Back in late 2007 I was a tech support analyst providing high level support to other tech support staff within the Australian Federal government. In terms of income, I felt I was up near the top of the ladder in that industry and I wanted to find a way to go further. So I changed careers and became a Business Analyst in 2008.
Since then I’ve worked with a lot of various Australian government agencies and corporate vendors providing ICT project support to government agencies. In 2011 I was the sole Business Analyst supporting about 6 Project Managers across 43 different projects within a single program. Good times!
In 2012 I was headhunted and became a Senior Business Analyst working for Lockheed Martin Australia, which was a lot of fun, and was fantastic for moving my career up a notch. Since then I’ve had other Senior BA roles that were all part of the ongoing development of my BA career.
Last year I started a new role as a Senior BA providing strategic support to develop a BA Centre of Excellence. However, since then, it hasn’t quite worked out the way I expected. It’s worked out so much better!
In December I was assigned to a project that was managing a considerable amount of work relating to integrating two major government agencies. It was my role as the sole BA on the project to identify, develop and manage a number of project artefacts that would identify and document everything needed for the two agencies to integrate their technology infrastructure. There was a deadline of 1st July this year.
Over the past couple of months, the work has become more complex, identifying an increasing number of business areas across the two agencies that would be significantly impacted by the changes. Due to the significantly increased workload and the complexity of activities, I’ve had to organise other BAs to come onboard and provide assistance.
So I’ve been involved in interviewing other BAs to get someone onboard who would be able to provide the support that I would need. I’ve also been able to get other BAs assigned to my project to provide support to help ensure the discovery, analsysis and management of critical activities will be done within the short timeframes we have.
So now the latest step in the ongoing development of my career is that I’ve become a Lead BA for one of the most important projects in the government today, and I’m managing 4 other Senior BAs to help get the required work done in the required time.
It’s quite exciting right now, and I’m actually really, really surprised at how much I’m enjoying this new challenge. I’m involved in identifying tasks that need to be done, and assigning them to the BAs to do, and managing their progress and resolving any issues. I have to work harder than I have before, and I have to just do whatever hours is necessary to do what needs to be done. But it doesn’t feel like a huge issue!
With this new phase in my Business Analyst career, it’s going to be interesting to see how it moves forward, and what the future holds. I can see future roles as a Lead BA becoming available over time. Who knows where that’s going to take me?
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