Students in the first year of their college experiences often have very little idea what major they want to choose. This can be frustrating if there isn’t enough clarity available for students to make informed decisions. One particular area where students often seek clarity is when trying to understand the difference between software development and data analyst as career options. The confusion often stems from the fact that there is an overlap regarding programming skills. Listed below are some of the key differences between software development and data analysis:
one. Scope – Software as a service development creates software for a company, while data analysis is more academic in nature with the goal of answering questions based on data collected in the field. In fact, both skills can be applied to different facets of a similar problem. Consider the case where there may be a need to automate certain tasks in a certain process in an organization. In such a scenario, software developers would get involved to create the relevant tool to achieve the goals; however, existing usage data can help pinpoint the urgency around each of the tasks that need to be automated and point to the efficiencies that can be achieved for each task. With the combination of these skills and information, companies can prioritize their transition to automation.
2. methodology – Software development models have been designed and are fairly static in execution. For data analysts, methodologies are often experimental and change frequently based on the scope of the hypothesis. These methodologies are often used by economists and mathematicians. These have been carried over to the field of data analysis.
3. skills – This is the area that generates more doubts among young students. The technical skills required for these professions have quite a significant overlap. Although both require specialized training for certain aspects. For example, a software developer would need specialized expertise in design elements such as user interface design and database schema design. For data analysis, the professional would be more focused on creating test cases for the ‘hypothesis’ being examined, which would require at most an understanding of database queries.
To conclude, it would be fair to say that software development is the profession to create software from scratch, while in the profile of a data analyst, a software tool like SAS or Audit Command Language Software is often used to create analytical reports. . Data analysis would not exist as a profession without software development that has enabled the creation of software tools that allow the replication or creation of mathematical models to perform analysis.
