Business Intelligence Glossary
The terms and vocabulary in use describing data concepts and roles varies widely. Some terms are regularly misused while others are unknown outside of technical circles. This curated glossary is meant to make key concepts more understandable, to demystify, or to provide a starting point to learning new concepts. Terms are ordered in a logical flow rather than alphabetical.
Data Roles
Data Architect
A term that's gone out of fashion for someone who designs data warehouses.
Data Engineer
Common term usually meaning the person who designs and builds data warehouses or similar systems of analysis (SOA).
Business Analyst
Someone who analyzes data within the contexts of the human and software systems in order to recommend actions or changes towards larger business goals, usually using simple analytical methods.
Data Analyst
A term that's nearly interchangeable with business analyst while possibly signaling stronger statistical and technical skillsets, though it unhelpfully implies that the data can be analyzed in a vacuum and without wider business contexts and goals.
Reporting Analyst
Another term that's similar to business analyst but with a particular focus on the creation, maintenance, and automation of recurring reports such as those needed for compliance or other regular business reporting.
Business Intelligence Analyst
Similar to business analyst but usually implies heavier reliance on SQL, Data Visualization, and other programming languages to perform more complex analyses - including Data Mining or other statistical methods.
Data Scientist
Someone who primarily designs, develops, and deploys predictive machine learning or similar models. While this is often a specialized software engineering role, data scientists are extremely valuable when they have a deep understandings of business intelligence, data engineering, and business contexts.