Hidden Roles Series Part 3: Why So Many Professionals “Fall Into” BA, QA, and SM Roles

I’m Chris Conway, Founder, Lead Coach, and CEO at the IT Bootcamp. I also work on-site with clients as an Agile Coach & Consultant, because in IT, where things change fast, those who can do, can teach.

In this 6-part series, I’m exposing a problem that has kept critical IT roles in the shadows for too long: the lack of formal training and structured career paths for Business Analysts (BA), Quality Assurance (QA) Analysts, and Scrum Masters (SM).

Despite being the backbone of IT projects, these roles are often overlooked, buried under broader job categories or mistaken for secondary functions. They are essential to IT success, yet they remain hidden, undervalued, and missing from industry conversations.

In this part, we investigate the root causes behind professionals “falling into” roles like BA, QA, and SM. Many people transition from other careers without formal training, and we explore why the industry’s lack of structured entry pathways makes these roles an afterthought for newcomers.

You can catch up on Part 2 here.

Why Don’t People Set Out to Be a BA, QA, or SM?

Why don’t people set out to be a BA, QA, or SM from the start? Several root causes explain this pattern of mid-career transitions.

A Historical Focus on Technical Skills

The IT industry has long prioritized hard technical skills in education, learning programming, networks, and databases. Soft-skill-centric roles were considered secondary or easier to pick up on the job. This led to an assumption that a good developer or manager could become a BA, QA, or SM later, so specialized training wasn’t needed. Many BAs today have degrees in fields like finance, marketing, or computer science and then learn analysis techniques informally.

A Lack of Entry-Level Positions

Companies rarely hire “junior business analysts” or “trainee scrum masters” fresh out of school. Instead, they fill these posts by promoting internal staff or hiring experienced candidates who understand the business. This means newcomers must start in another role (such as developer, QA tester, or business user) and “earn” the BA or SM role over time.

QA roles have sometimes been entry-level in the sense that a new IT graduate might start in testing before moving into development or analysis. But even QA is increasingly specialized, and many QA analysts also come from other areas. One common path is a developer who shifts into a test automation role.

Transferable Skills from Other Careers

People often transition into BA or SM roles from non-IT careers because the core skills, communication, problem solving, organization, are transferable. A teacher or journalist might become a business analyst because they excel at asking questions and clarifying information. A former military officer or event coordinator might become a Scrum Master thanks to their leadership and scheduling skills.

Since there are no rigid degree requirements, these roles remain open to diverse backgrounds. You don’t need a specific degree or specialist training to become a business analyst. Success comes from a mix of domain knowledge and people skills, which many gain outside traditional IT paths.

Community and Certification Influence

The pathways that do exist often run through professional communities. A person might attend a Scrum Master certification course (CSM or PSM) in a couple of days and earn the title, or a business analyst might get certified (CBAP from IIBA) after some experience. These certifications provide a veneer of structure but typically require that the person already has real-world experience.

Certifications end up validating a transition that has already occurred, rather than serving as a true entry training program. The prevalence of “accidental” BAs and QAs has led to blogs, forums, and meetups where senior practitioners share advice with newcomers on how to break in. The common theme is to leverage whatever background you have. There’s no single pipeline that feeds fresh talent directly into these roles.

The Bottom Line

The talent supply for BA, QA, and SM roles comes almost entirely from conversions, developers turned QA leads, subject matter experts turned BAs, team members turned Scrum Masters. The root cause is a systemic lack of formal development paths, forcing organizations to draw from existing staff or lateral hires.

That’s exactly why career changers do so well in these roles. Your past career isn’t a detour. It’s the experience these roles are built on.

We believe that our end-to-end IT Bootcamp for BA, QA, and SM (providing training, hands-on experience, and guidance not just for a year, but throughout your entire career) is the difference. We train, allow you to get that experience, and surround you with a community of BA/QA/SM. The gap in the industry is wide, but we’re filling it.

With the root causes identified, it’s time to examine the broader implications of these training gaps. Continue to Part 4: The High Cost of Ignoring BA, QA, and SM Training Gaps, where we discuss how these gaps lead to major challenges in both individual development and organizational performance.