How To Jumpstart A Stalled Career!

It has been said that to “keep doing the same thing over and over again expecting different results is the very definition of insanity.“

On the other hand, “if you want something you have never hard, you must do something you have never done!“

So, if your career is stagnating, step back and take an honest look at your work.

Is your work everything you had hoped for?

If the smell of fresh-brewed coffee is the biggest reward after you walk through the office door each day, it’s time to truly perk up your daily grind and reboot your career.

Broaden Your Horizons

One way to jump-start your career is to volunteer for assignments that are outside of your comfort zone or take on additional roles that are valuable to your organization.

For example, you may take on some project management responsibility if you are in a more technical role, so that you can become a better-rounded candidate.

And as a project manager or a business analyst nothing stops you from getting more technical skills, because this makes you more hands-on than your contemporaries.

Adding more skills, both technical or management, can only help you in the long run.

• Read this post “Do Business Analysts Need Computer Programmer Skills?“.

• Read this post “What Software Skills Do Business Analysts Need?“.

Upgrade your Skills

One of the areas that all professionals need to stay on top of is; “their skill-sets!“

Like it or not, information technology skills are susceptible to losing their value because technology is always changing or evolving.

Read this post … “The Most Important Thing on Your Resume“.

Do What You Love

One of the reasons why your career is stagnating may be that you’re not doing work that you are passionate about. So, you’re bored, and it shows.

But your managers probably don’t realize the problem; and so, instead of working with you to get to the right place, they keep you in the same job, afraid to give new assignments and responsibilities to someone who, quite frankly, doesn’t seem to want to be there.

So the question to you is, “are you doing what you really want to do with your life?” If you find that you’re not, you need to figure out what makes you happy and do it!

Perhaps what you love to do involves working with a new technology, or on another team / company, or taking on a new role / career.

It’s likely that, you’ll need to re-train to learn the required new skills, but you should never let something like that stand in your way.

It may take time and effort to change your career, but it is likely that you will continue to under-perform or be unhappy until you start doing something you love.

Are You In The Right Place?

Studies have shown that, usually, a person’s workplace is not the reason they are not moving up – quite frankly, it usually has more to do with them, rather than the place where they work.

But some organizations are better suited for certain career paths than others.

For example, if you’re a computer programmer, your greatest challenge comes from developing new software applications.

If the work given to you is mostly that of maintaining software systems, you may find yourself getting bore as you repeat the same maintenance tasks over and over again.

Does your company have a technology focus?

That isn’t to say that your company needs to be a technology giant or software development company; because we can’t all work for companies like Microsoft, Google or Apple.

Rather, what you should ask yourself is, “does your company recognize the value of technology or leverage it extensively for the day to day operations of their business?“

Do You Have A Career Path?

Everyone wants to have the opportunity to grow in some way in their work.

Even if you don’t want to move into management, you may want to move into a project management role?

Asking yourself what it is you want to do long-term, and then examining whether or not your company is going to be able to help you get there is something everyone needs to do at some point in their career.

In the end, only you can determine what it is that will jump-start your career.

It might take new skills, or new responsibilities, or even a new job altogether, but there’s not much point in delaying the inevitable.

Other challenges may be phrased with questions like “how can I promote myself”, “what should I do in life”, “what career I should choose” because professionals frequently rethink or regret their choices in these areas.

Here are some of the tips for overcoming regrets and getting more control over your career.

BOOST YOUR CONFIDENCE

If you have lost your confidence, you can take it back. Irrespective of your profession, you can regain your confidence any time.

Change your statements from “I can’t do it to I can do it or I can at least try“.

Change your statements from “I did wrong to I did better than before and I’ll do better again“

Change your statements from “Will this idea work? to No idea is bad“

You should replace your pessimistic thinking or talking with a more optimistic apprach or conversation.

Think of yourself as a professional in your department and your confidence will start growing.

THINK MORE ABOUT YOUR CAREER OPTIONS

Working at different jobs or roles will help you build a better understanding of your skills, experience or the opportunities out there.

Search for new opportunities and don’t restrict yourself to just one conventional or traditional career. Keep your options open and you’ll succeed at work.

Read this post … “Is Tunnel Vision Killing My Career?“.

Consider working as a volunteer to get different experiences as this will eventually help you decide the best career for yourself.

WORK ON YOURSELF CONSTANTLY

One of the best ways to boost your confidence is by updating your resume each time you complete a project.

The next thing is stay up-to-date with changes in your industry using the internet, journals, electronic papers, online classes etc.

If you are preparing for a job interview, first have an interview session with your self; answering questions like “why do I want this job“, or “why am I qualified to do this job“, etc.

Your answers should reflect a strong self confidence, positive mental attitude and personal competence.

Try to practice quick answers; lasting for not more than couple of minutes.

Talk with yourself in front of the mirror and give these answers.

This will surely help you in your interview and it will eventually increase your confidence as well.

PROMOTE YOURSELF

The only way to be successful in a competitive job market is to market yourself constantly.

People with strong marketing skills get the best jobs even when they are less qualified than others.

One way to market yourself is to make a personal, nice looking, business card which you can distribute.

Also, consider using a blog to showcase your skills and expertise.

Finally, join a local networking group that will help you meet people.

GET YOUR FAMILY TO SUPPORT

Many professionals faces obligations and responsibilities related with their family, culture, religion.

But they often find it difficult to spare more time for either their professional or family obligations.

If you are thinking of putting in the extra work that it takes to reboot your career, you should discuss it with your spouse or children in advance, to avoid creating a lot of stress.

Consider asking your spouse for support, because the extra work you may need to invest in your career, may place a burden on your family.

The sooner you can take an honest look at your career, make an objective assessment of your skills and prospects and make the necessary adjustments, the sooner you will begin to experience a more satisfying career.

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what software should you-learn to become a business analyst?

[Ask IT Career Coach] is a Career Advice Newsletter for Information Technology (IT) professionals including business analysts, computer programmers, data analysts, database developers, technical writers, project managers and software testers.

If you, have a challenging question about your career, submit it here and we will answer yours just as we are answering this question submitted by a technical writer titled: What Software Do I Learn to Become A Business Analyst? …

Question

How do I learn or get the software knowledge that would make me a business analyst?

What types of software programs will I have to use on the job; and how do I learn these programs in a visual manner without having to refer to textbooks?

Answer:

You do not understand what a business analyst does and because of that you are mixing software jobs (like that of a computer programmer’s) with the business analyst’s job.

This mix-up is quite common because software oriented jobs are more common and better understood than business analyst jobs.

When you think of a computer programmer’s job, the picture that comes to mind is that of a highly skilled technology savvy professional who spends a lot of time building software programs, creating data entry forms and screens, designing websites or even installing desktop applications.

Unfortunately, when you think of business analysts, you also imagine that their duties or tasks are similar to those of computer programmers!

Because of this, you are wrongly associating the business analyst’s career with more software / technology careers like software testing, technical writing or computer programming.

So, in TODAY'S POST, I will contrast the role of a software tester, computer programmer, technical writer and business analyst to bring the point home.

What Does A Business Analyst Really Do?

The primary skills that business analysts use on the job are communication skills
(both written and verbal) unlike computer programmers, whose primary skills are tied to expertise in specific technologies like C#, Visual Basic, Java, PHP.

Business Analysts are highly-skilled or expert at communicating technology requirements with stakeholders, customer, power users or even technical teams (think software developers, software testers, web designers).

The primary communication tools used by business analysts while facilitating the requirements engineering process are Office productivity tools including Microsoft Word (for documenting requirements), Microsoft PowerPoint (for making presentations) and Microsoft Excel.

However, unlike computer programmer jobs, business analyst jobs are not required to be software or technology centered.

Don’t get me wrong!

Some job postings for business analysts require knowledge of software development languages like C# or Java or a software development background.

The business analysts that apply for these job postings are more accurately classified as Technical Business Analysts.

There are several domains or specializations available to business analysts (mortgage, financial, telecommunications / telco, automotive, healthcare, insurance) and technical business analysis is just one of these domains.

Read more about domain business analysts here:

However, the requirements for domain business analysts are not the same as the requirement for becoming a business analyst.

You are a business analyst first before you become a technical / domain business analyst.

So, don’t apply the role, responsibilities and requirements for the technical business analysis domain to all business analyst domains.

Competence or mastery of Microsoft Office Productivity software (MS Word, Excel, PowerPoint) is a requirement for business analyst jobs even when it is not stated on the job posting.

A business analyst who uses Office Productivity software can document requirements with Microsoft Word, make PowerPoint presentations and run what-if analysis using Microsoft Excel.

Focusing on software skills beyond Microsoft Office software makes you more of a computer programmer than a business analyst.

For your information, here are some of the differences between computer programmer jobs and business analyst jobs.

Business Analysts Compared To Computer Programmers

• Business Analysts gather requirements while computer programmers build to specifications.

• Business Analysts document work flows and business processes while computer programmers model and build software programs that follow those workflows or business processes.

• Business analyst are hired for their written and verbal communication skills while computer programmers are hired for their expertise or skills in specific programming languages or technology platforms.

• A computer programmer's work is deeply invested in learning or using technology while a business analyst’s work is deeply invested in understanding, documenting and communicating business requirements.

• A business analyst’s primary software tool is Microsoft Word, Excel, or PowerPoint while a computer programmer’s primary software skill is knowledge of Java or C# or Visual Basic or PHP or other programming languages.

• Business Analysts document the requirements or features of software programs while computer programmers build software programs.

• Both the business analyst and software developer are involved with the Software Development Life Cycle (SDLC) for different reasons. While the business analyst owns the analysis and documentation of software requirements, the computer programmers owns the building of software programs.

• Read more about the Software Development Life Cycle (SDLC) here:

I am also going to contrast the role of business analysts with that of software testers and technical writers to bring this home.

Business Analysts Compared To Software Testers

• Software Testers are more hands-on with programming than business analysts.

  Software Testers are more skilled in programming because they sometimes have to write automated tests using scripting programming languages.

  A business analyst should not be required to write scripts or learn programming languages except in instances where they are applying for technical business analyst jobs.

  So, you cannot project the hands-on software skills requirements for software testers onto the hands-on skill requirements for business analysts.

• Software Testers write manual or automated tests that verify that software programs developed by computer programmers were written according to the specifications or requirements documented by business analysts.
• Software Testers have to test or inspect the procedures or functions written by computer programmers.

  For that reason, they may have to learn the basics of the programming language used in creating the software program.

  There is almost no value in business analysts inspecting a programmer’s code or even messing with it because Business Analysts do not have those competencies!

• Read more about Software Tester Careers here:

Business Analysts Compared To Technical Writers

• The skills exercised by technical writers are similar to that of business analysts in some respects.

  Both technical writers and business analysts exercise strong written communication skills.

  However, while a technical writer’s skill is useful for documenting the features of a software program after it is built, a business analyst’s skill is useful for documenting the features of a software program before it is built!

• A technical writer’s primary role is the documenting of existing software features, business processes, etc.

  Because of this, a technical writer may have to learn specific software programs (apart from MS Word or PowerPoint) to help them with create technical documentation like Help Files, Software Manuals, etc.

  The technical writing industry is such that job postings require knowledge of specific software documentation tools.

  However, this must not be confused with the software requirements for business analysts.

  Business Analysts are not technical writers and the business analyst’s job does not require knowledge of specific software programs apart from the ubiquitous (Microsoft Office, MS Word, MS Excel or MS PowerPoint).

• While the technical writing industry is componentized along the lines of software documentation tools (Adobe PageMaker, Adobe Frame Maker, Adobe Acrobat, Quark Xpress, Corel Ventura), the business analyst industry is segmented along the lines of domain specialization (financial, utilities, web / user interface (UI) business analysts, etc.).

• Read More about Technical Writer Careers:

What Does It Really Take To Become A Business Analyst?

The requirements for business analysts’ jobs are primarily documentation, requirements analysis and communication (both written and verbal).

While it is common for a business analyst to spend his / her time, preparing PowerPoint presentations, taking meeting notes using Microsoft Word or writing Use Cases in plain-old Microsoft Word, it is common for a computer programmer / software tester / technical writer to spend the same amount of time coding new program features / documenting bugs / documenting the features of a software program.

A business analyst must be 100% comfortable in his / her role as a communicator, presenter, leader, facilitator or analyzer without feeling the need to learn more software tools!

How To Get Hired For A Business Analyst Job – Case Study

Some time ago, I was hired to help an Information Technology (IT) director put together a software development team for a financial software project in Saint Louis, Missouri, USA.

In that role, we posted a senior business analyst job opening and then started interviewing qualified business analysts.

The business analyst I interviewed and recommended got the job because she did something different from the other business analysts who applied for the same job.

She walked into the interview with a bound, spiral document that showcased the comprehensiveness, thoroughness and versatility of several business documents she had created for one automotive client in the Greater Saint Louis region.

She did not get hired because of what she said at the business analyst job interview or because of the software experience listed on her resume.

She got the business analyst job, by showcasing her hands-on business analysis skills.

What differentiated her was a compilation of various types of business analysis documents she had worked on for an automotive client in the Greater Saint Louis area.

The financial client hired her as an Information Technology (IT) business analyst for a financial software project because they connected with the hands-on, visual depiction of her business analysis skills exemplified by her Microsoft Word based portfolio.

My final advice?

Don’t approach the business analyst industry based on how the software testing, technical writing or computer programmer industries work.

Remove false associations between the business analyst’s role (primarily written and verbal analysis or communication of requirements) and the hands-on skill requirements for software testers, technical writers or computer programmers.

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Your Guide To Software Development Methodologies (Agile, Scrum, Waterfall, SDLC, Extreme ...)

Models like Agile, Extreme Programming, Scrum or Waterfall are used by project managers, business analysts, software developers or quality assurance analysts to describe how a project is managed or a software product is built.

The software development life cycle determines how risks are managed, business requirements documented, resources estimated and allocated, stakeholder expectations or customer feedback is managed and when software / quality assurance testing is performed.

Each software development model recommends a set of guidelines or best practices for developing software.

It is then up to an adopting organization to follow these guidelines from the inception of their project.

Choosing the right Software Development Life Cycle is important because it helps your project team reduce or eliminate the risks of project failure which occur as frequently as 60% of the time.

Software Development Life Cycles are also important because they help deliver a better product or user experience.

In a nutshell, software development practices like Agile, Extreme Programming, Waterfall, Lean Software Development, Rational Unified Process (RUP), Scrum will help your project team meet or exceed customer or business requirements, deliver products on time or under budget.

Meeting Business Requirements

Software Development Life Cycles help with clarifying when or how software requirements will be gathered and analyzed in a software development project.

In software methodologies like the Waterfall model, business requirements are collected, analyzed or documented extensively at the beginning of the project.

In other software models like Agile or Scrum, requirements are gathered or analyzed multiple times during the life cycle of the project.

While opinions differ as to which software model helps you gather better software requirements, each model still offers the benefit of a formal plan for gathering, analyzing or documenting business requirements.

Engaging the Best Minds or Resources

Some Software Development Life Cycles like the Waterfall model are more traditional with their “top down” team structure or project management approach.

Other software models like the Agile or Scrum models are flatter in their team structure or more self organizing and independent.

The benefit of following a software development model is that it helps with organizing or structuring the project team’s roles, responsibilities or communication style.

Reducing or Eliminating Time or Budget Overruns

Statistics show that as much as 60% of Information Technology (IT) projects fail for various reasons including time or budget overruns.

This is where choosing the right software model can be helpful.

Each software development life cycle offers a set of best practices for estimating project resources, planning project deliverables or product features and monitoring timelines or milestones.

While some software models like the Waterfall emphasize time, budget or resource estimation at the beginning of the project, others like Agile or Scrum emphasize time, cost or resource estimation & planning throughout the life cycle of the project.

Managing the Software Development Process

Each Software Development model divides separates the development process into a set of activities which makes the project more manageable.

While some Software models are sequential, others are iterative.

Software development models separate your development cycle into phases which helps with project planning, resource utilization and progress monitoring or control.

Creating Better Software Products

Software development life cycles can help with meeting or exceeding customer expectations as well as creating better software products.

Your software development model will provided guidelines for creating test cases or mapping test cases to requirements or product features.

Software models provides guidance for quality assurance analysts or software testers, on when to execute tests, record bugs or defects and measure or report on the quality of the software product.

How To Adopt A New Software Development Life Cycle

An organization may be incapable of taking advantage of a software development model in-spite of the merits of the model.

Here is my advice on adopting a new software development model

1. Evaluate your Company Culture: consider the flexibility or willingness of your company to change or adapt.

   I have seen organizations with a top-down management culture fail at agile models because they were not ready to give up some control to an agile, self-organizing team.

2. Take Small Steps: don’t try to change too much, too soon, when adopting a new software development model.

   Over-committing at the early stages of your project raises a red flag because it means that your project team is being expected to run before it has learnt how to walk!

3. Get Executive / Organizational Commitment: get someone with senior management or executive authority to back the adoption of the model or it may not survive corporate politics.

Sometime ago, I functioned as the Information Technology Director of a re-manufacturing plant in the Ozarks.

One of the goals I set for my team and employer was to get them to adopt a formal software development model.

Before I started running with the implementation of that model, I spent time coaching the CEO, the quality assurance and product development directors, and other senior managers on the benefits as well as potential challenges of the new software development model.

Because I had strong organizational commitment and backing, the software model was finally adopted without any incidents.

Which Software Development Life Cycle Is Best for Your Project?

With all that has been said in mind, i have prepared a downloadable study guide that will help you with choosing a software development model for your project!

The study guide which you can download below covers answers questions like:

1. What is Agile, Scrum, Waterfall?, Lean Software Development, Extreme Programming …
2. What are the advantages, disadvantages, challenges or benefits of adopting a software development model …
3. How does Agile compare to Waterfall … And More ….

• Which Software Development Life Cycle Is Best?

  This study guide provides a comprehensive review of software development methodologies including scrum, agile, iterative development, lean software development etc.

  With the information contained in this study guide, you will be in a better position to recognize which software development ...

• Download The Study Guide: Which Software Development Life Cycle Is Best?

  Download This Study Guide

  

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What Courses Do You Study To Become A Business Analyst?

You may start a business analysts career by taking some of the courses discussed in this post.

Keep in mind that for business analysis careers, soft skills count as much or in some cases even more than hard skills.

So, don’t make the classical rookie mistake of focusing on the hard skill requirements to the detriment of your soft skills!

The list of formal, informal or college courses that you may study for a business analyst career include:

1. Study computer science & information technology courses in college because that will help you relate to the coding or testing that takes place on information technology / software development projects.

2. Study Systems Analysis courses as they may help you get a better idea of how different networking, hardware & software systems are integrated into one functional Information Technology (IT) department.

3. Take Technical Writing and Business Communication courses because a key part of the work that you perform as a business analyst is communicating business problems or solutions.

4. Study business management courses as they will help you understand understand strategic and tactical business goals and objectives or see things from a management, stakeholder or business perspective.

   Keep in mind that not only do business analysts work in Information Technology (IT) departments, they also work in specialized business domains like Accounting, Finance, Sales and Marketing, so taking business courses can be helpful.

5. Take conflict resolution, interpersonal, communication, verbal, presentation, negotiation, public speaking and leadership courses.

   While these sort of skills are not traditionally taught as part a formal college class, you can gain the required information from textbooks and audio material on bookstores like Barnes and Noble or Amazon.

The courses that you may take to become a business analyst may be divided into formal (business / technical) or informal (interpersonal, communication and leadership) skills.

So my friend, now you know what you may study to succeed as a business analyst … do do something with this information

Thanks and Best Wishes

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change careers at your current employer

The Process For Changing your Career Path Starts With Your Current Employer

Here is a real-world example of how to do just that.

The current challenge facing me is how to find the right process for re-orienting my career from Web Producer to an introductory Junior position as Business Analyst.

I don’t hold any qualification in Business neither as Business Analyst but I am fully dedicated to becoming one.

I have just started reading books and doing research about this position and the responsibilities it entails.

I have studied Communication Studies and handle Web Producer responsibilities for 2 years.

I would very appreciated any information or tips on how to get into that field of work.

I am looking to do a MBA in Business in a few years in order to increase my knowledge and facilitate the job chances.

Here is a step by step process for re-orienting your career with your current employer … the easy or safe way to change career paths!

1. Identify your transferable skills

   Identifying your transferable skills is the first step towards starting a new career.

   As a web producer, you probably meet with clients or document their requirements or communicate directly with them, so you do have some transferable skills.

   Read this post for detailed information on transferable skills

2. Bridge your skills gap

   Yes, you already have some of the skills that needed for the new position. But they are most likely not as strong, sharp or as focused as they need to be!

   Review your resume for skills that need to be enhanced (transferable skills) or learned from scratch because you lack experience or knowledge in them.

   Improve your skills through private studies or with the business-analysis-online-training program described here.

3. Find Business Analyst Work At Your Current Employer

   Volunteer for additional business analyst roles at your current employer and create a portfolio of completed business analyst tasks that you’ve performed.

4. Last Step – Update Your Resume

   After completing all these steps, update your resume wit the tasks you’ve performed at your current employer and then start looking for a full-time business analyst job!

Notice that I said that you should supplement your hands-on experience at your current employer.

So many folks start out worrying about finding volunteer jobs when they can get additional hands-on experience at their current place of employment just by being more creative … don’t be like them!

Why You Should Start Your Business Analyst Career With your Current Employer

Don’t start by looking for external opportunities for hands-on experience because it is harder to prove yourself to someone who you’ve never worked for.

This is what you should do. Make friends with the business analysts in your team or with their managers and then volunteer to help them with technical writing, documentation, use cases, requirements management, etc.

Many firms do not have enough business analysts to handle the volume of work that comes their way and your firm is probably hard up for BA skills as well!

Put one foot in front of the other: take a step by step approach towards getting hands-on experience and starting a new business analysis career.

Don’t be like those who refuse to take small steps (getting trained, volunteering for BA tasks at their current firm) because they feel that they can take a big leap of faith and land on their feet.

This doesn’t work a lot of the times because no-one would like to trust you with a full-time job when you can’t prove that you have a bit of experience!

If you can’t convince your current employer to give you some tasks, what makes you think that a total stranger will pay you a full-time salary?

Be like movie stars … they build up their resume by working their way up from the bottom through accepting any role that allows them to develop or showcase their talents until … they get that big role!

The Business Analyst Boot Camp follow this principle in that it offers you a chance to perform specific hands-on business analysis tasks and assignments in a step by step fashion.

Do you have a pressing career question that needs to be answered? If you answered yes, contact [Ask IT Career Coach] – an amazing service that provides answers for even the most demanding career situations.

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Write Better Requirements

Why Do We Need Better Requirements?

The following article is a frank, open and surprising discourse on why we need better requirements.

According to Standish or Gartner reports and other case studies, nearly “two-thirds of all IT projects fail” because of poor requirements and other causes.

Why Do Projects Fail?

Consider that a project fails when it overruns the budgeted allocation of resources, time or money or fails to deliver the intended business requirements or value.

Some teams are so deep into this, that throwing more money, people or extending the shipping date is their default solution to scope creep, budget overruns or project failure!

But project failure doesn’t have to become the norm for you.

With this in mind, the following post on “Why We Need Better Requirements” is designed to help business analysts, project managers, web managers or technical leads make a case for preventing project failure by gathering better business requirements.

1. The True Cost of Fixing Bad Mistakes

   Gathering better requirements helps avoid fixing issues further down in the project when mistakes are guaranteed to be more expensive.

   Consider a product feature that is not developed to the customer’s specifications because of incomplete requirements documentation.

   The incomplete requirement is left to an open or wide interpretation from each member of the development team.

   Depending on when the improperly coded requirements are discovered; (development, software testing or production), the cost of fixing these defects is guaranteed to be much higher than the cost of gathering, validating or documenting the complete or correct requirements at the project’s inception!

2. The Opportunity Cost of Missing Requirements

   Discovering requirements late results in delays to the project or in shipping products that don’t meet or fall below the customer’s expectations!

   This results in missed market opportunities, unhappy customers or an improper allocation of resources, time or money.

   Why because, it costs more money to retool your product at later stages of the product development cycle than at inception.

   And regardless of what you do, you will be late to market or reduce your customers positive experiences of your product.

3. The Cost of Working Incorrect Requirements

   Perhaps, you’ve worked on a project where requirements are dispensed as favors because the Requirements Analyst lacks the authority or training to validate requirements properly.

   This is the practice where requirements are imposed on the project team without meeting the business case or scope.

   The cost of such a practice is that the project resources (people, money, time, infrastructure) are high-jacked to satisfy a few egos to the detriment of the organization’s strategic objectives, goals, missions or success!

Making The Case For Good Business Requirements

Note that when it comes to executing projects successfully you will always have the constraints of time, money or resources (people).

And regardless of who you work for, your project cannot be handled as if your organization has an infinite supply of these inputs.

So gathering incorrect, poor or wrong requirements will result in the improper allocation of resources and at the same time increase the risk of project failure.

Armed with this, don’t be a doormat, make a proper case to your management, stakeholders or project advisory team on the need or strategic importance of gathering better business requirements.

Action Plan: How To Gather Better Requirements

I’ve shown you why gathering better requirements matters and explained how you can make a case for sound requirement management practices at your organization.

Here is how you can help your organization adopt a better requirements management practice.

• Empower your Requirements Analyst

  Hire a capable requirements analyst for your project and then empower the resource to do their job.

  Adding a Requirements or Business Analyst to your team without empowering the resource is a practice in self-deception at best.

  So don’t start down that part, if your organization is not ready to rally behind their Requirements Lead.

• Lead, Follow or Get Out of the Way!

  Your Requirements or Business Analyst is there to help your project or organization succeed, so don’t make that resource into the enemy!

  Educate your stakeholders, management team or customers on the benefits of following a sound, documented requirements management plan.

  Find a champion who can lead that effort … then follow your chosen leader or get out of the way!

  The Requirements analyst’s job is not to dispense requirements as favors but to be a custodian of the organization or customer’s strategic vision, aspirations or expectations.

By understanding, communicating, leading or championing better requirements practices, you reduce the risk of project failure and help your organization achieve a better Return On Investment (ROI).

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How To Start A Business Analyst Career

Identifying your transferable skills is the first step towards successfully transitioning, changing or starting a new business analysis career.

Though this article is written for those starting a business analysis career after having worked as a computer programmer, the principles presented here are helpful to anyone interested in starting any new career.

The first step in starting a new career is building self-confidence by recognizing that the career you are transitioning to has some relationship or similarity to the jobs you have performed in the past.

It is important to take this first step of identifying your transferable skills because it instills self-confidence, reduces anxiety and helps you bridge the gap to a new career.

We like what we are familiar with and we feel more tense, anxious or uncertain about unfamiliar or new environments because we are not sure that we can cope or succeed in them.

So, taking this first step of identifying your transferable skills will do wonders for your self-confidence and career success.

Identify Your Transferable Skills

Did you realize that the skills you develop as a computer programmer go beyond purely coding skills?

As a computer programmer, you perform a number of tasks or roles at different points in your career which will assist you in starting a new business analysis career.

Start by making an inventory of your current skills and then identify those that will assist you in bridging the gap between your computer programming and business analyst career.

Some of these transferable skills may include:

• Networking
• Requirements gathering
• Requirements documentation
• Technical writing
• Oral and written communication
• Leadership
• Critical thinking and analytical skills

Here are additional pointers to the role of transferable skills in starting a new business analysis career.

Transition your Leadership Skills

The typical software developer is a heads-down coder who focuses on specific tasks and does not think in terms of the big picture or pay attention to it (not a big picture thinker).

However, if you have been a technical or team lead, then you are comfortable with thinking and working on the big picture and at the same time, managing all the smaller details that accompany developing software such as:

1. Estimating, planning or assigning tasks with project managers
2. Gathering or validating requirements for the developers with business analysts
3. Planning iterations, releases or builds with release managers
4. Hiring new team members with IT Management
5. Validating high-level business cases, user stories, vision and scope documents with the business team (directors, senior management, power users, customers and business analysts).

In this leadership and big-picture role, you would have learned how to delegate tasks, solve human problems as opposed to purely coding issues and worked with all sorts of professionals: customers, IT / project managers, business team etc.

This ability to work with, relate or communicate with different types of corporate users is a skill that you will transfer to your new business analysis career.

Transition your Technical Writing Skills

Technical writing is a skill that is frequently practiced or exercised by senior software developers and technical or team leads.

This is because from time to time you are asked to write software manuals, create help files or document the internal workings of software systems with Use Cases or UML.

Even in companies where there is a full-time technical writer, you may be asked to assist with documenting the procedures, business processes, architecture or business requirements because the technical writers cannot keep up with the volume of work!

So, you have probably practiced or exercised written communication skills which are transferable to your new career in business analysis!

Transition your Software Requirements Gathering Skills

Many developers have had to gather, analyze, validate and document software requirements at some time in their careers because their team lacked enough dedicated business analysis resources.

In this role, you would have had to identify the critical stakeholders or customers, elicit and analyze their requirements, document and validate the requirements with your software development or management team.

In this role you would also have practiced critical thinking and analytical skills, developed or managed professional relationships and exercised vital oral communication and networking skills.

Here is the main takeaway from this post for you

1. Take an inventory of your skills
2. Identify your transferable skills
3. Bridge the gap to your business analyst career using your transferable skills

This post discusses how to start a new business analyst career. Follow the steps outline in this post to instill self-confidence in your abilities or bridge the gap between your current occupation and your desired career in business analysis.

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business analysts build bridges

In some organizations, the technical lead or senior software developer is also asked to gather, analyze or document the software development requirements.

