Are you wondering moving from developer to technical business analyst is a good career move? Or are you thinking about how this position will further help to increase your skill-set? Or do you feel becoming a Business Analyst will be a complete change in your career?

If these are the questions in your mind, then go on and read this article.

Its meant to answer how a career in Technical Business Analyst will benefit you not only in expanding your organization’s domain knowledge but also improve upon your soft skills.

Wondering how? Keep reading …

Many IT professionals consider this move as a normal path for their career growth.

First, some facts check

Who/What/When/Why is BA?

• Tech BA refers to an individual who follows the process of identifying/analysing business processes, needs, and opportunities through participation in the SDLC process to achieve the organisation’s vision and goals.
• They are considered to bridge the gap between technology architects and business stakeholders using processes like requirement gathering, data analytics, etc and deliver data-driven recommendations on how can business be improved.
• Being a business analyst is similar to being an architect. Architect produces plans while BA produces a requirement list stating business needs based on the organisation’s vision and aligned with business processes.

Let me share with you a list of activities that I perform being a tech BA.

Depending on the organization, you are expected to perform a variety of activities at different stages mentioned above.

Following are the benefits which you will see in yourself after working as a BA for a few months

Benefit 1: Improved communication skill

The ability to communicate effectively with superiors, colleagues, and staff is essential, no matter what industry you work in.

Our ability to communicate with others effectively makes an impact not only on our relationships but also on the results which we can achieve as an organization. A good communicator can encourage two-way dialogue, discuss critical issues, exchange information, build trust, and engage people in the mission of the business.

Effective communication is the key to managing employees efficiently as well as to understand business needs. As you need to actively communicate with the business authorities, the IT Team, and various other stakeholders, this skill will automatically help to improve your oral as well as written communication.

This skill in a way helps to improve our ability to really listen to and clearly understand the other person’s message. There are many barriers to effective listening. High performers are repeatedly rewarded for finding solutions, but moving into a “fix-it” mode before fully understanding the issue can lead to communication mishaps.

Benefit 2: Planning

Planning is basically a roadmap that guides us on how to complete a task before attempting to begin it.

As a BA, you need to explore improvement opportunities for the current state of the project or innovative ideas on how to develop a product and produce a clear project scope and estimation.

Planning needs you to initiate to-and-fro communications between users, customers, stakeholders, and developers. Also planning the new features helps you to define the scope of the project which helps to set the correct expectations when it is delivered.

Benefit 3: Creative & Innovative

Creativity helps in generating ideas without boundaries. Creativity must be something that can add value and, that which is, not done before in the organization like a new business model, or developing new product, new customer service model, etc.

Creativity is the skill that helps the BA uncover options for minimizing the cost of production while innovation is the process through which the selected option for minimizing costs comes to action. The skill of creativity is applied at every point in the innovation process.

Defining, analyzing, and documenting requirements is a highly creative and iterative process that is designed to show what the system will do, not how it will do. Thus as a BA, you need to make the best decision on what the system needs to perform in order to achieve the organization’s vision.

Data and information are becoming the lifeblood for all IT projects. They are the key mechanism to turn an organization’s vision into reality.

Benefit 4: Change perspective, i.e. develop an attitude of turning challenges to opportunities

Challenges come in many shapes, sizes, and dangers levels. Attitude often determines whether people and companies face these crises successfully or crumble under the pressure.

Crises occur in good times and bad times. Treating these potential disasters as opportunities to enhance your career might make the difference between the future success and failure of your career.

You understand business pain points and the impact of the proposed solution and make the correct decisions.

Someone quoted “It is easier to succeed and achieve when you are challenged.”, which I feel is true. When real challenges or crises arise, you have the opportunity to step up, handle the situation, and resolve the problem more gracefully. Challenges are the source of new opportunities to establish your professionalism, decision-making quality, and ability to focus on a problem and solve it.

Benefit 5: Analytical thinking and problem solving

Problem-solving is all about using logic and imagination, to make sense of a situation and come up with an intelligent solution.

Trying to solve a complex problem alone, however, can be a mistake. The old proverb: “A problem shared is a problem halved” is sound advice. Talking to others about problems is not only therapeutic but can help you see things from a different point of view, opening up more potential solutions.

This skill helps to provide a simple but structured approach to problem-solving activity.

Benefit 6: Improvements in your behavior

Any behavior attribute such as knowledge, skillset, teamwork, leadership skills, technical know-how, proactively communicate, being assertive, etc. which contributes to the development of an individual in the organization to take up bigger roles comes under the umbrella of behavior skill.

It can be applied to individuals at all levels, which simply means that it is not restricted to just top, middle, or lower level.

Behavioral skills often fall under the general heading of good character, friendliness, maturity, or common sense, and many people assume that those skills come naturally. But that’s not true. Every skill needs a little discipline and training in the correct direction.

Hope this article helps you to look at how my journey to move from developer to business analyst helped me improve my skills which not only helped me at the organizational level but also helped me grow as an individual.