Exploring progressions into BA careers

Laura Brandenburg — Fri, 12 Jun 2009 21:58:00 GMT

I know. You recently read Adrian’s latest post and said: “Yes! that’s exactly what I’m looking for! I want an employer to hire me, mentor me as a new business analyst, and then let me blossom in this career.” I wholeheartedly agree with Adrian—as business analysts we need to be mentors for other potential business analysts. I was lucky enough to become a business analyst after a year and a half as a QA engineer. I worked for the first 3 months under the wing of a senior BA and then was set loose on the biggest software project the company had started to-date. I guess they trusted me.

I wish I could say these sorts of opportunities abound but the fact is they don’t. I was lucky. I was in a growing organization that supported professional development. But I was also career-minded, consistently discontent, and always looking to improve something somewhere. I was not a “tell me what to do and I’ll do it employee”, I was a “why can’t I do that?” employee. I faced barriers, but eventually I managed to earn the responsibilities I wanted and work my way a bit up the career ladder.

In recent months, I’ve had the opportunity to hear the stories of many business analysts about how they started their business analyst careers. The stories varied but had a common theme: one step at a time. Career progressions often involved incorporating some business analyst responsibilities into their day-to-day role. Some became “BAs” without a real knowledge of what that meant or that a profession existed. Others were more like me and took a flying leap but often within the same company and with a network of support. A few managed to transition careers and companies in the same job change by selling their "BA" experiences. Darn impressive.

Regretfully, I’m not in a position to hire you, but I am looking to help on the mentoring front, starting with publishing a “how to” guide based on what I’ve learned from people who’ve successfully made the transition in this environment. We are a profession that favors experience. It can be tricky to accumulate but with a little persistance and some proper guidance you can break into this profession. Take a sneak peak to learn a bit more about How to Start a Business Analyst Career and leave your email for a special discount when the book is published in the next month.

About the author:

Laura Brandau is an independent business analyst consultant and hosts Bridging the Gap between Business and IT, a blog for business analysts about solving business problems.

Top Ten Signs that Business Analysis is a Career Choice for you.

Laura Brandenburg — Sun, 18 Jan 2009 20:58:00 GMT

So you are interested in becoming a business analyst or maybe you’ve just always thought it would be fun to get more involved in technology projects. If you are on the business side, but are thinking of a technology role, here are some signs you should give business analysis more than a fleeting glance:

1) You find yourself in meetings and like it. You always seem to sense when people are talking at each other but not communicating with each other. Bonus points if you find yourself in the middle of these conversations because you feel compelled to make them understand each other.

2) You like to write, especially a precise type of writing, and you are comfortable working independently at your computer for 2-3 hours at a time.

3) You always seem to find something wrong with a website or piece of software and ask yourself, why didn’t they think to handle that better? (Note: this attribute also makes for a good tester, but great BAs build quality into the requirements by asking these sorts of questions.)

4) You can handle tense situations but you don’t feel the need to be in the conflict. Helping people wade through different opinions and make informed decisions is one of the most important things a BA does.

5) You like to draw on the white board. Really, this is absolutely necessary. As a BA, you need to engage your stakeholders and nothing does this like a few scribbles on the wall or a napkin.

6) You are a bit of a preservationist. The idea of reading through meeting notes from 6 months ago might not take you into the upper orbs, but it does get you a wee bit excited, especially when you find the precise bullet point that reminds everyone why you threw that idea out last time, saving an hour of repetitive discussion.

7) Your co-workers come to you with questions about the legacy system you work with day-to-day. You understand not just how to use the system to do your job, but why things work the way they do. You wonder why everyone else just doesn’t get it.

8) You like to ask questions. You make sure you really know what someone meant when they said what they said.

9) You typically understand what the techies are saying. There are exceptions to this rule because there are exceptional techies that even the best of us struggle to interpret. But, all in all, you can figure out what they mean and, most importantly, the implications of what they mean to the business.

10) You naturally clarify problems before getting to solutions. You might annoy people with all your questions about what the problem “really” is and why they think it’s something it’s not. But you also rarely get caught with your pants down expending lots of effort to solve a problem only to find out no one cares about the solution. And when you do, you only blame yourself.

Bonus Point: You are solutions-oriented. Some purists among my class might argue with me here because the focus of the BA role is to determine “what” needs to be done not “how” it needs to be done. But in my experience, the best BAs collaborate with every member of the team every step of the way and actively participate in solving the problem and, especially, selecting the best solution from a collection of possible ones. A perfect problem that can’t be solved or can’t be solved with the resources you have is, well, just a problem. And that annoys everyone.

Post submitted by: Laura Brandau of Clear Spring Business Analysis who shares her thoughts on the business analysis profession in her blog: Bridging the Gap between Business and IT.

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Exploring progressions into BA careers

Top Ten Signs that Business Analysis is a Career Choice for you.