Rajesh,
You really are in excellent shape to make the transition to a business analysis career. Your education and experience as a developer provide a strong foundation to build on.
How to Start
It sounds like you are currently working in an organization where the switch to a BA role is very possible. If I understand you correctly, it is expected that you first gain domain knowledge of the Insurance industry in which you work. Whether your primary role is that of a developer or a business analyst, it will help you to develop your domain knowledge as rapidly as possible. There are a few main things I would do in your situation to learn this information with ease and efficiency.
- Create a Business Entity Model. A business entity model is typically a UML class diagram that models the “things” of the business. You should not be modeling physical classes, instead this should be a logical model representing the nouns encountered in your domain (Insurance Policy, Policy Holder, Policy Underwriter, Policy Premium, Term, etc.). For each entity, identify the attributes of the entity and its relationship to other entities.
- Create a Business Use Case Model. Start by developing a business use case diagram which identifies the interactions that business workers have with specific business processes. Each business use case would be a business process which by itself results in something of value to the business worker.
- Create a Role Map. While creating your Business Use Case diagram you will need to identify the business worker roles that initiate each use case. A role map helps you identify all of the roles that exist and the relationship between them. Some roles are a composite of other roles. Other roles specialize a more generic role within the business. A role map ensure that you have identified all of the business workers involved and that you truly understand the importance of each within the business.
I recommend creating the models above because I believe they give you the biggest payoff for your time. With this information, you now have a framework or point of reference for everything else you learn about the business domain. You don’t need to create a lot of detailed activity or sequence diagrams as creating these are very time consuming. However, once you have created framework for your domain you can create detailed use case descriptions, activity diagrams, etc, as you feel necessary to understand a more complex aspect of the business domain.
Business Analysis Certification
The CBAP is offered by the IIBA. I believe it is the most internationally recognized at this time.
From Business Analyst to Project Manager
A Business Analyst can certainly become a project manager, but I want to clarify what type of project manager we are talking about. A true project manager typically manages the development of the project plan and work plans, and monitors the status of works, issues, risks, etc.
Most Business Analysts that talk about becoming a project manager really want to what I will call a Program Manager. This would be the person who is ultimately responsible for the entire project execution. They manage and oversee the project planning, analysis, development, testing, infrastructure, etc. They are truly responsible for the end-to-end development of the system. The more experience you have with multiple areas such as analysis, project management, and development the more likely you are to move into this type of role. So yes, business analysts can move in this direction.
Growth Opportunities for Business Analysts
The business analyst profession is growing at a rapid pace in areas of the world where development costs are expensive. For these companies, as they move development to places like India and soon to China, the need to have business analysts who can interact face to face with stakeholders and subject matter experts becomes more critical. There have been a number of posts in these forums on the growth of the profession. You should check them out.