Resources for Business Analysts

If you could ask me any question at all about improving your productivity and performance as a Business Analyst, what would that question be?

Every month on the second Thursday, for one hour in a teleseminar/webcast I will answer the questions you have posted at this site: Ask Geri a Question. This one hour session will be live at noon Eastern time. The recording and transcripts will be posted afterward on the Resources for Business Analysts site.

When you ask a question, I’ll put your email address on a list that I am only using to send monthly reminder notices of the Ask Geri sessions. This is a completely separate list from any other mailing I do. Every email has a link at the bottom where you can unsubscribe if you are no longer interested in the Ask Geri monthly calls.

The next session is coming up in a few days, on Thursday January 14th at noon and 7pm Eastern time. Be sure to enter your question here Ask Geri a Question and I’ll send you full details of the call.

I look forward to your questions!

Geri

If you did not submit a question, you can still participate. I think this is going to be very interesting. I’ve invited Mike Vizdos (ScrumMaster) to join us on the teleseminar and give his viewpoint.

EVENT: The Role of a BA on an Agile or SCRUM team
DATE & TIME: Wednesday, January 6th at 5:00pm Eastern
FORMAT: Simulcast! (Attend via Phone or Webcast — it’s your choice)
TO ATTEND THIS EVENT, CLICK THIS LINK …
http://www.AttendThisEvent.com/?eventid=10516494

Author: Geri Schneider Winters

You want to find a new job, but you do not want to leave your company. You know the job you want to do, but are having a hard time convincing someone to let you do that job.

When I worked for Rational Software, in order to get greater responsibility, or a different job, I had to demonstrate that I could do the work required. Not talk about it, demonstrate it by doing it. I had the same experience at Lockheed Missiles and Space. This is a very effective approach to changing jobs within the same company.

The first step is to identify the job you want to do. Go through job descriptions, or write yourself a one page description of your desired job. Second, determine what manager you would be working for. This might be your current manager or someone else. Then, talk to your current manager, and the new manager, about what you want to do.

The best situation is if your manager is sympathetic and will help you move into the new position. In this case, schedule a meeting with your manager, explain what you want to do, and ask your manager to help you work out a plan for transitioning into the new job. If another manager is involved, include that manager in the discussions of the transition plan.

To create a transition plan, start with a job description, either from your Human Resources department or take one of the Business Analyst job descriptions from my site www.ResourcesForBusinessAnalysts.com. Then write a plan to get the education and experience you do not currently have. This plan might include the need for additional training; getting experience doing the work of the new position; getting exposure to the right people who can support you in obtaining the new position; producing papers, articles, or presentations in the skills or knowledge of the new job; or training other people in the new skills (to demonstrate that you know them well enough to train others).

This transition into a new position might take one or two years. As long as you keep working on the plan, you will eventually achieve your goal. You should meet with your manager quarterly to make sure that you are doing the right thing, and to see if the plan needs to change. If another manager is involved, you should also meet with that person quarterly to report on progress, refine your plan, and develop a relationship with the new manager.

You may be wondering why your manager would help you move into a new job. I have found that most managers, and certainly the good ones, really like helping people better themselves. If you are motivated and hard working, your manager will probably be pleased to help you work your way into a new position. If that new position means you will be working for someone else, your manager may be sad to lose a good employee, but happy for you and your success.

What if your manager is not sympathetic and will not help you? Then you have a harder job of working on the transition by yourself. The first step is to get a copy of the job description of the job you want to do. You can find this in your Human Resources department or at my site www.ResourcesForBusinessAnalysts.com. Then, make yourself a transition plan as I described above. In this situation, you will have to continue doing your current work to an excellent level, and also start doing the work of the new job. In your annual or semi-annual performance review, demonstrate to your manager that you have done you own job very well, and also that you have been doing the work of the other position. If the transition plan is lengthy, you can then propose to your manager that he or she help you complete the transition process. If you have already learned the new job, then propose to your manager that you move into the new position. If the new position is working for someone else, then you can approach the other manager and demonstrate to him or her that you have been doing the work of the new job. Then propose that you start working for the new manager.

By taking one of these approaches, in a year or two you will find that you have the skills you need for the new position. Hopefully, you have the support of your manager and can move into that new job. If you do not have the support of your manager, then you can go to his or her manager or your human resources department and present the case for a job change to them. In the worst case, you will have obtained the skills you need to look for the new job outside your company, so the time spent developing your new skills is not wasted.

