How to become a Business Analyst?

Business Analysis Prospect

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There is always a high demand of good business analysts in the IT sector because of their importance in a project team.

A career in business analysis is full of options and there are enormous opportunities out there.

Business Analysis offers a wide spectrum of job roles such as Functional Business Analyst, Technical Business Analyst, Agile Business Analyst, Scrum Master, Product Owner, Information Security Analyst, Business Intelligence Analyst, Data Analyst and so on.

According to IIBA survey in 2022, following are the global average salaries of business analysts:

• Entry level / Junior (less than 2 years) - $55,000 / year
• Mid-level / Intermediate (2 to 5 years) - $68,000 / year
• Experienced / Senior (6 to 10 years and more) - $84,000 to $102,000 / year

So, it’s a good career option to consider. Due to the nature of this job (continuous human interaction and human intelligence required to address business goals), it cannot be replaced by AI but can be assisted by AI. Human business analysts are going to stay in the game 😊.

Another advantage of becoming business analyst is that it will open many opportunities in the long run to move up the management ladder in the organization.

My Story (How I became a business analyst)

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I started as a Java Developer with a Multinational IT consulting firm and joined a web application project of banking domain.

Due to my valuable contributions to the project, I was recognized by a senior business analyst working at the client’s location (onsite) and he started interacting with me more and more due to my interest in understanding the client’s business. I helped him solve some challenging business problems through technical solutions.

After a year, there was a job opening of junior business analyst in the same project at client location. The senior business analyst, just offered me this role due to my strong hold on the project, domain knowledge and curiosity to understand business. I accepted the offer and joined him as a junior business analyst and that’s how I became business analyst!

From that point onwards, I moved up the ladder as Senior business analyst, dual role of Sr. Business Analyst cum Project Manager and Product owner.

It’s a switch from technical role to business analyst role.

After joining as a junior business analyst, I shadowed my senior to learn business analysis skills such as how to elicit requirements from stakeholders, how to communicate with stakeholders (both verbal and written), how to analyze requirements, prioritize requirements, create solutions, get the solutions approved, specify requirements and drive the whole change by collaborating with development and QA teams.

Key take away from my story is:

If you develop strong analytical and problem solving skills, try to understand the big picture, learn how business works and develop a strong rapport with business stakeholders in the project, you can become a business analyst and keep improving your skills to the next level for career growth.

How can you become a business analyst?

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There can be the following 3 situations from where you can become a business analyst.

1. If you are from business background (i.e. holding a degree in business domain such as MBA in Finance):

   You have all the necessary business analysis skills and you can apply as a Functional Business Analyst who does market research and provides business requirements or market requirements to address business needs. It’s a strategic position in the organization.

   Generally, they deal with business stakeholders such as sponsor and senior level executives, draw out business requirements and handover them to the IT department (to a Technical business analyst) to take it forward and make the changes in the software applications.

2. If you are a Fresher from IT or Technology background (i.e. holding a degree in technology such as Computer Engineering):

   You already know the following concepts:

   • Software Development Lifecycle (Agile / Waterfall)
   • Database
   • API (Application Programming Interface)
   • Basics of software development, user interface etc.

   You have to learn the following skills and apply for a Technical business analyst or Data analyst or Systems analyst:

   • Fundamentals of Business Analysis (Initiate > Elicit > Analyze > Execute)
   • Analytical ability
   • Problem Solving
   • Business Orientation
   • Documentation (how to write user stories, requirement specification doc)
   • Business Process Modeling Techniques (Flow chart, Data flow diagram etc.)
   • Wireframe Technique
   • Communication and Collaboration
   • Tools used by BA such as - Spreadsheets, Project Management tools (JIRA, Asana, etc.)

3. You are already playing a technical role (Software development) and want to switch to Business Analysis:

   This would be same as my story.

   Learn the business domain of your project, understand the big picture, build a strong rapport with business stakeholders and show interest in business analysis activities.

   This will open the doors to become a Technical business analyst in your own project or other projects within the portfolio. Once an opportunity arises, go for business analyst role and the rest you’ll learn during training and while working.

Good luck for your BA Career!