Hello all, my name is Kelly Coughlin and I have been an IT consultant for 17 years, and a QA Analyst / Systems Tester for over 10 years. I have a total of 20 years in the Information Technology industry and have held mostly technical roles ranging from network analyst to senior help desk analyst to senior and lead QA/System tester roles. I've worked closely with BA's before and have a good understanding of what it is they do. I have worked for 7 major federal government departments and have had extensive experience working on big software deployment projects.  As a private consultant in the Ottawa (Canada) region, your current contract is usually defined by the one prior. I'm finding it very difficult to break out of my current "mold" as a QA guy and break into the world of Business Analysis. It's just very difficult in my line of work to do this as everyting is "grid based"; i.e, to get a BA contract you usually need a minimum of 3-5 years. I'm quite sharp, learn VERY quickly and have no doubt I could be a good BA. I have excellent writing & analytical skills, communication skills, etc. I just don't know how to make that first job happen!  I recently joined the Ottawa chapter of the IIBA and will start attending their events & start networking.  I know the world of testing & Quality Assurance inside out, and believe that combind with my many years of technical guru expertise would give me an excellent foundation to be a "technical business analyst"...someone that can bridge the gap between the business & IT camps. I can talk techie lingo until the cows come home, and I've take courses ranging from programming flowcharts & design to networking to database administration, etc, etc, etc.   Any comments/suggestions would be MOST appreciated and thanks for reading my novela.

 Thanks Kimbo!  I appreciate the feedback. Systems Analyst is actually a good idea.