Assuming that you are trying to transition into a Business Analyst job, here are some specific things you can do:

1. Volunteer to take notes at team meetings and distribute those notes to your team members after the meeting. This demonstrates that you listen well and can act as a scribe or interviewer.
2. Volunteer to facilitate team meetings, meetings with stakeholders, or discussion sessions. Be sure you do not participate, but act strictly as a facilitator.
3. Make friends with a Business Analyst in your company and volunteer to help with his or her work. Things that a BA might be happy to have help with include interviews, observations, JAD sessions (the BA could be either facilitator or scribe and you can take the other role), writing first drafts of requirements documents, and managing requirements. Be sure you are a helper and do not try to take over your friend’s job! Learn everything you can from this person.
4. Look for a large project, preferable one that has 2 or more Business Analysts working on the team. Volunteer to the project manager or the manager of the BA team to do some information gathering for the Business Analysts. This is the work of a Starter Project BA. If you do a good job doing a little work for the project, ask the project manager or the manager of the BA team if you can come onto the team as a Starter Project BA either half-time or full-time. Explain that your work will be to support the other BA’s on the team. Let the project manager or the manager of the BA team negotiate with your manager for your time. Learn everything you can from the other Business Analysts on the team.

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Do you want to know more? Visit my website at www.ResourcesForBusinessAnalysts.com. Membership is free. In the “Become a Business Analyst” area, you can find the paper “Finding a Business Analyst Position”, which contains the full set of articles.

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You are invited to re-publish articles from this blog, in your publication or website, as long as the article is intact and you include the following Byline paragraph (with live links) after each article you use…

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* Article used with permission from Wyyzzk, Inc.’s Resources for Business Analysts site at http://www.ResourcesForBusinessAnalysts.com This website of reports and tips contains information to help you succeed as a Business Analyst in IT.

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Author: Geri Schneider Winters

You need a cover letter for each job you apply for. The cover letter may be completely customized, or it might be the same letter with different headers. At the very least, your cover letter should be customized for the kind of job you are applying for.

Those of us with many years’ experience often can do many different kinds of jobs. When you are applying for a particular kind of job, you will want to customize your cover letter and your resume for that kind of job. In this article, I am discussing a cover letter for a Business Analyst position. If you are applying for a Project Manager position, you would change the cover letter to be appropriate for that role. You want to focus the reader’s attention on what is relevant to the job you are applying for.

I have posted a sample cover letter on my website at www.ResourcesForBusinessAnalysts.com.

Start the cover letter with your name, address, and contact information (telephone, email). Then put the name and address of the person you are writing to and the date. In your salutation, put the name of the person you are writing to. DO NOT put To Whom it May Concern. You should always be writing to a specific person.

In the preparation for this application, you made a list of issues faced by your potential employer. In the first paragraph of the cover letter, list the issues you want to address. You might have a sentence something like this:

Recently you and I have been discussing some issues you are facing on your project teams. You have had to deal with difficult stakeholders, incorrect or poorly written requirements, and poorly trained team members.

Or if this is someone you have not been talking to, the sentence might look like this:

As a Project Manager, there are many issues you face on your projects. You have had to deal with difficult stakeholders, incorrect or poorly written requirements, and poorly trained team members.

Now in the next paragraph, explain why you are writing. You might have a sentence something like this:

I am sending you this letter because you don’t want to have these problems on your current project. There are many other challenges you need to deal with. I can contribute my experience and training in relationship management, requirements writing, facilitation, and change management to create smoothly running projects.

Notice how I state specific things that address the issues from the first paragraph. You can follow this up with a bulleted list of 3-5 specific things from your resume that proves you have these skills. For example:
• As relationship manager for the county jail, I cut the level of incidents between guards and inmates by 75%
• On over 20 projects where I was the Business Analyst, there were 1% or less project issues related to the requirements
• I have mentored 15 Business Analyst during their work on a project team, improving the quality of their work by 50%

Then summarize other things about you that may be important to the project manager. Perhaps something like this:

I am self-directed and work closely with my Project Managers to ensure the projects run smoothly. I love working with all kinds of people and in all kinds of situations. I think on my feet, and quickly create solutions to problems as they arise. (I love problem solving so much, I work on logic problems every night, which drives my family crazy.)

Then write a closing sentence or two. Here you are writing a call-to-action, which means you are asking the person reading the letter to do something. Maybe something like this:

Please review the enclosed resume. I am happy to provide you with references or any further information you require. I look forward to hearing from you.

Finally, sign the letter. Some people suggest a PS after your signature, perhaps something like this:

P.S. If you do not have positions available at this time, but know of someone who does, please let me know. My email address is foo@foo.com

Here is one final tip: hand address the envelope. This makes your letter look personal, and means it is more likely to be opened.

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Do you want to know more? Visit my website at www.ResourcesForBusinessAnalysts.com. Membership is free. In the “Become a Business Analyst” area, you can find the paper “Finding a Business Analyst Position”, which contains the full set of articles.

