IT Career Coach » business analyst boot camp http://www.it-career-coach.net How To Put your Career in Overdrive Mon, 30 Aug 2010 01:25:02 +0000 en hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.0.1 Bridging the Gap between Business and IT: The Case for Business Analysts http://www.it-career-coach.net/2010/07/03/bridging-the-gap-between-business-experience-ba-training/ http://www.it-career-coach.net/2010/07/03/bridging-the-gap-between-business-experience-ba-training/#comments Sat, 03 Jul 2010 22:33:25 +0000 IT Career Coach http://www.it-career-coach.net/?p=2940

bridging the gap for business analysts

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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]]> http://www.it-career-coach.net/2010/07/03/bridging-the-gap-between-business-experience-ba-training/feed/ 1 Career Tip for Senior Business Analysts: Become The Lead Business Analyst! http://www.it-career-coach.net/2010/06/10/career-tip-for-senior-business-analysts-become-the-lead-business-analyst/ http://www.it-career-coach.net/2010/06/10/career-tip-for-senior-business-analysts-become-the-lead-business-analyst/#comments Thu, 10 Jun 2010 07:49:48 +0000 IT Career Coach http://www.it-career-coach.net/?p=2929

Career Tip For Senior BAs: Become The Lead BA

Career Tip For Senior BAs: Become The Lead BA

This post answers questions received from senior business analysts asking about how to carve out an upwardly mobile career path in their company or organization.

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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]]> http://www.it-career-coach.net/2010/06/10/career-tip-for-senior-business-analysts-become-the-lead-business-analyst/feed/ 6 Why Is Requirements Management A Top In-Demand Skill? http://www.it-career-coach.net/2010/05/27/why-requirements-management-for-business-analysts/ http://www.it-career-coach.net/2010/05/27/why-requirements-management-for-business-analysts/#comments Thu, 27 May 2010 07:34:00 +0000 IT Career Coach http://www.it-career-coach.net/?p=2920

Requirements Management Skills In Demand

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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]]> http://www.it-career-coach.net/2010/05/27/why-requirements-management-for-business-analysts/feed/ 3 What Does It Take To Learn Business Analysis? http://www.it-career-coach.net/2010/05/21/what-does-it-take-to-learn-business-analysis/ http://www.it-career-coach.net/2010/05/21/what-does-it-take-to-learn-business-analysis/#comments Fri, 21 May 2010 12:55:42 +0000 IT Career Coach http://www.it-career-coach.net/?p=2918

Highly Paid Business Analyst

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 more 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.

However, you are not alone in assuming that knowledge of software development or a college degree like an MBA, qualifies one to become a business analyst.

However, the reality is:

  • There is more to business analysis than just gathering requirements

  • Making the leap from your current IT job to a business analyst role is not always as easy as it looks

Business Analysis is really not like computer programming and it is not equivalent to projecty 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.

The 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.

The business analyst liaises 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!

Even though you do not need an MBA to be a successful business analyst, you still need to learn and master the core business analysis skills.

To start with, 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.

Demonstrate your 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 just because the candidate was persuasive only to regret the lack of understanding of the role or the lack of 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 lower.

  • 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 right skillsets

.

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 to 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 their professional carees.

What Are The 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

Summary

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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]]> http://www.it-career-coach.net/2010/05/21/what-does-it-take-to-learn-business-analysis/feed/ 12 Getting Back Into The Job Market: How To Start A Business Analyst Career http://www.it-career-coach.net/2010/04/16/getting-back-into-the-job-market-how-to-start-a-business-analyst-career/ http://www.it-career-coach.net/2010/04/16/getting-back-into-the-job-market-how-to-start-a-business-analyst-career/#comments Fri, 16 Apr 2010 12:56:46 +0000 IT Career Coach http://www.it-career-coach.net/?p=2900

starting a new business analyst career

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

    2. 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

    3. 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

    4. 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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]]> http://www.it-career-coach.net/2010/04/16/getting-back-into-the-job-market-how-to-start-a-business-analyst-career/feed/ 2 The Business Analysts Role In Facilitating Data Warehouse Projects http://www.it-career-coach.net/2010/03/10/the-business-analyst-role-in-facilitating-data-warehouse-projects/ http://www.it-career-coach.net/2010/03/10/the-business-analyst-role-in-facilitating-data-warehouse-projects/#comments Wed, 10 Mar 2010 12:29:39 +0000 IT Career Coach http://www.it-career-coach.net/?p=2868

Business Analyst Role In Data Warehouse Projects

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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]]> http://www.it-career-coach.net/2010/03/10/the-business-analyst-role-in-facilitating-data-warehouse-projects/feed/ 0 The Agile Business Analyst, A Customer Advocate? http://www.it-career-coach.net/2010/02/22/the-agile-business-analyst-a-customer-advocate/ http://www.it-career-coach.net/2010/02/22/the-agile-business-analyst-a-customer-advocate/#comments Mon, 22 Feb 2010 13:13:22 +0000 IT Career Coach http://www.it-career-coach.net/?p=2846

The Agile Business Analyst

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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]]> http://www.it-career-coach.net/2010/02/22/the-agile-business-analyst-a-customer-advocate/feed/ 6 Can a Developer Make a Good Business Analyst? http://www.it-career-coach.net/2010/02/02/can-developers-make-good-business-analysts/ http://www.it-career-coach.net/2010/02/02/can-developers-make-good-business-analysts/#comments Tue, 02 Feb 2010 13:59:37 +0000 IT Career Coach http://www.it-career-coach.net/?p=2774

Computer Programmers Learning Business Analysis

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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]]> http://www.it-career-coach.net/2010/02/02/can-developers-make-good-business-analysts/feed/ 0 How To Answer Business Analyst Job Interview Questions http://www.it-career-coach.net/2009/09/28/how-to-answer-business-analyst-job-interview-questions/ http://www.it-career-coach.net/2009/09/28/how-to-answer-business-analyst-job-interview-questions/#comments Tue, 29 Sep 2009 02:50:12 +0000 IT Career Coach http://www.it-career-coach.net/?p=2565

How To Answer Business Analyst Job Interview Questions

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.

Sign-up for our Business Analysts Newsletter to get more information Like This

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]]> http://www.it-career-coach.net/2009/09/28/how-to-answer-business-analyst-job-interview-questions/feed/ 0 Develop Your Personal Brand And Become a Leader! http://www.it-career-coach.net/2009/08/11/develop-your-personal-brand-become-a-leader/ http://www.it-career-coach.net/2009/08/11/develop-your-personal-brand-become-a-leader/#comments Wed, 12 Aug 2009 00:03:38 +0000 IT Career Coach http://www.it-career-coach.net/?p=2244

Develop Your Personal Brand - Become A Leader

Develop Your Personal Brand - Become A Leader

Develop Your Personal Brand And Become a Leader

This course teaches you how to develop and use your competitive advantages in the workplace, job market and industry using the PULL method.

