How do I start my BA career?

“How do I become a business analyst?” is probably the second most popular question I hear from non BAs. The first one being “What the hell is it you do for work?” :)

It is always hard to give a general advice how to become a BA. Probably as hard as to guide someone with zero IT background how to become a software developer. It is possible, but it depends on so many things: which technology you want to specialise in, which programming languages or paradigms appeal to you, which problems do you want to solve with your programming… All these things need to be taken into account when planning your developer career.

The same is true for business analysis. Analysts come in all forms and shapes these days. The fact that the profession is pretty fresh and not as established as some more traditional roles doesn’t make it easy.

There are however some general things that one will need to consider before starting their BA journey. Let’s talk about them.

Photo: adeolueletu

Is it business analysis I want to do?

First and foremost, one need to understand if it is business analysis that is their passion. Often people use this term meaning something else. Quite often business analysis is mistaken with financial analysis: people rush into the profession hoping they would manage money streams and investments, but they find themselves dealing with hard stakeholders and backlogs. A huge career hiccup!

Another source of confusion is the analytics area. What doesn’t help at all is the fact business analytics is spelled very similar to business analysis and has the same abbreviation. Oh my… to put it simple, if you want to work with data and your next career move is data science — go for business analytics career. They will teach you collect and analyse data and make meaningful decisions based on it. If you want to do something else — go for business analysis. Actually, it is probably about time to draw the line and define what business analysts do.

There is of course a formal definition (even quite a few!) in the industry of what business analysis is. However, following a nice advice I’ve heard from Alec Sharp (www.linkedin.com/in/alecsharp) a few years ago — if something is difficult to formally define, don’t do it — you will waste your time. Just explain what does it look like.

So let’s watch a business analyst in action and explain, what do they do on daily basis? Here is a list of typical daily responsibilities any business analyst has, regardless of industry and technology they work with:

• Analyse enterprise goals, pinpoint existing or potential problems, and recommend strategies

• Analyse needs and requirements and make them understood by the delivery teams

• Define solution scope and monitor progress

• Manage the requirements over the project lifecycle

• Drive organisational change and facilitate collaboration

• Validate the final solution

If this sounds like the list of things you would want to do — keep reading. Otherwise, find a similar article for a different job ;)

What do I need to know to start?

As I have stated above, all the business analysts come in different flavours. It is defined by the four key elements that you need to develop to become successful.

First, core skill set. This is the method that sits behind any BA work. You need to understand how business analysis is planned, which deliverables are typically produced, which formal notations and tools are used. This is the stuff that you can read in the BABOK(r) Guide, or BCS publications, or in Karl Wieger’s books. Based on this theory you need to develop a structured approach to typical BA challenges, such as:

1. I am starting a brand new project and I need to scope the solution… How do I do it?

2. There is an inefficient process in the business that I need to improve… What do I need to do?

3. We need to design the functionality of a new application… Where do I start?

   
   

Second, perspective. Perspective is the context of your organisation that guides how the activities are being performed. For example, the company may be undertaking an agile transformation, so all the roles in the business will be affected by the agile ways of working, including BA. Therefore, you need to learn what “Agile” means and how it changes the way you perform your tasks. Other examples of perspectives can include things like ITIL, Six Sigma, ISO 27001, etc… You need to understand which perspective is likely to be applied on business analysis role in your next career move and be prepared for it.

Third, organisation knowledge. You need to understand how the business generates value, and how it behaves in general. This is a great avenue for subject matter expects to enter the profession within the same or similar company. They can easily compensate the lack of BA method or perspective with deep understanding of the business. From outsides, there will always be a learning curve every time you join a new company, as it may have different business processes or be using different technology solutions, that you will have to familiarise yourself with. When just starting the career, if you know which types of companies or departments you want to work with, you can invest time studying the solutions typical for them. For example, learn some HR systems, or ERP systems, or CRM etc. and become an expert in those.

Last but not least, industry knowledge. Due to the nature of the profession, business analysts often work with latest technology and business trends, helping the organisations navigate through the change. Being familiar with what happens on the market and in the society helps better understand the nature of the change you are working with and tailor your approach to it.

Your algorithm

Summing it up, if you want to become a business analyst:

1. Make sure what you want to do is actually business analysis

2. Develop an understanding of BA method

3. Learn the contextual management approaches and how they influence the application of business analysis

4. Develop some organisation knowledge: learn how the companies you are likely to work for behave and which solutions they use

5. Keep up with the latest industry trends

Good luck in your journey!