The invention relates to a method for transmitting data in a battery management system (1) having at least one main control device (2) and a number of module control devices (6-1, 6-2, . . . , 6-n) which transmit measurement values to the main control device (2) via a communications channel (5). One of the module control devices (6-1, 6-2, . . . , 6-n) is a reference module control device. The method comprises the method steps: a) the reference module control device transmits a reference measurement value on the communications channel (5), b) the module control devices (6-1, 6-2, . . . , 6-n) determine differential values of their own measurement values to the reference measurement value, c) the module control devices (6-1, 6-2, . . . , 6-n) transmit the differential values of their own measurement values to the reference measurement value on the communications channel (5) and d) the main control device (2) reconstructs the measurement values of the module control devices (6-1, 6-2, . . . , 6-n) using the differential values and the reference measurement value. A computer program, a battery management system (1) and a battery which are designed to carry out the method are also described.