You will learn how to become a leader in your industry by developing and taking advantage of your personal brand using PULL techniques.

By the end of this course, you will have learnt how to select the best leadership projects for your industry based on your background, skills, education, training, job history and interests.

It’s Time To Stand Up and Be Noticed. Here is the course outline;

Coaching: Develop your Competitive Advantage

  • Introduce yourself, discuss your background, skills, interests and aspirations and submit your resume for review
  • Understand the PUSH vs. PULL method
  • Learn how to identify, develop and maximize your competitive advantage
  • Identify your career objective and discuss why it’s important to you
  • Workshop
    • Discuss your resume, career objective, challenges, skills, background, education, training, job history and career interests

Coaching: SWOT Analysis

  • Learn how to use SWOT Analysis to identify your competitive advantage and determine your unique offering in the workplace
  • Workshop
    • Prepare a SWOT Analysis document for your career objective

Coaching: OGSM

  • Consider alternative strategies for achieving your career objective
  • Determine the appropriate SMART goals based on your SWOT Analysis
  • Workshop
    • Develop an initial OGSM plan for achieving your career objective

Coaching: Personal Branding

  • Discover your personal brand based on your skills, backgrounds, interests, career objectives and SWOT Analysis
  • Develop your personal brand based on your unique, differentiating values
  • Workshop
    • Choose your personal brand based on your skills, backgrounds, interests and career objectives
    • Develop an action plan that supports your personal brand offline and online

Coaching: The PULL METHOD – Strategy

  • Learn how to use PULL techniques
  • Identify the relevant PULL methods for achieving your career objective
  • Discuss the implementation each PULL method
  • Workshop
    • Document the appropriate set of PULL techniques for your industry

Coaching: The PULL METHOD – Implementation

  • Identify the appropriate tools for implementing each PULL method
  • Workshop
    • Discuss the implementation and use of tools and platforms for the PULL method

Coaching: Become a Leader

  • Enhance your Personal Brand
    • Learn how to become an expert in your industry
    • Analyze the needs, problems, issues specific to your niche, domain or industry
    • Learn how to promote your brand, image and positioning
  • Identify and implement relevant tracking or monitoring tools including;
    • Time management plans
    • Project management plans
    • Personal branding plans
    • Business plans
    • Marketing plans
    • Job Search plans
  • Identify the relevant Leadership Projects for your Industry
  • Review and discuss cost and benefits of each leadership project
  • Workshop
    • Choose and implement your leadership projects

Coaching: Benefit From Your Brand Or Get The Job Your Want!

  • Understand how to profit from your personal branding activities
    • Learn how to be productive with or without a job
    • Learn how to earn an income from consulting, contracting, full-time or freelancing opportunities
  • Workshop
    • Take advantage of opportunities from your personal branding or leadership projects

Interested?

Contact Us or Apply Online …  

   

|   

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]]> http://www.it-career-coach.net/2009/08/11/develop-your-personal-brand-become-a-leader/feed/ 0 Become a Leader And Get The Job You Want! http://www.it-career-coach.net/2009/07/21/become-a-leader-and-get-the-job-you-want/ http://www.it-career-coach.net/2009/07/21/become-a-leader-and-get-the-job-you-want/#comments Wed, 22 Jul 2009 00:19:20 +0000 IT Career Coach http://www.it-career-coach.net/?p=2101

become a leader get the job you want

Become A Leader-Get The Job You Want!


Become a Leader And Get The Job You Want!

Getting a job by sending out resumes to employers is known as the push method because it depends on you pushing the employer to hire you!

The problem with the traditional method of getting a job is that everyone who is out-of-a-job is probably doing the same thing … pushing their resumes to hiring managers or employers!

Getting hired in a competitive job market doesn’t mean … “do what other job applicants are doing” … it means “do more than your competition!“

Stand-Out and Be Noticed!

You need to raise the bar higher by getting employers to notice you or call you with job offers! This is also known as the pull method.

It’s an enviable position to be in … to have jobs referred to you instead of you chasing after them.

I’ve had that happen to me, it’s happening for others and it can happen for you too!

Are you Getting Noticed?

You need to attract the attention of employers by taking actions that get you noticed or make you stand-out in comparison to others!

You may be thinking: “Why can’t I just send-out lots of resumes and get hired using the tried and proven push technique?”

If your resume is 2 or 3 times better than your competition and your skills and experience are head and shoulders over everyone else’s then you are okay to depend solely on your resume.

In the “dot-com bubble” or “I.T. bubble bust a lot of smart and talented IT professionals couldn’t get jobs by sending out their resumes.

Employers were receiving an unheard of 500+ resumes from doctoral, post graduate and well certified IT professionals!

Some employers stopped hiring, some stopped checking their mailboxes and others resorted to more discreet hiring methods!

Because so many resumes were being pushed to employers, the value of a resume sent by e-mail was next to nil!

That was when I learnt the value of becoming a leader. So, I started my first leadership project and ended up with invitations to interview and work for two major organizations because I was noticed!

Any Lessons Learned?

Don’t put all your eggs in one basket by depending solely on your resume and online job postings!

The value of becoming a leader in your industry, is that you get hired through the back-door! That door that is left open for exceptional, talented or highly qualified job applicants only :-)

When you become an industry leader, employers are apt to call you with job offers and you’re guaranteed to stand out in comparison to other job seekers!

How Do You Become An Industry Leader?

The pull method depends on you working on projects, activities and problems that are important to employers even though you may not have a job.

You commit to solving problems specific to an industry or domain in a visible way!

Because you commit to solving business problems important to employers, you’re likely to get noticed or get more consulting, coaching or employment requests.

Lead Your Industry By Becoming a Domain Specialist

If all you’ve been doing is “sending out resumes” and that hasn’t worked too well for you … then it’s time to “change your approach” by demonstrating that you care!

Becoming a Leader means that you engage your down-time time in-between jobs more productively.

You work on getting hired by making yourself wanted, instead of mass mailing the same resume or a cosmetically improved version to employers!

Click here to get in touch with us and we will help you select the best leadership projects based on your background, skills, education, training, job history and interests

Specializing in a domain or industry raises your profile to that of an expert or highly-skilled resource. That’s how you get more consulting, coaching or full-time employment offers.

So, what are you waiting for? Click here to request more information on how to become a leader and get the recognition or type of employment (coaching, consulting or full-time) you deserve!

