Hello,
I have joined a company as a Junior Business Analyst recently. I have 2 years of experience in the IT industry. For one year i worked in application development and another year as a Business Analyst to migrate Legacy System to a Web Based System..
Currently my role is to interface with clients and get the Business and Mapping rules while migrating data (legacy to SAP , old SAP version to new SAP version). I figure my designation is almost like that of an Data Analyst (Not sure).
My question to all the Business Analyst's is what career progression is possible from my current setup??
My role also includes getting requirements, doing scoping studies, preparing SRS etc.... I want to get into the Finance Domain. My next project i will be working with SAP FI/CO (Finance and Controlling) module.
Please let me know what future career paths are available to me. Please keep in mind that i have got very less experience (in terms of years) right now.
Thank you...
Geoffrey,
It sounds like you do have some business analysis experience even though most of your recent work has been more data focused with the integration of off-the-shelf systems. Your current project will probably expose you to some Finance experience which is where you seem to want to work. Next, I would look for a project (may mean switching companies) where you are working in the Finance domain but doing Business Analysis/Systems Analysis for a custom built application. As you are doing so, be sure to constantly improve your skills and Business Analysis competencies by taking training courses or through self study online.
Anytime you go in for a BA interview, be sure that you can not only state "this is the experience I have" but also "this is want I have been doing on my own to improve my skillset".
While we are on the topic, many seem to think that once they reach Senior BA that the next step is Project Manager. I find this to be completely inaccurate. All BAs should have some project management skills, but Project Management is more of a lateral move. Consider moving into an Analysis Manager role where you are managing a team of analysts on a larger project. After that you can either stay on the BA side developing a Business Analysis Center of Excellence for your organization, or move into Program Management (i.e., running all aspects of a project including analysis, development, testing, etc.). For Program Management, some companies may require you to have at least some background managing development teams and QA teams, while others may not. A good manager can understand enough to manage the experts in these areas and let their team drive the details that they themselves don't fully understand.
Hey Chris,
Can you explain your definition of a Project Manager, and how it's a lateral move? I think I may be getting mixed up in terminology here - what you described as a Program Manager, I would consider a Project Manager; that being responsible for all aspects of a project and having all project members report to you. For me a program manager runs multiple projects, typically with some sort of common thread through them. For example, my current Project Manager used to be a Program Manager and had 144 projects running under her, with about 20 or so Project Managers reporting to her.
In general I would see a Project Manager position be as a move up (given my definition of the role), although you definitely need some good project management skills as a BA. Although where I am, the contractor rates for managers over analysts isn't worth the extra headaches :-)
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