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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Using social media as part of your BA job search strategy: Interview with Colleen Chan

February 18, 2010 by Laura (Brandau) Brandenburg

Every day I make a mistake and every day I learn something new.
Colleen Chan, “Business Analyst with a Difference” from Sydney, Australia, shares her inspiring story about her entrance into LinkedIn and blogging and discovering a true passion for social media all as a result of trying to find that “next opportunity”. Colleen brings a [...]

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Why business analysts might consider an MBA

February 17, 2010 by Brenda Harris

Editor’s Note: I’ve seen discussions flying around the forums lately about the value of an MBA for business analysts. Brenda Davis writes extensively on the topic of online MBA programs and I wanted to share her perspective on the MBA with you.
Considering the current state of the economy, it’s only natural to worry about your [...]

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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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Durga Patil on being a business analyst in the insurance domain

February 11, 2010 by Laura (Brandau) Brandenburg

Learn from the mistakes of others. You can’t live long enough to make them all yourself.
Last month I had the opportunity to speak personally with Durga Patil, a business analyst with L&T Infotech. Durga has been a business analyst for over three years and prior to becoming a business analyst held various roles in software [...]

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Diary of a CBAP-Seeker: Facilitating study groups to explore the BABOK

February 10, 2010 by DougGtheBA

Dear Diary: After the CBAP class I took, my instructor, Linda, offered to open some time in her web meeting utility for us classmates to have a study group to review the material. This informal start has blossomed into a full virtual study group that has members from across the globe. The insight from many [...]

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Use cases: a personal history (and a bit of a love affair)

February 8, 2010 by Laura (Brandau) Brandenburg

I recently discovered that even after 200 blog posts here, I’ve never written about a post about my beloved use cases! I guess I think that most of what there is to say has already been said. But we’ve each got our own story about how we discovered use cases, what we do with them, [...]

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Starting a Requirements Engineering Community of Practice: Interview with Anthony Oden, Business Systems Analyst at Dell

February 4, 2010 by Laura (Brandau) Brandenburg

Editor’s Note: A few weeks ago, I had the opportunity to speak with Anthony Oden, Business Systems Analyst at Dell, Inc. It turns out that BAs at Dell read Bridging the Gap on a regular basis (how cool is that!) and Anthony went out of his way to send me a thank you note. I [...]

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Managing ambiguity – a key business analyst competency

February 3, 2010 by Adriana Beal

Editor’s Note: In this post, Bridging the Gap columnist, Adriana Beal helps us stretch our perception of a key competency for any business analyst — managing ambiguity. I’m happy to announce that Adriana will be also be contributing to The Promotable Business Analyst by authoring a key section on assessing your competencies. I’m excited to [...]

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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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