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]]> http://www.it-career-coach.net/2009/07/21/become-a-leader-and-get-the-job-you-want/feed/ 12 How Important Is Domain Knowledge For A Business Analyst? http://www.it-career-coach.net/2009/07/19/how-important-is-domain-knowledge-for-a-business-analyst/ http://www.it-career-coach.net/2009/07/19/how-important-is-domain-knowledge-for-a-business-analyst/#comments Mon, 20 Jul 2009 04:38:38 +0000 IT Career Coach http://www.it-career-coach.net/?p=2089

The Domain Business Analyst Career Path

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!

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]]> http://www.it-career-coach.net/2009/07/19/how-important-is-domain-knowledge-for-a-business-analyst/feed/ 0 Alternate Career Paths for Business Analysts http://www.it-career-coach.net/2009/07/03/alternate-career-paths-for-business-analysts/ http://www.it-career-coach.net/2009/07/03/alternate-career-paths-for-business-analysts/#comments Fri, 03 Jul 2009 19:07:36 +0000 IT Career Coach http://www.it-career-coach.net/?p=1845

Ask IT Career Coach

Ask IT Career Coach

The fundamentals of earning an income is rooted in the exchange of goods, services or skills and having an 8 to 5 job is just one way of doing that!

This post answers the question of what to do when you can’t get a job! posted by a reader (Kintu Vicent) who is inquiring about “how to earn an income as a business analyst without regular employment!“

If you need help with a Question or Challenge, be sure to ask it as a comment on this page and I will answer it fully just as I am answering this reader’s question below!

Please, send this post to your friends using the “Tell a Friend” Button button below. You earn points or cash each time you refer an article to your friends using the Tell a Friend Button.

Here is the Question:

dear sir/madam,

i am an african youth living in Uganda (east african country).

i would like to be a good entreprenuer (small scale business owner) but also having a profession both beneficial to my own businesses like procurement and logistics and side by employment inorder to accumulate more capital to invest in my projects.

i have the following to ask you.

can you give some sophisticated business ideas a business analyst does?

rather than being a consultant or contract personel ,how better can a business analyst creat his own employment to face the global challenge of un-employment.

best regards,

looking forward to hearing from you.

High Un-employment Rate

The un-employment rate in the United States is at a 26 year high! and other countries are also experiencing dramatic spikes in un-employment. So, business analysts and other IT professionals need to consider alternative or non-traditional career paths for earning a living“.

First, Prepare a Strategic Plan Using SWOT Analysis

You create your own employment by using SWOT ANALYSIS to elicit alternative career paths or prepare competitive services for the business analysis marketplace.

You have to consider your strengths relative to the business analyst market place because you only get paid for what you can do well compared to others and you have to consider business analyst career paths strategically because you may be thinking in a box.

By thinking outside of the box, you begin to see opportunities that were hidden because of self-imposed mental constraints or limiting beliefs!

Alternative Career Paths for Business Analysts

Let me introduce three career paths for business analysts who don’t want to work a regular 8 to 5 contract or full-time business analyst job.

  1. Business Analyst Blogger Career Path: You may become a blogger for the business analyst blogosphere!

    To become a business analyst blogger, you need a computer, a word processor and an internet connection.

    You can live anywhere in the world as a business analyst blogger because your clients are easily discoverable on the internet.

    There are several ways of monetizing your blogging income streams and you need to choose a profit model that best suits your blogging goals.

  2. Freelance IT Business Analyst Consultant Career Path: You may become a freelance IT business analyst consultant!

    As a freelance IT business analyst consultant, you may specialize in requirements analysis, requirements modeling and documentation, Use Cases, UML or Data Modeling for Software Development Projects.

    As a freelance IT business analyst consultant you may also setup shop virtually and work remotely for clients that need your services.

    You will need a more sophisticated marketing plan so you can discover or engage the types of clients that will be needing your out-sourced business analysis services.

  3. Freelance Web Business Analyst Consultant Career Path: You may capitalize on the opportunities created by the strong demand for web skills by becoming a freelance web business analyst!

    As a freelance web business analyst, your services may include helping companies align their web investments with their business goals using your superior business analysis skills.

    As a freelance web business analyst, You may also decide to help companies analyze how customers use or interact with their websites or help elicit business requirements for web analytics projects.

    If you have developed strong quantitative or analytical skills, you may also help business leaders take advantage of hidden opportunities in their clickstream, search, survey or web usability data.

The alternative career paths listed above are just a tip of the iceberg … there are more!

If you need help with eliciting alternative career paths or preparing a competitive service for the market place, feel fee to contact us.

Career Paths for Business Analysts

Kintu, it is possible to create your own employment as a business analyst without working a traditional 8 to 5 job.

Begin by using SWOT Analysis to discover what you are good at and then create a competitive offering for the business analyst marketplace!

This post answers a question posted by a reader on “how to become a freelance business analyst!!

If you have any Question about your career, Post IT as a comment on this page and I will be sure to answer it for you!

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]]> http://www.it-career-coach.net/2009/07/03/alternate-career-paths-for-business-analysts/feed/ 3 How Do You Get Business Analyst Domain Experience? http://www.it-career-coach.net/2009/06/24/how-do-you-get-business-analyst-domain-experience/ http://www.it-career-coach.net/2009/06/24/how-do-you-get-business-analyst-domain-experience/#comments Wed, 24 Jun 2009 21:09:23 +0000 IT Career Coach http://www.it-career-coach.net/?p=1717

Become a Leader

Become a Leader

One of the toughest challenges facing business analysts today is building the domain experience required for business analyst jobs.

Acquiring business analyst domain experience from scratch is hard because you need to get a job before you can build domain expertise … yet no-one will give you a job without the required domain experience!

This article discusses how to get around the business analyst domain experience required for most business analysis jobs.

What is Business Analyst Domain Experience?

Business analyst domain experience is the hands-on business skills or domain knowledge acquired by working in a specialized industry such as automotive, banking, insurance, telecom, utilities or in a specialized business operation such as customer relationship management, finance, sales and marketing.

Business analyst domain experience is gained by solving business problems for a specific industry or business unit.

Business analyst domain experience can not be gained by passing exams or obtaining certifications or by having good business analysis skills like Use Case or Requirements Modeling skills

Business analyst domain experience can only be gained by working as a business analyst in an industry or by solving real-world business problems for a specific business function.

Don’t Confuse Your Business Analyst Skills With Domain Knowledge!

There is a difference between your business analyst skills and your business analyst domain experience.

Your business analyst skills (like requirement elicitation or use cases) are the techniques or tools you use in solving business problems.

Your BA skills are the means to an end … the end being the business problems in your domain or business.

