The Chicken or Egg: Certification or Experience, the never ending dilemma
by Ananya P. Co-founder
“ |
I want to pursue a career in the Business
Analysis field. I am very excited about it, and keen to pursue further.
But, I am in a different role and I don’t have prior experience in BA
field. How do I switch over to BA role? All the BA jobs require
prior experience. How do I make the transition? Will any
certification help me for the transition? How do I solve this? All the
certifications have prior experience eligibility criteria. I am in a
fix–what should I do to make my dream true? Can anyone help?”
Does this sound like you?
Being in the industry for so many years, I come across this
issue very often.
Business Analysis has been an upcoming promising field and has
gained high popularity owing to its techno functional nature, where
functional/domain knowledge plays a large amount of role and a high level
knowledge of technology is a great booster to the skills.
But lot of times people come across this problem stated above in
order to get into the BA field even though they may have good amount of
industry experience and knowledge.
They do not have the
relevant exp in the BA Domain to take up CCBA/CBAP Certification by IIBA while they want to move to a BA career and get certified
in BA domain.
Couple of suggestions/points to follow if you are also in this
situation:
1.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.
·
ECBA certification from IIBA is recommended for aspiring and new
Business analysts. This not only gives you a rock solid foundation for getting
into the BA profession also helps you with a global certification. ECBA has the
backing of market recognition of IIBA hence the job opportunities it would
bring in due to acceptance in the corporate segment. ECBA is framed rightly to
suit the needs of an entry level Business analyst focusing on requirements
analysis, modeling and requirements life cycle management with good amount of
emphasis on modeling concepts and tools.
·
We have helped 100+ professionals in getting ECBA certified and
giving better prospects to their career.
·
Please read through a detailed blog on how
to get certified with ECBA.
2.
Take up CPRE FL certification
from IREB. Foundation level comprises basic knowledge of eliciting, analyzing,
specifying, documenting, validating and managing requirements.
A person with a CPRE FL
certificate:
· Is familiar with the terminology of requirements engineering/business analysis and requirements management.
· Understands the basic techniques and methods of requirements engineering and their application.
· Is familiar with the most established
notations for requirements.
· Icing on the cake is CPRE-FL certification does not have any eligibility criteria in terms of experience hence you can go for the certification in the beginning of your career as well.
· IREB is gaining popularity in a very fast pace globally among the BA community.
As of beginning 2018, there are 37,000+ IREB certified
professionals globally.
However given the market recognition and popularity ECBA from
IIBA is preferred owing to its has higher global acceptance.
3. If you are keen on getting
certified from IIBA then consider taking a BA training session and acquiring
the IIBA prescribed BA skills.
·
Post training you can go in for a full-fledged BA career using
your background, domain and experience. Once you acquire the required 2.5 Years
of relevant BA experience you can comfortably go for CCBA certification. Please
weigh these options looking at all pros and cons and then take an appropriate
decision on the same.
Another frequent question that I come across:
“ |
I am a testing/QA professional and doing some part of BA
work, I would like to move into a full-fledged Business analysis career, can
you help me with this?”
“ |
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. Can you help me on how to make a
transition to BA career, how can I get into a BA role.
1.
Get involved in the requirements gathering
process proactively
2.
Take proactive measures to talk to
stakeholders/users
3.
Show interest, gather knowledge and be proactive
to be part of the requirements gathering and documentation process
4.
Learn the modeling tools (diagramming tools) and
Requirement management tools
5.
Try to learn the business terms, business
process, look for any business (domain) terms repository available in your
project or with client/on the web
6.
Try to understand the existing system and the
new proposed system, overall objective of the project and the big picture
7.
Learn industry or domain process framework/best
practices using APQC Framework
8.
Take lead in any defect resolution/analysis with
users during the deployment process.
9.
Get involved in the user /implementation
training
10.
Most important start thinking more like a
business user (business mode of thinking) and stop thinking like a developer or
a tester(solution mode of thinking)
11.
Take lead/active part in any process/requirement
changes in the project/account.
12.
Follow some great leaders in the industry that
you are in.
13.
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
14.
Keep pursuing your goal and be focused on your
goal/objective
15.
Be open to learning and make learning your
objective for everyday
With all these steps I definitely can assure you that you
will see yourself in a promising and bright career.
All the best on your career, don’t forget to share your success story to me and with others in the network.
Always remember to extend help to someone who is in need of some career guidance and help.Sponsor Ads
Created on Jul 16th 2018 07:13. Viewed 797 times.