173. How to become a Business Analyst

After 20+ spent in many roles in the Information Technology industry Luca decided to start his own company, named E-quality Italia, whose purpose is to have a positive impact on Italian organisations by training and coaching their leaders. Luca works as a trainer and coach himself; he is the only Italian coach for the Getting Things Done® methodology, and is one of the few accredited trainers in Italy for BRMP® and CBRM® qualifications. Luca's proudest achievement is the reputation of his small company, both in Italy and abroad.

Since 2016, Andrew has been delivering Business Analysis training courses for QA Ltd. We provide courses from APMG and BCS over 3 or 4 days. Pre-Covid this meant travelling all over the UK and occasionally abroad to deliver these courses. Now Andrew has the ‘Shed of Analysis’ in the garden and mainly present online but there is still an occasional "face to face" course. Andrew started in IT as a programmer, Cobol & PL1 for an insurance company, eventually becoming an Analyst Programmer. BT offered him a job as a Business Analyst for many years. CRM expertise took him to SaaS startup, and then on through several other companies in logistics, Police services, and finance. Finally, before his current position Andrew worked at CSC as a senior BA with a team of 30 BA’s so mentoring and training was already familiar.

Andrew's proudest achievement is having a young BA take a course and exam in their first week on the job. The candidate had no experience and no clear understanding of the subject matter. Andrew helped them pass their exam and aided them through the course, resulting in the candidate achieving a great position within fashion. Another proud achievement from Andrew would be the ability to join a company with no BA and help the organisation get set up with methodologies that are suitable for them as a business. 

Andrew's achievements:

• BCS Diploma in Business Analysis
• Part way to BCS Advanced Diploma in Business Analysis
• APMG Trainer in Agile BA and PM
• APMG Value & Vision

Orlando is a trainer and change guide at Lagant. Orlando was previously a Project Manager at Parnassia Group, Director of Projects and Implementation at ABN AMRO bank. He is passionate about helping teams and organisations with change to create more effectiveness, results, and fun.

Orlando's team had a long history of distrust, not listening to each other and little psychological safety. He helped them to create a sparkle of trust, motivation, and energy among a team of leaders of a Police Department in order to get on the same page and grow together collaboratively in the future.

Shola is highly recognised as a leading Training Consultant and Executive Director at Training Creatively. Shola has facilitated training courses for over 5,700 delegates worldwide and has participated in management consultancies for hundreds of well-known organisations in the Financial Services, Process Manufacturing, Media and Insurance Industries. Shola has also been awarded Masters in Business Administration.

Shola is a proud trainer for many certifications such as Change Management, Agile Project Management, Agile Business Analysis, Benefits Management, PRAXIS, BRM, Shola has extensive experience in delivering value to his clients. 

Jay Patel equips people and businesses with the skills they need to work smarter, leaner, and more effectively. Jay worked in training for just over five years with a proven track record delivering in the physical and virtual classroom. She has had huge success in this space and finds it highly rewarding working with clients large and small, from global corporations to talented individuals. Having come from an industry background in Business Analysis,  Patel now develops and delivers training in Business Analysis, specialising in the creation and execution of Graduate, Apprenticeship, and Reskilling Programmes to support the development needs of clients.

Jay's proudest achievement is being promoted through self-motivation – In 2017 Patel left her comfort zone of practicing business analysis, to try her hand at teaching business analysis. 5 years later, she is the proud owner of QA’s BA portfolio.