A business analyst transitioning to a new domain starts with a little or no domain knowledge and then builds up over time.

Business analysts transitioning to new domains without several years of industry experience have to prove themselves as if they were starting all over … even though their business analysis skills are still portable!

When is Business Analyst Domain Experience Needed?

Transitioning From One Busines Analyst Domain to Another: Business analysts transitioning from a domain like the automotive or auto-finance industry to another domain like healthcare or telecomms have to build their business analyst domain experience completely from scratch.

Transitioning From One Country to Another: Business analysts transitioning from one country to another may have to re-establish their domain experience.

New domain knowledge is needed because businesses operate under different laws, regulations, customs and economic climates across national or regional boundaries

So, potential employer want to be sure that re-locating business analysts are intimate with the customs or ways of doing business locally.

How Do You Build Business Analyst Domain Experience From Scratch?

The IT Leadership program helps you acquire business analyst domain experience in a select number of industries or domains. Here is how it works:

  • Become a Domain Specialist: In the The IT Leadership program, you are encouraged to specialize in a few business analyst domains so you can achieve a reasonable level of mastery or competency within those domains.

    You don’t specialize in only one domain because that will be like putting all your eggs in one basket. You also don’t specialize on all domains because you won’t achieve mastery that way.

    This is what you do … you select a few business analyst domains to specialize in using the power of SWOT Analysis.

  • Become a Leader: The IT Leadership program gets you networked with businesses in a specific domain.

    You are exposed to the business problems in a domain and you solve them using skills acquired at the Business Analysts Boot Camp.

    Finally, you gain recognition or become a business analyst domain expert by sharing your findings or solutions with your selected businesses.

Become a Leader by signing up for the Business Analysts Boot Camp and then build the Domain Knowledge required for business analyst positions.

In this post, I discussed how to solve the challenge of acquiring business analyst domain knowledge by specializing in a few domains and solving business problems native to those domains.

Feel free to share an opinion or insight about this post using the comment form below.

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]]> http://www.it-career-coach.net/2009/06/24/how-do-you-get-business-analyst-domain-experience/feed/ 3 How To Become A Healthcare Business Analyst http://www.it-career-coach.net/2009/06/14/how-to-become-a-healthcare-business-analyst/ http://www.it-career-coach.net/2009/06/14/how-to-become-a-healthcare-business-analyst/#comments Sun, 14 Jun 2009 19:05:54 +0000 IT Career Coach http://www.it-career-coach.net/?p=1611

healthcare business analyst career path

healthcare business analyst career path

This question was posted by a Healthcare Business Analyst looking for work!

If you have a Burning Question or a Challenge that you need help with, be sure to ask your question as a comment on this page and I will answer it fully just as I am answering the question below!

If you find this article helpful then share it with your friends using the “Share This Post” Link.

You provide valuable information or advice to others each time you use the Share This Post Link.

Here is the Question:

Hi Kingsley,I like your articles and posts and look forward to a good advise from you on the following :

The toughest challenge for me is to get back into Business Analysis after working for just less than 2 yrs where my domain was government sector projects and a dash of incomplete healthcare knowledge.

I ‘m neither a fresher nor an experienced guy with very less domain exp. I mostly get healthcare projects ( since my last project was on health care domain) where my knowledge is inadequate and companies do not want to employ me for the same.

How can I bag such jobs when the domain knowlege is lacking? or how can I convince that my BA skills are good enough for the new domain?

I am not sure what additional skills I need to gain to be employable.Should I gain any technical knowledge or do IIBA certifications?

Please advise.

Thanks 

Here is my Answer:

Sri:

I’m glad that you enjoy reading my articles and posts. I would be glad to answer your questions for you.

Here are my thoughts on what you need to do to get back in the game.

  1. Learn How To Get A Business Analyst Job Without Applying For Any

  2. Learn How To Ace Business Analyst Job Interviews

  3. Get More Business Analysis Domain Experience

How To Get More Healthcare Business Analysis Domain Experience

The main issue facing your business analysis job search based on feedback from employers is inadequate healthcare domain experience.

You need to address the lack of business analysis domain experience directly by looking for more informal or formal work in the healthcare industry.

Don’t side-step the main issue by working on getting more educational qualifications because you won’t get more healthcare business analysis experience that way!

You need to either get more healthcare business analysis domain experience or perhaps start all over with a new business analysis domain!

If you decide to continue with the Healthcare Industry, then you will be building on your previous healthcare business analysis domain experience.

If you decide to start over with a new business analysis domain, you may be able to get additional business analyst hands-on experience more easily or quickly.

You also have the option on working on getting business analysis domain experience in more than one industry!

For example, you may increase your chances of getting a business analyst job by getting business analyst domain experience in sales or marketing or customer relationship management (CRM) domains in addition to the healthcare domain.

So, evaluate the availability or accessibility of domain experience in the healthcare industry compared to other industries or expose yourself to additional domains besides healthcare.

Regardless of which business analysis domains you choose, do not try to bypass the lack of experience issue … be sure to address it directly in your actions

Learn How To Ace Business Analyst Job Interviews

It is possible that you are not getting hired because you are not putting up a compelling presentation at your business analyst job interviews!

You may possess the minimal business analysis domain experience required for a healthcare business analyst job and still not get hired because of weak presentation or interviewing skills!

A business analyst may get a job where another business analyst else with more experience, skills, training, certifications or educations fails because job interviews are subjective!

So, you must work on improving your business analyst interviewing skills so you cover all your bases!

“Click here for more Information on How To Get Through Business Analyst Interviews“

Learn How To Get a Business Analyst Job Offers Without Applying For Any!

It is actually possible to get health care business analyst job offers without actively soliciting for them.

Assuming that the job search process is a marketing process, you are better off getting employers to call you with job offers!

The problem with the traditional methods of job searching is that everyone who is out-of-a-job is probably doing the same thing! To get a job you have to do more than everyone else!

So my advice is that; you have to raise the bar higher by getting employers to notice you or call you with business analyst job offers!

Now, that is quite possible and I am going to show you how!

The way to get employers to notice you is by becoming a leader in the healthcare business analyst domain or any other domain that you prefer!

How To Become A Leader In The Healthcare Business Analyst Industry!

The best way to get a healthcare job is by becoming a leader in the healthcare business analysis domain!

Becoming a leader in the healthcare business analyst domain means that you do the things that gets you noticed in the healthcare business analysis domain.

When you become a leader in the healthcare business analyst industry then employers are more likely to call you with job offers and your resume is guaranteed to stand out in any pile of business analyst resumes!

We have a program that coaches you on how to stand-up and be noticed! . IT helps you “Become a Leader”.

