Journey to become a business analyst in health IT

I read an article that is enlighting and want to keep it for myself to read again later on. The following is taken from Mystic Warrior. ****************** In our last lesson, we discussed your spiritualresponsibility to take back your power - to think your ownthoughts and avoid blindly accepting the edicts and opinionsof others. The ability to think is a God-given gift thathumans enjoy. By tapping into your inner master andinterpreting the intuitions that you receive, you are usingthis gift for its highest purpose. The tricky part isdistinguishing the voice of your inner master (or higherself) from the voice of your ego.In our society, we have been conditioned to accept our egoas our true self. Revolver, a recent film directed by GuyRitchie and starring Jason Statham, makes this pointprecisely. It's a bit hard to understand, until you realizethat the "enemy" referred to in the movie is the ego.Initially, Revolver appears to be a gangster's tale ofrevenge. Jake Green ...

It's horrible at work these days. We are in the third time of re-planning in the same year. The requirement gather approach just wasn't working. We started the workshops doing business process mapping which is usually used for business process improvement purposes. If used to set the context for requirement gathering, the maps need to be kept at high level to set the stage only. Now that we spent so much time and energy on the detailed level process, people are confused about what we are trying to accomplish, and not mentally prepared to drill down into the data element and data flows. Another road block is that the client is in the category of "technology hostages", baby boomer that are not comfortable with technology but forced to take it up. It's my first time working with this type of client. I should be grateful for the experience.

Now I regret the way I handled the "out-of-scope" issue. I shouldn't have gone to my project manager directly without negotiating with the client first. Instead of communicating with the client, my project manager escalated it to the executive level, and the client looked bad in front of their superiors, and of course the client got pissed off at me. The lesson learned here is: notifying the project manager may not be the best solution all the time even when the client is obviously wrong. There are things I could have done myself, such as let the client know I am not qualified to do the work that I was asked to do; the implications of documention something I am not familiar with could be fatal. I could have simply done the work and then let things slide instead of escalating before my work is complete. The relationship is broken now despite my previous effort to earn trust and building rapport. Well, as I have been told, there is never failure only lessons learned!

I learned an important lesson today. Be aware when the client requests for out of scope deliverables. If the assignment sounds like it's out of your area of expertise or not in the project plan, chances are, you shouldn't be doing them. By agreeing to do the extra work, you may run the risk of producing something inaccurate, illegitimate which may ultimately hurt you and your company's credibility. Being an consultant, it's important to always provide help when you can, but you also have to make sure its within the budget, and the "help" you are providing is covered in the budget, otherwise you waste time doing something that doesn't contribute to the deliverables agreed upon. In the end, consultants are being measured against what you agreed to deliver, not something that wasn't in the contract, and doing so will always delay the expected deliverables

My consulting job exposes me to the whole spectrum of people out there. Thanks to my experience of growing up with a clinically depressed parent, I am able to almost "read" people because I am sensitive to subtle cues people send out about their inner-self. Most people carry this vanity bubble around them, some big, some small, they come in different shapes and colors, some came cameflouged, but everyone has one, but only manifest it differently(this is starting to sound like celestian prophecy). One of the most effective technique I have learned is to identify a person's vanity bubble as soon as possible and try to work around it, once burst, it can result in counter productive work relations. Personally I have no issue working with big-egoed people as long as they have integrity.

I have started to look into RequisitePro since July 2008, but it wasn't until recently when I am required to know it in order to get on a project, I can fully devote myself to learn it, and to actually absorb the words in the learning material. Sigh... If only I could motivate myself back then, I would have saved myself from this stressful cramming to learn ReqPro in two days. Any how, the following material prove to be useful as ReqPro 101: The tutorial which was installed with ReqPro, it can be accessed at \Rational\RequisitePro\help\tutorial.html I have tried numerous online coursed free of charge from IBM, but they all cover too much concepts of Use Case Management, where I just want to get down to the quick and dirty secrets of how to use ReqPro. So the tutorial itself was the best option in this regard.

Came across this article about interviews. http://www.medhunters.com/articles/smartQuestionsToAskTheInterviewer.html?type=news&source=health-general-03-24-09 I think it's important to go into the interview with a positive attitude, and the belief that you can contribute to make that company a better place. The inner state you are in makes the difference between heaven and earth. I once was interviewed by a health care facility that I would love to work for. I got rejected because of lack of experience, but I felt great after the interview because I went into it with gratitude that I was even given the chance. It was one of the most exhilerating experience in my life. A lot was going through my mind at the time, my friend's mother's sudden death, uncertainly in my professional and personal life, feeling of worthlessness. With all that, I decided I would still strive to be the best that I can be. I remember at the end of the interview, I asked the 7 people sitting around ...

I used to believe the job I had was the only job I could ever get in the world, and I can't switch to a different role, at least not without great difficulty equivalent to moving mountains. I used to think I had no skills, and probably can't acquire new skills without returning to school. I believed I was stuck where I was. Then I gradually learned my dream of becoming a business analyst in Health IT is not some crazy idea that's totally out of wack. Why not? Anything is possible. I was the one stopping myself from achieving it. Since then I have taken a series of steps towards my goal, including: -finding mentors -volunteering -self-learning -certifications -join relevant communities Most important of all is believing that some day I can have my dream job, and I deserve to have it.

I see a lot of people asking the question "What do I need to do to certify in RUP? Where can I find study notes and test preparation material?" Not a lot of answers out there. Well, here is what I did to get certified in Rational Unified Process v7. 1. Read this book: IBM Rational Unified Process Reference and Certification Guide: Solution Designer (RUP) tip: you can buy it used on Amazon or borrow from the library 2. Do all the questions at the end of each chapter, and also the demo exam at the end of the book tip: go through all the questions at least twice and don't cheat 3. Find free demo exam questions online, e.g. http://www-03.ibm.com/certify/tests/sam839.shtml 4. Register for Test# 839 from Prometric http://www.prometric.com/default.htm Good luck!