Question

Compose your professionally focused responses from the broader perspective of one of the following three career path areas: business, technology, or healthcare. Or if you prefer, you may narrow the focus down to a very specific career path that you are already in or are seeking.

This week, you will write a reflective essay that addresses the following questions. Use at least one or two fully developed paragraphs for each response.

• What are your career goals? How do the principles of economics (macro or micro) influence these goals?
• What concepts from the course are applicable to your career path? Name and describe at least two economic concepts that will translate to your profession. Explain why these concepts are important and how they will be helpful to you or to the organization you will work for.
• What concepts from the course are applicable to your personal life? Name and describe at least one economic concept that you consider to be an important takeaway from this course. Explain why, and describe how you plan to apply it.
• What can you do to continue to reinforce and grow these ideas about economics and/or about ways to improve team collaboration? What are some of the resources that you can utilize as you continue your education?

Successful assignments will accomplish the following.

• Have a clear focus that clearly links course content knowledge and objectives to career path and personal application.
• Use concrete economic concepts from class discussion and the readings to address professional goals and areas for economic-competency development.
• Draw on experience with team dynamics—people collaborating toward a common goal.
• Establish a plan for continuing to scaffold knowledge and develop as a professional.
• Demonstrate articulation (mechanics, spelling, clarity, structure, and organization, utilizing APA style and grammar to produce a well-designed and coherent document).

Answer 1

The 21st century business analyst’s world is multifaceted. As a mediator, moderator, connector and ambassador, the business analyst must bring the business needs together with IT resources. Successful business analysts tend to be clear communicators, smooth facilitators, precise analyzers and team players. Plus, the ideal analyst has the versatility of various business functions, such as operations, finance, engineering, technology or architecture.

As you explore the business analyst career path, you’ll need to clear up the confusion and learn about the many hats business analysts wear. From being a good communicator and data analyzer to possessing project managementand technical skills, business analysts regularly use a variety of techniques. They are the bridge that fills in the gap between each department throughout every step of development. Modern Analyst identifies several characteristics that make up the role of a business analyst as follows:

• The analyst works with the business to identify opportunities for improvement in business operations and processes
• The analyst is involved in the design or modification of business systems or IT systems
• The analyst interacts with the business stakeholders and subject matter experts in order to understand their problems and needs
• The analyst gathers, documents, and analyzes business needs and requirements
• The analyst solves business problems and, as needed, designs technical solutions
• The analyst documents the functional and, sometimes, technical design of the system
• The analyst interacts with system architects and developers to ensure the system is properly implemented
• The analyst may help test the system and create system documentation and user manual

Beginning business analysts need to have either a strong business background or extensive IT knowledge. With that, you can start to work as a business analyst with job responsibilities that include collecting, analyzing, communicating and documenting requirements, user-testing and so on. Entry-level jobs may include industry/domain expert, developer, and/or quality assurance. Within a few years you could choose to become a Subject Matter Expert (SME). This is the time to delve into the areas that interest you most and develop those areas that can help you progress into higher management positions.

Once you have several years of experience in the industry, you will reach a pivotal turning point where you can choose the next step in your business analyst career. After three to five years, you can be positioned to move up into roles such as IT business analyst, senior/lead business analyst or product manager. The more experience you have as a business analyst, the more likely you are to be assigned larger and/or more complex projects. After eight to 10 years in various business analysis positions, you can advance to chief technology officer or work as a consultant. You can take the business analyst career path as far as you would like, progressing through management levels as far as your expertise, talents and desires take you.