In that program you are shown or coached on “how to become a leader or gain recognition in the IT marketplace!“

Sri, feel free to ask for more information by contacting us or by posting a comment, question or reply below!

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]]> http://www.it-career-coach.net/2009/06/14/how-to-become-a-healthcare-business-analyst/feed/ 4 Is the Job Market Good Or Bad For Business Analysts? http://www.it-career-coach.net/2009/06/04/is-the-job-market-good-or-bad-for-business-analysts/ http://www.it-career-coach.net/2009/06/04/is-the-job-market-good-or-bad-for-business-analysts/#comments Thu, 04 Jun 2009 22:27:08 +0000 IT Career Coach http://www.it-career-coach.net/?p=1590

Ask IT Career Coach

Ask IT Career Coach

This question was posted by a Business Analyst in Milton Keynes, United Kingdom.

If you have a Burning Question or a Challenge that you need help with, be sure to ask your question as a comment on this page and I will answer it fully just as I am answering the question below!

Please, send this post to your friends using the “Tell a Friend” Button button below. You earn points or cash each time you refer an article to your friends using the Tell a Friend Button.

Here is the Question:

Hi,

I am looking to go into My first Business Analyst role, I have had a mixture of responses from people here in the United Kingdom (UK).

Some are saying that the market is bad for entry level Business Analysts and some say its good.

Is there any one that could give me advise on what I should do and how I should market myself?

Here is my answer to the question on “getting an entry level business analyst job in a good or bad job market“:

  1. Do not begin or opt-out of the business analyst job search because of the state of the job market.

  2. Do decide to search for a business analyst job because you want to be a business analyst.

Your decision to become a business analyst or search for business analyst jobs should be based on an interest or dis-interest in becoming a business analyst and not on factors beyond your control like the condition of the business analyst job market.

Stephen Covey in The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People mentioned that proactive people do not worry or focus on factors over which they have little or no control … instead they focus on their “Sphere Of Influence” … those factors or circumstances over which they can exercise control.

So, do not focus or worry about the condition of the Business Analyst Job Market.

Keep your focus on becoming a business analyst and making an effective search for a business analyst job by:

  1. Deciding if you want to become a business analyst by comparing your strengths to the demands of the business analyst profession

  2. Finding out how to get a business analyst job regardless of the condition of the business analyst job market

Do You Want To Become A Business Analyst?

Take the first action within your control by first learning the roles, responsibilities or duties of a business analyst.

Next compare what you have learned about the day to day challenges or the life of a business analyst to what you know about your own abilities, likes or strengths.

Finally decide if you want to become a business analyst based on all the information you’ve gathered.

There are several articles on this website that will help you make an informed decision on becoming a business analyst

Here are some articles on the topic of becoming a business analyst:

How Do You Effectively Plan The Business Analyst Job Search?

You need to make an effective plan for finding business analyst jobs because making that kind of plan is within your control or sphere of influence.

Make an effective plan for becoming a business analyst by improving each of the following areas that impact your business analyst job search:

  1. Business Analyst Cover Letter

  2. Business Analyst Resume

  3. Business Analyst Job Search

  4. Business Analyst Job Interviewing Skills

  5. Business Analyst Hands-On Working Experience

  6. Business Analysis Domain Experience

  7. Business Analysis Skills & Knowledge

The point here is that job searches fail because they are weak or improperly planned and not because of the condition of the business analyst job market!

Here are some articles on the topic of creating an effective business analyst job search plan:

Finally, I want to say that basing decisions about a beginning a career you like … on the job market condition is fundamentally flawed because of two reasons:

  • You cannot not wait till the business analyst job market is good because the market will be saturated with “Me-Toos” or everyone who wants to get a business analyst job because they hear that the market is also good!.

  • You cannot also delay applying for business analyst jobs when the business analyst job market is bad because others will also assume that the business analyst job market is bad. Applying when the business analyst job market looks weak is actually good for you because you will have fewer competitors then!

So, think positively, focus on factors within your control and remember that if you think that you can become a business analyst … you can!

This post answers a question posted by a reader. If you have a Question, Post IT as a comment on this page and I will be sure to answer it for you!

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]]> http://www.it-career-coach.net/2009/06/04/is-the-job-market-good-or-bad-for-business-analysts/feed/ 1 CRM Business Analyst Job Description http://www.it-career-coach.net/2009/05/11/crm-business-analyst-job-description/ http://www.it-career-coach.net/2009/05/11/crm-business-analyst-job-description/#comments Mon, 11 May 2009 20:20:49 +0000 IT Career Coach http://www.it-career-coach.net/?p=1457

CRM Business Analyst

CRM Business Analyst


One of the biggest hurdles facing business analysts in the current job market is the challenge of demonstrating the hands-on experience required in business analyst job descriptions

This article explains “how to improve your marketability as a business analyst by targeting business analyst job descriptions.”

Let me start by saying that there are two types of hands-on experience required for business analyst jobs:

  1. General Business Analysis Experience: This type of experience is gained by practicing or using general business analysis skills including Use Cases, Requirements Gathering, Requirements Modeling, Requirements Elicitation, UML etc.

  2. Domain Specific Experience: This is gained by working or supporting a specific business function, operation or process including sales, marketing, order fulfillment, payroll

The general business analysis skills and experience is transferable from one industry or job to another.

For example, it is easy to transfer or apply Use Cases skills gained from one job to another job. We provide training for these in the Business Analysts Boot Camp

Domain specific business analysis experience may not be transferable or easy to get.

For example, a business analyst job description listing domain knowledge in the Telecommunications Industry excludes domain knowledge gained from the Healthcare Industry or the Printing Industry.

We help business analysts gain domain specific business analyst experience in the “Become a Leader” Coaching program

The lack of industry experience or domain knowledge is one of the biggest reasons why business analysts job applications are rejected.

In the rest of this article, I am going to post an actual business analyst job description (open as of the day of this posting) and discuss the business analyst domain knowledge required for the job.

  1. You can improve your chances of landing a business analyst job, by learning how to segment the business analyst job market into specific domains or business processes and then gain the hands-on experience required for target business domains.

  2. This strategy is highly effective for getting a business analyst job because it realistic, actionable and specific.

  3. The reality is that you cannot get the business analyst domain experience that matches ALL business analyst job descriptions.

  4. However it is realistic to plan on getting the required domain experience for a handful of business analyst job descriptions.

Let me summarize what I have said so far:

  1. Segment the business analysis job market into specific domains, operations or functional areas (e.g. payroll, order processing, sales, customer relationship management)

  2. Do not try to get hands-on domain experience that matches every business analyst job description

  3. Do try to get hands-on domain experience that matches a select number of business analyst job descriptions

In addition to these, learn how to substitute hands-on experience properly: some business analyst job descriptions may seem out of reach because they require hands-on experience in specialized software products.

