Today, we meet Precious, a cybersecurity business analyst in the UK. After 2 years of BA experience and transitioning to a new role, Precious found herself a bit overwhelmed and experienced panic at the thought of something new.
She spoke with a BA friend, who happened to be another Blueprint® training program participant, and couldn’t help but notice the newfound confidence that he had. Precious thought to herself, “I want what he has.”
In this interview, you’ll discover:
- Precious’s story of going through The Business Analyst Blueprint® training program and how it provided her with a foundation as a BA with formal training.
- How Precious achieved the same confidence she observed in her BA friend just months prior.
- How Previous leveraged her foundational BA skills to add value and get up to speed in her new cybersecurity BA role.
- How she leveraged the use case techniques to map out requirements for a software integration into Service Now and to tighten up existing requirements definitions.
Precious leaves us with one final thought: When it comes to learning, you are your biggest assets, so you need to invest in yourself!
Going from Generalist Business Analyst Cybersecurity Specialist
Laura Brandenburg: Hello and welcome. I’m here today with Precious, who is a cyber security business analyst in the UK, and I’m just so excited. She participated in our program throughout the course of 2024 and is doing some exciting things in her career. I’m so excited to hear from you. Thank you so much for being with us today, Precious.
Precious: Thanks, Laura. Thank you for having me.
Laura Brandenburg: So just take us back. I believe you joined either right at the end of 2023 or the beginning of 2024. Where were you at leading up to that decision? What were you doing in your career? What were some of the things you were thinking about as you joined the program?
Precious: I joined in December 2023. Prior to Bridging the Gap, I used to be a generalist BA. I came from a governance risk and compliance background. So I did some BA work for about two years, and then, I got this job with my current organization, and I found myself in the cyber security industry.
So it was a massive panic because I had to really figure out how to be a BA in a large environment and a domain specific BA. So I spoke to a friend who actually had done the course with you and, I think in our initial conversations, he just sounded so confident. He’d just done control mapping for his organization.
And I just said to him, “Where have you been? How are you like this?” because I knew him before he was a BA. And he just said, find this woman called Laura Brandenburg with Bridging the Gap. And I think I reached out to you and said, “I want what he has.”
Laura Brandenburg: Wow. That’s incredible. And thank you to that person. I’m so grateful. And also to hear the shift that you noticed in him that kind of helped you say, this is what I want for myself. I’m really curious, though, because we teach generalist skills – business analysis foundational skills.
I mean, they’re of course applicable within cybersecurity, but it’s not like you learned anything specific around cybersecurity from us. So, what was the connection that you made there? How did you see those skills helping you succeed in this new role?
Precious: At my job interview, there were two jobs going.
One was a normal generalist and the other one was a cyber one. But the job description was the same. And I did ask, when I interviewed for the job, what they specifically wanted from a cyber person. And they just said, have a curious mind, be a very good BA, and then we’ll train you in the cyber side of things.
So when I found you, it was more, “How do I be a very good BA? How do I stand out as a BA?” And then I’ll find a way to leverage on that and then build up in the cybersecurity skills. So I think what Bridging the Gap gave me was that foundation of being a BA with formal training.
Training, sitting down, having processes, having templates, meeting other people in the BA community and exchanging ideas. So I got more confidence as a BA and then, built on the cyber knowledge.
Building Confidence in Business Analysis Skills, While Switching Companies
Laura Brandenburg: I often see people join our programs when they’re switching companies or switching roles. It’s like you had some great experience behind you and some successes. But there’s something just a little bit scary about that second role. I remember that to me was like my hardest role was the second role, because I had come from more of a domain expertise and then I’m like, “Oh, I don’t I don’t know the technology, I don’t know the business. I have to actually lean on my BA skills.” So they get more important as you move up. Thank you.
One of the things that we talk about in the program is applying the materials on the job. Some people use one project, some people pick and choose among projects. Did you have a project that you used as you went through the program? How did you integrate the course materials into your work in this new role?
Precious: One of the earliest things I was tasked to do was process mapping with Visio. I’d used Visio before, but I wasn’t very confident and so I literally, sat down, looked at the process map, I’d done. But I was able to look at the course notes. I think you also had a process mapping session one time, which was so useful.
So being able to talk to other people and understand how they mapped processes, understand where they look for questions, understand how people are using that their tools as well, and learning little shortcuts was brilliant. So I literally walked through the process mapping thing at work with what I was learning with Bridging the Gap.
I still haven’t finished my map. But the as-is has been validated, and I’m now working on the to-be side of it. So it’s a long process just because of the nature of our organization. You just need so many conversations to finish things. But it was really helpful. I really appreciated that.
Laura Brandenburg: That sounds like a lot of complexity to deal with – to have a process that you’ve been working on for several months, trying to get the validation.
Precious: It took a while to get validated, but when we did, I was so happy. I mean, I took a little break and I’m working on the to-be now. I don’t know how long it will take, but I have my tools in place for it.
Leveraging Use Cases for a ServiceNow Software Integration
Laura Brandenburg: That’s awesome. Any of the other modules stand out as things that you took away and were able to apply at work?
