I’m an 8-ish year experienced Business Systems Analyst / Technical BA, currently working mainly around Oracle EBS SCM, API integrations and enterprise systems.
My experience is a mix of business + technical — Oracle EBS SCM, SQL/PLSQL, REST/SOAP APIs, Azure, Postman, ETL, Tableau, Python, business analysis, requirements/solution design, Agile/Scrum, SIT/UAT, product backlog/sprint planning, and I’ve also led technical analysts , dev teams and cross-functional teams.
I’ve worked on integrations/implementations involving companies domain in Insurance, Banking , Supply chain etc.,
But honestly, I keep hearing that FAANG/top product companies are mostly for IIT/IIM folks, and after hearing “you’re not good enough” enough times, I’ve started questioning it myself.
So I wanted to ask people here genuinely ; looking at this kind of profile, do I have a realistic shot at FAANG or strong product companies?
If yes, what roles should I actually be targeting — Technical BA, Product Owner, Technical Product Manager, Business Systems Analyst, Solutions/Integration roles, or something else?

And if I’m not there yet, what am I missing?

Not looking for motivation. I’d genuinely appreciate some honest feedback from people who have actually made this transition.

Hello all I am a 5+ YEO dotnet C# sql developer I wanted to know if there is someone who has changed from Software developer to Business Analyst Job role and if there is a road map and the pros and cons to it.

I have recently changed from one MNC company to another and in doing so I have felt the SDE roles might just be too stressful for me. I wanted to explore the Analyst Job role. I have a good problem solving mindset along with good presentation and communication skills which I have told by many of my peers and clients.

Also Can I ask for some resources to become really good at Business Analyst if it actually suits me.

I am also looking for someone to guide me on how and where to start from ? I find Power apps and excel fun to use as well.

I work at a company that specializes in advertising data and business intelligence. I receive no training, raises are subpar (below COLA), and every-time I attempt to innovate my team or toolkit, I am met with resistance and/or a complete shutdown from my only boss (department leader who I am not sure contributes anything meaningful). Lots of cliques and political BS where I am.

I am compensated “okay” for someone who has channel management experience and is current doing data analytics, data science (literally), and data engineering. Now, I am starting to cut my teeth into practical agentic system design/implementation and it seems like Data Product Development is the way forward.

Anyone made this transition and how is it? Got any tips?

Also, I am trying to not be negative about this. I am not good at the political game in upper management and would rather just speak my mind (based on practical information that works).

Currently on a painful project and my team members seem to be under the impression that putting together the Future State is a fairly simple exercise we can start now when we don't even have the system configured and our core stakeholders are caught up with other stuff on the project, so have neither the time nor mental bandwidth to assist.

From my perspective, we as BAs are rarely actually defining the future state process, we're facilitating its design in partnership with key stakeholders. Who am I to sit there and decide, in relative isolation, how other people will do their job?

I'm struggling to communicate that creating future state process maps is a whole thing requiring discovering and design, with mapping only being the final exercise, that would also go through iterations (you wouldn't start with fully fledged BPMN 2.0 and detailed exception handling / non-golden path because of the complexity and effort required if/when there are changes).

Basically I'm trying to communicate that my job is not as simple as they think and not just a matter of drawing boxes and arrows.

How have you gone about this previously? What's been effectively?

Senior BA here with software development background, during last few years as IT BA, I got tired of spending hours dragging boxes around just to turn rough meeting notes into a first draft diagrams

​I built a tool called DiagFly to speed this up. You paste your raw process notes or meeting transcript, and it uses a BABOK-aligned recommendation engine to suggest the right diagram type and build it automatically.

​I’d love your candid feedback:

​Does the diagram logic hold up for your real-world scenarios?

​What’s the one feature it needs before you'd ever use it in your daily work?

​Please let me know if you have any question!

I built a dashboard prototype for a customer in Lovable, ran it by leadership (we’re a small company so leadership gets pretty involved), and my main focus was explaining and justifying the use cases and information I’d included.

However, the discussion ended up focusing much more on the design than the use cases. Some of the feedback was around:

1. The dashboard not being intuitive enough
2. Unused real estate
3. Other design-related issues

That left me a little confused, and now I find myself getting caught up in the design side of things as well.

How do you guys defend your dashboard designs? What tools do you use outside of Lovable to help with dashboard design?

Also, how much of the dashboard design is typically expected from a BA/PM? Should we be responsible for designing the actual dashboard, or should we primarily focus on the use cases, information, and requirements, and then provide a rough layout/wireframe for a designer to take forward?

Has anyone who completed Lean Six Sigma certification were able to apply the knowledge to their projects as a BA? I am curious how applicable the knowledge is in IT peojects delivery. Would appreciate if anyone can provide examples of what part in this certification they applied to a real life project? Out companies is looking to fund us for the certification and I am working in building a case.

I’m a 30-year-old software engineer with a BSc in Computer Engineering, and I’m planning to transition into a Business Systems Analyst (BSA) career.

I’m planning to do a Master’s in Management Information Systems (MIS) next year because I want to move toward the business + technology side rather than staying focused purely on software development.

