BA Lens April 2020 Issue
Editor’s Note: Must Have Skills That Make You in Demand
Today’s business analysis professionals have more opportunities in areas such as cybersecurity analysis, product ownership and business architecture, in the April issue of BA Lens we explore the skills and competencies needed and share tips for excelling in these fields. We also take a look at the challenges of landing a job when immigrating to a new country and share advice for managing your job search.
Cybercrime is expected to cause $6 trillion worth of damage yearly by 2021, according to Cybersecurity Ventures.1 In the article, “5 Things Business Analysts Can Do to Advance Their Cybersecurity Practice” Suzanne Bertschi, Director, Certifications & Programs shares some of the tools and techniques BAs need in their arsenal to help organizations protect themselves in the war against cybercrime. Adopting a risk-based approach to security includes a holistic assessment of a company’s threats and vulnerabilities. BAs play a key role liaising with security, IT, business and project management to help organizations apply policies, tools, and practices.
Product ownership is a hot topic and this month we look at the role from two different perspectives, in an interview with Sruti Chandra, Product Manager at IIBA she discusses the benefits of business analysis professionals moving into a PO role and the skills and knowledge they bring to the role, in “Choosing Business Analysts as Product Owners”. Sruti shares the skills BAs need to transition to a PO role and advice to help BAs successfully make this transition. In “Lessons Learned from an Accidental Product Owner” Richard Larson from Watermark/PMA shares his personal experience as an accidental PO and his learnings from his personal experience.
When considering moving abroad it’s helpful to find a job before you move but this isn’t always possible. So, how do you close job gaps on your resume while continuing your job search in your new home? In “How to Close Your Job Gap When You Migrate to A New Country”, Ananya Pani, Co-Founder of Adaptive US discusses the best way to experience a new country and tips for securing a new position.
Today’s business architecture professional requires educational career options that provide the flexibility needed to enable multiple career paths and choices. A robust Business Architecture (BA) practice (within or working closely with Enterprise Architecture (EA)) can be the linchpin to bridge your organization’s strategy to execution. In the article, “Business Architecture: Strategy Execution’s Secret Weapon”, Brian Cameron, Associate Dean for Professional Graduate Programs - Smeal College of Business discusses how leading organizations leverage business architecture to articulate and detail their business strategy, and also to create guidance that drives business and IT execution toward that future-state vision. Penn State offers the ability to “sample” different career paths through online graduate certificates that then can be applied to multiple online master’s programs. This flexible method of education “stacking” allows the student to create a certificate and degree progression that works for individual career goals and provides options for lifelong learning.
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