Miving from developer to BA

[NotAllThere]

without wanting to annoy career developers it's a fairly logical progression in my opinion. Tester. Developer. Analyst. Manager/PM...

That's how it's viewed in the offshore industry. And it's total bollox. You end up with the good developers moving on to analysis (and perhaps not being very good at it, because, as has been noted, they're different skills), as soon as they can. The only developers you have who've got continuity and maybe involved in what was developed three years ago, are those who are no good - as can be seen because they haven't been able to move "up". A crap developer may be a brilliant BA - but you'll never find out. A brilliant BA might be a bloody awful manager - but by the time they're in that role, it's too late.

This mindset, that the above mentioned roles are something that anyone can do - commoditisation -, has, in my view led to an enormous decline in quality - coupled with a slide in rates, as people aren't prepared to pay good rates for poor work.

I'm sure Mich might have something to say about the idea that Testers are at the bottom of the hierarchy.

[Mich the Tester]

I'm sure Mich might have something to say about the idea that Testers are at the bottom of the hierarchy.

As long as I can earn 20 euros for having a dump I'm not complaining.

I went from helpdesker to tester to junior developer (PL/SQL, Oracle Forms etc) to Oracle and SQL Server DBA to project manager, then back to tester, then test coordinator and now test manager.

Basically, I enjoy testing; have done contracts as Interim Testing Manager for a whole multinational, large govt agencies, but prefer project work.

[Platypus]

I seem to remember Suityou01 boasting about miving from dev to BA over over in General. If you can get any sense out of him, he may have some advice.

[Pungnan]

That's how it's viewed in the offshore industry. And it's total bollox.

I agree that it doesn't necessarily hold true in all cases and that there is absolutlely nothing wrong with being a career tester, developer or whatever, but it certainly isn't restricted to the offshore industry.

why do you think pay scales (certainly for permie jobs) increase as you move "up the chain"....????? As you progress (and I use the word advisedly) through IT roles you have greater responsibility for the end deliverable, hence the greater pay and supposedly status.

that's my view anyway, having in my time done all those jobs in the "logical" order and seen plenty of colleagues do the same. And I'm not offshore.

I think it might be more to do with whether you're actually that interested in technology/technologies (in which case you remain technical and do 'real work') or whether you're at heart a lazy arse who wants to go to meeting and push lines around on project plans all day......

[NotAllThere]

It may not be restricted to the offshore industry, but it is particularly problematic in certain countries where hierarchy and status have more significance than others. But it's still a really stupid way to do things.

[Pungnan]

But it's still a really stupid way to do things.

couldn't agree more. a massive problem for alot of industries. especially when people spend 5 minutes doing a job before trying to move on/up to build up an impressive CV.