This may be the case when:

• Cowboy Coding -The Organization has not fully embraced any formal software development methodology
• Cost Cutting -The manager wants to cut costs by not hiring for full-time business analysts
• Role Differentiation – The IT / Software Development manager combines the business analyst role into the software development role

But, does combining the business analyst and software development role work or is it better to hire full-time business analysts for your team?

Making A Case For Business Analysts

The traditional or core business analysis skills including software requirements documentation, systems modeling, UML and Use Cases are also required for senior software developer or architect positions.

While business analysts are not computer programmers, their skills have roots in traditional systems analysis or software development career paths.

For example, Skills like UML or Use Cases in particular are also used by software architects in modeling and solution architecture.

With this in mind, some managers are taking the position that traditional software developers are also suited for business analysis duties. And because of this position, they do not see the need for hiring business analysts.

This article examines the case for hiring full-time business analysts for your projects.

Computer Programmers Are Not Business Analysts

While software developers sometimes take on some business analyst roles, they are still not business analysts.

Because there are fundamental differences between the mindset of computer programmers and that of business analysts.

Computer programmers spend most of their time designing computer algorithms or coding software routines while business analysts spend most of their time talking to customers, stakeholders and developers.

In other words, while computer programmers are competent at talking to machines, business analysts are skilled at talking to people!

Let’s look at more justifications for hiring full-time business analysts for your organization.

Bridging The Gap Between Business And IT

There is a fundamental gap between business and IT which often leads to project failure.

Software development teams often miss, drift away or ignore business demands, needs and requirements because they spend most of their working time studying or solving technical / information technology problems.

And business units (marketing, operations, sales, customer service, etc.) often do not care enough about or take the time to understand the constraints of technology.

Because they are like polar opposites, there is a fundamental gap between business and technology which requires the intervention of a third-party … the business analyst.

Most IT Projects Fail, Will Yours?

Statistics suggest that more than 50% of software development / IT projects fail. They fail because of poor communication, cost / budget overruns and poor requirements or a weak business case.

While these statistics make a depressing study, they also point that most I.T. projects are at a risk of failing from inception if they are not planned or executed properly.

That is perhaps the best case for hiring full-time business analyst resources for your IT / software project … business analysts can help mitigate or reduce the risk of project failure.

Can Business Analysts Reduce IT Project Failure Rates?

Hiring full-time business analysts can help mitigate or reduce the risk of project failure by:

1. Creating a clear or convincing business case for your project management or stakeholder team

2. Creating a clear, concise, complete set of business requirements which can be used by project managers for estimation and budgeting or by quality assurance and software development teams

3. Bridging the business to IT gap by improving the communication between the two business units through effective written and oral communication skills

There is a significant risk that your IT Project would fail due to a weak business case, poorly defined requirements, lack of stakeholder engagement etc.

So do your project a favor and hire full-time consulting or permanent business analysts for your IT projects.

How To Find Or Hire Good Business Analysts

The options for finding full-time business analysts are limited to re-training existing staff in business analysis or hiring full-time business analysts from recruiters and job portals like LinkedIn and Dice.com.

One benefit of retraining existing team members in business analysis is to avoid costs of hiring additional staff. On the other hand, one advantage of hiring new business analysts is that they are guaranteed to hit the ground running.

If you decide to keep costs low by using or retraining your current IT team (quality assurance analysts, software developers or technical writers) in business analysis, do this:

Focus on re-training team members who have demonstrated some talent or interest in meeting or working with stakeholders, customers and users or in documenting requirements

Then retrain or sharpen your team’s business analysis skills using this resource … that way, your team can hit the ground running or bring new business analysis skills to bear on your project.

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Career Tip For Senior BAs: Become The Lead BA

The answers in this post are presented as tips, solutions or ideas for business analysts looking towards a better career path.

If you have a question about your business analyst career, be sure to post it as a comment on this post and I will be glad to answer it for you.

Here are the tips for business analysts looking for a better career path:

Should Business Analysts Test Software Applications?

In my department, analysts are mainly used for testing applications.

I know that there is more to this than testing applications.

What skills sets would you suggest I gain in order to become a top notch analyst?"

Should Business Analysts Test Software Applications?

• While business analyst are not full-fledged software testers, some organizations do require business analysts to test their software applications, oversee the testing process or collaborate closely with the QA / Software Testing Team.
• When business analysts test software applications, they usually perform a form of testing known as Usability Testing, Functional or Acceptance Testing.
• Business Analysts are sometimes asked to test software applications because they are the custodians of the customer, project or software requirements and so as such, need to confirm that the product or solution meets documented requirements.
• However business analysts are sometimes asked to test solutions (and not just software components) because their company is short on QA staff and are merging both the QA / Software Testers duties into that of the business analysts!
• Note: there is a lot more to the art of software testing than usability, functional or acceptance testing. These other other forms of testing may require scripting or automated tools and are not usually required of business analysts.

What Is The Future For Senior Business Analysts?

The toughest challenge facing me is the transition from Senior Business Analyst to Lead Analyst.

The Future / Career Path for Senior Business Analysts:

There is a real career path for senior business analysts. This career path comes with new titles, additional duties / roles or recognition (formal / informal) depending on the organization.

To start with, there is no common way of showing the seniority or lead position of a lead business analyst

In some organizations, the lead business analyst is the most senior or experienced person on the team and not necessarily the most educated.

The position of the lead business analyst is sometimes given informally when a manager refers other business analysts to the lead and / or identifies the BA as such.

1. If you are intent on being the lead business analyst, strive to distinguish yourself over a period of time by the quality of your work, the depth of your knowledge and expertise and your commitment to delivering excellent business results.
2. Study the lead business analyst and start learning whatever it is they bring to the table that you presently don’t.
3. In many organizations, the title of lead business analyst is earned over time because the lead business analyst has to have a strong understanding the business / organization. My advice is this: Be patient and hunker down for the long haul.

Remember the Kaizen principle, which is used to achieve an outstanding result by delivering smaller but consistent, qualitative improvements over a longer period of time.

• Start identifying the issues that your users have. Demonstrate to your manager that you have the analysis skills to take on the lead business analyst role.
• Increase your output when it comes to problem-solving on the project. Make yourself available and visible to users instead of shying away from contact with them.
• Get as much additional training as you can afford and channel all your efforts to becoming a better business analyst by learning everything that you can about business analysis.

If you gain new skills or demonstrate additional abilities on the job, you will position yourself for more responsibility … even that of the lead business analyst.

Finally, becoming a lead business analyst has a lot to do with demonstrating outstanding leadership skills.

It is not just what you know (knowledge alone is not enough for this role) but how well you can step out of your box to help your fellow business analysts, team or company.

Learn how to demonstrate exceptional leadership, communication. coaching and mentoring skills in addition to your traditional business analysis skills and you will stand out from other senior business analysts or your peers!

What Is The Career Path for IT Business Analysts?

I need help. My company is considering creating specialist areas for the Business Analyst in IT.

Is there a model or any existing categorization of Business Analyst role in IT?

I am only aware of roles like Senior/Junior Business Analyst.

The Roles / Models for IT Business Analysts:

There are several possible career paths for IT Business Analysts depending on the size of the organization or the diversity of tasks performed by your business analysts.

Assuming that your company has a legitimate need to start putting business analysts into silos, here are some options, categories or specialized roles:

1. Usability / UI / User Experience Business Analyst

2. Web Business Analyst

3. E-Commerce Business Analyst

4. Marketing Business Analyst

5. Business Process Analyst / Process Engineer

6. Customer Relationship Management (CRM) Business Analyst

Use this list to elicit more careers centering on specialized functions performed by the business analysts on you team.

This post presents tips, strategies or solutions for advancing your business analysis career. If you enjoy reading this post, be sure to … Share It with Friends

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Requirements Management Skills In Demand

Is Requirements Management Helpful?

If you work in an office where requirements management is a low priority, an afterthought or a process imposed by senior management, you may begin to lose sight of the value that requirements management offers.

In between chasing down your stakeholders for interviews, wrestling with your use cases or managing conflict and corporate politics, you may decide to abort what sometimes seems like meaningless meetings or endless paperwork.

What you may not know is that the reason you’re chasing down stakeholders or having so much trouble gathering requirements is that you don’t have an effective Requirements Management framework in place.

Because Requirements Management is really not an afterthought and unless you step out of your busy schedule to learn what works and what doesn’t work in requirements management … the cycle of difficulty, ineffectiveness or project failure is guaranteed to continue!

Why Requirements Management Is A High Priority For Business Analysts

If your project lacks an effective Requirements Management plan, you can do your team or manager a favor by learning how to implement one.

This is important because an effective requirements management plan will help you deliver the right product, technology or business solution and stand you in good stead at the performance review.

The risk of Information Technology (IT) project failure is so high that taking the time to understand, model or validate what needs to be built is a high priority for any professional business analyst.

If your requirements management plan is weak, you risk not understanding the business problem or turning out a poor solution.

So, whether you’re gathering or analyzing requirements, it is just as important to focus on the process that you are using to develop your requirements as it is to focus on the requirements themselves.

The good news is that a lot of thought has been put into the process of gathering and creating good requirements.

The Requirements Management Plan

These thoughts have been gathered and structured into a discipline known as Requirements Engineering or Management.

Requirements Management encompasses the activities of defining a solution’s requirements, Eliciting, Analyzing, Specifying and Validating business requirements.

Requirements Management encompasses activities and deliverables for establishing Requirements Baselines, Change Control and Tracing Requirements.

Having an effective requirements management plan will also help you define:

1. Which members of your team are performing what requirements activities

2. When requirements activities will take place

3. What the details and steps of each requirement activity are

Having all of this formally defined will help your team deliver the right product or solution.

Having a good requirements management plan will also improve your teams ability to build or deliver the correct requirements on time and within budget.

The ROI for Effective Requirements Management

An effective Requirements Management plan will also help your team be more productive or produce excellent correct, complete, clear, concise, consistent, relevant, feasible and verifiable requirements.

Keep in mind that your Requirements Management plan may need to be customized to your projects, organizational constraints or corporate culture.

Remember that effective Requirements Management results in better business solutions … which is a hallmark of successful business analysts.

Requirements Management is one of several business analysis courses offered at the Business Analyst Boot Camp Training.

