Transfering Skills from Information Technology (IT) Architect To Business Analyst

If you are interested in making the leap by transferring your skills to a new industry, read the rest of this post!

Although each career is different, there are still basic principles that apply whenever you transition to a new job, career or industry. These include:

1. Identifying the transferable professional skills that are common to both industries, jobs or careers

2. Updating your resume so that it reflects where you are going to and not where you are coming from

3. Gaining more knowledge, skills and experience about the industry you are transitioning to

4. Making the leap by preparing for and then acing your job interviews

Identifying Transferable Professional Skills

First, take a look at the professional skills you bring to your current position, and you will discover that you already have some of the skills needed to make your career leap.

Some of these skills may include; listening skills, writing skills, PowerPoint presentation skills, prioritization skills, public speaking skills, time management skills, conflict resolution skills, etc.

The point is that if you don’t take a full inventory of your transferable skills, you’ll lack the confidence to make the leap in your career.

What if after taking an inventory of your current situation, you feel that you don’t a lot of transferable skills, what can you do?

Take the time to build up your skills because you can’t approach the job search situation like a beggar! Buildup your skills, knowledge or experience by: asking for new assignments; volunteering for cutting-edge projects; enrolling in training or coaching classes, etc.

With all this in mind, here is a question submitted by Jeff Raugh (Buffalo, New York) on how to transition from an Information Technology (IT) Architect Job to a Business Analyst Job

Question:

I want to get employed. I am reinventing myself as I transfer my skills as an Outsourcing IT Architect to that of a Business Analyst.

Under the covers I was performing many of the tasks of a BA.

I need to find an opportunity that isn’t too junior nor too vertical for my next career challenge.

Answer:

Transferring Skills From Architect To Business Analyst With A Resume Makeover

To pursue a business analyst career with the experience of an IT Software Architect, you will need to revamp your resume to reflect how your current experience and skills reflect your new pursuit.

Include everything that you have done as an IT Architect that reflects the skills you need to be a business analyst.

As an IT Architect you will have gained some of the skills that are needed for a Business Analyst job.

Bring these skills out into the open and discover which ones can be added to your new resume.

This may be more difficult than it sounds because it may require a great deal of investigative work!

Carefully think back to each job and identify every role or responsibility on your resume that parallels that of business analysts.

Put on your sleuth hat for a moment and break out your magnifying glass so that you can examine how your job as an IT Architect relates to that of a Business Analyst.

Discovering Similarities Between IT Architect and BA Roles

Acquiring a new, updated wardrobe doesn’t always mean discarding your entire closet full of clothes and starting fresh.

Sometimes it simply means adding a few accessories to build upon what you already have. This is similar to how you will update your resume to accentuate the Business Analyst skills you’ve already gained or exercised as an Information Technology Architect.

Some of the skills that relate to both the jobs of business analysts and information technology architects include::

Decision Making Skills

An IT Architect makes decisions often under a great deal of pressure.

Often these decisions are made with a clear head under pressure and with many unknown factors.

Problem Solving Skills

The ability to analyze all the information at hand and then execute a plan is essential to problem solving in most professional situations.

Executing well-thought out plans, experimenting, collecting and analyzing feedback, changing tactics or returning to the drawing board and starting out in a new direction, is part of the job of a business analyst or IT Architect.

Leadership Skills

Along with the necessary technical skills, the information technology architect displays leadership qualities.

The information technology architect can influence the outcome of an entire project using their leadership ability just like the business analyst who can prioritize requirements and lead business meetings!

Domain Knowledge Skills

Each business is peculiar in the way that it caters to customers in the industry.

The knowledge of business processes like the software development life cycle is an example of how the Business Analyst and IT Architect’s roles overlap.

Moreover, software developers depend on both the IT Architect and business analyst for direction on the features and capabilities of the software under construction. For this reason, IT Architects and business analysts spend a good amount of time collaborating on their projects.

Finally, strong domain knowledge is key or integral to some business analysis and information technology positions. For example, business analysis / information technology architect positions in healthcare, financial, mortgage, insurance, etc. may require the same type of business domain knowledge.

Conceptual Skills

The IT Architect has the ability to see the big picture and to visualize the finished product just like a business analyst who works on the Vision, Scope and High-Level Business Cases.

Communication Skills

Of all the skills that are utilized in both business analyst and information technology architect positions, business communication skills are amongst the most common.

Without good communication skills, decisions are difficult or impossible to implement especially in a team setting.

As leaders, the IT Architect and Business Analyst both need to be proficient in writing and speaking because most of their work is done in either a high visibility or enterprise team setting!

So, listening, communication and writing skills are some of the key communication skills shared by both business analysts and information technology architects.

One of the business analysts / information architects role is increasing the volume of healthy communication between management, stakeholders and team members.

This involves both understanding and communicating what needs to be done as well as motivating the team towards their organizational goals.

