Hi Everone,

Have been a long time reader of this forums for sometime. I thought I would take the time to write to you all to ask for some advice. I would like to ask some guidance about my current career, and detail some hurdles I have recently faced as an aspiring BA.

I joined my current role as a Junior BA as I sought to learn the basic skill set of the BA again, and work slowly to build confidence.

At times in my current position I have been thrown in the deep end, and it has accelerated my learning. In addition to this, early on I was conscious of enrolling myself in additional resources such as external courses to better understand capturing requirements, as well as enlisting a mentor to help better my understanding of the first projects I was assigned to.

Currently almost 12 months down the track I stand much more confident in being able to call myself a BA. However, I recognise there is a long road ahead as I continue to grow confident in the many tools of the BA tool kit (in particular client facing interviews, and requirements elicitation), and a recent project has left me asking many questions, including whether it is time to move organisation.

In a recent system implementation I inherited, I was pushed to my limits to deliver a solution that was from the beginning underestimated in many faculties including resourcing and scheduling. Originally estimated at one month, it was delivered in close to four. Being proud of myself for successfully implementing a solution to spec, whilst also acting in the roles of project manager and lead tester when required, it was an experience post-implementation that has left me feeling down on myself.

Shortly after release the product owner demanded further functionality that was clearly out of scope for the first iteration. Being aware this is his character, the way I managed this was to put his attention to previous discussions and what was signed-off.

This was resolved until whilst away on leave he signalled urgent concern about how the project was handled and how it was under delivered in his expectations.  Being in a Junior BA capacity, and being a high level client, in this case my manager needed to intervene with a Senior BA to close out the project on my behalf, however this experience has left me feeling second-guessing my abilities.

Can anyone else out there share similar experiences or words of wisdom how I can learn from this experience and not beat up on myself too much.

Thanking you all in advance for your replies.

Bewildered BA.