Where do business analysts come from?
Welcome, people!
We, the Information Technology Center company, are creating infrastructure solutions and high-tech software products that support global state initiatives in the Russian Federation and the countries of the Eurasian Economic Union.
In this article, I will share with you some thoughts about where people come from in business analysis.
')
In the company "Center for Information Technology," the department of business analysis appeared out of nowhere. We collected several system analysts in it and said that now we are business analysts and we need to analyze the processes in business. This is not a reproach to the management, it just seemed even more strange to simply take over the business analysis of programmers, and the need for such specialists was already on the face.
Be that as it may, the volitional decision of the leadership began a new profession among us. What's next? Further tasks became more and the order “to find more business analysts” arrived in HR, and not simple, but reliable and promising. But where can they get such good ones? In universities, such a profession is rarely taught; there is no professional standard yet. What people just don't write in a resume are people involved in business analysis tasks: a consultant, a data analyst, a development director, a marketing manager, and other fantasies.
And if a person has not yet decided that he is a business analyst at heart, the picture is even more interesting. We knew only one way to cross, which we ourselves went through, but we also knew for sure that it was not the only one.
But we are analysts, “and not a cat that smelled,” as one of our colleagues likes to say. We approached the issue systematically. Understanding the requirements for business analytics and looking at what professions still have similar requirements, we made a rough idea of ​​which professions the business potential has the smallest potential difference. In other words, who is easier to lure into our profession.
Further, of course, the experience of our company, which does not pretend to a professional standard. Go.
It's all in a heap, and hard and soft skills. Of course, they can be structured, classified and harmonized, but I will not. Because to solve our problem, this group is enough.
What is the result?
It turns out that not only IT specialists become business analysts, and more often not IT specialists at all. I will try to explain why it was difficult for us to understand and accept this. Historically, the “Information Technology Center” IT company, we have learned to solve large and difficult tasks well in this particular area. To move from IT to the world of economics and finance, organizational decisions and process optimization is about the same as moving from a flat projection into three-dimensional space. We realized that for solving problems not always pure IT solutions are optimal. And we must go out of the comfort zone.
I do not specifically describe the way here, as we went to this realization, it is unlikely that someone will repeat it exactly, the most valuable are the conclusions we came to as a result. Only one of them is described in this article.
Since then, we have learned a lot ourselves, expanded the boundaries of perception of the problems and tasks of the customer, mastering new areas of knowledge. We have 5 times more business analysts, a whole department has grown around us, and we are not resting on our laurels.
We, the Information Technology Center company, are creating infrastructure solutions and high-tech software products that support global state initiatives in the Russian Federation and the countries of the Eurasian Economic Union.
In this article, I will share with you some thoughts about where people come from in business analysis.
')
In the company "Center for Information Technology," the department of business analysis appeared out of nowhere. We collected several system analysts in it and said that now we are business analysts and we need to analyze the processes in business. This is not a reproach to the management, it just seemed even more strange to simply take over the business analysis of programmers, and the need for such specialists was already on the face.
Be that as it may, the volitional decision of the leadership began a new profession among us. What's next? Further tasks became more and the order “to find more business analysts” arrived in HR, and not simple, but reliable and promising. But where can they get such good ones? In universities, such a profession is rarely taught; there is no professional standard yet. What people just don't write in a resume are people involved in business analysis tasks: a consultant, a data analyst, a development director, a marketing manager, and other fantasies.
And if a person has not yet decided that he is a business analyst at heart, the picture is even more interesting. We knew only one way to cross, which we ourselves went through, but we also knew for sure that it was not the only one.
But we are analysts, “and not a cat that smelled,” as one of our colleagues likes to say. We approached the issue systematically. Understanding the requirements for business analytics and looking at what professions still have similar requirements, we made a rough idea of ​​which professions the business potential has the smallest potential difference. In other words, who is easier to lure into our profession.
Further, of course, the experience of our company, which does not pretend to a professional standard. Go.
| What is important to be able to business analytics? | