Is there a Business Analyst in the house?

PDD

Hi Guys,

I was wondering if any of the readers of this forum would have the title of Business Analyst? I've been considering a career move and most of the roles Im looking at seem to centre around this title an I would like to get some hands on info from someone who is doing this job on a day to day basis.

Ive got a degree in computer science, put myself through college with various desktop support and admin jobs, when I left college I worked in a small company as a jack of all trades (network admin, admin, programming, business porcess analyst) and at the moment Im working for a blue chip company doing application support.

Alot of my roles so far have been technical but I would like to side-step away from this to something a little less technical, something thats closer to development rather than support that would also be a potential stepping stone to a management position. Any feedback welcome.

PDD

cold_filter

I too was looking for a career move into this area, but it seems very hard to get started as a junior BA

rick_fantastic

im in exactly the same boat as you. looking to get into that area of the IT industry.

im working as a jack of all trades atm with an SMB while i do a masters part time.

really you would want to be looking at graduate positions if you want to get into analysis and design without any experience

DublinWriter

cold_filter wrote:

I too was looking for a career move into this area, but it seems very hard to get started as a junior BA

Neigh-on impossible unless you get a grad role with one of the big five.

In the olden days BAs were called System Analysts and were always considered to be a notch higher than a programmer, the latter is still true.

Get yourself a decent suit and do one of those private courses in a project managment methodology such as Prince 2 and your investment will repay itself ten-fold!

Critical to the role of the BA is the ability to communicate with people in the sharp end of the business. A lot of IT'ers I know really do lack basic skills in communication and the ability to emphasise with others.

GoneShootin

rick_fantastic wrote:

im working as a jack of all trades atm with an SMB while i do a masters part time.

Same, except I've the Masters done. Seems there's more people here looking to do what you are doing rather than those already in that BA position!

rick_fantastic

GoneShootin wrote:

Same, except I've the Masters done. Seems there's more people here looking to do what you are doing rather than those already in that BA position!

i plan to skip the whole business anaylsis buzz when i get a career job. preferably move straight into risk / change management area. the three years experience as jack of all IT trades and the situation that im currently working in will facilitate this (working on some fairly large scale IT change management projects atm)

im writing my dissertation on change and risk management and the application of the framework im trying to develop for successful business change within an IT context.

DublinWriter

rick_fantastic wrote:

im writing my dissertation on change and risk management and the application of the framework im trying to develop for successful business change within an IT context.

That's a massive area in itself. You may want to limit the scope of your thesis to either risk or change management.

Stheno

i plan to skip the whole business anaylsis buzz when i get a career job. preferably move straight into risk / change management area. the three years experience as jack of all IT trades and the situation that im currently working in will facilitate this (working on some fairly large scale IT change management projects atm)

im writing my dissertation on change and risk management and the application of the framework im trying to develop for successful business change within an IT context.

Are you talking about the whole ITIL/Service management side of risk and change?

If you are then even getting started with the ITIL foundation certification will add to your c.v. imo