A complete end-to-end Business Analysis training is traditionally expensive because you pay for multiple business analysis courses on UML, Use Cases, Requirements Management, etc.

In addition, these courses are sometimes split into beginner, intermediate or advanced classes which you have to pay for individually.

What if you could get your “Use Case Training”, “UML Training”, “Requirements Management Training” and more by attending just one class?

What if you could get all these Business Analyst courses for a fraction of the traditional cost? … Here is how to to do just that.

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Highly Paid Business Analyst

You are reading this post because you are interested in learning or mastering business analysis for a number of reasons like

• You may have read the US Bureau of Statistics report which predicts that the business analyst role will be one of the fastest growing occupations through 2012

• You are a computer programmer or software tester who is getting burned out on the monotony of coding or testing

• You may be interested in learning business analyst because you will gain more visibility by interacting with users and managers

• You feel that gathering requirements for software projects would be a better fit for you than your current IT position

What Does It Take To Become A Successful Business Analyst?

You may also have read a few business analyst job descriptions or observed successful business analysts at work and because of that, you feel that you can easily succeed at business analysis.

What do you assume that business analysts do or what do you think that it takes to become a business analyst?

Do you assume that business analysts just gather requirements, or that business analysts are essentially MBA graduates or that knowledge of the Software Development Lifecycle (SDLC) or even Quality Assurance makes you a business analyst?

There is more to business analysis than having a knowledge of the software development lifecyle (SDLC) or a college degree like an MBA, or even learning how to gather software requirements.

Business Analysis is really not like computer programming and it is not equivalent to project management or having an MBA.

Business Analysis is a specialized profession just like Law, Medicine or Engineering.

Here is more information on what it takes to become a successful business analyst:

So, What Does A Business Analyst Do?

Computer programming and business analysis while being related, are still worlds apart.

Programming is a wholly technical discipline while business analysis focuses on the business side of managing software or project requirements.

A business analyst does more than just ask users what they want from a software system, type up the requirements in a pretty document and hand it off to the developers.

Business analysts liaise between stakeholders to understand business problems and the requirements for a successful solution using strategic thinking and excellent communication skills.

The business analyst also has to follow best practices for planning, gathering/eliciting, managing, modeling and validating user requirements.

So, you need to thoroughly understand the business analysis profession if you want to make the leap from programming (or any other career) to business analysis.

Business Analysts Don’t Just Gather Requirements!

You do not need an MBA to become a business analyst and getting an MBA is not the same thing as learning business analysts … the two disciplines are separate!

To start learning business analysis, you will need technical skills, business skills, industry knowledge / domain skills and analysis skills.

In addition to the following: Requirements Elicitation, UML, Use Cases, Requirements Modeling and Facilitation skills.

How Do You Demonstrate Business Analysis Skills?

There is no such thing as a new IT career without new IT skills. In the same way, you can’t become a successful business analyst without learning business analysis skills through training and hands-on experience.

If you have been applying to business analyst jobs without any response from potential employers, here is the reason: Your resume does not show that you have real-world business analysis skills.

Many project managers or business managers have been in the situations where they hired persuasive candidates only to regret the lack of understanding of the business analysis role or the lack of BA skills needed to get the job done.

• The bad news is that too many managers have been burned, so the chances of getting hired without real business analysis skills are not as high as one may assume.

• The good news is that as we head out of the recession, there is a demand for professionals who have the business analysis skills required to successfully take an IT project to completion.

So, the first and most important step towards a successful business analyst career, is making sure that you have the required business analysis skills.

Yes, there is a real shortage of good business analysts. If you will simply take the time to get trained and get hands-on experience, you can go places in your career!

How Do You Gain Business Analysis Skills?

The traditional way to gain skills in other careers is to get a college degree. But does having a business degree qualify you for a business analyst career?

What if you have a family and can’t take the time off work to go through another two to four years of college?

The problem with traditional college degrees is that they keep you on the theoretical path of learning, where you may spend two to four years in college and still lack the skills, experience or insight needed for a successful business analyst career.

In addition, traditional college degrees are extremely costly. If you’ve worked in the IT industry for any length of time, you would have met successful business analysts or computer programmers who couldn’t afford to go to college and yet succeeded at each of their professional careers.

What Are Your Options For Learning Business Analysis?

There are several alternatives to traditional business colleges. For example, many training companies squeeze the business analyst training program into a few (three to five) days.

You fly or drive in to the location, sit for a few days and then get back to work the next day!

The problem with these three to five day training programs is that you simply will not retain or understand new technical information that is crammed in a short period because real life professional skills are not learned in a hurry!

If you’ve ever crammed for an examination, you know that once the exam is over, most of the information is gone from you because you only studied to pass the examination!

The challenge with short term business analyst training is that you will not retain, understand or apply the information effectively on your job.

You need to learn business analysis concepts in a way that helps you retain it or use it to advance your career.

Learn Business Analysis – The Effective Way

This is how you learn business analysis at the Business Analyst Boot Camp

1. Mentoring / Coaching: The Business Analyst Boot Camp is designed more like a mentoring / coaching program.

   You get case studies that allow you to practice the real-world business analysis skills before using them on the job.

2. Skill Building / Career Focused: The Business Analyst Boot Camp is designed like a series of examinations.

   You are quizzed or examined on concepts, skills or ideas so that you are able to think creatively / of the box.

3. Natural Learning Pace: The Business Analyst Boot Camp is designed to walk you through beginner to advanced business analysis topics in a series of steps.

   You are not expected to learn or master business analysis in three days but over weeks, so that you have time to internalize, understand, appreciate or learn business analysis material in a paced, natural or productive way

The Business Analyst Boot Camp is designed to provide practical training or real-world skills for the IT Business Analyst role and it can be accessed through our online Learning Management System (LMS) from any location and at any time by registered business analysts!

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starting a new business analyst career

The good news is that the economy is adding on jobs because it is the time of year when budgets have been approved and employers traditionally post more jobs and because the economy is also beginning to recover.

This is as good a time as any to dust off your resume, polish your act and start the career you have always wanted.

This article tells you how to do that … get back into the job market and start the business analyst career you’ve always wanted!

What Are Employers Hiring For?

Let’s start by reviewing what employers are hiring for, so that you can give them what they want.

1. Employers are hiring educated business analysts

   I would like to emphasize that having an MBA or a college degree while being helpful, does not make you an educated business analyst.

   Having a degree like an MBA, MIS or computer science degree is considered to be a general educational qualification.

   And the job market requires more specific, business analysis oriented education on topics like UML, Use Cases, Requirements Management, etc.

2. Employers are hiring skilled business analysts

   These are considered to be business analysts with cutting-edge skills who can hit the ground running, provide timely, focused and relevant business solutions or provide expert business guidance or solutions to the employer.

   At the job interview, a candidate is perceived to be sharp if he or she can answer questions in a comprehensive, correct, detailed, factual and timely manner.

   So, this is a question of how well you can recall, retain or re-use your business analysis knowledge.

3. Employers are looking for hands-on business analysis experience

   However, your hands-on experience is not always the same as how long you have been working as a business analyst.

   Employers are more interested in how prepared you are to provide solutions to challenging business problems than in your length of years in the industry!

   So, do not focus on how many years you have or have not been working as a business analyst. Instead, focus on the depth, richness or breadth of your experience!

So, with these points in mind, I will show you how to get back into the business analysis job market.

How To Start A Business Analysis Career

The first step to getting back into the BA job market is to recognize what employers are looking or hiring for.

The next step after figuring out the needs of employers in the current job market is to give them what they want.

I recommend that you start by attending the business analyst boot camp and here is why:

1. Becoming a Better Business Analyst

Your first task towards getting back into the job market is to become the most knowledgable business analyst you can be.

The business analyst boot camp helps you with that by training you on the concepts, skills, methodologies, tools or techniques used by business analysis in an online learning environment.

Through online training videos, presented in a step by step manner, you learn or master beginner to advanced level topics in UML, Use Cases, Requirements Analysis, Elicitation, Modeling and more …

2. Become A Skilled Business Analyst

Research has shown that one of the best ways to sharpen your skills is to practice answering questions like you are in a job interview.

The business analyst boot camp uses the same technique for sharpening your skills or preparing you for the job market.

You are presented with single/multiple-choice practice tests or quizzes that sharpen your skills by helping improve the correctness, promptness and comprehensiveness of your answers to business analysis questions.

3. Shortening The BA Experience Gap

One of the key features of the business analysis boot camp is the incorporation of hands-on business analysis tasks as part of you training.

With the help of our learning management system (LMS), you are challenged to master your material through practical, skill-building, hands-on exercises, problems, case studies, tasks or projects.

Here is a quick review of what the business analyst boot camp online training class offers:

Review Of Online Business Analysis Training

• The Business Analyst Boot Camp learning management system presents you with foundational business analysis concepts to start with.

• Once you are through with the foundational concepts, more advanced concepts are introduced or presented step by step.

• All your assignments, quizzes, hands-on tasks or projects are graded and the results instantly displayed in your real-time, online progress monitoring tool!

• All the courses are offered online and your videos are retained as part of your account. What this means is that you can go back or refer to any lecture, refresh your mind or re-train yourself at will!

The goal of the business analyst boot camp is to help you become an expert or highly skilled business analyst.

Achieving the goal of becoming an expert or highly skilled business analyst is critical to career success because it addresses the key concerns that employers have when hiring new business analysts or promoting their existing internal business analysts to a new position.

This post helps you understand the key reasons why employers hire or retain business analysts and it shows you how to start your business analysis career or get back into the job market by addressing the employers concerns.

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Questions for Agile Business Analysts

In response to the post: Is a Project Manager or a Business Analyst Career, a Better Fit for You?, a reader sent in the following comments about his experience as an agile business analyst.

In both Iterative and Agile methods, the BA is (or should be) involved with requirements gathering, project communication and facilitation, translating technical and business jargon, holding development to the business needs during the execution phase through Alpha Testing, demos, walk-throughs and issues management.

• BAs often write the Test Cases and, surprise the Test Scripts when the project doesn’t have QA resources.

