Reply to: Sick of IT

[Francko]

[...]

As you can see I do step outside the realms of a normal BA, but only slightly and I do keep things moving, and take the personalitys out of the mix and act as a buffer between all parties.

I have done hybrid BA/BPM development work in the past so to go full time BA was not too much of a stretch, but it was a stretch and a comfortable enough transition.

I think that anybody who survived the recession came out with a much wider range of skills. No money for hiring so people have to do development, system administration, training, research, business analysis, architecture, project management, etc.

Now this skillset has become the norm and people get bad reviews for something that they were not hired for...

Personally I don't believe that it's IT technical people causing projects to fail but it certainly is the friction that is between people with different skillset.

A good manager (people skills, this unknown) should be able to create an environment in which people respect and trust each other and not a stupid army-like competition workplace.

The critics of people who passed the fence from technical role to BA/PMs role are just as wrong as technical people showing off their skill to humiliate no-techy. You contribute as much as them to a hostile work environment and you are a burden to productivity.

One last thing: ok, all of us managed to learn a lot of skills. However I can't believe that this super-human worker who knows business, architecture, development, project management, 25 languages and knows how to clean the desk is a natural evolution of IT. I just think that is a dysfunctional character created by the necessity of unjustified belt tightening. Perhaps it was necessary but I think that to be efficient people should do their own role (BAs are BAs, architects are architects, developers are developers, etc.). Of course, the fact that you have learned another skill is certainly useful (I for example had a 2-year experiences in sales, all good - but at the end I do another role so the importance of it is marginal) but at the end you only have one role to specialise and where you can add a genuine business value.

[Mr.Whippy]

Low Salaries - Yeah, I'm sick of my low salary too.. Although the divvies go some way to make up for it though.

No appreciation - The only appreciation I'm after is the little scribble from the PM at the bottom of my timesheets.

Lots of Competition - Just as well I'm very good at what I do then.

Indians pricing us out of the Market - Not all of us, I probably charge 5 or 6x more than you could get someone offshore to do it but still manage to find work.

No Jobs - There are contracts out there, admittedly not many, but there are some and hopefully more in the new year

No Money - Yeah I know the feeling, I'm a bit skint right now. Perhaps I shouldn't have bought that Nissan GTR and got a 2nd hand Focus instead.

Need to get out asap - Good! less competition for the contracts that are out there. Mind you, with your attitude I don't think you'd be much competition anyway.

[northernladuk]

Interesting how this thread has got so many posts in such a short time seems like im not the only one sick of IT

f***ing moron.

Begone foul pest <waves magic chickens foot normally used on bluescreening servers>

[Tarquin Farquhar]

IT is currently in a really bad way in the US. Lots of people without work. They're coping with the recession and the competition from abroad too.

If you want to stick with IT then I'd suggest looking at jobs in China. A booming economy and lots of work. Pay is lower but so is the cost of living. I guess the same could be said for India but I don't know the market out there very well.

Choosing the place to work is much less important than choosing the time. You people have chosen ... poorly.

[Tarquin Farquhar]

Also you will have to deal with polluted air and water, diseases,huge traffic jams ,local bureucracy etc..

So no change from coming to London for work, then?

[suityou01]

Would be interested to hear how you make the transition and more about how you are finding not doing geeky stuff - I have been working as analyst/developer for a long time (staffware/tibco and Metastorm) - I love it, I get the chance to work with disparate areas within a clientCo as well as "coding neat stuff" but don't necessarily feel that it is "going anywhere"

Metastorm! Blimey, another fellow Metastormer.
PM me and I think we should set up a call for the new year. Could be useful.

[Halcyon]

I have done hybrid BA/BPM development work in the past so to go full time BA was not too much of a stretch, but it was a stretch and a comfortable enough transition.

Would be interested to hear how you make the transition and more about how you are finding not doing geeky stuff - I have been working as analyst/developer for a long time (staffware/tibco and Metastorm) - I love it, I get the chance to work with disparate areas within a clientCo as well as "coding neat stuff" but don't necessarily feel that it is "going anywhere"

[Diver]

Steady on there fella - I don't take THAT sort of bribe

Beer is just fine!

Everybody has to take one for the team, sometime

[original PM]

( )o( )

this what yo is after??

[suityou01]

Steady on there fella - I don't take THAT sort of bribe

Beer is just fine!

Sure you do. Now just touch your toes

[original PM]

Look forward to working for you some day.

Steady on there fella - I don't take THAT sort of bribe

Beer is just fine!

[suityou01]

Good Man!

Look forward to working for you some day.

[original PM]

Good Man!

[suityou01]

you need to get a broader skill set

I am sick to death of people in IT compartmentalising them selves.

BA's are my current bug bear - they do not seem to understand that if the business needs something analysising it falls to the Business Analyst - just because it may not be their area of expertise or within a system they are comfortable with they spit their dummy out.

more people in IT need to get off their asses, got out of their boxes and get with the fu<ing program.

That's why I'm doing well atm. I just took a BA role after 13 years development, coming up through the ranks. A great chance to flex my people skills, which so far have stood up to the test, and I've even seen off some bullys and kept on side with them. With my background in development I can talk knowledgably to the business, but draw the line at bringing the geek part with me. I also can liaise with the off shore development team and push back on them when they are taking the mickey. I can also caution them on areas where the estimates are low and I can see problems they cannot (experience).

I often got disappointed with BAs, especially when they only did 'high level' and would draw boxes with 'System operation' on their diagrams rather than define the business rules for said 'System operation'

Being a bally good developer/data modeller/architect after I have defined the requirements and got the reqs def up to snuff I can literally visualise the whole system, and look forward to seeing the end result. As such I prove useful in fielding questions from the developers, and giving off the cuff estimates when the business try and sneak in late changes (eg shouldn't be too tricky, I'll run that past the development team and get back to you with any problems, or 'Seriously, we should have thought of that before, that's a huge change and we shouldn't disturb the development team with this just now as they are ramping up for a release')

As you can see I do step outside the realms of a normal BA, but only slightly and I do keep things moving, and take the personalitys out of the mix and act as a buffer between all parties.

I have done hybrid BA/BPM development work in the past so to go full time BA was not too much of a stretch, but it was a stretch and a comfortable enough transition.

[Spacecadet]

Not sure what the big deal with Manchester is. Fine for single people I think. Once you have a family its time to move away.

Not sure how you reached that conclusion
Where would you move away too? From my experience all big cities in this country are just as good/bad as each other.