It also includes an understanding of internal or organizational politics.

Negotiation Skills

The ability to quickly research, decipher consequences and risk or present multiple effective potential outcomes is part of the business analysts and IT Architects arsenal of skills!

Documentation Skills

Good documentation is a key part of the business analysts and IT Architects core skills.

Keeping in mind that a picture speaks a thousand works, both business analysts and IT Architects have to be comfortable with mapping business processes using diagrams, flowcharts and diagramming / modeling software like Microsoft Visio (MS Viso)!

Job Interviewing for Business Analyst Jobs

Once you have extracted out your business analyst-related experience and updated your resume, you will be more likely to receive calls for interviews.

The next skill you must master is how to interview for a job effectively.

Sometimes, the job is offered to someone not as qualified as you simply because he or she is better at taking interviews than you.

The good news is that you can shine at interviews too! All it requires is that you polish your interviewing skills.

Practice for the interview by answering questions in a concise, comprehensive and authoritative manner which demonstrates that you have the confidence needed to perform on the job.

Make a list of likely interview questions and be prepared to answer them by rehearsing ahead of the interview.

Read this post on: “How To Prepare For or Ace Business Analyst Job Interviews”.

The Future For ENFP Personality Type As A Business Analyst

The Business Analyst Career Coaching service answers challenging questions about business analyst careers. Click here to submit your own question.

Here Is A Business Analyst’s Coaching Question …

BACKGROUND

Law, Business degree, IT course (Cobol). I worked as a Cobol junior mainframe developer for 2 years.

Thereafter I worked as a project manager/Operations specialist / frontline customer interface (no training or knowledge) for 3 years.

Due to severe burnout I was unable to work for 5 years.

The last 2 years of my health sabbatical I studied another IT Course – Java, SQL, Javascript, HTML, Flash)

CURRENT SITUATION

I now have my first job after 5 years with a small software company with big corporate clients – am in my 6th month with the company.

I’m working with .Net, C#, Advanced SQL, Advanced JavaScript, CSLA Business Objects.

My frustration is my lack of knowledge of these languages and I’m building applications using these languages.

I’m learning by going through other applications written in the company.

The company is making use of their own in-house written framework/applications so that when I read up on the .Net framework for example I cannot transfer that knowledge into my work environment as it is not similar.

I also work long hours which makes it very difficult to study.

PROBLEM

I am 42 and realise that IT programming is probably not the best career choice I’ve made.

I’ve done the Meyers-Briggs test and I’m an ENFP.

This type of personality doesn’t appear to flourish doing detail work.

I don’t enjoy development/coding/programing and I’ve realised I don’t like detail work, I don’t enjoy struggling with code the whole day and figuring out how to get my program to work.

When I do get it to work I don’t feel that the code is clear and simple.

I would describe my code as tortuous in order to get to a result and my code is not robust.

QUESTION

What would you suggest I do in my current situation?

What skills that I currently have and am learning will be a huge plus in order to move to something else in IT?

If I know that it will be useful in my new career to have .Net, C#, etc experience then I will be hugely motivated and willing to put the effort in to learn it.

AFTERTHOUGHT

I do enjoy SQL and the web development side more. It is not that complicated and coding focussed.

I am picking up SQL experience but not really web development experience.

Coaching on ENFP Personality Type for Business Analysts

The Myers-Briggs Personality Profile is an extensive test that groups its findings into 16 different personality combinations.

It is based on the psychological philosophies of C. G. Jung that suggests there is order and consistency to the way people behave based upon how they perceive and judge.

Each personality type includes a combination of four letters based on four separate categories:

1. Focus

2. Interpretation of Information

3. Decision Making

4. Structure

Each of the four categories decide which personality best fits yours through a series of questions.

There are miniature versions of this test that can give you a brief idea of what your personality profile may be.

But, the entire Myers-Briggs Profile test is detailed, asking many questions to form a conclusion as to what categories
represent your personality.

The profile breaks personality down into four categories consisting of a choice of two letters each:

(Focus )

How do you prefer to focus on the world around you?

This particular category does not necessarily imply that you are shy or overly gregarious.

It is only an
indication of how you view your world.

Do you prefer to be alone to think things through or do you have to bounce ideas off of others?

• I – Introvert

• E – Extrovert

(Interpretation of Information)

The next groupings of letters indicate how you interpret information.

Do you tend to add meaning to information you obtain, or do you focus mainly on just the basic information?

• N – Intuitive

• S – Sensing

(Decision Making)

The next set of letter abbreviations refer to making decisions.

Do you look at logic when you make decisions, or do you first look at people with the special circumstances and feelings?

• T – Thinking

• F – Feeling

(Structure)

The final set of letters is how you handle structure in regard to how you deal with the outside world.

Do you prefer decided situations or do you prefer to keep your options open?

