Key qualities of business intelligence in IT
Good day.
It’s quite an urgent, “vital” need to express your thoughts about the topic of this publication, when the need arises to look for / hire business analysts on the open market for the company's staff (business in the field of automation of document management processes, control of executive discipline, etc.) d., in "common people" - SED). All specialists of this profile, whose experience and competences are known, in other words, those whom he knew and who he saw useful for the company, are either already in the team, or are also well-established. The problem is complicated by the fact that no matter how hard I try, it is impossible to formulate briefly and adequately the competence, the peculiarities that this subject should possess. What personal qualities and talents should be shown - which is also relevant, as it is morally prepared to look for talented newcomers and try to “grow” them. I am sure that the reflections below will be useful to project managers, owners of small IT companies of integrator type, and business analysts themselves.
First, the question of the term "business analyst" (hereinafter BA). Having lost hope of finding a universal definition of this term (Yandex and Google suggested that I am not alone in this) and in order not to go into the discussion about methodologies, classifications and GOSTs, for the purposes of publication I will define very simply: boyfriend ”(or girlfriend) who communicates with representatives of an IT project customer (implementation of a business application in particular), identifying, formalizing and documenting business requirements in such a magical way that the customer will understand and agree on the one hand, and It does not cause heart attacks in the rest of the production (the project architect, and programmers, testers, support, coaches, etc.).
My understanding of the qualities and characteristics of Business Intelligence has evolved over 7 years. Starting after a high school career in the internal IT department of a large trading company from the point of view of a business analyst, I came to a rather interesting conclusion that BA is just some kind of layer, a translator between business terms and developers. Well, it's cool, of course, to learn how to use Rational or BPVA (at the very least MS Visio), to become “a little designer” to draw effective schemes that clearly demonstrate “as-is” and “to-be”. It is important to note that a feature of BA in internal IT is the absence of an urgent need for specialization in a certain area (if you don’t work in Gazprom), I mean the class of systems and processes: there wasn’t much difference - to implement / develop ERP, ECM - please; switch to CRM - no problem. I think that the reason is trivial - inside the business (with the exception of possibly mega-corporations and complex production), knowledge about almost all processes and their understanding arise from the fact of the most permanent presence in the company. Therefore, at that time I agreed with the opinion and to everyone I could, postulated that for BA it doesn’t matter what to implement, it doesn’t matter what to implement.
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The opinion lasted two years, after which, going to the work of the same BA as an integrator introducing projects to large clients, it naturally began to change: new customers, new business processes, new interactions with different people who, very importantly, do not work with you in one company. In addition, the matrix structure of a large integrator company generates a rotation of implementation teams, respectively, BA, as a link, on both sides (different customers, different teams within the integrator) have to interact with a very large number of new people. It became clear that without such a quality that I would call as “unprecedented interpersonal skills”, there is nothing to do with the position of the BA. I emphasize that not just sociability, but unprecedentedly, since the people with whom you have to interact are completely different, in everything, and not always adequate. Therefore, such skills as “philosophy for teapots”, “confident knowledge of everyday and career psychology”, “anger management courses” and other abilities of this nature will be a good plus.
It becomes really important, including for the BA itself, such a project parameter as “deadlines” (if the integrator took care of a more or less adequate system of staff motivation). Naturally, in this paradigm, the opinion that there is no need for specialization for a business analyst (in the industry and / or class of systems) becomes completely untenable: to quickly begin to navigate the new project with tight deadlines without significant experience and knowledge in the subject of automated business processes, and also in the architecture and features of the platform (summarizing, the tools used for automation) is almost impossible, of course, with reservation, if the quality of the project as a whole, and your work in particular, you care. The need to participate in one BA at the same time in several projects (3-5 often) is another argument in favor of specialization.
After 1.5 years, taking the position of the RP in the same company, we managed to look at the issues from the outside. Having subordinated 3 different business analysts, it became obvious, without exaggeration, the enormous influence of business analyst competencies on all parameters of the projects:
1.5 years of running projects as a PM and a part-time job as an IT service provider pushed to a completely unexpected and strange idea to open their own business together with colleagues. Having worked for some time in three roles "Seller" - "RP" - "BA" on several projects (by the way, a very effective, though not scalable business model), business analysts appeared in their own staff. In addition to assessing how RP, from the point of view of the business owner, it was possible to notice still very important useful qualities of BA, because of which I sincerely consider professional (in my understanding) business analyst a resource that largely determines the success of a business in implementing business applications:
7 years of experience in the implementation of information systems, of course, does not claim the title of "Labor Veteran". Nevertheless, I am sure that the opinions formulated on the basis of such experience about the key qualities and merits of professionals in the field of business analysis can more or less be viewed as objective. I do not argue that today the problem of finding high-quality specialists in many fields of activity is quite acute. Also, do not think that the purpose of the publication is an attempt to distinguish roles in some kind of activity that are more important than others - it is obvious that any high-quality specialist, for whose work there is a demand, is worth its weight in gold.
