Table of contents:
The article is specifically written for:
Those looking to start a career as a Business Analyst
Those looking for a career change
Those who have recently started their first Business Analyst role
Crash course (understanding) of essential skills for the Business Analyst profession
Leads and managers who manage or plan to expand their teams and want to understand the basics of the BA Profession
Other aspirants and enthusiasts
The BA Practice has come across many recent graduates and professionals looking to start their careers as Business Analysts.
Frequently asked questions are:
How do I start a career as a Business Analyst?
What are the fundamentals needed to score my first Business Analyst role?
I am nearly finished graduating. How can I score a job as a Business Analyst?
I work as a Receptionist, Nurse, Recruiter, Journalist, Writer, Researcher etc., and I have no idea how to transition into a Business Analyst career.
Will I have a meaningful career as a Business Analyst?
What is the future of a Business Analyst?
What potholes should I be careful about when starting a career as a business analyst?
Let's get a few basics out of the way first. There is a difference between Business Analysis and Business Analyst, Discipline vs Profession, and different titles used across industries for a Business Analyst. The reference links provided will assist if you want to understand the differences.
Before we discuss how to start a career as a business analyst, it is important to briefly discuss the role of a Business Analyst and who can perform it.
Who is a Business Analyst?
"A business analyst is any person who performs business analysis tasks described in the BABOK Guide v3, no matter their job title or organisational role."
If you have read the article Is business analysis a profession or discipline? (bapractice.com.au) then you already understand the difference between Business Analysis as a discipline and Business Analyst as a profession.
A Business Analyst is a role (or profession), whereas Business Analysis is a discipline. In this article, we assume you want to become a Business Analyst and no other role interests you where the Business Analysis discipline spreads across.
What is the Business Analyst responsible for?
A business analyst is responsible for discovering, synthesising, and analysing information from various sources within an enterprise, including tools, processes, documentation, and stakeholders.
The business analyst is responsible for eliciting stakeholders' actual needs, frequently investigating and clarifying their desires to determine underlying issues and causes.
What does a Business Analyst do?
Business analysts play a role in aligning the designed and delivered solutions with the needs of stakeholders. The activities that business analysts perform include:
Understanding enterprise problems and goals,
Analysing needs and solutions,
Devising strategies,
Driving change, and
Facilitating stakeholder collaboration
To score your first business analyst role, what basics should you know?
We will discuss each of the points above in detail now.
Learn the basics of Industry, Domain (business area), and Methodology.
Industry:
Business analysts are a lucky few professionals who can work in any industry (quite literally) globally.
We recommend anyone wanting to choose a Business Analyst career to learn which industry they are most interested in, such as Energy, Telecommunication, Education, Health, incl. Pharmaceuticals, Audit, Legal, Banking, Supply Chain, Defence, Construction, Food and Agriculture, and the list goes on.
Things to consider when choosing an industry:
Which industry is booming?
Which industry is doing great work for the environment and people? What is their core purpose and value?
Which industry has a high job satisfaction rate?
Do your skills meet the industry?
Which industry can you relate to? Do you have a passion for a drive and the work they do?
Which industry can you see yourself becoming the most successful in?
Other factors to consider:
Income prospects
Career growth potential
Job availability and demand
Working conditions and safety
Lifestyle and environment
Benefits and perks
Note: Choosing an industry is not mandatory. However, having a passion for a specific industry you want to work as a Business Analyst will help your case.
Domain (business area):
Sometimes, it is not always in a person's control which business area they land their first business analyst role, precisely when you want to score a job as quickly as possible.
Though we do recommend having an understanding of (and staying affirmed) which business area you have an interest in, as this can have an impact on your career goals.
As an example:
If you see yourself as business-focused, then applying for and accepting a role in a technical area of an organisation may not give you the long-term career goals you seek.
Similarly, if you see yourself as a technically sound person or want to work in a technical area to hone your skills, then applying for and accepting a role in a business-focused area of an organisation may not give you the long-term career goals you have sought.
In addition to the above, when learning about a domain, it is crucial to learn common terminologies specific to the business area you are in and other parts of the organisation your domain/business area typically interacts with.
Methodology:
Many organisations hire business analysts for specific projects requiring a basic understanding of methodologies such as Waterfall and Agile.
Note: There are many methodologies within the Agile framework. The most commonly used are Scrum and Kanban.
Business analysis work conducted by the Business Analyst will vary depending on the selected initiative methodology.
The BA Practice recommends gaining a basic understanding of both methodologies. This will assist you during your interviews and help you hit the ground running in an initiative. The BA Practice will advise the differences and how the work is impacted using practical examples during the business analysis course delivery. Contact us today.
Master key underlying business analyst core competencies.
Underlying Competencies are also known as Core skills. Additionally, industry professionals may use the term 'Soft or Transferable skills.
The BA Practice strongly recommends learning and experiencing the following competencies/core skills:
Analytical thinking and problem-solving.
Behavioural characteristics
Business knowledge
Communication skills
Interaction skills
Tools and technology
The beauty of the above skills is the person learn some of these in many ways, such as: at home, with friends, during university assignments and exam, in group discussions, and experience through other professions. Furthermore, these skills are transferable. So, when you move to another job, organisation, or industry, you take these skills with you!
