Hi,
right now i am working as a "Software Engineer" in Bangalore, India. i have been thinking of getting into this field for the past 3 months. 1st i thought i could do a BA course through a IIBA endorsed education provider, found out that the fees is too high. next i tried to get into my company as a BA, it turns out dat my company does not have a BA position at all. when i look for oppurtunities outside d company i see that all the ads are for experienced BA's only. its really frustrating . can anybody suggest what i need to do.
also if somebody knows an opening in India for my experience, please do let me know.
thanks a lot, in advance
Hi Naveen,
Getting the first role as a BA is always the most frustrating one to get! I would suggest 2 things you can do:
1. migrate in to the role in your current company - a BA is defined by what they do not what they are called and there is nothing to stop you analysing requirements for projects: it will deliver benefits and who knows: you could convince your company they need BAs! The thing is, the BA role is being done (has to be in order for you to be able to engineer your software: you have to know what the users want engineered), so you can try and formalise that a bit. Forget about changing your job role for the moment, but start producing change requirements documents for user review that define the software and business requirements (and how they work together to deliver the solution). Once you have a track record for adding benefit to projects in this manner, then start making the case for establishing a BA function.
2. If you do everything in step 1 but your company still says "thanks but no thanks" you can rework your cv to show that even though your title was software engineer, you were doing BA job and work, and as such are now an experienced BA. You can then apply for jobs requiring BA experience with confidence. When you get to this point I owuld happily review your CV and offer suggestions for slanting it to show your BA expertise.
I don't think certification will help you at this stage in your career but you should certainly read up on BA theory (just the fundamentals of Business Analysis not all the fashionable and esoteric stuff, that is don't learn any particular method or approach cos they just come and go - there is a lot of freely available literature on this site and elsewhere concerned with just doing analysis such as the IIBA BABOK) and consider training - there are resources for that on this site here and mine.
Hope the above helps.
Regards,
Guy
Getting started as a Business Analyst can be challenging at times. The reality is that it is not different than other professions. Take nursing, for example - in order to become a nurse you have to go to school and learn the trade and get a degree/certification. And yes that can cost money!
It is not possible to become a BA overnight!
However, the good news is that there are many ways to become a BA and you just need to pursue the option which best suits your situation, desires, and career goals:
Hope this helps!
- Adrian
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