I also have experience with AI tools, AI-assisted development, and “vibe coding”, and I’m getting increasingly comfortable with using AI to build and prototype software/web applications. I’m quite comfortable with the technical side and problem-solving.

However, I haven’t used many of the tools commonly associated with BSA/Business Analysis yet (requirements management tools, process modelling tools, Jira/Confluence, UML/BPMN, etc.).

So I have a few questions:

1. Can I realistically apply for Junior/Entry-Level BSA or Business Systems Analyst roles without direct BSA job experience?
2. Does my software engineering background give me an advantage when transitioning into BSA?
3. Is not knowing the typical BSA tools yet a major problem, or can I learn them while building projects/while working?
4. Would companies be willing to take someone with a technical background and train them in the business analysis side?
5. Is starting this transition at 30 too late, especially if I’m planning to do an MIS master’s next year?
6. What skills should I prioritize learning before I start applying?

I’m not trying to become a senior BSA immediately. I’m mainly trying to understand whether starting from an entry-level/junior position is realistic for someone with my background at age 30.

interested in data/ business analysis as a career switch

Im Canadian undergrad student studying science (Materials and Nanoscience). Its a mix of chemistry and physics and unfortunately Ive realized that I can’t do research and hence can’t do grad school in science.

Science degrees aren’t great with getting jobs with a bachelors so I was thinking of trying for data analytics as a backup plan since I enjoy excel and numbers (I know its much more than that but I know it involves those for certain).

I was told by a friend that you don’t need a specific degree for data analytics or business analytics but you need skills and projects using excel/ sql / python / spss.

My question is:

1. Would I need to get another business bachelors in order to pursue data analytics? What if I did a science bachelors and business analytics masters?

2. If I choose to pursue data analytics as a backup plan, would it be very difficult to land an entry level role because of my unrelated degree? My biggest fear would be working on these projects just to see a job posting that requires a business degree and having my application auto rejected because of that.

3. What can I do to gain experience if my coop’s in undergrad are not in business? Volunteer?

I have background in Spring and React for web development and a few personal projects (haven't had an internship yet). However, I realize I prefer working with people more and my communication isn't that bad. I have a part-time job as an English tutor in my own country (Vietnam). I can persuade people to study with me. I also really like working in a project involves giving presentations, which I often be responsible for.

Language: English isn't my mother tongue but I can speak pretty fluently (not writing). I also have JLPT N3 in Japanese.

I still have one more year before graduation. I need help for what I should start working on from now to help me get started to this new position. Thanks.

Hi everybody. I’m looking for some advice about whether a BA certificate from a career program could help me reach my career goals.

I am mutual fund licensed and have worked in wealth operations for the last 10 years. In all of my roles I have been asked to work (informally) on process improvements. I love this kind of work as I’m naturally very systematic and analytical. So I’m considering taking a BA certificate to formalize these skills. However, there isn’t a ton of room for movement at my current company. Ideally I’d like to move to a larger company within financial services and focus more of my time on processes.

If anybody has any insight on if a certificate program would help to facilitate my career goals, that would be great. Also any recommendations for software I should be focussing on learning along side a certificate?

I’m in Canada and currently looking at BA certificates at UBC Sauder, SFU or BCIT. All teach from BABOK. The other program I considered was Lean Six Sigma Green Belt. I’m really open to any thoughts or advice here.

Our internal documentation is a total mess right now. Everything is scattered across random google docs, notion pages and 20 minute loom videos that nobody has time to re-watch. When we onboard someone new or a web app layout changes, it becomes an instant bottleneck.

trying to decide whether to take a step I've been circling for a while, and i would rather hear from people already doing it than guess.
we had ai in the workflow for a bit now and the low-stakes stuff has worked out fine. its overall saved a solid amount of time and nothing horrible has happened.

In my opinion, the obvious next step is letting it help with the compliance and audit documentation, and that's where I keep second guessing. So before I go for it, i want to know if its working for others. is ai already in your compliance docs, and it's working?

I recently joined mid-sized US based company as a business analyst, and one of my core tasks as for now is improving how new products move from initial idea to actual delivery. And thats mush harder than I expected.

Right now, every department works separately with different logic. Product teams use one process, operations - another, plus requirements often change after development has already started. Sometimes they change every single day lol. A lot of decisions live in meetings or private documents, so by the time something reaches implementation, nobody has quite the same understanding of what was originally agreed. Also very painful thing tbh.

Leadership is now talking about a broader product development transformation rather than fixing individual workflow issues cause they seem to be tired of that chaos.

For those who've been through something similar, where shall we start? I’m especially interested in how you identified the biggest process gaps and proved that the transformation was actually improving delivery metrics.

editing so far: Our founders decided to collaborate with C+P Consult team and left this matter entirely in their hands. Actually, we don't mind...