• J – Judging

• P – Perceptive

What is an ENFP Personality?

(E) Extrovert – (N) Intuition – (F) Feeling – (P) Perceptive – An ENFP personality would imply that you are an Extrovert (E), Intuitive (N), Feeling (F) and Perceptive (P) personality type.

This
generally means that you are most comfortable with others around you.

You interpret information through intuition. You make decisions largely based on people and special circumstances (feelings). And, you prefer to keep your options open.

An ENFP’s skills cover a broad spectrum. If something interests them, they are probably good at it.

They are project-oriented. ENFP personality types love life and want to make the most out of it as a gift.

They are driven by a strong sense of values in
everything they do.

An ENFP focuses externally taking things in through intuition. Your underlying mode, however, is internal as you handle things based upon how you feel about them or how they fit into your personal system of value.

This personality type tends to
be enthusiastic people who can become very passionate and filled with excitement.

They are warm, bright and full of potential. They tend to be incredibly good with people, bringing out the best in others.

They also seem to understand others intuitively shortly
after meeting them.

The world of an ENFP is filled with possibilities. They are inspirational because their enthusiasm tends to inspire those around them.

Communication skills are natural to them as they are able to talk their way out of just about any situation.

How to Write Good Business Requirements

Nearly "two-thirds of all IT projects fail" because of poor requirements.

This is one of the reasons why stakeholders, customers and interested parties argue over or fail to come to a consensus on the requirements or scope of a project.

In one project, requirements were being constantly rewritten, tossed out or reincorporated depending on who was in charge of the meeting.

In addition, time and budget overruns plagued the project because the parties could not agree on what each requirement really meant.

Finally, the implementation staff started resigning or asking to be transferred to other projects.

It is accurate to say that poorly written requirements can easily lead to budget or time overruns, unsatisfied stakeholders or customers and excessive staff turn-over.

As a business analyst, it is your duty to create good requirements and here are some guidelines for doing just that:

1. Write Feasible Requirements

   Your requirement must be implementable considering the resources, capabilities, skills or knowledge available to your project. In other words, do a reality check and do not write down requirements that are impossible to achieve considering the time, money or resource pool available to your organization.

2. Write Verifiable Business Requirements

   At the end of your project, you must be able to prove through testing, inspection, walk through or by demonstration that the requirements were implemented.

   One way to make a requirement verifiable is to rewrite or word it in such a way that you can actually test it or decompose it into smaller, more testable requirements.

3. Write Traceable Requirements

   You must be able to follow or track all the changes in your requirements back to the original, current or final form.

   This will help you verify the origin of each requirement and ensure that they were not introduced by external parties in an unapproved fashion.

   It is even better to have a requirements traceability document that shows the originating customer, stakeholder or business need, the high-level business case or lower level system use case incorporating the requirement and the final product feature finally that meets the requirement.

4. Write Consistent Requirements

   Have you ever participated in a meeting where you were given a business requirement that you felt contradicted another business requirement?

   That is what an inconsistent requirement looks like … a requirement that opposes, contradicts, invalidates or conflicts with another requirement making it difficult or downright impossible to achieve.

   So, here is the final word on this … don’t accept inconsistent requirements!

5. Requirements Must Be Complete

   Each requirement that you write must be complete and comprehensive and it must not depend on another requirement to explain it or provide detailed information.

   That means that if you are still in the process of evaluating the full scope of a requirement with customers or stakeholders, you do not include it as a requirement until it is complete.

6. Requirements Must Be Unambiguous

   Write each requirement in a way that removes doubt, confusion or misinterpretation.

   In other words, your requirements must be written in a style that leaves little doubt as to what is intended or meant.

   Each requirement must be clear and concise. It must not be vague and it should be read, understood or interpreted by every party the same way. Finally your requirements should be written in language that is free of technical jargon and in a language that the readers of the document understand.

7. Requirements Must Be Necessary

   Include all the requirements that meet the previous rules on this post and in addition are required or mandatory for the system under observation to function as intended.

   So, a requirement is necessary when the lack or absence of it will be interpreted as a defect by stakeholders, project sponsors or customers.

To summarize this post, write business requirements that are: verifiable, clear, concise, complete, consistent, feasible and necessary.

What has been your experience when it comes to writing requirements or getting a consensus from interested parties as to what constitutes a requirement and what does not.

How To Answer Business Analyst Interview Questions

If you are looking for a scientific way to boost your business analysis skills or ace your Business Analyst Job Interviews, start using practice tests.

Research has shown that practice tests or quizzes improve retention, recall or understanding.

Research has also proven that workers who study and take quizzes have better long-term recall than their colleagues who study without taking quizzes.

Don’t use practice tests only in preparation for certification exams because they are useful for much more than that!

Practice tests or quizzes are effective for improving Business Analyst skills, retention or recall which helps you ace your Business Analyst job interviews!

