As with any professional role, undertaking continuing professional development is crucial for business analysts. Professions rarely stand still, there is always more to be learned. Curiosity is a key trait of a good BA, and this curiosity isn't restricted to projects and programmes, it extends to the ongoing desire to learn more while building an ever-expanding skills 'toolkit'.

Ongoing Development for Business Analysts

It would be easy to make the mistake of seeing ongoing development as a chore, or a 'tick box' exercise. You might be seeking a certification such as the BCS Advanced Diploma in Business Analysis that requires evidence of particular types of continuing development, or perhaps you hold a certification such as the Expert BA award that requires regular recertification. Yet, by the time a practitioner has the experience to apply for either of these awards, it is likely they will be undertaking the required development without even knowing it! However, when a practitioner brings this to the forefront of their mind and does it deliberately, it can become even more effective.

Deliberate Learning and Purposeful Practice

There are opportunities for iterative lifelong learning every single day. It would be a mistake to think that it's always necessary to attend a five day formal training course to attain a new skill. Of course, appropriate training is one way, but this is only one of many approaches. Every day, people read about techniques that are new to them in books and blogs, see them demonstrated on YouTube, and discuss them with their peers on social media platforms such as LinkedIn. These everyday exchanges are so frequent that it would be easy to overlook them. The very fact that you are reading this blog now suggests that you invest in your ongoing learning.

However, if these small incremental micro-learning opportunities are not coordinated, it can lead to a practitioner's learning being somewhat reactive rather than proactive. 'Scattergun learning' is necessary when there's an urgent need to get up to speed with a particular tool or technique. Perhaps the organisation adopts a standard notation, and a practitioner needs to quickly get up to speed with it. Yet, this reactive learning ought to be balanced against a healthy dose of deliberate learning and practice.

Curious practitioners tend to channel their learning into areas of practice which they anticipate will be required in the future. By scanning the internal and external business environment, keeping in touch with peers both internally and externally, they hear about emerging trends and decide which are relevant to them. Learning emerges not just from within the BA community, but also from other disciplines. Perhaps a BA speaks to a business architect, and picks up a few techniques that they will find useful. The fact that those techniques originated in another area shouldn't be a concern; if the context is right then it is completely right to use them.

However deliberate and lifelong learning is only one part of the puzzle: the other is purposeful practice. It is very easy to go on a training course, watch a webinar or read a blog and make no change at all. In some ways this is completely understandable—if there are 150 unanswered emails in your inbox, it's hard to focus on using new techniques. Yet learning without practice is like opening a high interest savings account but then failing to make a deposit. The first step might feel good, but the benefits aren't going to be realised.

Curiosity means Learning and Practising beyond your 'Comfort Zone'

A crucial point is that curiosity and lifelong learning require practitioners to move beyond the comfort of what they know and adopt a growth mindset. Much as a BA might jokingly criticise a stakeholder that won't change because "they've always done it that way", there is an irony that some BAs get caught in a cycle of using the same techniques time after time (rather than consciously considering the context). There is interesting ground beyond the comfort zone, for those prepared to traverse it!

Looking to update your BA toolkit? Check out AssistKD's wide choice of business analysis courses.