Reply to: Going from dev to business analyst - is it possible without BA experience?

[clearedforlanding]

Don't diss it completely. I still use CATWOE at the beginning of any new contract.

26 years old and still a fantastic tool.

I think a lot of BAs, PMs etc forget that a lot of the good stuff has been round for a very long time. Lean is so fashionable and trendy, but let us not forget it has some roots in Six Sigma (1986) and even Lean Six Sigma showed up in 2002, but let us not forget to thank Toyota before Motorola.

House of Quality & TQM, we'll have to go back to the 1950s for that.

[heyya99]

Of course there is. As a BA it's definitely possible to fake it until you make it.
The approach you're adopting is perfectly sound and sensible. As an experienced dev. I doubt you will have any difficulty acquiring the 'hard' skills to be a good BA.

I think it's the soft skills that are more likely to be problematic. When I was more actively recruiting staff we had a saying “Hire for soft skills,train for hard ones”. The implicit message is that a lot of these soft skills are “baked in” after an early age. How are you on user empathy, project ambiguity and organizational politics? Ultimately only you can answer these questions. However as BA it's you soft skills rather than your hard ones that are most likely to lead to success.

It doesn't look so at the time but the journey from dev. to BA is probably one way. I've known many devs. successfully make that trip. I’ve never met anybody who went back.

Hope some of this helps.

Relevant and informative. Thanks.

[Hapax]

I'm a dev. Bored of it. I want to do BA work. Is there a route into BA work without going perm for a while to learn it?

I'm doing some home reading on becoming a BA in the meantime.

Of course there is. As a BA it's definitely possible to fake it until you make it.
The approach you're adopting is perfectly sound and sensible. As an experienced dev. I doubt you will have any difficulty acquiring the 'hard' skills to be a good BA.

I think it's the soft skills that are more likely to be problematic. When I was more actively recruiting staff we had a saying “Hire for soft skills,train for hard ones”. The implicit message is that a lot of these soft skills are “baked in” after an early age. How are you on user empathy, project ambiguity and organizational politics? Ultimately only you can answer these questions. However as BA it's you soft skills rather than your hard ones that are most likely to lead to success.

It doesn't look so at the time but the journey from dev. to BA is probably one way. I've known many devs. successfully make that trip. I’ve never met anybody who went back.

Hope some of this helps.

[heyya99]

Guess that's true if we are talking about those BA jobs that people do but no one can think of a title so they call them BA's.

Maybe I'm also going off the poster and his history a little too much.

I have an excellent history. A thriving contracting business, in a prestigious industry - everything you seem to resent.

[northernladuk]

What tosh.

When I decided to become a Business Analyst from being a developer years ago, I just modified my CV to show my documentation, analysis skills I'd used as a developer & went an applied for a role as a BA, which I subsequently got.

You can call yourself anything in IT. If you can talk the talk and walk the walk, then there's no difference.

Guess that's true if we are talking about those BA jobs that people do but no one can think of a title so they call them BA's.

Maybe I'm also going off the poster and his history a little too much.

[heyya99]

I'm with MF on this I'm afraid. With the right mindset you can get into business analysis with books. I started with that book (15 years ago though and business analysis has moved on, but it will give you the fundamentals).

But I'm a big believer in taking courses as well. I made sure that I was doing a little BA work in order for myco to pay for the training. Sitting in a classroom lets you hear from the other attendees and share their experiences and ask questions of the tutor.

I learned as much from the 2 Gartner guys who were attending one course as I did from the tutor.

My BA work now takes me into Lean territory and I'm in high demand.

Do you recommend this?

[Cirrus]

My BA work now takes me into Lean territory

I'll be joining you anytime now!

Just as soon as I get my January diet going...

[cojak]

OMG! It's got Soft Systems Methodology. I thought that had died when I was a boy.

In fact I never thought had lived in the first place

Don't diss it completely. I still use CATWOE at the beginning of any new contract.

[cojak]

I'm with MF on this I'm afraid. With the right mindset you can get into business analysis with books. I started with that book (15 years ago though and business analysis has moved on, but it will give you the fundamentals).

But I'm a big believer in taking courses as well. I made sure that I was doing a little BA work in order for myco to pay for the training. Sitting in a classroom lets you hear from the other attendees and share their experiences and ask questions of the tutor.

I learned as much from the 2 Gartner guys who were attending one course as I did from the tutor.

My BA work now takes me into Lean territory and I'm in high demand.

[MarillionFan]

Home reading doesn't give you marketable skills so I'd say you are going to have to go permie to get the experience.

What tosh.

When I decided to become a Business Analyst from being a developer years ago, I just modified my CV to show my documentation, analysis skills I'd used as a developer & went an applied for a role as a BA, which I subsequently got.

You can call yourself anything in IT. If you can talk the talk and walk the walk, then there's no difference.

[Cirrus]

The Jeremy Corbyn of Project Methodologies

I'm reading this.

OMG! It's got Soft Systems Methodology. I thought that had died when I was a boy.

In fact I never thought had lived in the first place

[heyya99]

What domain will you concentrate on?

And are you thinking of business analysis or technical business analysis (better described as systems analysis, but no-one uses the term any more).

Anyway, have a look at these threads for more info until people come back from their break.

http://forums.contractoruk.com/busin...g-finance.html

http://forums.contractoruk.com/busin...ntracting.html

http://forums.contractoruk.com/busin...velopment.html

I haven't decided what type of BA work I would like to do. I would ideally like to concentrate on business divisions as a whole as opposed to just being the BA on a software development project but I think that is my most likely inlet, being from a technical background. I don't mean being a technical architect.

I know moving across and continuing contracting won't be easy so I guess I would have a perm decision to make

I think to be a very good technical contractor, one must keep up to date with tech skills and I don't have the passion for that anymore. I'd like to have more to a bigger picture of how a business is run, specifically finance.

I'm reading this.

[northernladuk]

Home reading doesn't give you marketable skills so I'd say you are going to have to go permie to get the experience.

[billybiro]

I'm a dev. Bored of it. I want to do BA work. Is there a route into BA work without going perm for a while to learn it?

I'm doing some home reading on becoming a BA in the meantime.

Care to share what you're reading in this regard?

[clearedforlanding]

If you know the difference between functional & non-functional requirements, can map processes, facilitate workshops, understand touchpoints and can wing it with your PM, you'll be fine.

Just start with a project you understand, then move on to the interesting stuff you don't.