The BA Practice trains all participants in the underlying competencies listed above during the course and dives into much detail. All skills are targeted and taught from the business analysis perspective.
Understand the basic business analyst terminology (speak as the BAs do!)
The BA Practice recommends the following minimum terminology to be aware of, so you speak as the experienced BAs do!
Note: The following will be explained in detail during the business analysis course delivery. Contact us today.
Acceptance criteria. Some call it success criteria.
Approval.
Artefact.
Backlog.
Business analysis information.
Consensus.
Design. The term 'design' is used by many professionals. The definition defers depending on whom the person speaks with. There is a specific meaning from the business analyst's perspective. A design is a usable representation of a solution. The design focuses on understanding how value might be realised by a solution if it is built. The nature of the representation may be a document (or set of documents) and can vary widely depending on the circumstances.
Elicitation. This includes workshops, interviews, brainstorming, and more.
Gap.
Issue.
Plan.
Prioritisation.
Problem.
Process.
Rationale.
Requirement. Understanding each requirement classification's what, why, how, and when.
Risk.
Stakeholders. We strongly recommend not confusing stakeholders to be only 'business'. From a business analysis perspective, stakeholders are anyone the business analyst interacts with directly or indirectly, including project and technical stakeholders and other business analysts.
User interface.
User experience.
User story.
Workflow.
The list goes on, but we hope this gives you a starting point. As you learn the above terminologies, we are sure you will encounter more common ones in your learning.
Grasp a basic understanding of business analyst processes.
There are many processes the business analyst follows (or creates) for an initiative to be successful. The value delivered by good process(es) can be significant to an organisation.
Depending on the initiative, standard processes (or Knowledge Areas) a business analyst follows are:
Business analysis planning and monitoring
Elicitation and collaboration
Requirements lifecycle management
Strategy analysis
Requirements analysis and design definition
Solution evaluation
The BA Practice will train participants in the processes mentioned above for the business analysis course delivery. Contact us today.
Note: Strategy Analysis and Solution Evaluation are out-of-scope for ECBA. Learn more about ECBA here.
Fundamental understanding of business analyst tools and techniques.
You will require a solid understanding of essential tools as a business analyst. The knowledge of these tools can be acquired without professional experience (no, seriously). These tools are:
Microsoft Office (or similar) like:
Word - There will be an expectation for you to be intermediate with using Word. You will be required to create many documents, e.g., Requirements, Change Requests, Business Case, etc.
PowerPoint - Many presentations, business ideas and concepts, walkthroughs, and more will be done using PowerPoint.
Excel - Lots of simple (non-technical) calculations, reading and interpreting simple data will be needed. So, your basic understanding of Excel will be advantageous.
Communication tools like:
Zoom, Teams
Outlook
Specific tools for Business Analysts:
Diagramming tools like Visio, Lucid chart, draw.io (or similar). As a business analyst, you will be required to create many simple and complex visuals such as Context flows, process (swim lane) flows, state diagrams, data flow diagrams, use case diagrams, and many more.
Requirements management tools like Jira and Confluence.
Document storage tools like SharePoint and Confluence.
Visual design (or wireframe) tools like Balsamiq and Moqups.
Note: We come across people wanting to learn these simple tools and techniques when they land their first job. We strongly recommend you learn these tools and techniques without relying on your job. These are essential skills and will be required in many initiatives you will work on. Also, from a recruiter's or your manager's perspective, they expect you to know the basics.
The BA Practice will train participants in the processes mentioned above for the business analysis course delivery. Contact us today.
Raise your hand for business analyst activities.
This concept applies to almost anything in life. Let us start with the following quote:
“Do the best you can until you know better. Then when you know better, do better.” - Maya Angelou.
One of the pieces of advice The BA Practice can give you is:
"Be curious. Always be ready to learn. There is NEVER a time throughout a business analyst's career that they stop learning. So, start your learning now." - Kevin Gupta.
Some suggestions on how you can start learning activities that business analysts perform:
Read books to start your knowledge journey today. A few books we can recommend are:
The BABOK v3 Guide by IIBA - Contact The BA Practice to grab a book
Mastering the requirements process by Suzanne and James Robertson
Reach out to not-for-profit organisations or universities that can get you involved in their projects.
Reach out to us - The BA Practice to see if we can get you involved in our in-house projects or place you in our affiliate organisations.
Become a certified Business Analyst
We strongly recommend you get certified in business analysis. The BA Practice provides business analysis courses to people with varying experiences. Contact us today.
The certificate assists you in proving your competence to your potential recruiter. More and more recruiters hiring business analysts are looking for BAs with credentials. Yes, this applies to people starting new as a BA.
Additionally, a certificate helps you stand out from the crowd.
The future of the Business Analyst profession.
As of September 2022, as per the Australian Government (labour market insights), 57,500 full-time ICT Business and Systems Analysts are employed, with a strong 12.9% projected future growth.
The data is limited to only ICT Business and Systems Analysts. So, the numbers are much higher when considering the Business Analysis discipline in Australia.
There is not a single industry that does not have business analysts employed. A business analyst is crucial for any industry and organisation to be successful.
The BA Practice strongly recommends you take a business analysis course today and become part of the success story! We provide end-to-end* solutions for your business analyst journey.
We hope the article was informative to you.
Reach out to The BA Practice if you need more information about starting a career as a Business Analyst.
Comments