Accelerate your career in Consulting as a Business Analyst

Date posted
16 May 2018
Reading time
7 Minutes
Lauren Rousseau

Accelerate your career in Consulting as a Business Analyst

I have heard Business Analysts being called the 'glue' between the customer, users and developers. A role that sits at the core, making sure that we are building the right thing to solve our clients' problems, meets the needs of our users, and is economically viable. This is no small feat and can sound intimidating if you have not done the role of a business analyst before, but the role provides a huge amount of variety and opportunity. Kainos has a great reputation for providing opportunities and challenges to expand and develop your career in the direction you want. Whether it be starting out in your career or changing roles, Kainos provides the support and training you need to be an effective team member when you join a project in your new role. Kainos has just launched the Business Analysis Academy to provide those starting out or in the early years of their BA career a firm grounding in traditional business analysis skills, but also the techniques needed when working in an agile environment. The Academy will focus on real life project examples and comprise a mixture of theoretical principles and practical exercises delivered by variety of Kainos experts, giving those who take part some real hands on experience. The BA Academy will cover all the core topics such as:
  • requirements elicitation
  • workshopping techniques
  • identifying critical success factors
  • process modelling
  • requirements prioritisation
All the above are vital in being able to ensure we are solving the right problem. What kind of skills make a good applicant to the Academy? I've found that being an effective agile Business Analyst requires an additional set of skills on top of what you learn. Knowing how to work with the Product Owner to writing good user stories, define the Minimum Viable Product (MVP), and manage the product backlog as well as how to work with a development team to create the optimum solution. Understanding the benefits of agile and its various methodologies is vital in ensuring the delivery of features that meet both user and business needs. In addition to working with software developers, testers, ops team and delivery managers, our Business Analysts will work closely with a combination of user experience designers, user researchers, service designers, and content designers. These roles have a vital impact on ensuring we create a solution that our users actually want to use. The BA Academy will show how these roles work together, and the importance of design and research, in helping shape this solution. Above all, it's about communication. Being able to clearly communicate with different audiences is vital to ensuring there is a shared understanding across the whole team and that everyone is working towards the same goal. The BA Academy will explain the importance and secrets of effective stakeholder management and provide guidance on how to have those difficult conversations when it comes to managing scope and stakeholder expectations. Every project at Kainos (and in IT in general!) is different, but the BA Academy will explain how projects are generally structured; what the project phases are, and the various roles and responsibilities of the team members. The BA Academy will also highlight some of the key differences between public and private sector projects; something that becomes more and more prevalent as Kainos expands its breadth of clients and moves into new sectors. At the heart of Kainos is a culture of supporting one another. During the BA Academy you will be learning alongside colleagues from a variety of backgrounds, but with similar levels of experience. Making connections with at the Academy will mean you have a network of familiar faces you will be able to reach out to when you join and will be able to continue learning together and supporting each other. The BA Academy offers a brilliant opportunity to accelerate your Business Analyst career from a strong foundation. We are excited to grow our team, and for you to be part of it! Find out more about the role and apply here.

About the author

Lauren Rousseau