My Life as a Business Analyst
Hey socials. I’m going to dedicate this post to anyone out there who wants to start their career life as a business analyst or to anyone who thinks they should change their career path to Business Analyst vertices. And this post is not influenced by anyone or anything but truly based on how I feel about it, Without further ado, let’s dig into the post.
I first enter the industry as a Software Engineer Intern, that was when I started my third year at the university. I did not have any clue about the industry and what are the opportunities that the IT industry is holding for us. Mainly what I knew about the industry is they have Software Engineers and Quality Assurance Engineers. It took me some time to understand the roles that are available in the industry and how they work. At the end of my internship, as a newbie, all I wanted was to move on with the Software Engineering field. So after my internship, I started as an Associate Software Engineer in another company. With that position, I was mainly engaged with the business analyst, project manager, and UX/UI designers. When the time passes I got a good understanding of how things work and what are the responsibilities that each person holds when it comes to a project. All that matters the most is the better communication between each team member and the collaboration. Then with the experience, I got as an associate software engineer and the passion I have for writing, it hits me that I should change my career path to a business analyst. That’s how I ended up being a business analyst.
Being a business analyst is not easy at all. That I must say. And moving from software engineering to a business analyst was not an easy move. Most of us software engineers are not putting many thoughts when it comes to documentation and knowing each and every little thing about the project unless you are a tech lead. Most of the time what we are aware of is the requirements that come under our names as a software engineer. Even though we do the documentations at some points, as a software engineer I never try to explain everything in a simple and detailed manner. Justify the paragraphs, read the email thousands of times before sending it, dealing with customers were not even on my list by that time. Well, then I became a business analyst. As a BA (This point onward I’m going to use BA to refer Business Analyst)I have to consider everything. Most importantly I have to have a piece of deep knowledge about the products that I’m involving with. I have to be very careful with even the smallest email that I’m sending to anyone. Sometimes I realized that even in informal conversations, people expect us to be very formal and be very detailed about what I say. Then only it hits me, it’s not just about being a BA as your profession, it eventually becomes your personality. Once you are a BA you should be very careful about what you say and do. Everything should be in a detailed manner so that other people would have fewer questions to ask about what you are trying to say. I’m still not there since I am a newbie in this career path but eventually that should be the ultimate goal.
Even though this position comes with so many responsibilities, there’s nothing to complain about. The reason for that is this is what I love. Each and every day as a BA is quite busy. Especially when you are handling more than one project. Since I love what I do it makes me even more and happier. I’m still doing so many mistakes and improving myself as a BA. Based on the experience I gathered so far I can jot down some tips that may help you to have a good start as a BA.
- PAY MORE ATTENTION TO THE KNOWLEDGE TRANSFER (KT) SESSIONS
KT sessions are playing an important role when you start working in a new company. Those sessions are the place where you start learning about the projects that you are going to work with. As BA you should pay double and tipple attention because you are the one who should answer both customers and the team. Sometimes you may have to pitch the product. Without knowing what the product is how are you going to do that? So for the start and to have a good foundation you should pay more attention and try to grab all the information possible about the product through the KT sessions.
2. BE AWARE OF THE PRODUCTS THAT YOU ARE HANDLING
This is the hardest part. Everyone may come to you and asks about the products and the previous releases for customers. So you should improve your memory to answer everything. You should put your soul into the work.
3. DOCUMENTATION
Documentation as a BA is totally different from the documentation that you do as an undergraduate. These documentations should be more detailed and explained in a detailed manner. You should improve your vocabulary and the way you express things. The ability of editing images will come in handy when it comes to documenting as a BA. Each paragraph should be justified and think smarter before setting a title. Most importantly review the whole document as much as possible while doing that pay attention to the footers, headers, cover page and content as well.
4. COMMUNICATION
The next core skill as a BA is communication skills. Not even when documenting but even when you are communicating you should be able to tell everything in a detailed manner. It should be simple enough to another person to understand. Politeness is MUST. I believe BA should be a people person. As a BA we should be very confident about what we say. We should be able to convince others as well as we should know every detail before we talk. Pronunciations and having a good vocabulary always comes in handy when you are working as a BA.
5. BE ACTIVE
BA should be more active in the office. You should be the person who motivates the team. Being very quick and clear on what you do is the most important. The whole team may be waiting for you to give your word, or they may be waiting for your document. So as a BA you should be able to be quick and correct at the same time as possible. You may have to work on several projects, give priority accordingly and work quickly. I am still not that experienced as a BA to understand the priorities but eventually, with the experience, it will come.
6. BE ANALYTICAL
As a BA we should be able to analyze the situation and come up with a better solution then and there. When the issue raised when a requirement comes, it’s BA duty to analyze the situation and come up with the most suitable solution. Guess what, improving on this will help you to face the issues in your life. When you get critical situations, with the career experience you may able to handle it firmly. This actually why you should select BA as your career path.
7. LOVE WHAT YOU DO
Don’t think life as a BA is very stressful. It is so not. All you have to do is do what you love. If you don’t love this path, please don’t pick this path. You should love and if not you may feel as this is very stressed. So love what you do.
Being a BA is the best because you get to improve yourself as a person a lot more than you think. All your soft skills including the communication skills and your people skills will improve in a way you can not imagine. Most importantly this career path will do a positive impact in your personal life and you will be a shining person wherever you go.
This note is for everyone who is going to come to IT industry as a newbie. IT industry is not all about software engineers and quality assurance engineers and business analysts. Do a better research about each role and choose what you love the most. That will lead you to a happy and successful life.
So this is the story of my life as a BA and if you were able to get anything out of this, that’s my greatest pleasure. See you again in next week’s blog post till then live the life you love.
