Aspiring Business Analyst

[mbolton]

Can I ask why you want to become a contractor? If its because of the ability to move between clients, be in more control of the work you do, more variety etc, then that is good, and, as per the posts above, you need to think about where along the broad spectrum of what many people call a BA you want to sit.

But if you're wanting to become a contractor for financial reasons, then i'm afraid that gravy train has largely left the station, unless you can carve out a niche market for yourself. And for that, you'll probably need 10+ years experience in that niche.

100% the first, I enjoy the variety and changing projects. I have been in current company for around 4 years and completed projects across 4 departments. Money is always nice but I am not overly driven by it. I am a man of simple tastes.

[cojak]

As a Senior BA I can see that getting into this business as a contractor is going to be a problem for those not in a role at the moment.

Although BAs are needed now as much as they ever were, many agile organisations don't have BA's because they think that BA's are superfluous to requirements (and many regulars on CUK agree with them).

It's your job to explain to them why BA's are needed - why you are needed (hint - it's all about supporting the Product Owner).

You may need to switch your mindset (and CV) to becoming a Product Owner. Research that and then have another look at the job market.

[ContractorBanking]

As some people on here have stated, there are several paths to becoming a BA and there are various flavours of BA and the roles and responsibilities they cover. You'll need to decide what you like, your skill sets and what you'd like to do going forward.

For what its worth, here's my route to BA.
Since the late 90's, I've been working on real-time trading systems in the front office arena, as a QA / tester. I soon became the expert on trading (micromechanics, technical and protocol analysis, messaging and rules of exchanges and market structure)

After 4 years, I moved into a contract position at a tier 1 bank, where I contracted for 5 years and then went permie for another 3 years. I was hired first and foremost for my domain knowledge and expertise in the trading environment, then technical and testing skills. For me, my domain knowledge is my USP and underpins my BA skills. I don't get involved in process flows and re-engineering, my main skill set is to sit with trading desk and elicit requirements (and guide them on what they want) and to translate that business-speak into technical requirements for the dev teams to implement. I get involved in pre-sales discussions with potential clients.

Moved to another tier 1 for several years contracting. After family life started, decided to move to a vendor producing ULL trading products, again contracting.

So, in summary, my BA skills are trading knowledge, technical and then BA skills (documentation, visio, sporeadsheet and protocol analysis, etc). I've worked as a BA for around 14 years solely in the trading/capital markets space.

I know I couldn't work as a BA in another industry as my pure-BA skills are at a junior-level. That's fine because this is a considered decision and a path I chose some years ago. Not that it matters at this stage of experience, but I have have formal BA, trading and testing qualifications and it's these skills that set me apart.

So, no clear route to BA, but take a path that you're comfortable with and most importantly choose a path that you enjoy. Money isn't everything but my advise it to have a clear-cut distinction and USP that sets you apart from the rest.

[baen]

Considering that Business Analysts are on the shortage list, i'd expect an abundance of unfilled roles.

https://www.gov.uk/guidance/immigrat...ccupation-list

[ladymuck]

So just to add a bit more to this. I've been speaking to the OP about this offline but hit a wall as I don't know enough about being a BA. I see a raft of general BA's that just does a bit of this and a bit of that on projects and occasionally I bump in to a proper/high end/whatever you call them that can really pull an entire programme apart, re-build it from the bottom up and drives the whole work. The two are worlds apart.

So I don't know what level of skill, knowledge and experience the OP needs so suggested he came on and some successful BA's could give him some more detail. The questions the OP asked aren't really useful as there is no tangible answer to them and are too woolly to be much use. I thought I'd covered that and we'd just got stuck on exactly what he needs to be capable of to secure a gig.

If he can get the details right the rest of his questions in this thread become a bit irrelevant.

So.. if there are any experienced BA's could you give some idea of what he needs to do to be able to jump from contract to contract. Also some examples of what doesn't work. Spreadsheet monkey won't cut it for example.

But to the OP to re-iterate LM's advice. If you are looking at testing the water at the bottom of you area you are going to have be fully prepared for three or months of with no income after your first gig. That gig could also on the day and you've got nothing.

If I were to be brutally honest about where I end up on projects (I get labelled a BA but have never been comfortable with that) - I am more of a generalist and am in awe of what proper BAs can achieve. It truly is a whole other level.

[Lance]

In my experience most BAs are total tulip and have no idea about how a business operates. They are used a lot in the large outsourcers as way to extract as much cash as possible the from the client and not actually provide any useful function.
They should be understanding business processes, improving them and providing requirements to architects. I've yet to see one do that.
They are usually failed project managers.

I would love to meet a good one so I don't have to write requirements all the time. But hey ho. I'm used to it.

But.... What I have seen recently is fewer companies employing them. Preferring to have PMs and business stakeholders fail to provide requirements to architects. As those people have other work to do it is a cheaper way of achieving the same valueless outcome.