• In the implementation phase, the BA acts as a Level Two Support contact to triage user issues.

• Then the BA and the PM begin negotiating the features/repairs list for the next spring or iteration.

My question to you is, what has been your experience as a business analyst working on an agile or iterative project?

• Do you have all your requirements ready before you start development?

• Do you have to write test cases or test scripts?

• How do you collaborate or work with testers?

• How do you collaborate or work with project managers?

• What are your challenges or pitfalls?

• Which project or requirements management tools do you use?

• What are your best practices?

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Business Analyst Role In Data Warehouse Projects

The Business Analysts Role In Bringing Data Warehousing To Your Office

Today’s business executives spend a ton of cash on data warehouse projects because that is a big, key, strategic business initiative; the success of which weighs heavily on their minds.

Data warehousing is important because it saves or aggregates information in a manner that allows executives, management or office users to make strategic business decisions faster, better and more easily!

No More Silos In The Workplace

Data warehousing is critical to business success because it presents a way for executives or management to view or manage their corporation as a whole unit instead of in silos.

What data warehousing offers decision makers is the ability to break out of departmental information silos and see the big picture.

One of the key objectives facilitated by business analysts in data warehousing roles is that of bridging the gap between enterprise databases (marketing, finance, inventory, customer relationship management, etc.) so that decision makers or office users can ask questions or get a comprehensive, 360 degree insight across corporate / departmental databases with one query or question!

Introducing OLAP, Business Intelligence (BI) Or Data Warehousing To Business Analysts

Business Analysts assigned to data warehouse projects may be surprised to know that traditional, day-to-day relational (online transaction processing (OLTP)) databases are not optimized for querying or reporting of data for business or decision making purposes.

Databases that are actually optimized for data analysis, reporting and business intelligence are known as Online Analytical Processing (OLAP) databases.

So, another key benefit of data warehousing is that it provides decision makers with real-time business intelligence at optimal speeds through the used of OLTP systems.

Finally, Data Warehousing is important from the standpoint of facilitating forecasting trends or getting performance metrics for the entire organization.

Data warehousing provides senior management with intelligence required to see the company’s performance from a 30,000 foot level instead of being buried under a mountain of data at sea level.

Will The Real Enterprise Business Analyst Stand Up Please?

Organizations implementing business intelligence or data-warehousing projects are looking for a significant boost in their business intelligence or decision making capabilities.

Savvy business analysts pulled into data-warehousing / BI projects would fare well to keep this at the back of their mind from the git-go!

So, here are some key roles for business analysts in data warehouse projects

• The Data Warehouse Business Analysts role includes helping the business team identify key opportunities for boosting revenue, increasing sales, decreasing operational costs or achieving some other important organizatioinal or business objective.

• The Business Analyst bridges the gap between the business or executive management office and the data warehousing / BI Implementation Team.

• The Business Analyst identifies the business intelligence needs of the organization. This includes eliciting BI requirements from executives, managers or office users and then working with the data warehouse project team to identify, define or implement these business requirements.

The Enterprise Business Analyst Role In Data Warehousing Projects

Data warehousing projects are all about building, integrating, analyzing or reporting on large, complex, corporate databases.

So, Business Analysts working in such domains will be well-advised to fortify their database skills as that is the real-world domain or context of data warehousing.

Because of the strategic importance or the scope of data warehousing / business intelligence (BI) projects, the business analyst typically functions as a key member of a larger data warehouse project team.

The data warehouse project team may include the Project Manager, Data Modeler, Data Architect, Data Analyst , Tester, Report Writer, Database Developer and last but not least … the data warehousing / business intelligence (BI) business analyst.

With that in mind, here are the business analyst’s roles in the context of an enterprise data-warehousing project implementation team.

• Management Role: working with executives, management or the business team, the business analyst identifies the gaps in corporate intelligence / reporting capabilities.

• Data Analyst Role: working with data analysts, the business analyst identifies, understands and documents the sources of data discrepancies or gaps in business intelligence.

  The actual work of identifying data sources may be assigned to the data analysts or Extraction, Transform Load (ETL) developers while that of documenting or modeling the data transformations assigned to a business analyst comfortable with creating data models.

• Data Modeler / Data Architect / Database Developer Role: The business analyst works with the data modeler, data architect or database developer to create the logical or conceptual data model.

  The business analyst also validates that the data model meets business requirements before it is implemented.

The Data Warehouse Business Analyst Skill Sets

The enterprise data warehouse business analyst is not your traditional business analyst. so, here are some of the skill-set requirements for business analysts in a data warehouse project.

• The business analyst needs a thorough understanding of Extraction, Transform and Load (ETL) processes.

• The business analyst also needs a strong understanding of the logical database design process, data modeling, data-mart design and a good understanding of OLAP compared to OLTP systems.

• The business analyst needs to be comfortable with the business intelligence tools used in delivering corporate intelligence to decision makers which may be as simple as a Microsoft Excel-based Business Intelligence (tool).

• The business analyst also needs a good understanding of data warehousing terminology as well as the corporate data being analyzed by the business.

  In other words, familiarity with the data is important whether one’s eliciting requirements from the business team or validating data models and ETL processes with the Data Warehouse implementation team.

Bringing Business Intelligence (BI) To The Office

An increasing number of organizations are either planning or implementing BI projects with the objective of improving the quality of corporate intelligence available to decision makers.

As a business analyst, it’s your duty to assist your organization with their BI / Data Warehouse endeavors.

You can achieve this by learning as much as you can about databases, data warehousing, business intelligence, data analysis and decision making processes.

The data warehouse business analyst job description includes a cross-functional suite of skills in Relational Database Development, SQL Query Writing, Data Analysis and Business Analysis.

You can get more information on this from both the Data Analyst Boot Camp and the Business Analyst Boot Camp.

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The Agile Business Analyst

The Agile Business Analyst plays a key role in facilitating conversations between stakeholders, quality assurance / testing teams, customers, subject matter experts (SMEs) and software developers in an incremental, iterative fast-paced product development environment.

So, who is the Agile Business Analyst and why should business analysts who are already comfortable with the process of eliciting requirements in a traditional product development environment be concerned about becoming more agile?

Introducing The Agile Business Analyst Role

The Agile Business Analyst’s role includes facilitating communication, reducing the reliance on extensive documentation and reducing the length of the feedback loop in product development projects.

1. Collaborative - The Agile Business Analyst works closely with software developers, stakeholders, project managers and software testers and relies less on comprehensive requirements documentation at the inception of the project.

2. Flexible and Adaptable - Unlike a more traditional software development project, an agile business analyst expects and welcomes changes in requirements. Being Agile means that changing requirements is not made difficult because of extensive documentation, communication cycles or change management processes.

3. Just In Time Requirements – An Agile Business Analyst knows what is the right amount of requirements documentation to gather for a development cycle or iteration.

4. More Face to Face Meetings – Because the Agile Business Analyst focuses on less documentation and more face to face meetings or interviews with stakeholders, software developers or testers, Agile Business Analysts make use of more User Stories and less Use Cases for documenting requirements.

5. Iterative Development – And unlike requirements management practiced in a traditional waterfall software development life cycle, the agile business analyst only focuses on gathering, analyzing or validating the requirements needed in each iteration.

Between The Agile Business Analyst and Traditional BA

So, the Agile Business Analyst focuses on the deliverables for each iteration to o facilitate a faster development process.

Another key difference with agile business analysts is that they work with software testers or quality assurance professionals to elicit Test Cases directly from User Stories instead of from Use Cases.

Because Agile Business Analysts rely on face to face meetings and in-person communication, they work better in teams where the developers, stakeholders, project managers and testers are located in the same place and are committed to being involved on a continuous basis through the life time of the project.

The Agile Business Analyst gathers just-in-time (JIT) requirements through intense collaboration with customers, customer advocates, software architects, stakeholders and software testers.

Why Are We Not More Agile?

Traditionally, a business analyst is expected to gather all the requirements for a project at the beginning. These requirements are then shared with the Project Manager and Stakeholders as a static, fixed or immutable set of requirements.

This type of requirements gathering is common in product or software development project that make any or all of the following assumptions:

1. Business Analyst – The business analyst can gather, analyze, validate and specify all the requirements at the beginning of the project and before a single line of code is written.

2. Project Manager – The project manager needs to have a complete set of requirements to facilitate accurate project planning.

3. Software Tester / QA – The software tester needs to have a complete set of requirements before creating a test plan and user acceptance or QA tests.

4. Software Architect – The software architect needs to design the entire software system at the beginning of the project befor e a line of code is written.

5. Computer Programmers – That computer programmers need to receive an extensive and complete set of requirements preferably in Use Cases format before they start coding.

   Traditional software or product development projects also assume that for developers to create a working product, they need to be told in detail, every basic, alternate path and exception flow through the system.

6. Customers – That customers have a mind, wants, needs and desires that can be completely known at the beginning of the project through extensive requirements gathering and documentation.

   This also means that once the customer’s requirements is gathered or documented, it will not change during the life cycle of the product or software development cycle … at least not without extensive negotiation, documentation and signing-off.

The Role of The Customer Advocate

But is this true? Can the customer’s mind, needs, wants or desires be known and documented completely at the beginning of the project?

Does setting the customer’s requirements in stone assure a better product, a more satisfied customer and increase the chances of project success?

1. The needs of today’s customers are not set in stone. Far from it, the very process of gathering customers requirements can change what the customer wants.

2. The marketplace is always changing and product features become less important or even irrelevant in short periods of time.

3. The practice of planning projects or designing entire software systems completely, at the inception of a project is fraught with risks, estimates and guesses.

   This practice often leads to more software features that are out of touch with the customer’s needs and more project failures.

   Considering that so many projects planned this way fail, Business Analysts need to consider utilizing more agile communication skills to supply requirements when they are needed.

Unlike the traditional business analyst who works from the assumption that requirements once signed off on are fixed in stone or immutable, the agile business analyst plays the role of a customer advocate by assuming that requirements can and will change during the life cycle of the product development effort.

