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12/15/2007 5:54 PM

	Faraz
3 posts

BA Career Path for Developer

Hi Folks,

I found this community quite impressive, expecting some help in getting my career path in the right direction. I'm a Microsoft platform developer working in the field from past 6 years, I'm based in London and doing contracting here. I want to move in management kind of role with the flavour of technicality, my deam job is towards CIO, IT Manager etc and i believe BA is the way. I don't want to go in to project management as it looks quite specific. I know i've to work a lot on this path but i don't understand how to proceed.

In addition let's say BA is the right path for me, any idea how can i enter in BA esp while i'm doing pure technical contracting work here in UK.

Regards

Faraz

12/16/2007 2:54 PM

	David Wright
141 posts
www.iag.biz

Re: BA Career Path for Developer

Faraz,

If you want to climb up the org chart to senior levels, you are going to have to manage people and budgets. I don't think that being a BA is a preferred path to management, as this is a position that produce deliverables, not manage them.

So, if you really want to be a manager, start by leading something: a team, a project, etc,... and take some management courses, MBA, etc.

If you want to be a BA (and only a BA), check out iiba.com and their certification.

David Wright

12/16/2007 10:33 PM

	Adrian M.
765 posts

Re: BA Career Path for Developer

farazfastian wrote

Hi Folks,

In addition let's say BA is the right path for me, any idea how can i enter in BA esp while i'm doing pure technical contracting work here in UK.

Regards

Faraz

Hi Faraz,

I personally believe that a BA role can help you move to the next step in your career. You should try to figure out what vertical market/domain (i.e. banking, finance, health care, etc.) you have an interested so that you can look for a BA career in that industry. A BA position will give you a great opportunity to learn the business which is a key trait of any good manager. You can them move up to Sr. BA, Team Lead, Business Analysis Manager, etc.

Here is a blog entry I wrote on the topic:

From Developer to Business Analyst

Hope this help!

- Adrian

Adrian Marchis
Business Analyst Community Blog - Post your thoughts!

12/17/2007 12:29 AM

	Craig Brown
560 posts
www.betterprojects.net

Re: BA Career Path for Developer

farazfastian wrote

In addition let's say BA is the right path for me, any idea how can i enter in BA esp while i'm doing pure technical contracting work here in UK.

Another pathway is into product management. Many of the skills a product manager employs are identical to those of a business analyst.

The main differences could be thatproduct managers eal with many products, while BAs are often focused on only one, and that product managers manage a product through the whole lifecycle while BAs focus mainly on the first implementation and thirdly the BA is focused on internal stakeholders while the roduct manager focuses on cutsomers.

The truth is that the differences are not so black and white and often each role can look identical to the other.

12/17/2007 8:22 AM

	Faraz
3 posts

Re: BA Career Path for Developer

Thanks for the quick replies, well let me brief little bit what I want to do. I want to be some kind of Technical Manager where I can do

- team management

- decision making

- technical stuff from high level ( so I still need to know the latest trends in technology and can guide company towards it)

- company management facing

- not stuck in minor technical issues, sitting in front of computer all the day trying to make code unbreakable and in the end learning nothing new which is valuable outside the programming world

Now according to my knowledge, you can have this kind of mix work being a CIO, IT Head or IT Manager of the company. Now, let’s say if I move in to specific domain i.e. health, Finance etc then I would become too specific and can only proceed in that direction. Reaching to CIO, IT Head etc kind of positions I know it’s a long way to go but now being a developer I want to know what will be the quickest and easiest transition that lead towards the path I explained above. I’ve seen lot of BA’s around me moved from development, so that’s why I thought this could be an easiest transition but I’m facing following challenges

- moving from pure development to business side, its not easy overall

- if I start doing BA stuff then I’m afraid that I’m gona loose technical side totally which I don’t want

- don’t know how to get BA work, while doing contracting (difficult to search both from skills and financial point of view i.e. very low daily rate)

Sorry for throwing a long email but I believe it’ll clear my point of view.

p.s. once again i think product management can be a next step after BA , and IIBA certification once again you need to be pro BA with 5 years of experience at least

Many Thanks

Faraz