Changing career from a Software developer to Business Analyst

by Ananya P. Co-founder

This is an usual question that I come across, I am a software developer but not keen on continuing further. I don’t like coding going further, doesn’t seem exciting to me I am inclined to a Business Analysis career. I am very excited about it, and keen to pursue further.

How do I make a transition to BA career, how can I get into a BA role.

Software developers are usually the ones who write code, develop software, do the unit testing for their piece of code.

While there are some who enjoy coding for a fair amount of years in their life and subsequently move to higher technical roles, there are some who enjoy working with team and people.

They are the ones who love talking to people, coordinating among the team and subsequently take up to talking customers/users in knowing their requirements, analyzing them and putting it across in documented form etc.

These are the ones who are in the making of Business analysts/requirements analysts.

As per IIBA Business analysis is the practice of enabling change in an enterprise by defining needs and recommending solutions that deliver value to stakeholders. Business analysis enables an enterprise to articulate needs and the rationale for change, and to design and describe solutions that can deliver value.

Now what do you need to make your plans reality for being a successful Business analyst:

· Take proactive measures to talk to stakeholders/users

· Get involved in the requirements gathering process

· Learn the modeling tools (diagramming tools) and Requirement management tools

· Show interest and be proactive to be part of the requirements gathering and documentation process

· Ask questions/communicate with business teams

· Try to learn the business terms, Business Process, look for any business (domain) terms available in your project or with client/on web.

· Try to understand the existing system and the new proposed system, overall objective of the project and the big picture

· Learn industry or domain process framework/best practices using APQC Framework

· Most important start thinking more like a business user (business mode of thinking) and stop thinking like a developer (solution mode of thinking)

· Join Professional groups on Business Analysis and try to follow the discussions, Participate in forums and conferences which can help you enhance your career in the new field

· Added to this IIBA has now come up with ECBA, a beautiful certification scheme spotting the need of the hour and catering to the aspirations for many. ECBA as some of you may know stands for Entry Certificate in Business Analysis , and as the name suggests caters to those professionals who would be making an entry or begin their career in BA domain. It could also mean changing domain from a different field to the BA field. The good part is it doesn’t require any experience in BA domain to take this certification, and focuses on those knowledge areas of Business Analysis domain which are going to be of use for the beginners like Requirements Analysis, Requirements Life Cycle Management, Elicitation and Collaboration. Please see here for more details on how to get certified with ECBA.