The agile business analyst welcomes changes in the customer’s requirements because they reflect what the customer really wants and not what was documented.

In doing this, the agile business analyst elevates the customer’s needs above the needs for more documentation.

The agile business analyst understands that there is always some uncertainty in the marketplace, so the planned features of a product or software application cannot be set in stone!

The agile business analyst understand that software developers do not need to have 100% of a product or project’s requirements extensively documented using Use Cases before they begin coding.

So the Agile Business Analyst relies more on communication, presentation and facilitation skills than written documentation in communicating with software / product developers.

Today’s constantly changing marketplace requires the Agile Business Analyst A customer advocate who elevates the customer’s needs above that of extensive requirements documentation!

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business analyst in 5 steps

5 Steps to a New Business Analyst Career

I talk to a number of business analysts interested in changing careers to new domains.

They come from diverse backgrounds (insurance, sales, financial, etc.) and they all share a common goal … that of switching careers to new domains.

So, when one of these business analysts asked; if I would like to throw more light on changing BA careers / domains at job interviews, I was glad to say yes

How To Switch Business Analyst Domains

Some degree of sales or marketing skills is needed to get a job. And your understanding of the sales process determines how successful your career switch will be.

Here is what you need to know about switching business analyst careers:

1. Put Yourself In Employers Shoes:

   Don’t make the classic mistake of approaching the business analyst job interview from the standpoint of what you can get out of it!
   

   Rather, put yourself in the employer’s shoes and talk to their interests and needs … that is basic human nature and selling 101.

   This matters because job interviewers will not care about you or get interested in you, if you don’t care about or show a genuine interest in them (read Dale Carnegie’s classic – “How To Win Friends and Influence People”).

2. Emphasize Cross Functional Skills:

   Accept that employers will be skeptical of your resume, skill-sets and suitability for the job, when switching careers or domains.

   Now, resolve the employer’s doubts by showing how your skill-sets are a better match to their needs.

   Do this by emphasizing cross-functional skills like your communication and presentation skills. Then, go further and explain how your business analysis skills (like those taught at the business analyst boot camp) will be useful to the employer inspite of your previous domain or background.

3. Tailor your Resume to the Job:

   Yes, tailoring your resume to the job helps, when you have some relevant background information that will be lost in your traditional resume.

   Several years ago, I transitioned from a chemical engineering job to an information technology (IT) consulting career.

   I only had a few months of relevant IT experience but several more years of irrelevant chemical engineering training and experience.

   Following the advice of a recruiter, I re-wrote my resume to focus, expand and highlight my strong>limited information technology background while reducing my chemical engineering background to a foot note … which worked like a charm!

   The lesson hear is to “reduce the employer’s doubt and anxiety by rewriting sections of your resume that doesn’t directly relate to the job you’re interviewing for“.

4. Leave your Pride at the Door:

   Don’t let any negative behavior or comments cause you to lose your cool at the job interview.

   Instead, carry yourself as a true professional regardless of what you see or hear at the interview.

   I was fortunate to be interviewed for a Procter & Gamble Management Trainee program out-of-college.

   However, before I was hired, I had to maintain my composure under some negative, psycho-analysis by an interviewer whose main goal was to see if I would lose my cool under the pressure of the interview.

   So, do whatever it takes to get the job interview … that is your sole mission and objective.

5. Study your Prospective Employer’s Industry:

   I have been to a few job interviews where I used my knowledge of the company’s market place to advantage.

   This is not something that you can do, if you’re looking for an easy job. But it is definitely something that you can do, if you’re really interested in the company.

   Research the prospective employer’s competitors, industry, technology, business processes and come prepared with suggestions, ideas or information that would genuinely help the prospective employer.

So., now I have given it to you … skills, techniques or steps for changing your business analyst career or domain. What are you going to do with it?

If you would like to leave discuss more about your experience at job interviews, just go ahead and leave a comment below.

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Computer Programmers Learning Business Analysis

I have been talking to a number of software developers, interested in changing roles to business analysis. If you are one of those software developers, then this post is written to show you how to switch careers from software development

There seems to be some bias against switching roles to business analysis from software development. It’s a subtle form of discrimination from folks who stereotype all software developers as nerds with poor presentation and communication skills!

But is that really true? Are you poorly suited for a business analysis role just because you’re a software developer?

On the contrary, software developers can make good business analysts and I will dedicate the rest of this post to debunking this myth … just as I have done with several urban legends on this blog

There are several reasons why a software developer like you would be interested in changing careers to business analysis and some of these could be:

1. The Junior Programmer: you are new to computer programming and you are not enjoying it. Hence you wonder if you will be better suited for business analysis

2. The Experienced Software Developer: you have learned all you can about software development and would like to start a new, challenging career in business analysis.

3. The Accidental Business Analyst: you take on the roles of a business analyst at your company and you want to get formal recognition as a business analyst for your efforts.

4. The Soft Skilled Developer: based on your communication, presentation or analysis skills, you feel that you will make a good business analyst.

5. The Competent Developer: you are seen as being highly competent or responsible by your manager and because of that, you have been tasked with additional business analysis responsibilities..

Whatever the reasons for changing roles to business analysis, you are in for some good news … you are wanted by the job market!

Contrary to what you may think, having a formal software development background can actually prove to be a bonus or an advantage and here are some of the reasons why:

• Right Background: IT business analysts are required to have a good understanding of the software development life cycle.

  Your background in software development can be used to fulfill that requirement easily.

• Better Fit: IT managers need business analysts who can understand developers and talk with them at the system level.

  That means having enough technical knowledge to create UML diagrams or entity relationship models or even help translate business requirements into technical specifications.

• Reduce Risk: IT shops need business analysts with a technical or systems background so that they won’t be at a lost in a challenging or complex software development project.

  When managers undertake a complex software development process, they want to reduce risk by hiring business analysts who can bridge the gap between the software development team and business because of their software developer background.

So, having a software development background puts you at an advantage in such situations.

Can you Market Yourself: The good news is that your software developer background does not have to count against you at the job interview and that is where this article becomes quite helpful!

First, you have to be sure of the value you will bring to your job if you are hired as a business analyst. Next, you have to convey that value clearly to the hiring manager!

So, using this article as reference, elicit all the reasons why hiring you will be helpful and then work on how to convey that to your hiring manager.

Now you’ve learnt how to switch from a traditional software developer role to a business analyst role … it is time to take action!

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How To Answer Business Analyst Job Interview Questions

I’ve taken dozens of IT job interviews with various IT departments ranging from small IT shops to Fortune 500 IT departments to non-profits to consulting firms to staffing or recruitment agencies!

I’ve been interviewed and hired for both management and non-management IT positions. I’ve personally interviewed, hired and also coached IT Professionals who’ve gone on to wow their interviewers or ace the IT positions they wanted.

I’ve been in several situations where to get the next consulting assignment, I interviewed with several firms and also received multiple, competing job offers!

I’ve been in situations where firms competed for my services by trying to hire me away or by going out of their way to impress me with pretty good offers.

I’ve been hired for high visibility IT jobs in large organizations with just one single phone interview … and without going through a face to face interview.

I’ve taken more IT interviews than I care to count … closing and getting job offers 9 times out of ten.

I’ve even taken and aced phone interviews while driving and while on vacation.

I’ve been interviewed by a team of not one single person but a team of professionals several times during my career and sometimes without any warning and still wowed the team of interviewers without any additional notice or preparation!

As far as IT job interviews are concerned, I’ve been there and I have been there and I’ve done it.

I Have Something To Say

I have a lot to say about job interviews and I’m asking you to learn from me, so that you can truly be the master of your own fortune.

Are you are ready to be all you can be, break out of your personal limitations and experience the success you want?

Begin by learning how to your business analyst job interviews”.

Are you teachable and open to learning? If you are, read the rest of this article on How To Ace Business Analyst Job Interviews.

Boost your Business Analyst Job Interviews Using The Scientific Method

If you are looking for a scientific way to boost your Business analysis skills or ace your Business Analyst job interviews, start using practice tests.

Research has shown that practice tests or quizzes improve retention, recall or understanding.

Research has also proven that workers who study and take quizzes have better long-term recall than their colleagues who study without taking quizzes.

Don’t use practice tests only in preparation for certification exams because they are useful for much more than that!

Practice tests or quizzes are effective for improving Business Analyst skills, retention or recall which helps you ace your Business Analyst job interviews!

Let’s go ahead and review how you may used practice tests to improve your skills or advance your Business Analyst Career or get a Business Analyst job.

Use Quizzes to Ace Business Analyst Job Interviews

Quizzes or practice tests are effective because they mimic the question and answer format of Business Analyst job interviews.

In Practice Tests, the Quiz software usually presents random questions to you, rates your answers as correct or incorrect and then displays correct answers for your benefit!

Practice Tests simulate Business Analyst job interviews by presenting the different types of questions interviewers ask including Single Choice, Multiple Choice or Open-ended interview questions.

In a Business Analyst job interview, the potential employer will ask a question and then review your answers for correctness, promptness of reply and comprehensiveness.

Lack of correctness (wrong answers), promptness (slow responses) and comprehensiveness (not enough details) may cause you to lose your Business Analyst job interview or give you a bad rating!

So, how would you prepare for your next job interview using this new information?

Start by using practice tests which can;

• Present potential Business Analyst job interview questions in random order

• Rate answers to single-choice, multiple-choice and open-ended interview questions … so you get used to answering them in interviews

• Present the correct Business Analyst job interview answer with additional explanations so you familiarize yourself with the correct answers

Use Quizzes to Sharpen Your Business Analyst Job Interviewing Skills

Practice tests actually improve your ability to remember or recall correct answers in your interviews.

Use them extensively to prepare for your interviews weeks or months before you need a job!

Practice tests are effective because you answer a set of questions multiple times until they sink in and become second nature!

How Sharp Are Your Business Analyst Skills?

During your Business Analyst interviews, you are evaluated based on the correctness, promptness of reply and comprehensiveness of your answers.

Correctness:

Your answers are evaluated based on how precise or correct they are. Even when the Business Analyst interview questions are open ended, your answers are still evaluated as correct or incorrect.