In my opinion, the peculiarity is that it is impossible to adequately formulate the requirements for this specialty, it is extremely difficult to predict the potential of a “beginner” for this particular field, only after a year at best, you can judge whether there is potential in the best case. Graduates of university departments with the names of the type “Business Analyst” (even if they exist, and in terms of terminology this corresponds to practice) do not inspire trusting, since it is even impossible to imagine what needs to be taught. And in general - what should be the basic education of a business analyst? Technical, economic, humanitarian? I met quality representatives with the formation of all three species.
Thanks for attention!
It’s quite an urgent, “vital” need to express your thoughts about the topic of this publication, when the need arises to look for / hire business analysts on the open market for the company's staff (business in the field of automation of document management processes, control of executive discipline, etc.) d., in "common people" - SED). All specialists of this profile, whose experience and competences are known, in other words, those whom he knew and who he saw useful for the company, are either already in the team, or are also well-established. The problem is complicated by the fact that no matter how hard I try, it is impossible to formulate briefly and adequately the competence, the peculiarities that this subject should possess. What personal qualities and talents should be shown - which is also relevant, as it is morally prepared to look for talented newcomers and try to “grow” them. I am sure that the reflections below will be useful to project managers, owners of small IT companies of integrator type, and business analysts themselves.
Terms and Definitions
First, the question of the term "business analyst" (hereinafter BA). Having lost hope of finding a universal definition of this term (Yandex and Google suggested that I am not alone in this) and in order not to go into the discussion about methodologies, classifications and GOSTs, for the purposes of publication I will define very simply: boyfriend ”(or girlfriend) who communicates with representatives of an IT project customer (implementation of a business application in particular), identifying, formalizing and documenting business requirements in such a magical way that the customer will understand and agree on the one hand, and It does not cause heart attacks in the rest of the production (the project architect, and programmers, testers, support, coaches, etc.).
BA's work in the internal IT department
My understanding of the qualities and characteristics of Business Intelligence has evolved over 7 years. Starting after a high school career in the internal IT department of a large trading company from the point of view of a business analyst, I came to a rather interesting conclusion that BA is just some kind of layer, a translator between business terms and developers. Well, it's cool, of course, to learn how to use Rational or BPVA (at the very least MS Visio), to become “a little designer” to draw effective schemes that clearly demonstrate “as-is” and “to-be”. It is important to note that a feature of BA in internal IT is the absence of an urgent need for specialization in a certain area (if you don’t work in Gazprom), I mean the class of systems and processes: there wasn’t much difference - to implement / develop ERP, ECM - please; switch to CRM - no problem. I think that the reason is trivial - inside the business (with the exception of possibly mega-corporations and complex production), knowledge about almost all processes and their understanding arise from the fact of the most permanent presence in the company. Therefore, at that time I agreed with the opinion and to everyone I could, postulated that for BA it doesn’t matter what to implement, it doesn’t matter what to implement.
')
Business Analyst in System Integrator
The opinion lasted two years, after which, going to the work of the same BA as an integrator introducing projects to large clients, it naturally began to change: new customers, new business processes, new interactions with different people who, very importantly, do not work with you in one company. In addition, the matrix structure of a large integrator company generates a rotation of implementation teams, respectively, BA, as a link, on both sides (different customers, different teams within the integrator) have to interact with a very large number of new people. It became clear that without such a quality that I would call as “unprecedented interpersonal skills”, there is nothing to do with the position of the BA. I emphasize that not just sociability, but unprecedentedly, since the people with whom you have to interact are completely different, in everything, and not always adequate. Therefore, such skills as “philosophy for teapots”, “confident knowledge of everyday and career psychology”, “anger management courses” and other abilities of this nature will be a good plus.
It becomes really important, including for the BA itself, such a project parameter as “deadlines” (if the integrator took care of a more or less adequate system of staff motivation). Naturally, in this paradigm, the opinion that there is no need for specialization for a business analyst (in the industry and / or class of systems) becomes completely untenable: to quickly begin to navigate the new project with tight deadlines without significant experience and knowledge in the subject of automated business processes, and also in the architecture and features of the platform (summarizing, the tools used for automation) is almost impossible, of course, with reservation, if the quality of the project as a whole, and your work in particular, you care. The need to participate in one BA at the same time in several projects (3-5 often) is another argument in favor of specialization.
Sight from a position of the project manager
After 1.5 years, taking the position of the RP in the same company, we managed to look at the issues from the outside. Having subordinated 3 different business analysts, it became obvious, without exaggeration, the enormous influence of business analyst competencies on all parameters of the projects:
- The functional boundaries of the project - without comment.
- Working atmosphere. As practice shows, usually the project team, although not openly, is considered by the business analyst to be the main culprit of all the problems for some reason (well, if not to count the RP, naturally). The ability to prevent large “errors”, and most importantly the ability to adequately overcome the tense situation of mutual complaints within the team, smoothing conflicts in many ways allows the BA to significantly increase the motivation of the whole group.