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You are invited to re-publish articles from this blog, in your publication or website, as long as the article is intact and you include the following Byline paragraph (with live links) after each article you use…

START BYLINE

* Article used with permission from Wyyzzk, Inc.’s Resources for Business Analysts site at http://www.ResourcesForBusinessAnalysts.com This website of reports and tips contains information to help you succeed as a Business Analyst in IT.

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Author: Geri Schneider Winters

You want to find a Business Analyst position and do not want to stay at your current company. Maybe you are changing careers and are not finding success in sending a resume to a Human Resources department or in response to an ad. Or you have no job experience and no one will talk to you. You looked at my previous article Networking for an Outside Job, and realized that you had no network of professionals to help you find a job.

There is a lot of confusion in the marketplace about what a Business Analyst is. You have to think creatively about your job hunt. My best advice for finding a Business Analyst job is this: instead of looking for a job and applying for it, think about what the job is that you want to do. Then find a manger who needs someone to do that job, and approach the manager about hiring you to do that work. To find that manager, I suggest using tactics from Direct Marketing.

In this approach, you will assume there are certain issues being faced by a hiring manager. You will craft a cover letter and resume showing how your skills and experience solve those issues for the employer. This is not as powerful approach as the Networking Approach, because instead of finding out the actual issues faced by the manager, you are guessing at the issues. That just means you will send out many more resumes and cover letters in this approach. Both approaches are equally effective.

The first step is to describe the job you want to do. Do this for yourself one day – spend some time to write a one page description of the job you want to do. You can look at job ads, or look at descriptions of Business Analyst roles in previous articles or on my website www.ResourcesForBusinessAnalysts.com. You will use this information to find companies to apply to.

Now, get a list of people who might hire you. You can go to www.zapdata.com, a list service owned by Dunn & Bradstreet to find US companies. There are similar services for Europe. At zapdata, you can set up a free account, enter your search criteria (which you got from describing the ideal job), then when you are happy, pay the fee, and download the list. What is in this list? It will be a list of people you specified, such as owners or senior managers, at the kinds of companies you specified.

Next, think about the issues a Project Manager faces on a project team. Very often, the people working on his or her team as Business Analysts are really Subject Matter Experts. They do not have the training or experience as a Business Analyst. What is the difference? A Subject Matter Expert (SME) knows his or her business area really well. But he or she may have little or no training or experience in conducting interviews, facilitating requirements gathering sessions, mediating disagreements, writing requirements in many different forms of documentation (so the SME does not know the best form to use to present information), managing change, or managing and reporting on requirements. The SME is usually much less efficient and complete when doing Business Analyst work. That means that project issues that should be discovered early in the project are discovered much later, when they are more expensive to fix. Or maybe the manager is working in a highly confrontational situation. Think about issues you have seen on project teams (or ask some friends) and add to this list.

Look at your background and experience and compare it to the list of issues. Which issues can you solve for the employer? You want to select a few that you know positively you are really good at handling. If you are really good at dealing with difficult people (and want to do that work), then that is an issue you want to pick from the list.

Write a cover letter that addresses the issues you have identified and why you are the best person for the job. I have provided an outline of a cover letter on my website at www.ResourcesForBusinessAnalysts.com.

Look over your resume and be sure it is focused on the issues that are important to this manager. You do not have to list every bit of work you have ever done. No one will read all that. Instead, highlight the jobs that are relevant to the issues addressed in the cover letter. I have provided a simple resume on my website at www.ResourcesForBusinessAnalysts.com.

Can you see how this could be more effective than sending copies of your resume to every human resources department and every ad, hoping someone will respond?

I heard of a research study where the best people in a company were asked to disguise their identities and submit job applications to their own company. Not one person was selected for an interview. And yet, these were the best people working for that company! This matches my own experience where I cannot get a job applying through human resources, and yet when I talk to the hiring managers directly, I have no trouble getting the position.

Yes, there is some cost associated with this approach. You may have to pay $150 or $200 for a list of 600 or so people, in addition to the cost of sending all the letters. In the Networking approach, you will spend more time looking for work. In the Direct Marketing approach, you will spend more money. Both approaches work, and you might trying doing both at the same time.

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Do you want to know more? Visit my website at www.ResourcesForBusinessAnalysts.com. Membership is free. In the “Become a Business Analyst” area, you can find the paper “Finding a Business Analyst Position”, which contains the full set of articles.

———————————————————————————-

You are invited to re-publish articles from this blog, in your publication or website, as long as the article is intact and you include the following Byline paragraph (with live links) after each article you use…

START BYLINE

* Article used with permission from Wyyzzk, Inc.’s Resources for Business Analysts site at http://www.ResourcesForBusinessAnalysts.com This website of reports and tips contains information to help you succeed as a Business Analyst in IT.

END BYLINE