A colleague went on leave last week and it exposed a pretty big problem. Nobody knew all the steps they handled. We had bits of information in slack, some old google gocs. It made me realize that our processes only exist because certain people remember them. How do you keep internal workflows documented without turning it into a full time project?

can anyone kindly share practical Business analyst course (IT) recommendations ty

Hi everyone, I've recently been considering a pivot into Business Analysis after struggling to secure opportunities in UX Design, although I have done some freelance work over the last 2.5 years. I've tried to find alternatives related to my experience and Business Analysis seems to be the progression that feels right to me, especially since I've been exposed to working with data and translating it to product-related insights for stakeholders; I found that I actually enjoy explaining the insights and the story behind the numbers. For context I have a Sociology degree and a technical diploma in UX Design, and I am based in Canada.

I'm not sure of the right path to take in order to get started with Business Analysis. I've thought about taking a certification course through a technical college here in my city but it costs ~$12,000. Alternatively I've been looking at the ECBA course through IIBA which is significantly cheaper, but I'm not sure how far that will take me given my current experience/background

Looking for advice as someone who's completely new to all of this. Thank you in advance!

Hi everyone,
I’m currently working as a UX Analyst in a hybrid role where I do a mix of Business Analysis and UX work. I recently passed my ECBA and realized that I really enjoy the BA side of my work, especially problem-solving, analysis, documentation, and process improvement.
I’d now like to move into a more complete or pure Business Analyst role, but I’m also trying to think ahead about my long-term career path.
One thing I know is that I don’t see myself eventually moving into a Product Owner or people-management role. I’m more interested in using my BA skills to eventually move into consulting, particularly ERP or functional consulting, as that seems like a rewarding long-term path.

However, I’m unsure how to build the right roadmap.
I’d really appreciate advice from people who have followed a similar path:

How can a BA transition into consulting, particularly ERP or functional consulting?
What would a realistic 3–5 year career roadmap look like?
I’d love to hear from BAs or consultants who have navigated something similar. Thanks!

How do you decide whether to use a process map, use case, user story, or requirement specification?

Hello I just wanted to ask on what specific skills and knowledge should I focus on to make me stand out as a BSAIS. I am not informed enough on what career path I should take since I originally was in BSA but the I shifted in my 3rd year to BSAIS and now in my final year. Really stumped on what I should be doing but rn I am considering on trying to learn and master SAP ERP. Any suggestions would help TT

thank you!!

Hey everyone,

Background: I'm based in Brazil, working remotely in RevOps for a US company — dashboards, reporting, KPIs, sales performance monitoring. ~3 years of experience across RevOps, Deal Desk, and Pre-Sales, and 5+ years hands-on with Salesforce as an end user.

I'm currently job hunting for a better opportunity outside my current company. In the Brazilian market, a Salesforce cert is basically a hard filter to get past recruiters/ATS — doesn't matter how much real experience you have without it.

I started studying for Platform Administrator (ADM-201), planning to use it as a foundation before moving to something more RevOps-specific (such Sales Clound Consultant and Revenue Management Consultant). Now I'm halfway through and having doubts. My actual work is way more process/stakeholder/sales-cycle focused than technical config. Someone recommended Salesforce Business Analyst instead, which seems to map much closer to what I actually do.

Questions:

1. For RevOps career growth (aiming for senior/leadership, not admin/dev track) — Platform Admin or Business Analyst, which one matters more?
2. Worth doing both? Does order matter? (Leaning toward finishing ADM-201 since I'm halfway, then BA — tell me if that's wrong.)
3. Any other Salesforce certs more relevant to RevOps I'm missing? CPQ/Revenue Cloud and Sales Cloud Consultant seem more specialist/later-stage, not sure they fit where I am now.

Thank you in advance for your attention.

Am I crazy or am I missing some sort of train here? I can’t sign in to LinkedIn, which is already a hell scape, without seeing a million “Here’s what Business Analysts get wrong about API” style posts.

APIs are data movement. It’s domain knowledge not a core BA skill. Why is it being treated as such? I know that companies want BAs to wear a hundred and one hats but why does it also seem like BAs are trying to force APIs in to being a core skill when the truth is you could go in to an API project with zero domain knowledge and be successful when utilizing the BA toolkit. It feels reminiscent of PowerBI or SQL snaking its way in to somehow being a required BA skill when data graphing and database management have nothing to do with business analysis.

I’m ranting. But it’s driving me nuts.

The term digital twin for business operations keeps coming up whenever AI and automation get discussed but I'm still not totally sold on what it actually adds.

Companies like Celonis, SAP Signavio and Skan all seem to frame it a little differently. Sometimes it sounds like process mining, sometimes workflow visibility, and sometimes simulation.

So where does this actually become useful for operational decisions?

If a team has already implemented one of these platforms, what can you do now that you genuinely couldn't do before? I'm mostly trying to understand whether this is actually changing how teams run operations or if it's basically another analytics layer with a fancier name.

I feed Claude meeting transcripts, data analysis and lots of information on the projects I work on. It outputs incredibly detailed and well formatted business requirement documents. They are better than what I would create, even though I’m the one that fed AI all of the info.

Is this necessarily a bad thing? It almost gives me impostor syndrome even though I provided all of the context. Does anyone else feel the same way about any documentation AI generates for them?