Hi

I started as a developer and moved into BA world. I have been BA for close to 10 years now.  I was working with a small team who hardly as a separate testing team - PM, BA, Dev team and business. 

Recently I moved to work in a large programme (bank) where I work with a lot of BAs and I feel their knowledge is much more broader than me in terms of understanding the stakeholders in a programme and different forums, sign offs involved etc.  I also started thinking about BA career and wondering how I can understand a programme, how senior leadership  works in bank (as I always been with a small team within a bank).  As next step how can I become a business architect?  will it be like starting from scratch if I become business architect?

Thanks in advance for your time.

Regards,

P

Hi there, apologies for not replying sooner, and I hope this is still relevant.

A little bit of background first of all - I have managed BA Teams ranging from 25 people to smaller teams of 4 or 5. I always advocate that if any of my team want to try a different profession or, as in your case, a different role, then I am always more than happy to help out. 

My advice would be to speak to your line manager and ask if you can shadow a Business Architect for one or two days a week. By 'shadow' I mean follow them (with their permission of course) in what they do in their day-to-day activities - go to the same meetings as them etc. It will give you a flavour of what the role actually is, what you will be doing each day and, more importantly - whether you actually like the idea still of being a Business Architect. 

So often people hear about the good things of a role, but when they actually start to do it they realise that it isn't quite as glamorous. I recently had a Business Analyst who really (and I mean really) wanted to be a Product Owner. They thought that that was a step up (it isn’t) and that it looked a really ‘cool’ job. I got them to shadow a PO that I knew in our company and the net result was that the BA didn’t want to progress with that new possible role. It’s a bit like test driving a new car – until you sit in it and drive it about, you really don’t know what you are getting yourself into.

This advice is the same for any job that a Business Analyst may want to progress to – a Project Manager, a Product Owner, Business Architect etc.

So in simple steps:

1. Ask your line manager if you can shadow a Business Architect for one or two days a week as well as carry out your normal Business Analyst duties (don’t forget to carry on doing them). A good line manager is as much about making sure their staff are developing in their careers as it is about ensuring the Business Analyst work gets done.
2. If you know a Business Architect in your company, reach out to them and ask if they would mind you shadowing them for one or two days a week (or whatever you have agreed with your line manager).  Don’t reach out until you have spoken and got the agreement of your line manager first.
3. When you shadow the Business Architect, ask questions, do the tasks that they do. This will ensure that you get a feel of whether you are up to the role and equally if you will enjoy it.
4. You should have agreed a period for how long the shadowing will last – usually a month I would say. After that period is over, talk to your line manager, tell them what you liked, and equally what you didn’t like – there may be aspects that you liked that actually you could do as a Business Analyst.
5. Finally, if after the shadowing has completed, you still want to become a Business Architect, speak to your line manager about possibilities. It may also be a good idea to speak to the Business Architects line manager as well to see if there are any openings. If there aren’t, then you can either wait and see what happens, keeping in contact with the Business Architect manager, or you could apply for roles outside of the company. Be aware though that often, hiring managers want to see experience as ,much as anything, so make sure you have put your shadowing experience down on your CV. They may still want more experience, but if you keep trying you may get lucky.