What you may not realize is that you can also substitute compelling hands-on experience in competing or similar software products even when the job description does not say so!

I am going to apply the principles I have been discussing to a real business analyst job description posted below. Note that these principles are covered in-depth within the “Become A Leader Coaching program” which is designed to connect business analysts or software developers with employers looking for qualified and talented IT professionals.

Customer Relationship Management (CRM) Business Analyst Job Description

Minimum Required Skills:

Business Analyst, Netsuite Analyst, ERP, CRM, ODBC, Crystal Reports, Javascript, case management, Issue management, knowledgebase

If you are a Jr. Business Analyst with knowledge of Netsuite’s Advanced Marketing functionality, and knowledge of Support and Customer Service features within Netsuite, or 1-2 years of relevant ERP / CRM experience, please read on!

*We will also consider 1-2 years of ERP / CRM experience with another platform other than Netsuite.

One of the Industry’s best resellers of Networking and Software technology has an immediate opening in there headquarters, located just outside of Boston. The Netsuite Analyst occupies a vital role within the company, and we’re looking for a talented person to fill the it.

Here’s what’s in it for you:

  1. Great Base Salary and Bonus potential.

  2. Tremendous work environment with talented colleagues.

  3. An opportunity to work with an industry leader, award winning company.

Here’s what you’ll need to do this job:

  1. 1 to 2 years experience as a Business Analyst supporting ERP / CRM platforms, ideally Netsuite but will consider others

  2. Experience with ERP / CRM System Administration and Customization features

  3. Experience with cash flow statements, payroll statements and the sales process lifecycle

  4. Ability to create reports using internal reporting tools, and/or creating custom Enterprise Reports using ODBC and Crystal Reports

  5. Experience creating enhancements with SuiteScripts, SuiteBundler, Etc.

  6. Implementation of new modules and features within ERP / CRM

  7. Strong communication skills.

Here’s what you’ll be doing:

  1. Provide support for the Netsuite system including Troubleshooting of the entire Netsuite application suite. Including but not limited to Case Management, Issue Management, Knowledgebase, etc.

  2. Creating and running reports within Netsuite using SuiteScripts, SuiteBundler, etc.

  3. Assisting in month end close with Chart of Accounts and General Ledger.

  4. Create documentation and user guides.

  5. Perform basic DBA tasks and Manage List data.

So, if you are a Jr. Business Analyst with knowledge of Netsuite’s Advanced Marketing functionality, and knowledge of Support and Customer Service features within Netsuite, or 12 years of relevant ERP / CRM experience, please apply today!

Note that this business analyst job description is for a real client in the Boston Area and is still available for interested and qualified business analysts

In the rest of this article and in the next series of articles, I will be discussing how to make your business analyst job search more relevant to target business analyst job descriptions.

#1: Hands-On Domain Specific Business Analyst Experience

You stand a better chance of getting hired as a business analysts if you couple strong expertise in specific business operations, processes or functions or domains to the more general business analysis skills that tend apply to most business analysis jobs (communications skills, requirements gathering or elicitation skills, UML skills, Use Cases skills, etc.)

The CRM business analyst job description posted above calls for hands-on experience in specific business processes including customer relationship management and sales process life cycle.

So, only business analysts who already have a background in customer relationship management (CRM) software applications or processes are qualified to apply for this job

The “Become a Leader Coaching” program provides the required hands-on business process specific experience for job descriptions like that posted above (CRM business analyst job description).

In addition, the “Become a Leader Coaching” program is currently open to subscribers of the business analyst boot camp or any of our IT Boot Camps

#2: Hands-On Experience in Common Business Processes or Functions

Sales, Marketing and Customer Relationship management business processes or functions are common to most businesses. So, business analysts who gain hands-on operational experience in these areas will find that there skills are applicable to most industries or businesses.

In a recent survey published by one of the leading outsourcing job banks, more companies are asking for help with their marketing and sales processes because of the need to generate additional income or revenue.

The “Become a Leader Coaching” program considers the importance of a domain or business process in preparing Business Analysts for that domain. The aim is to provide business analysts with compelling hands-on experience in target or select business processes or functions

#3: Match or Substitute Software Skills

The CRM business analyst job description posted above requires hands-on experience in the Netsuite CRM family of products.

However, you may not realize that in business analyst job descriptions like this, employers will accept hands-on experience in competing software products.

Also, you may not know what software application skills to substitute for the specialized or restricted skills required on the job description.

For example, you may not know that the hands-on Netsuite CRM experience mentioned above may be substituted with hands-on CRM experience in SAS, Chordiant, Salesforce, PeopleSoft (Oracle), Siebel (Oracle), SAP, Epiphany, Amdocs, SugarCRM, ZohoCRM, SplendidCRM or Microsoft Dynamics.

Remember that it is not practical to have a compelling hands-on experience in every business process or supporting software product.

That is why during the “Become a Leader Coaching” program, we provide business analysts with hands-on experience in specific business processes and supporting software applications.

In this article, I discussed “how to improve your marketability as a business analyst by learning how to target business analyst job descriptions” using a live business analyst job description.

In another article, I will discuss in more detail the business analyst – customer relationship management (CRM) job market. Note that this article is the first in a series of articles dicussing business analyst job descriptions.

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]]> http://www.it-career-coach.net/2009/05/11/crm-business-analyst-job-description/feed/ 14 Bonus Use Cases Training In The Business Analyst Book http://www.it-career-coach.net/2009/05/06/bonus-use-cases-training-in-the-business-analyst-book/ http://www.it-career-coach.net/2009/05/06/bonus-use-cases-training-in-the-business-analyst-book/#comments Wed, 06 May 2009 15:41:35 +0000 IT Career Coach http://www.it-career-coach.net/?p=1447

Top Paying Skills in High Demand

Top Paying Skills in High Demand

Use Cases skills are in-demand for documenting or communicating the functional requirements of a system

Use Cases skills are employed in product design roles, software development or architecture roles and are among the most sought-after skills for business analyst jobs

Why Use Cases Training for Business Analysts?

Here are some of benefits of Use Case training for business analysts:

  1. Use Cases are effective for documenting the business processes, requirements (business or system), features and functionality of a system. So Use Cases skills are needed at the problem analysis or requirements gathering phase, software design or development phase or testing phase

  2. Because Use Cases lie at the heart of many software development processes, Use Cases skills are in-demand for business analysts or software developers. Use Cases skills also play a principal role during requirements analysis, business process improvement, software testing, quality assurance and architecture

  3. Use Cases are effective for improving the requirements practices of software development teams or Information Technology (IT) teams and using Use Cases effectively can lead to improved product quality.

