A software tester is a professional responsible for verifying that the software solution meets the specified requirements. Software testers and business analysts are like two sides of the same coin.
The Skills Software Testers Bring to a Business Analyst Position
Because of their experience reviewing requirements documentation, many software testers know exactly what it takes to make a good specification. In fact, software testers are often the ones to catch ambiguity in the requirements that help a business analyst add even more clarity.
Software testers also have been exposed to projects and have experience writing in a clear way through defect reports. Testing and coming up with a test plan requires clear critical thinking too. And don’t overlook the fact that your test planning process can be an exercise in business process development.
The Opportunities for Software Testers to Expand Their Business Analyst Experience
To grow into a business analyst role, software testers need to explore the following types of opportunities:
- Interact more directly with business stakeholders, for example, by sitting in on requirements meetings or facilitating user acceptance testing. Learn how to elicit information and move from ambiguity to clarity.
- Tackle solutions to significant defects, which gives you an opportunity to get ahead of the process and essentially be the business analyst on a project inside a project.
- Go beyond facilitating meetings like test plan reviews and defect triage meetings, to facilitating meetings to solve critical project problems.
In general, as a software testing professional you need to find ways to get involved earlier in the project lifecycle so you are ahead of the business analysis process and doing more of the upfront work to discover problems, facilitate discussions, and define requirements.
Case Study: From Quality Assurance Engineer to ServiceNow Business Analyst
For Manuel Ninapaitan, it all started with updating his title in his email signature – which he had the confidence to do while in The Business Analyst Blueprint® program. Soon his manager asked him to take on a BA-like project. And a year later he was in his first official business analyst job role.
More Case Studies: From Software Testing to Business Analysis
To further explore how the transition from software testing to business analysis works, check out these career transition success stories:
- From Quality Assurance to Business Analyst – Learn how Bridging the Gap founder Laura Brandenburg approached her QA role with a BA hat, which serendipitously led to a BA role.
- From Sales Support to Quality Assurance to Business Analysis – Martin shares how pursuing a quality assurance transitional role can help you move into a business analyst career.
>>How to Learn the Foundational Business Analyst Skills
When you join The Business Analyst Blueprint® certification program, you’ll gain real world experience in the industry-standard techniques and business analysis processes.
>> Click here for more information about The Blueprint <<
