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Business vs Technical Understanding of Data 
The business analyst wants numbers that reflect their departments’ performance in sales. They think in terms of sales of products by timeframe or location. They want to know if they did better this quarter than they did last quarter.
When a business analyst asks a DBA these type of questions, they often get a rather blank stare. A DBA wants to hear things in terms of what data source to use, and which entities and objects to query.
What differences are there in the way different departments see data?
Business Analysis is critical to the success of BI solutions. This means good solutions involve someone internal to the customer, that understands both the overall business processes as well as the specific details and markers of their organization, and can help identify Key Performance Indicators (KPI’s) that will help decision makers in the organization.
Thus the business analyst, or even the business user who is aware of the data being consumed by decision makers in the organization, can guide the presentation of the KPI’s or data analysis to decision makers. In effect, the organization gets its own look and feel to the data analysis presentation.
Technical Analysis provides the foundation of any automated data analysis process. Therefore once the business analysis has identified desirable business process measures and reports, the technical analyst must explore the “back end data” sources, and talk with database administrators that are involved with and understand the data structures. As this technical analysis proceeds, the formulaic calculation of KPI’s, and the format of data analysis and reporting is constructed.
Why does it matter in the Solution Planning Process?
Business and technical analysis in the end work together to connect the back-end data with the front-end presentation of measurement, analysis, and reporting.
If you can get your teams working together, using the right tools – synchronization can be a beautiful thing. Neither the business nor the technical folks can do it alone; they have to work together to present the right metrics, analysis, and reporting to help people run the organization. If this is arranged hierarchically, then everyone at all levels sees their "slice" of the BI information, knowing it rolls up accurately to the top level by design. Cizer Case Studies can help show you how teams should work together to achieve the proper BI solution.