Andy Jordan is President of Roffensian Consulting S.A., a Roatan, Honduras-based management consulting firm with a comprehensive project management practice. Andy always appreciates feedback and discussion on the issues raised in his articles and can be reached at andy.jordan@roffensian.com. Andy’s new book Risk Management for Project Driven Organizations is now available.
Not that many years ago, the advice to someone looking to enter project management was often to get some experience as a business analyst first. There was an assumption that it was part of a natural evolution—especially in IT —that started with a technical or development role, moved on to business analysis and then to project management as some kind of pinnacle.
That always struck me as a bit odd because I thought all of those roles were very different, but I saw enough evidence of people making the transition successfully that I just assumed I was the one who couldn’t see the benefits.
In fact, in many organizations, the transition occurred through the creation of a hybrid BA/PM role performed by the same individual. Even as recently as last year, a highly respected author in the field of project management and business analysis referred to the separation of those roles as a “luxury.”
Well, maybe I was the only person who didn’t see the logic of that, but things are now definitely changing. Business analysis is getting the recognition it deserves as a profession in its own right, and business analysts are being given many diverse career opportunities that didn’t exist a few years ago—and it doesn’t always mean becoming a project manager.
Business analyst career options
A number of factors have combined to …
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Published at Mon, 26 Nov 2018 05:00:00 +0000