You impress your interviewer when you can answer most or all of the questions you’re asked correctly. Not getting your facts straight or not knowing your material will certainly cost you the interview!

Promptness:

You are evaluated based on how quickly you respond to Business Analyst interview questions.

The quicker you are in responding to Business Analyst interview questions, the sharper your skills are perceived to be.

So, you lose points when you take too long to answer a Business Analyst question and you gain points or credibility, when your answers are quick or instinctive.

Comprehensiveness:

Your interviewer evaluates your Business analysis level of knowledge when you answer a Business Analyst question.

So, a comprehensive, detailed or factual answer will score more points than a sketchy, skimpy answer.

When you are asked a Business Analyst question, you really need to wow your interviewer by demonstrating that you have more than a superficial understanding of the topic.

You need to do this by giving the correct answer promptly and comprehensively (with as much detail as the time you are given permits).

How To Answer Business Analyst Interview Questions Correctly

Business Analyst Testing Software programs present a list of Business Analyst interview questions and then evaluates your answer to each question as either true of false … which helps you identify the correct answers.

You need to study each answer’s explanation, understand why it is correct and why the other answers are not correct.

You also need to attempt the same question several times until your answers are consistently correct.

Practicing with Business Analyst Testing Software will help you respond back promptly, correctly, comprehensively in a live Business Analyst interview.

How to Answer Business Analyst Interview Questions Promptly

Because practice questions are presented in a quiz software, you have a reliable way of recording, tracking or monitoring your training sessions and improvement.

Your ability to answer Business Analyst interview questions promptly is a function of your familiarity with the question or topic.

As your level of familiarity with Business Analyst questions increases, your promptness in answering also increases. So, practice taking Business analyst interviews using Business Analysis Testing software

In this article, we discussed how to boost your skills and ace your Business job interview using a proven scientific technique.

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Business Analysts Learn Computer Programming

Are database development, computer programming, data analysis or web development required skills for Business Analysts?

Perhaps you’ve seen, heard about or applied for jobs asking for a broad or seemingly impossible range of skill sets?

Like those job descriptions for business analysts requiring computer programming skills or those for PMP Certified Project Managers with 5 years of software development experience!

This post addresses “how to bridge the gap between business analyst skills and unfair job descriptions written-up by Information Technology (IT) departments”

Bridging The Gap Between Business And Information Technology (IT) Careers

I would like to know if Business analysts are expected to know more about programming.

I attended a job interview last week and the interviewer was hesitant to consider me for the post of business analyst (BA) as i have no coding experience.

Do i need to know about database design, structure etc for me to be a good BA?

All along in my previous projects the database design, architecture and technology were decided by the technical team and DBA’s and i come into the picture as BA only after everything has been finalized.

But i was a Junior (jr.) BA and now im applying for the position of senior BA and people point out my lack of coding experience.

“Here is the answer to the challenges created by business analyst job descriptions which are worded to include programming and database skills”!

1. Looking from the business analysts (job seekers) perspective, you may be tempted to say NO.

   You may also argue that computer programming tasks should be left ONLY to software developer job descriptions.

2. Looking from the perspective of employers, recruiters or hiring managers, you may say YES because business analyst job descriptions are just a means to an end!

   For employers or hiring managers, the end is always the same (the job that needs to be done) … and job descriptions are just a means to achieving that!

So, which of these two perspectives (the employers or the job seekers) is the right one?

1. The employer who only cares about getting work done and will use any job description to achieve that end or …

2. The business analyst who feels overwhelmed by requirements for computer programming skills on business analyst job descriptions?

To this question correctly, we need to understand the roots of the conflict! So, let’s take a look at the source of gaps between IT Job Descriptions and Business Analyst Careers.

Introducing The IT Business Analyst

• The Information Technology (IT) Business Analyst Role Is Slowly Coming To Maturity

  As the roles of the computer programmer, database developer and systems analyst matured, the “IT Business Analyst” role evolved to fill analysis and requirements tasks left out of software development roles.

• The Accidental Business Analyst?

  As software development teams improve their requirements management or software development processes, some computer programmers begin picking up the requirements gathering and analysis tasks left undone by their team members.

  These Accidental Business Analysts are usually computer programmers or systems analysts with strong people, communication, business and requirements management skills who transition into or assume the role of the IT Business Analyst.

Some employers have not achieved a separation between “IT Business Analyst Roles” and “Computer Programmer Roles” in their minds.

For these employers, the distinctions between IT Business Analysts and Computer Programmers are a superficial play on words … hence the business analyst job description written-up to include computer programming languages!

So, back again to the question; “should a business analyst learn computer programming languages or acquire database development skills”?

• Are You Looking For A Business Analyst Job?

1. If you’re not looking for a business analyst job then you don’t need to learn computer programming (except if your employer mandates it).

   If you’re really that secure in your current business analyst job and know for a fact that you won’t be looking anytime soon … then you may argue that programming is not for business analysts

2. If you’re looking for a business analyst job and you want to go the extra mile for prospective employers, then go-ahead and learn some computer programming!

   It’s really the attitude that matters because job descriptions are not intended to be perfect and in the employer’s eyes, they’re just a means to an end.

   Put Yourself In The Employers Shoes for a moment and you will begin to see that it’s not personal. The employer only wants what’s best for the company and if they’re so inclined, you may help them by learning some computer programming!

Give Employers What They’re Asking For

I strongly believe that you should give employers what they want instead of wondering about the fairness or correctness of business analyst job descriptions!

1. Perhaps, you feel overwhelmed by the requirements for computer programming or database skills in business analyst job descriptions.

2. Or you feel that it’s unfair to expect business analysts to perform programming tasks

Get a clue, if you’re not the one hiring, then your feelings are irrelevant!

In today’s competitive job market, you will fare better by addressing the employers concerns because if you don’t, someone else … who is more hungry or desperate than you will!

Another business analyst who wants to provide the required programing services will get the job you need!




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The Domain Business Analyst Career Path

Is a business analyst with domain knowledge more valuable than a business analyst without domain knowledge?

By looking at how business analyst job descriptions are written, you may be tempted to say yes!

Business Analyst job descriptions are written as if there is a distinction between IT oriented business analysts with skills in UML, Use Cases, Requirements Elicitation, Requirements Modeling and domain oriented business analysts with knowledge in specific domains like sales, marketing, customer relationship management, insurance, finance!

For some reasons, hiring managers, staffing agencies and employers behave as if there is a difference between domain oriented business analyst job descriptions and IT business analyst job descriptions.

So, the question is How important is domain knowledge for a Business Analyst? and Is a Domain Oriented Business Analyst worth more than an IT Business Analyst?

A Question About The Value Of Business Analyst Domain Knowledge

I am a bored corporate research professional working at a big services company and wish to move to a different domain.

The ones I have identified are pre-sales, business analysis or marketing communications …

I think BA could be a good step forward from where I stand. But doesn’t a BA require domain specific knowledge?

Most of the job ads I see prefer a BA in (say) the finance domain to be from that background …

How important is domain knowledge for a BA? Can it be built on-the-job or is it an absolute pre-requisite?

Why Do Business Analyst Job Ads Specify Domain Knowledge?

In the rest of this article, I will discuss why hiring managers, staffing agencies and employers specify domain specific knowledge in business analyst job descriptions.

I will answer this question by looking at “who is better positioned to increase productivity when hired”.

1. Who Costs More To Train? Companies that hire business analysts without domain knowledge resort to training the new BA hires by enlisting the help of senior business analysts, subject matter experts or training vendors.

   Even when employers use internal resources for training new BA hires, they incur costs of lost revenue, reduced productivity and increased administrative expenses .

2. Who Is Positioned To Help The Business Now? Business Analysts lacking industry insight or domain knowledge needs more time on the job to learn and understand their domains before tackling any business problems.

   This may be unacceptable to stakeholders or business managers who can’t wait to get results now!

   A business analyst with domain experience who can start troubleshooting business problems is seen as being worth more than another business analyst (lacking domain expertise) who may only observe, learn or ask questions!

3. Who Can Lead The Business? Senior Managers, IT Directors, Business Owners and other high level executives place more value on business analysts who can be trusted to lead the business.

   Business analysts unlike their counterparts in computer programming are expected to provide leadership for business-line units and organizations for which they are hired!

   Because of how business is done , managers, directors or business executives place less value on the judgment of business analysts without domain knowledge or industry experience!

   The perception which may be unfounded is that; a business analyst with domain knowledge has more potential to lead than another who lacks domain experience!

So hiring managers or employers tend to write business analyst job descriptions as if there are two business analyst career paths:

• The business analyst with IT business analyst training and specialized domain knowledge. This is the Specialist Business Analyst.

• The business analyst with IT business analyst training only! This is the Generalist Business Analyst.

Are You A Specialist Or Generalist Business Analyst?

So, are specialist business analysts worth more than generalist business analysts?

The answer doesn’t depend on “how you feel about the fairness of business analyst job postings” but on plain common sense which is always hiding in plain sight

If you’re applying only to IT Business Analyst Jobs, then don’t worry about your lack of domain knowledge.

If you’re applying to domain specific business analyst job postings like those for healthcare, finance, insurance, marketing, sales, customer relationship management (CRM) domains, then you had better do something about your lack of domain knowledge!




What Is The Toughest Challenge Facing Your Career?








Visit the Shopping Cart, Click Here






ABOUT TRAINING & COACHING COURSES




• Business Analyst Boot Camp - Online, Web Based, Instructor Led, Business Analyst Video Training


• SQL Boot Camp - Online, Web Based, Instructor Led, Hands On, SQL + RDBMS Video Training


• Software Developer Boot Camp - Online, Web Based, Instructor Led, Software Developer Video Training


• Data Analysts Boot Camp - Online, Web Based, Instructor Led, Hands On, Data Analyst Video Training


• Get Hired Fast - Online, Web Based, Resume + Job Search + Interview Video Training


• Become A Leader Coaching - Develop hands-on experience, gain domain expertise, solve industry problems, Stand Up and Be Noticed, market your career using PULL instead of PUSH techniques!









Visit our Shopping Cart

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