your continued career and quite frankly job security, as a business analyst looking to broaden their skills in coding languages. These are some of the most handy ones:

1. SQL (Structured Query Language): Business analysts use one of the SQL languages, which is critical for querying and managing databases.

2. Python: Python is gaining more and more demand because of its lightweight, versatility and ease of learning. It is commonly used for data analysis, automation and sometimes even in machine learning. Those working in data science for business and financial forecasting would do well to learn Python.

3. R: Within business analysis, for those who are using a lot of data to perform advanced statistical manipulation, R is the best option. It is another language used mainly for data that provides great support and functionality. It is widely used in the fields of healthcare, finance and research for doing more advanced statistical analysis

4. VBA (Visual Basic for Applications): VBA is a programming language embedded within Excel and other Microsoft Office apps. This tool can improve the effectiveness of business analysts, allowing them to automate redundant tasks like generating reports or updating spreadsheets.

Non-Coding Alternatives for Business Analysts

Yes, those who do not like coding may also have several tools and methods in hand to be efficient at their work. Most of these are no-code analysis and reporting tools that provide significant functionality:

1. Data Visualization Tools: a programmatic approach for business analysts to interact with data is using programs such as Tableau, Power BI or QlikView offering them drag-and-drop options, where you can build graphs just by sitting around without writing even one line of code.

2. Project management software: Business analysts are often close to project managers, in their role they monitor projects and make sure that the expectations of a process will satisfy some given need. You will popularly use either JIRA, Trello or Asana for this purpose and they do not require you to know how to write code.

Find Your Business Analyst Bootcamp in the UK

For those of you in the UK aiming to move into or further progress with business analysis as a profession, there are bootcamps aimed at furnishing you with free training in business analysis. While coding may not be the primary emphasis, a whole lot of those applications contain technical paths like SQL or Python.

1. BCS, The Chartered Institute for IT: Provides certifications that target the techniques of business analysis and are suited to people from both technical backgrounds as well as non-technical domains.

2. Utiva: It covers a business boot camp in analyzing on top of having separate classes focused just on Business process improvements and data analysis. While it does teach some rudimentary coding skills, those are optional add-ons. This caters for a mixed-ability audience from beginners to experienced practitioners.

Wrap-Up: Does a Business Analyst Require Coding?

Although coding is not mandatory for business analysts, this skill provides them with a significant competitive advantage. In short, a business analyst can improve his overall efficiency and versatility by learning how to be a beginner data scientist, automate some of his processes or simply communicate better with teams regarding technical issues.

Data processing in most firms currently is based on scripts, not tools like Excel etc. It would be really beneficial if business analysts spend a little time learning coding so that might just give an edge over other applicants and surely will accelerate the decision-making process!

For those who would rather concentrate on other aspects of the role, many no-code tools and methods can be utilized. In the end, you can bring together business savvy and technical know-how that will help you deliver superior results for your organization.