From the category archives:

Help a BA

Our business analyst community needs your help! We receive questions from new, potential, and experienced business analysts nearly every day. People have questions about skills, jobs, responsibilities, and next steps to advance their career. This series opens up Bridging the Gap as a forum to help other business analysts and a platform for you to share your expertise.

See a question below that you can answer? Please take a few minutes to drop in a comment.

Have your own question? Ask a business analyst and receive input from the Bridging the Gap community.

Help a BA! How big is the gap between sales and business analysis?

March 2, 2010 by Laura (Brandau) Brandenburg

Reader question:
I have been in sales now for about 15 years, mostly in the financial industry. I am thinking of changing careers and the business analyst route seems interesting to me. From what I hear there is the interaction part with people along with communication skills and the liaison aspect between departments. My question is, [...]

3 comments Read more

Help a BA!: Will I gain portable BA skills as a Technical Analyst?

February 22, 2010 by Laura (Brandau) Brandenburg

Reader: I had a question for you and would really appreciate your insight into this. I have 5 years of experience in IT and a very good balance of development (.NET framework) and core BA work. I was looking for BA position but I recently accepted a Technical Analyst role. The job is in mortgage [...]

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Help a BA! How do I find volunteer positions?

February 15, 2010 by Laura (Brandau) Brandenburg

Reader: I recently relocated to Seattle and I am interested in pursuing a career as a business analyst. I am willing to start by volunteering. How can I come to know about volunteer business analyst positions as part of organizations or non-profits?
Laura: In this recent post I provided several different business analyst volunteer opportunities. I [...]

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Help a BA!: How do I break into the financial industry with no industry experience?

February 1, 2010 by Laura (Brandau) Brandenburg

Editor’s note: This week we are tacking the tough question of industry experience. I hold that you should only apply for jobs for which you are qualified and many BA jobs in specific industries require specific industry experience. This puts experienced BAs without the relevant experience in a tough position.
Please help me help a reader [...]

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Help a BA! How do you distingtish between a junior and mid-level business analyst?

January 11, 2010 by Laura (Brandau) Brandenburg

Today’s reader question:
How would you delineate a junior, middle, and senior BA? If someone has performed BA activities as part of a different title, would they be a junior or mid-level BA? I understand the question is probably a very gray area, but I wonder what you and other readers would say.
My response:
This is a [...]

9 comments Read more

Help a BA!: How do I blend accomplishments and responsibilities on my resume?

December 21, 2009 by Laura (Brandau) Brandenburg

Reader Question:
My question is about BA resumes. I have 5 years of experience in IT and around 4.5 in BA. I am a developer/BA blend, as I understand from your book My resume lists my experiences chronologically. I remember from your IIBA presentation on resumes that a resume should contain accomplishments vs just [...]

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Help a BA!: What is the difference between a business analyst and a systems analyst?

December 14, 2009 by Laura (Brandau) Brandenburg

Today we’ll be tackling another reader question:
Do you find the systems analyst profession and business analyst and business systems analyst profession to be different? I have been doing research and it seems this all points to pretty much the same profession–bridging the gap between end user’s and IT professionals, software developers, software engineers, etc. I [...]

20 comments Read more

Help a BA!: How do you become a business analyst consultant?

December 6, 2009 by Laura (Brandau) Brandenburg

Editors Note: I receive questions from new, potential, and experienced business analysts nearly every day. I do my best to help everyone out but it takes time and sometimes my answers aren’t as full as they could be. Even a thoughtful answer shares only my perspective. I host this blog not just to share my [...]

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Looking to break into a business analyst career? [guest post]

June 3, 2009 by DougHill

Doug Hill recently posted about his first 100 days as a business analyst. In this post, he shares his knowledge with one of his readers with some tips for breaking into business analysis.
Note from the reader
Hi Doug,
I recently read your article on Bridging the Gap between Business and IT site about your first 100 days [...]