Earlier this month we discussed career paths beyond business analysis and explored some opportunities that BA experiences prepare you for. While some of you may wish to move around your organization, explore multiple roles, or get promoted up the ranks into management and eventually find yourself on an executive team, others are probably saying “wait a minute, I just want to be a business analyst!“.
I had this same “Aha!” moment about a year and a half ago, after trying out the ranks of management. It’s a great feeling to discover your passion.
As I mentioned before and emphasized in the recent IIBA BA Career Path webinar career paths are personal decisions and there is no “right” answer. Your next step in your career is about what you want to achieve in your career and how you want to leverage your strengths to support your organization. There is certainly no “one path” so if you want to evolve your role within the profession of business analysis this is your decision to make and act on.
Many of you are sitting and waiting for your employer to define a senior business analyst role, or a business architecture role, or advance the level of BAs in your organization. I hear you. Our employers often don’t know what to do with us. They don’t know what the career path should be, so that makes us difficult to promote. Why not take the initiative and define that next step and start crafting the role for your employer? That way you’ll know it’s what you want!
If you find yourself frustrated by a lack of a career path, listen to Pat Ferdinandi as she wrote in a recent blog post about finding your strengths: “Don’t blame the corporation. Your career is in your hands!”
Yes YOUR HANDS!!!
There are multiple ways to evolve your business analyst career and to ask someone else or your organization to define your path is akin to asking them to tell you where you want to send your kids to school or what you should serve for dinner. And we wouldn’t do that, would we?
Because BA career paths is a complex topic, we are going to dedicate an entire week of posts to exploring this idea. For the first time ever here on Bridging the Gap, there will be a new post each day this week and they will all center on the theme of taking your career into your own hands. It’s going to be a fun week and I’m excited to get started!
We’ll start by helping you assess your current position and write your own job description. Then we’ll look at some common senior-level roles within organizations. On Thursday we’ll meet a business analyst who has quickly established herself in a senior-level role within the profession. We’ll finish off the week with some steps you can take to craft your path as well as take the next small step.
As we set off on this journey, this is a good time to reflect on the role you’ve played in your career development so far. Have you been waiting for your employer to hand you your next step on a silver platter? Are you taking the initiative to define that next step? Share your thoughts and your story. And come back tomorrow to read about some ideas for earning that next promotion.
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By Laura (Brandau) Brandenburg. Laura Brandenburg is an independent business analyst consultant. She is passionate about the BA profession and is committed to contributing by supporting this blog as a forum for business analysts to build on each other's experiences. View more blog posts by Laura (Brandau) Brandenburg |
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Laura:
To put the “Your Career is In Your Hands” statement into action, one of the things that we are doing in the Dallas IIBA chapter this year is developing marketing materials that communicate the definition and role responsibilities of the BA, in alignment with the IIBA message. Additionally we are going to make some recommendations based on research (to-be-done) for career paths. Finally, we are going to try to distinguish among the different types of analysts in the markets and highlight specific skills needed for each role.
The goal here is to help resolve the very issue that you (and Pat) hit upon…no one knows what to do with us or how to capitalize on the value we bring to bear. Who better to help define all this?
I’d like to encourage other chapters to follow suit and to utilize your resources to carry the word forward. We already have many alliances with recruiters, head hunters, HR professionals, and hiring managers. Communications like this that are distributed properly can have huge impacts on our careers as individual analysts and set the stage for future professional growth. While taking caution to stay in alignment with IIBA Intl, we can begin to contribute to our own destiny.
Anyone wishing to jump on board, please contact me at douggoldberg@gmail.com. I’d appreciate your input and ideas. I personally am a bit tired of waiting for others to recognize analysts as valuable assets. Time to take some control!
Laura,
I couldn’t agree with you more about “Your Career is in Your Own Hands”.
On the topic of career development and performance review, I wonder how many BAs have the experience where their performance is measured directly by the work that they do. Some recent posting suggested using metrics to measure the effectivenss and performance of a BA.
http://www.linkedin.com/answers/technology/software-development/TCH_SFT/594110-6050183?searchIdx=13&sik=1264462108734&goback=%2Easr_2_1264462108734
It would be wonderful to be able to show the metrics on one’s resume or perfornace evaluation. I would like to hear real time experience or stories on using them.
Li, Thanks for your comment. We had a brief discussion about measuring the value of a business analyst awhile back. It might be worth checking this post out too: http://www.bridging-the-gap.com/how-do-you-measure-the-success-of-a-business-analyst/
There are definitely varying perspectives on this. The LinkedIn discussion you reference brings some different ideas to light.
I think for any given role, I you measure your performance needs to start with a discussion with your manager. How do they perceive your value? What is important to them? What is important to the organization and how does your work contribute to those larger objectives? These can be tough questions for some managers to answer, but starting the discussion is the first step.
Laura
Thanks Laura,
The discussion took place last July/Auguest was quite interesting.
In my experience as a BA and an employee, the performance measures for individuald are aligned with organizational goals, objectives, and values. I have been measured for more than what I do as a BA. The direct measure of me as a BA is often client satisfaction, which seemed soft and not hard numbers or metrics like some have suggested.
With that in mind, I wanted to learn from the experiences from BAs in organizations where such measures are in place.
Upon more reflection, however, I agree with your assessment that micro-level measures for BAs become meaningless if a client preceives that a project did not deliver any value.
Those questions that you suggested are good ones. Give me more to think about before my next performance review meeting.
Thanks,
Hi Laura,
I’ve been following your posts for a couple of weeks now and I find your real-life contributions extremely useful & often thought provoking. Many thanks and keep up the good work!
All the best, Mark