Well many people argue that Business Analysis is a lifelong profession but I have a different take on this topic.

The Career Architecture for a BA mainly depends on his or her learning abilities and applications on the same. If you start your career as a Junior BA, you work under the guidance of a Senior BA and your responsibilities are scheduling meeting with stakeholders, taking meeting notes, preparing BRD.

Have you ever noticed what the Senior BA is upto?

Well, he is probably working with more complex requirements and explaining the problem to the technical team. He is also giving input for Technical Design.

If you observe one ladder up, you will probably see the there are BA Managers, Functional Architect, Solution Architect who are working on more complex assignments.

So my point is never consider yourself a BA for lifetime. We all know requirements are key in any project and as a BA we have to be on top of it but you also need to see what next. Get involved in Design discussions, don’t hold yourself back because you are a BA. With more experience you will probably be able to guide the tech team in Design.

But….. before you go there maintain the flow of your understanding as below –

Business Requirements Clarity > Functional Architecture and Process Clarity > High-level Design Approach > Low-level Design Approach

Make yourself comfortable but don’t be too proud to restrict yourself to chop the onion. You will end up learning more, you will end up creating value.

Career Options for Business Analysts:

Continue as Business Analyst:

Product Manager:

Product Owner:

Domain Expert:

Functional Expert:

Process Consultant:

Pre-sales Consultant:

Business Architect:

Iteration Manager: