A Quick Note On Your New Years’ Resolutions
Have you set any resolutions for 2017? How about resolutions specific to your career? It might sound odd to make resolutions for your career rather than set goals, but the reality is that there are some core underlying principles that underlay great business analysis. When you look at those around you who are consistently employed, and even moving up the business analysis career ladder, it’s because they are taking action in a certain way.
And you can too. Setting New Years’ resolutions specific to your business analysis career can help you move more quickly towards your business analysis career goals. It can help you be the one that gets assigned to more challenging projects (along with the promotions and salary increases that come with that more challenging work).
And you can too. Setting New Years’ resolutions specific to your business analysis career can help you move more quickly towards your business analysis career goals. It can help you be the one that gets assigned to more challenging projects (along with the promotions and salary increases that come with that more challenging work).
Here’s a quick view of the resolutions you might want to be making:
- Use New Techniques
- Grow Your Professional Awareness
- Contribute Professionally
- Improve Your Communication Skills
- Celebrate Success & Embrace Change
If you’d like to learn more about each of these resolutions, and the how, why, and what that they contribute to your business analysis career success, check the replay of my recent IIBA® webinar – you’ll find it in the webinar archive.
One question that came up during the webinar was what to do if your employer doesn’t support your career goals and won’t assign you new techniques. Here’s the thing - most of the opportunities we have to grow our careers require us to step up and do work that’s not explicitly being assigned to us.
- No one has to ask you to improve a process you do every day, week, or month at work – you can see the problem, analyze the process, and make small improvements to it.
- No one has to ask you to create a new visual model and that model doesn’t even have to go in your formal requirements documentation. It can be something you create to think through a problem in a new way or draw on a whiteboard as part of an elicitation session with your stakeholders.
- No one has to ask you to reach out to a stakeholder that is resisting the requirements process, to create a bridge and improve your relationship. This can be something you do over coffee or in the spare minutes in between meetings.
If you sit around and wait for someone to assign you as a full-fledged business analysis practitioner on a project or develop yourself professionally, you could be waiting a long, long time. However, if you choose to be proactive and make adjustments in your work, you can create a lot of momentum in a very short time.
What resolutions will you make to move your business analysis career forward in 2017?
About the Author:
What resolutions will you make to move your business analysis career forward in 2017?
About the Author:
Laura Brandenburg, CBAP, is a best-selling author and an internationally recognized leader known for helping mid-career professionals start business analysis careers. Laura brings more than a decade of experience in the business analysis profession, filling such roles as a full-time business analyst, consultant, and hiring manager. She brings all of these perspectives into her writing, presenting, coaching, and training to help you find transferable business analysis skills, expand your business analysis experience, and start your business analysis career with confidence. You may find out more about Laura by visiting her website.
She also offers a free career planning course for business analysis practitioners: http://www.bridging-the-gap.com/free-resources