Let’s go ahead and review how you may used practice tests to improve your skills or advance your Business Analyst Career or get a Business Analyst job.

Use Quizzes to Ace Business Analyst Job Interviews

Quizzes or practice tests are effective because they mimic the question and answer format of Business Analyst job interviews.

In Practice Tests, the Quiz software usually presents random questions to you, rates your answers as correct or incorrect and then displays correct answers for your benefit!

Practice Tests simulate Business Analyst job interviews by presenting the different types of questions interviewers ask including Single Choice, Multiple Choice or Open-ended interview questions.

In a Business Analyst job interview, the potential employer will ask a question and then review your answers for correctness, promptness of reply and comprehensiveness.

Lack of correctness (wrong answers), promptness (slow responses) and comprehensiveness (not enough details) may cause you to lose your Business Analyst job interview or give you a bad rating!

So, how would you prepare for your next job interview using this new information?

Start by using practice tests which can;

• Present potential Business Analyst job interview questions in random order

• Rate answers to single-choice, multiple-choice and open-ended interview questions … so you get used to answering them in interviews

• Present the correct Business Analyst job interview answer with additional explanations so you familiarize yourself with the correct answers

Use Quizzes to Sharpen Your Business Analyst Job Interviewing Skills

Practice tests actually improve your ability to remember or recall correct answers in your interviews.

Use them extensively to prepare for your interviews weeks or months before you need a job!

Practice tests are effective because you answer a set of questions multiple times until they sink in and become second nature!

How Sharp Are Your Business Analyst Skills?

During your Business Analyst interviews, you are evaluated based on the correctness, promptness of reply and comprehensiveness of your answers.

Correctness:

Your answers are evaluated based on how precise or correct they are. Even when the Business Analyst interview questions are open ended, your answers are still evaluated as correct or incorrect.

You impress your interviewer when you can answer most or all of the questions you’re asked correctly. Not getting your facts straight or not knowing your material will certainly cost you the interview!

Promptness:

You are evaluated based on how quickly you respond to Business Analyst interview questions.

The quicker you are in responding to Business Analyst interview questions, the sharper your skills are perceived to be.

So, you lose points when you take too long to answer a Business Analyst question and you gain points or credibility, when your answers are quick or instinctive.

Comprehensiveness:

Your interviewer evaluates your business analysis level of knowledge when you answer a Business Analyst question.

So, a comprehensive, detailed or factual answer will score more points than a sketchy, skimpy answer.

When you are asked a Business Analyst question, you really need to wow your interviewer by demonstrating that you have more than a superficial understanding of the topic.

You need to do this by giving the correct answer promptly and comprehensively (with as much detail as the time you are given permits).

How To Answer Business Analyst Interview Questions Correctly

The Business Analyst Testing Software included in the Business Analysts Boot Camp presents a list of Business Analyst interview questions and then evaluates your answer to each question as either true of false … which helps you identify the correct answers.

You need to study each answer’s explanation, understand why it is correct and why the other answers are not correct.

You also need to attempt the same question several times until your answers are consistently correct.

Practicing with our Business Analyst Testing Software will help you respond back promptly, correctly, comprehensively in a live Business Analyst interview.

How to Answer Business Analyst Interview Questions Promptly

Because practice questions are presented in the Business Analysts Boot Camp Training software, you have a reliable way of recording, tracking or monitoring your training sessions and improvement.

Your ability to answer Business Analyst interview questions promptly is a function of your familiarity with the question or topic.

As your level of familiarity with Business Analyst questions increases, your promptness in answering also increases. So, practice taking business analyst interviews using the Business Analysts Boot Camp Testing software

We’ve discussed how to boost your skills or ace your Business Analyst job interview using a proven scientific technique.

The good news is that the Business Analysts Boot Camp includes Business Analysis Practice Testing Software at no additional costs!

The Business Analysts Boot Camp Quiz Module presents questions, rates answers to Single Choice, Multiple Choice or Essay Type Questions, displays the correct answers with explanations and grades your skill level!

Use Quizzes to Sharpen Your Skills Or Advance Your Career!

The Business Analysts Boot Camp Quizzes helps you remember, recall or understand material presented in our training videos.

Repetition in training is the key to skill mastery. To master a new skill you, you repeat the same set of tasks until it sinks in or becomes second nature … which you can achieve using our Quiz modules!

At designated periods in the Business Analysts Boot Camp, you will get an invitation to take a Quiz for a number of days.

While taking the Quiz, you will be presented with a number of questions or scenarios until the material becomes second nature!

So, if you are looking for a scientific way to boost your career, advance your skills or ace your job interviews, enroll in the Business Analysts Boot Camp training now!

Don’t miss out on these limited time discounts because because they will help you save more money now! For a limited time only you may:

The Business Analyst Boot Camp Team