Friday, June 22, 2012

Business analyst 101

http://www.bridging-the-gap.com/how-to-become-a-business-analyst-when-you-have-an-it-background/
http://businessanalystmentor.com/2009/06/12/becoming-a-business-analyst-assessing-your-competence-gap/
http://modernanalyst.com/Careers/InterviewQuestions/tabid/128/Default.aspx
http://harvard-business.alltop.com/
http://2wtx.com/business-analysis/books
https://www.e-junkie.com/ecom/gb.php?ii=276598&c=ib&aff=80220
Join International Institute of Business Analysis (IIBA) ($125 USD (includes account activation fee)) http://www10.iiba.org/source/iiba_signup/GTM_Tier_Display.cfm?Section=Sign_up
http://www.bridging-the-gap.com/leveraging-your-expertise-to-become-a-business-analyst/
http://www.bridging-the-gap.com/become-a-ba-8-5-business-analyst-job-search-mistakes/

by Adriana Beal

Business analysts solve problems for organizations

Having solid technical skills can be a great starting point for someone looking to develop a career in business analysis. In Why do we see technical skills in business analyst jobs? Laura lists a good reason why many BA jobs ask for technical skills: BAs with technical knowledge are more likely to ask the right questions about technical implementation.

The biggest obstacle for IT professionals interested in developing a BA career is the lack of well-developed business skills. One might argue that “soft skills” (the ability to communicate with clarity, precision and eloquence, work well with other people building effective contacts and relationships across and outside the organization, and so on) are more important for a BA than being business-savvy. However, in my experience, software engineers who are passioned about business analysis already value and develop their soft skills, so it’s typically not the main competence gap they face when they try to switch to a BA position.

Understanding things like revenue streams and profit centers, on the other hand, may require a mode of thinking that is relatively unfamiliar to many technical people. Often, IT professionals are more skilled at writing elegant code, and producing software rich and features and functions, than at helping stakeholders determine the right set of project requirements capable of balancing the needs of the company, the market, and the users.

http://www.bridging-the-gap.com/help-a-ba-can-i-make-the-transition-from-sales-to-business-analysis/
Most of my roles have been fairly technical. So I’ll let the readers here chime in with some ideas for you there.


  • technical writing
  • interviewing stakeholders
  • between business and development
  • product and stakeholder knowledge
  • know the products



Within your career history lie valuable experiences and transferable skills. Are you emphasizing your most relevant qualifications? Have you fully mined your past to demonstrate your potential to succeed in the future? Does your resume communicate how perfectly well-qualified you are for the positions to which you apply?


Your resume can indirectly sell the following message: “I’m a great business analyst and I just applied for the perfect position. You should contact me because I can help you solve this problem you are having.” That’s positioning.

1) listening 2) asking right questions at right time 3) documenting the outcomes 4) identifying the challenges 5) reporting them to the proper channel at proper time 6) identifying opportunities and resources to make them successful and recommending them to management.

Books:



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