Transitioning Career from QA to BA
QA/Quality Assurance as we most professionals know is that profession where one is responsible for the product/project quality. They are the ones who are supposed to test the system/application, make all the best attempts to capture as many defects as possible so that the system behaves in the desired/expected way in the intended environment.
As part of this, Quality Analyst needs to first understand the functionalities of the system, this requires the understanding of the requirements really well.
While performing this Quality Analyst gets better with requirements/domain knowledge day by day, which they can use to their advantage. This acquired knowledge eventually gives them a mileage in being a part of their plan for a career transition to Business Analysis Profession.
While trying to test the application in all possible ways to take out the most of the defects, they go through the requirements minutely, examine it carefully and over time get better with how best requirements can be written or documented.
What is a good practice in writing requirements, how to present information, what kind of words to use and what not to use in the requirements, what’s the best way to present a flow in an unambiguous way these are certain aspects they come across and an ace over time?
While testing the application from various roles/permissions they know what user expects from the application, be it how should the UI be designed or how should a report look like.
Knowing the requirements, functional aspects and the user expectation well they naturally develop and acquire qualities needed to be a good Business Analyst.
Some amount of career development planning makes the transition smooth to a Business Analyst role:
- Get involved in the requirements gathering process proactively
- Show interest, gather knowledge and be proactive to be part of the requirements gathering and documentation process
- Try to learn the business terms, business process, look for any business (domain) terms repository available in your project or with client/on the web
- Get involved in the user /implementation training
- Take lead in any defect resolution/analysis with users during the deployment process.
- Take lead/active part in any process/requirement changes in the project/account.
- Learn the modeling tools (diagramming tools) and Requirement management tools
- Make an effort to know the domain and industry better.
- Follow some great leaders in the industry that you are in.
- After all, make learning your objective for everyday
If you are a software developer and planning to transition your career to Business Analyst then see my post on Transitioning career from a Software developer to Business Analyst
IIBA has come up with ECBA, Entry certificate in business analysis to facilitate this take a look at this short video on how to go ahead and embrace your dream career with ECBA certification.
