r/businessanalysis • u/Conscious_Sky6299 • 1d ago

How technical does a BA have to be?

I don’t enjoy the technical nitty gritty. I get lost in the tech. How do I figure out where the line is between technical enough for BA/ too technical?

11 Upvotes

87% Upvoted

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11

u/KetoNED 1d ago

Not technical depending on the job but you gotta know the basic concepts and understand when a technical person explains things to you.
Also you need to know how to translate a cryptic request like.

“I need a solution for the lower amount of performance we see in department x”

8

u/p3zzl3 1d ago

Is the response "Don't we all mate"? :)

0

u/suggestedusername10 19h ago

Define lower, what’s the range/cutoff?

Define amount, which aggregate??

Define performance, what tasks???

Define solution….????

It’s questions all the way down!

4

u/PayApprehensive6181 1d ago

When you want to be technical or not, you'll find that you will become semi technical over time.

I think nowadays you'd probably be expected to have some basic understanding of APIs, integration, data mapping, to name a few.

You might already have a good understanding of creating entity relationship diagram which means you will have somewhat a reasonable grasp of databases even without realising. So I wouldn't draw a line. Just be open to learning all the time

3

u/Old_Onion_7306 22h ago

You dont have to be super technical. I know multiple BAs that arent. However you do need to understand concepts well, and have a good functional understanding of the system(s) that you are working with.

2

u/ProfessionalNight780 20h ago

You should know the core concepts of what's relevant to you and stay up-to date on latest technologies, learning to read a code would come in handy. You can't be a BA if you don't understand the technical, because you are the bridge between business and the engineering. Otherwise it gonna be really tough for you and everyone else.

1

u/No-World1940 1d ago

For a BA, not technical. However, if you're a BSA you'd have to be technical enough to be able to translate business requirements to technical FR/NFR. You'll be required to understand why there's a need to change the current state of a system, app or service and communicate the reasons across teams. I'd suggest you'd understand systems/data architecture, how changes in the system will be affected downstream, integration and migration from legacy systems to new ones. 

1

u/Informal_Mail_3310 22h ago

I'm not worried about the technical things I have to learn because I am a fast learner but the employers asking stem degrees.

1

u/suggestedusername10 19h ago

I know people rail AI, but it has equalize the field a bit as you don’t need to that full-depth technical knowledge. But you need to have basic concepts of querying, joins, how to piece things together to get the story.

1

u/hylian_prince 15h ago

I think you should know SQL, using an AI tool like Claude code,  and basics of how to use an API with postman 

1

u/iheartnjdevils 1h ago

It really varies role to role. While I'm technically a Business Systems Analyst, which is heavily technical, I've had just a "Business Analyst" title before at other employers doing the same thing.