So, you have decided to pursue a career in business analysis or you were forced into this role until you can do what you want. Well good for you. Business analysis will help you gain the skills you need for just about any position in an IT company. Although BA skills are required in just about every industry in the world, we will focus on Business Analysis in the IT field for this blog. Business Analysis is used by CEO’s, Directors, Managers, Business Analysts, Project Managers, Product Managers, Developers, Testers, and other valuable stakeholders.
So now that we have the introductions out of the way, how do we really get started learning this business analysis thing? We first start by getting to know the business you are working with. Although you do not need a technical background to become a business analyst it doesn’t hurt to have one. You will get to know the IT side of things as time goes on, but starting off you will need to engage the subject matter experts (SME) more frequently until you are able to start to answer questions on your own.
This blog is a collection of articles, tips, and techniques that I have used over the years as an IT Business Analyst. I will discuss the initial steps that you could take to help you start in the wonderful world of business analysis. We will discuss Requirements and how to elicit them instead of just gathering them (there is a difference), we will discuss the methodologies used for business analysis and how they fit into your organization, we will discuss a number of useful business analysis techniques for getting the work done, we will discuss the different documents that are often created as part of a project and provide you with the tools to create your own templates, we will discuss creating a BA toolkit to help anyone in just about any situation they may face, and throughout this blog, we will discuss some general tips and advice that I have learned over the years.