Precious: Use case diagram came in very handy because I had to do, a software integration into ServiceNow. So we had a form that a specific team was using manually. And they wanted me to put that into ServiceNow, just to automate the process and make it a bit more seamless for them.
So I had to do a lot of user stories writing, use case diagrams and, prior to joining the course, I had really wonky use case diagrams. So I got better at my use case diagraming and got better at user stories and just tightening my user requirements definition as well.
So that went well. We completed the integration in April and that’s running really well. They’re using it, and they’ve now asked me to do more integrations for the team. So that’s great.
But funny enough there was a competition for BA Global a few months after that for use case diagrams. And I won myself a free pass for BA Global by answering a Use Case Diagram question.
Laura Brandenburg: Oh, I remember that! For BA Life, right? Very fun! It’s great to see how the materials work in a ServiceNow application. You are doing cybersecurity, but then also some of these other smaller projects and the tools and techniques can apply a lot in a lot of different ways.
So one of the things I really appreciated about your involvement is how you often were on the office hours calls and you showed up. I would just like to hear how did that part of the program support you in what you were going through, especially in a new company and a new role getting adjusted to a new environment?
The Value of a Community of Business Analysts
Precious: I think the big thing I got from it was the peer support. So when we had the monthly calls, you have other people doing the same tasks in one meeting and you can ask questions, you can check if you’re going crazy, you know, if you’ve looked at so much data and you can’t see anything else.
You can talk to a BA and you can be vulnerable and ask for help. And people were always willing to share knowledge from their respective industries, from a task they’d done.
Laura Brandenburg: So where are you today? It’s been almost a year now when we’re recording this. So how are you feeling in your career? What are you excited about? What are you glad that you have access to? How are things going? I guess this is kind of a general question.
Precious: Things are going well. I’ve done a couple of big projects at work.
I think before I signed up for Bridging the Gap, I was working on two projects and they both got canceled. That was the first time I had anything canceled. And I was just so upset and so unhappy about it. But now I’ve had the opportunity to work on several projects and deliver, and I’m working on about 3 or 4 things on the go at the moment.
Building Cybersecurity Domain Knowledge Using Business Analysis Techniques
I found time to study for a certification. When I got my role, I focused on being a good BA. But cyber is a completely different domain – it is a different kettle of fish. You can be in a meeting with cyber guys and have no idea what they’re saying and I had to also spend time learning, trying to understand the domain.
I earned an IIBA certification for a cybersecurity business analysis. I got certified in September. Now I can attend meetings and understand what they’re saying.
Laura Brandenburg: Learning a domain like cybersecurity, I feel like that is such a huge challenge because it’s so technical, right? There’s so much that is not as business oriented. Were there BA techniques that helped you kind of assimilate that knowledge, or was it just pure learning and diving into the technology that really was essential?
Precious: Oh, so many BA techniques, especially from Bridging the Gap as well. If you’re tasked to do something, look at your documentation, look at your templates, do some research, talk to your stakeholders. Ask lots and lots and lots of questions.
I did constantly refer to the resources, on the platform as well. I think you can use the BA techniques in any domain, but you still have to do domain specific work. But as long as you have the basics and have the foundation, then you will be fine in any domain.
The Value of Investing In Yourself with Business Analysis Training
Laura Brandenburg: Last question, unless there’s anything else you want to share. But if you had not chosen to participate in The Blueprint, where do you think you’d be today?
Precious: A really stressed and frazzled BA! I remember emailing you in December last year saying, “My friend did this course with you, and when I talk to him he is super confident, and I really want what he has. I want to be able to do my job with confidence.”
And here I am. I’ve worked on quite a few things at work. I’ve delivered a few things. I can actually talk to cyber people about cyber, and I can just talk to my BAs about BA work as well. I’ve come a long way. I need to recognize that. Thank you to you personally and thank you to The Blueprint as well.
Laura Brandenburg: I thank you for that. And I just want to honor that as well, because I remember when you were on those first calls, there was some shakiness. And to see you today. You’re confident; you’re talking about your projects; you’re excited about what you’re doing.
And I see the difference. And so I want to reflect that back to you too. You did the work, right? We gave some tools, but you did the work and you applied it. And you reached out and you got support. So thank you for that.
Precious: Thanks, Laura.
Laura Brandenburg: Anything else you’d like to share before we close?
Precious: I think what I would like to say is that when it comes to learning, you’re your biggest asset, so you need to invest in yourself. It was a huge financial commitment, but it paid off. I don’t regret the investment. I don’t regret the time I put into it, and I don’t regret the work.
And, the participants in the program are so supportive. I think you’ve managed to build a safe-to-fail environment where you can be completely transparent and vulnerable. If you’re having a rubbish day, if you’re doing your projects and it’s not making progress. You’re in a safe place with people who will catch you and help you to navigate and improve things.
So I think you’ve built a great platform and yeah, I’m proud to have been part of it.
Laura Brandenburg: Thank you so much for that. And thank you, everyone, for listening. Thank you, Precious, for being here for today and and sharing your story with us. I really appreciate it.