    When Use Cases are used in documenting or presenting the requirements of a system, the software development or IT team ends up with a better understanding of the system under consideration or development.

    Because Use Cases are written from the user’s view point in non-technical, implementation or jargon free language, the entire team including stakeholders, users, developers, testers and business analysts communicate or collaborate better resulting in improved product quality and a more efficient process

How To Learn Or Master Use Cases Quickly

The The Business Analyst Book is the e-book that provides you with a blueprint for learning business analysis or studying business analysis on your own. It is the teach yourself business analysis book.

If you prefer step by step, in-depth, video training from Business Analyst instructors, then the The Business Analyst Boot Camp is the right place for you.

The Business Analyst Boot Camp includes a complete set of business analysis videos, business analysis quizzes, business analysis handson projects and personalized business analysis coaching. The Business Analyst Book now includes select business analysis training lessons and business analysis quizzes adapted from the business analyst boot camp. So, now you are given access to select business analyst boot camp training material when you get The Business Analyst Book

Bonus Use Cases Training Now Included In the Business Analyst Book

The Business Analyst Boot Camp includes Use Cases quizzes, Use Cases video training and hands-on Use Cases projects. The Use Cases quizzes helps you master Use Cases in a shorter time and also prepares you for Business Analyst Job Interviews. The Use Cases quizzes are also designed to improve your comprehension, recall and retention of the Use Cases video training sessions.

However, we are now adding one of the Use Cases quizzes from The Business Analyst Boot Camp to The Business Analyst Book for past or current buyers of the book.

Included in the bonus Use Cases lessons for all owners of The Business Analyst Book are:

  • A Bonus Use Cases Lesson Summary: The bonus Use Cases Lesson is a downloadable electronic lesson that summarizes a Use Cases video presentation from The Business Analyst Boot Camp.

  • A Bonus Use Cases Quiz or Use Cases Practice Test:  The bonus Use Cases Practice Test or Quiz is adapted from the Use Cases video presented at The Business Analyst Boot Camp. The bonus Use Cases training comes with a private, secure, personal log-in to our web-based training portal or learning management system (LMS) and a Use Cases quiz that you may use to perfect your understanding or mastery of some Use Cases concepts.

How To Learn or Master Use Cases

The way to learn Use Cases quickly is by repeatedly practicing your Use Case skills until they are second nature. That is exactly what the bonus Use Cases training and Use Cases practice tests will do for you.

To learn more about how quizzes or practice tests help you develop mastery or competency, click here.

Learn Use Cases By Doing – Get Hands On Use Cases Experience

Note that in the Business Analyst Boot Camp, you are also presented with projects where you apply the information gained from watching the Use Cases video towards solving situations or problems similar to those facing you on the job!

Who Gets The Bonus Use Cases Training?

The bonus Use Cases training will be delivered to all buyers (past, current or future owners) of the The Business Analyst Book.

Note: that if you are subscribed to The Business Analyst Boot Camp, then you already have access to the complete set of Use Cases video training, Use Cases practice tests or quizzes, business analyst mentoring or coaching and hands-on Use Cases projects and this announcement does not affect you

How Do You Get The Bonus Use Cases Training?

Go to this link and place an order now for The Business Analyst Book and you will be given access to both the bonus Use Cases Training and the bonus Use Cases practice tests or quizzes

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]]> http://www.it-career-coach.net/2009/05/06/bonus-use-cases-training-in-the-business-analyst-book/feed/ 1 How To Get Through Business Analyst Interviews http://www.it-career-coach.net/2009/04/12/how-to-get-through-business-analyst-interviews/ http://www.it-career-coach.net/2009/04/12/how-to-get-through-business-analyst-interviews/#comments Mon, 13 Apr 2009 05:34:06 +0000 IT Career Coach http://www.it-career-coach.net/?p=1372

Ask a Burning Question

Ask a Burning Question

In this article I will be presenting a simple but effective plan for getting through business analyst interviews and also answer a question posted by a business analyst who has a hard time getting through business analyst job interviews.

Here is the question asked by the business analyst:

Hi,

The Toughest Challenge is to be able to get a job as Business Analyst.

I do get interviews but getting through interview as Business Analyst is quite a big challenge for me right now.

I need help getting through interviews as BA. All the interviews have been, have been very different style, format and different technical questions.

Here is my answer to the question asked by this business analyst:

The business analyst interviews are designed to evaluate two things:

  1. Your business analyst skills

  2. Your hands-on business analysis experience

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.

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 Do You Sharpen Your Business Analyst Interviewing Skills?

Because getting a business analyst job in a competitive job market requires your best effort, you need to sharpen your business analyst skills to the point where you can wow any interviewer.

This is the strategy that will get you through your business analyst job interviews … sharpen your business analyst skills to the point where you stand out at any business analyst job interview!

You sharpen or improve your business analysis skills by using business analyst quizzes or practice tests to prepare for your business analyst interviews ahead of time.

Quizzes are scientific tools that are proven to boost recall, retention and understanding. The scientific principle of using quizzes to improve your understanding of a material was covered here: Use Practice Tests Or Quizzes To Boost Your Skills Rapidly

The way to sharpen your business analyst interviewing skills is by using a Quiz software such as included with the Business Analyst Book – Business Analyst Interview Questions or the Business Analyst Boot Camp.

How To Answer Business Analyst Interview Questions Correctly

The business analyst quiz programs mentioned above 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.

How to Answer Business Analyst Interview Questions Promptly

Because the business analyst interview questions are presented in a Quiz software, you have a reliable way of recording, tracking or monitoring the time it takes you to answer business analyst interview questions.

You also need to know that your ability to answer interview questions promptly is a function of your familiarity with the question or topic. Because as your level of familiarity with a business analyst question or topic increases, your promptness in answering questions based on it also increases.

How to Answer Business Analyst Interview Questions Comprehensively

After each Business Analyst Interview Question is presented in the or the Business Analyst Boot Camp, you are also presented with the correct answer and an explanation.

You need to study each 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. Because when the question in asked in the business analyst interview session, you can then respond back promptly, correctly, and with as much detail as needed.

How To Demonstrate Hands-On Business Analyst Experience

The other important section of your business analyst job interview … that may decide if you get hired or not is how you demonstrate hands-on business analysis experience.

It is not enough to say that you have six months or six years of hands-on business analysis experience, you must demonstrate that convincingly to your interviewer.

When you attend the Business Analyst Boot Camp, you gain additional hands-on experience because you receive different types of business analysis work as you watch the training videos and work your way through the course at your own pace. Because you are working on several hands-on business analysis projects or assignments, you gain additional hands-on business analysis experience.

Note that while the Business Analyst Book and the Business Analyst Boot Camp both have a Quiz module for sharpening or improving your business analysis skills, only the Business Analyst Boot Camp provides you with additional business analysis hands-on experience.

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]]> http://www.it-career-coach.net/2009/04/12/how-to-get-through-business-analyst-interviews/feed/ 1 What Software Skills Do Business Analysts Need? http://www.it-career-coach.net/2009/03/25/what-software-skills-do-business-analysts-need/ http://www.it-career-coach.net/2009/03/25/what-software-skills-do-business-analysts-need/#comments Wed, 25 Mar 2009 19:29:43 +0000 IT Career Coach http://www.it-career-coach.net/?p=1292

Have you noticed the increasing demand for business analysts with stronger software skills or a wider range of skill sets?

Because this is a top hiring trend, business analysts have expressed concern about the range of skillsets requested for on job postings.

Some of these strong concerns are often worded as:

  • What software skills do business analysts need?

  • Should business analysts be made to learn computer programming?

  • Which software programs are required for business analysis jobs?

Along the same lines, one of the concerns expressed is; should business analysts have in depth knowledge of SQL, Access, Customer Relationship Management (CRM) software and Reporting writing software?

This article provides the needed guidance for the questions bordering on “what software skills are required for business analyst jobs“.

And while you are reading this, you may also want to read this article on why IT Managers are looking for business analysts with a wider range of skill sets.

Are Software Skills Required For Business Analysis Jobs?

The answer to the question: are software skills required for business analyst jobs … is yes and no.

Some companies hire only for the core business analyst competencies, while others include a wider range of software skills in their job description.

The core business analyst skill sets does not include knowledge of specific software skills. However, in the current job market, IT Managers are cutting costs by hiring business analysts with a broader range of software skills.,/p>

Traditionally, business analysts have had to learn the specific software used by a business after they get hired. Now, IT Managers are changing track by making some of these software skills required for hiring!

Which Software Skills Are Required For Business Analyst Jobs?

I will divide the software skills needed for business analyst jobs into three groups.

The first (A) group refers to the software skills required for ALL business analyst jobs.

The second (B) group includes the software skills that are a nice to have or frequently asked for.

The third (C) group represents the software skills that are not usually required.

  1. Software Skills Required For ALL Business Analyst Jobs (A List):

    These include office productivity software tools like Microsoft Word, Microsoft Excel, Microsoft PowerPoint and Outlook.

    These software tools are frequently used in the day to day tasks of a Business Analyst.

    These software tools are also required for a business analyst position whether they are stated clearly on the job description or not.

  2. Nice To Have Software Skills For Business Analyst Jobs (B List):

    The nice to have software skills include Relational Database Skills, SQL skills, Data Analysis skills and Report Writing skills.

    Next to office productivity software skills, database software skills are in-demand for business analyst positions.

    Organizations looking to cut costs or reduce It staff may combine the business analyst job role with the data analyst job role or report writer as the IT Manager or Director sees fit! When this happens the IT department will post business analyst job descriptions listing software packages traditionally required for data analyst or report writer type jobs.

  3. Highly Specialized Software Skills Needed For Business Analyst Jobs (C List):

    IT Managers are also hiring business analysts with the specific skills needed for custom or specialized software packages!

    The list of software skills in this list is infinite as it depends on the personal decision or needs of the hiring manager.

    An example is the IT director who wants to hire business analysts with Customer Relationship Management (CRM) software skills or computer programming skills!

    Now, it is impractical to worry about or focus on this list when preparing for the business analyst job market because the expectations and needs are diverse, wide and unpredictable.

    If you are a business analyst with a specialized software skill wanted by a hiring manager, you should highlight that in your resume. If you don’t already have a specialized software skill, you are better of working on the business analysis skills in the nice to have software skills (B List)!

Should IT Managers Hire Business Analysts with Highly Specialized Software Skills?

Since only office productivity software skills are required for all business analyst jobs, why do IT Managers then include specialized software skills in business analyst job descriptions?

  1. IT Managers are looking to cut costs by combining the job descriptions for business analysts, data analysts, software developers and report writers.

    With this in mind, business analysts need to be flexible in their approach to the job market.

  2. IT Managers and staffing specialists may write up business analyst job descriptions based on an imperfect knowledge of the core business analyst roles and responsibilities.

    If your boss writes up an imperfect business analyst job description based on mis-conceptions, about the roles and responsibilities of business analysts, you may providing some guidance by sending your IT Manager or Director the business analyst professional development curriculum downloadable here.

Who Are The Business Analysts With A Broad Range Of Software Skills?

Some business analysts really want to stay out of computer programming or data analysis or report writing or learning specialized software programs.

If a business analyst with that mindset is hired for a role that requires learning or working with a broad range of software skill sets, that business analyst will underperform.

If you are an employer hiring for business analysts with software skills, you may want to first hire for business analysts with SQL or Relational Databases or Data Analysis skills and then train the new business analyst hire on the list of highly specialized software skills needed by your company.

More Information On How To Improve Business Analysis Skills

The Business Analyst Boot Camp training is a practical, job-focused, web-based, instructor-led, video-based training program for business analysts.

The Business Analyst Boot Camp training is a complete, end to end training program that covers both beginner and advanced business analysis courses including requirements analysis training, UML training, Use Case training.

The Business Analyst training program is designed for the practicing Business Analyst who wants to learn or master business analysis skills for the day-to-day job requirements.

The Business Analyst training program has an in-built diagnostsic, testing and certification process and an online reporting tool that features your grades or scores as you (the Business Analyst) work your way through practical business analysis activities or watch the various business analyst training videos.

The Business Analyst training provides real savings and return on investiment (ROI) for individuals or corporations looking to manage business analyst training costs.

The cost of business analyst training is easily $5,000 or more for a series of business analysis courses that only covers one core skill or business analyst competency (e.g. UML Training).

Therefore, an IT Manager or business analyst looking for business analyst training that covers all the core business analysis competencies will have to invest in excess of ten thousand dollars.

That is why, we are only guaranteeing the current price of the Business Analyst Boot Camp for a limited time!

Right now, you can get the complete, end to end, beginner to advanced training across all business analyst competences in the Business Analyst Boot Camp for a discounted price.

We also have a discount program for corporations sending 2 or more business analysts for training. Click here to learn more.

For a limited-time, we are running a special for Business Analysts who want to broaden their skill sets or learn more software skills. For example, with the current special, you can register for both the Business Analyst Boot Camp and SQL Boot Camp for close to the price of one (2-for-1 special). A number of people like yourself are now taking advantage of this offer so, click here to get more information

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