My advice is that BAs are a dead end career and it would be madness to pursue it.
Focus on careers that actually deliver something. If you're not technical become a PM.

[mbolton]

There was a flurry on here so will try to cover off as best as I can

As a Senior BA I can see that getting into this business as a contractor is going to be a problem for those not in a role at the moment.

Although BAs are needed now as much as they ever were, many agile organisations don't have BA's because they think that BA's are superfluous to requirements (and many regulars on CUK agree with them).

It's your job to explain to them why BA's are needed - why you are needed (hint - it's all about supporting the Product Owner).

You may need to switch your mindset (and CV) to becoming a Product Owner. Research that and then have another look at the job market.

I have dabbled in PO work as I have been involved with agile project work in some of the projects, correct me if I am wrong as it may be the current company do things slightly differently but it seems like PO essentially picks up the BA work and is more responsible for the implementation than finding problems and potential solutions? I feel my skills align better with cutting to heart of problem and being aware of potential technologies/solutions than a more PM type

As some people on here have stated, there are several paths to becoming a BA and there are various flavours of BA and the roles and responsibilities they cover. You'll need to decide what you like, your skill sets and what you'd like to do going forward.

For what its worth, here's my route to BA.
Since the late 90's, I've been working on real-time trading systems in the front office arena, as a QA / tester. I soon became the expert on trading (micromechanics, technical and protocol analysis, messaging and rules of exchanges and market structure)

After 4 years, I moved into a contract position at a tier 1 bank, where I contracted for 5 years and then went permie for another 3 years. I was hired first and foremost for my domain knowledge and expertise in the trading environment, then technical and testing skills. For me, my domain knowledge is my USP and underpins my BA skills. I don't get involved in process flows and re-engineering, my main skill set is to sit with trading desk and elicit requirements (and guide them on what they want) and to translate that business-speak into technical requirements for the dev teams to implement. I get involved in pre-sales discussions with potential clients.

Moved to another tier 1 for several years contracting. After family life started, decided to move to a vendor producing ULL trading products, again contracting.

So, in summary, my BA skills are trading knowledge, technical and then BA skills (documentation, visio, sporeadsheet and protocol analysis, etc). I've worked as a BA for around 14 years solely in the trading/capital markets space.

I know I couldn't work as a BA in another industry as my pure-BA skills are at a junior-level. That's fine because this is a considered decision and a path I chose some years ago. Not that it matters at this stage of experience, but I have have formal BA, trading and testing qualifications and it's these skills that set me apart.

So, no clear route to BA, but take a path that you're comfortable with and most importantly choose a path that you enjoy. Money isn't everything but my advise it to have a clear-cut distinction and USP that sets you apart from the rest.

It isn't a million miles from me tbh, I started in various operations roles and started with VBA to automate various copy/paste tasks. I discovered I had knack for finding a better way to do things across multiple roles and after a few "placements" at current role within project teams am trying to make a career out of it.

I am obviously several years behind you in terms of specialising in one technical area but I am hoping to do something similar.

In my experience most BAs are total tulip and have no idea about how a business operates. They are used a lot in the large outsourcers as way to extract as much cash as possible the from the client and not actually provide any useful function.
They should be understanding business processes, improving them and providing requirements to architects. I've yet to see one do that.
They are usually failed project managers.

I would love to meet a good one so I don't have to write requirements all the time. But hey ho. I'm used to it.

But.... What I have seen recently is fewer companies employing them. Preferring to have PMs and business stakeholders fail to provide requirements to architects. As those people have other work to do it is a cheaper way of achieving the same valueless outcome.

My advice is that BAs are a dead end career and it would be madness to pursue it.
Focus on careers that actually deliver something. If you're not technical become a PM.

I would respectfully disagree and I am not the right person for PM work, I find it really dull just managing projects. I like solving problems and making change happen. I am less bothered about tracking someone elses work

[clearedforlanding]

Although BAs are needed now as much as they ever were, many agile organisations don't have BA's because they think that BA's are superfluous to requirements (and many regulars on CUK agree with them).

That's probably because to be a successful BA people have to actually like you. That is not a concept they are familiar with.

OP. This thread shows signs of you being good at eliciting responses and facilitating discussion. Carry on.

[Lance]

I would respectfully disagree and I am not the right person for PM work, I find it really dull just managing projects. I like solving problems and making change happen. I am less bothered about tracking someone elses work

I hope to work with a decent BA one day, instead of doing their job for them.
Good luck. Good people are hard to find, and if you're any good I'm sure you'll be successful.

[cojak]

That's probably because to be a successful BA people have to actually like you. That is not a concept they are familiar with.

OP. This thread shows signs of you being good at eliciting responses and facilitating discussion. Carry on.

Very true, one of my key strengths is that my stakeholders like me. It's the first and most important skill (and stakeholder management is a skill).