- The timing of the project. Often the stage, let's call it “analysis” (survey, design), is a significant part of the project in duration, on average 10-30%, which often cannot be put in parallel with other works on this project, even with a lot of desire. Compliance with the term of this stage, which directly affects the duration of the entire project, depends almost entirely on the organization and competencies of the BA (or the leading BA or PR, if there are several of them in one project).
- Solving organizational problems by facilitating communications. As a rule, the business analyst is better than anyone else is familiar and enjoys the confidence of the majority of employees at the customer. It is much easier to organize prompt interaction with the client’s staff, without waiting for a formal escalation.
- An indispensable resource during the project. I think that the change of the project manager during the project is among the top 5 main reasons for the appearance of low-quality projects in this area (with the exception of probably very typical projects). The change of business analyst during the project is probably on the next line of such a rating. I would answer the argument about the need for high-quality documentation: unfortunately you do not document everything. In addition to understandable things in the project, in the form of functional requirements, goals, descriptions of tasks, the atmosphere, emotions, and “secret” expectations of the customer are often important. In principle, it is not always possible to formalize and transfer this to paper.
- Acceptance of the project and its budget. Usually, in the practice of introducing a customer into the market, the customer in terms of revenue and other indicators is tens, hundreds of times larger than the implementing company. Elephant and Pug so to speak. Often, “Elephant” considers it quite acceptable to rely in such relations not only on documented agreements, but also on backstage conversations, promises of “tricks”, “plushies” that he once sounded, but why they did not get into the documentation. Arguments of the view that “You were professionals, we had to take this into account, we could naturally have missed something, coordinating hundreds of pages of documentation, but it was you who personally promised me” quite well-off, at least because he is “Elephant”, but You are the "Pug", and the project must be handed over somehow. Preventing such situations is probably part of the so-called management of requirements and expectations, and is one of the most important tasks of BA together with the RP. The saddest thing is that, in my opinion, in principle, it is impossible to teach, it is a kind of art and talent, and of course experience.
Look from the position of the employer
1.5 years of running projects as a PM and a part-time job as an IT service provider pushed to a completely unexpected and strange idea to open their own business together with colleagues. Having worked for some time in three roles "Seller" - "RP" - "BA" on several projects (by the way, a very effective, though not scalable business model), business analysts appeared in their own staff. In addition to assessing how RP, from the point of view of the business owner, it was possible to notice still very important useful qualities of BA, because of which I sincerely consider professional (in my understanding) business analyst a resource that largely determines the success of a business in implementing business applications:
- Strategic requirements management. At some point we started to adhere to the paradigm in which we are trying to standardize by all means all our projects at the level of the architecture of the solution itself. The reason is trivial - the maintenance and development of architecturally similar projects (of course, functionally, they can be very different) is much simpler. Even to the point that we consciously convince the customer of the need to adhere to certain “architectural principles”, even to the detriment of the budget size of a future project (there is often a different approach on the market: “whatever you want for your money”, sometimes going into unnecessary and strong customization customer, often not very effective. Yes, the Pareto principle and the like. Excessive customization of platforms has a significant plus - you can explain and get a much larger budget, and a significant disadvantage is the complexity of maintenance and development). The role of BA in such a strategic approach is, in fact, key - only a mega professional business analyst is able to formalize requirements in such a way that their implementation does not require a substantial “finish”, while convincing the customer that the requirement that is formalized is the idea of the Customer himself.
- Cross-selling and solution development. A quality business analyst is one who will never miss, will not forget short phrases, trends, absorbed in the process of his interaction with the customer’s employees, which can be “unwound”, get to the bottom and formulate a new need. Having the signs of a real need, seen precisely in the real work of employees of a company, to sell a project to “close” such a need, on the background of a successful first project - to the absurdity is simple (we don’t take macroeconomics into account, we believe that everyone’s money there are)
Conclusion
7 years of experience in the implementation of information systems, of course, does not claim the title of "Labor Veteran". Nevertheless, I am sure that the opinions formulated on the basis of such experience about the key qualities and merits of professionals in the field of business analysis can more or less be viewed as objective. I do not argue that today the problem of finding high-quality specialists in many fields of activity is quite acute. Also, do not think that the purpose of the publication is an attempt to distinguish roles in some kind of activity that are more important than others - it is obvious that any high-quality specialist, for whose work there is a demand, is worth its weight in gold.
In my opinion, the peculiarity is that it is impossible to adequately formulate the requirements for this specialty, it is extremely difficult to predict the potential of a “beginner” for this particular field, only after a year at best, you can judge whether there is potential in the best case. Graduates of university departments with the names of the type “Business Analyst” (even if they exist, and in terms of terminology this corresponds to practice) do not inspire trusting, since it is even impossible to imagine what needs to be taught. And in general - what should be the basic education of a business analyst? Technical, economic, humanitarian? I met quality representatives with the formation of all three species.
Thanks for attention!
Source: https://habr.com/ru/post/246251/
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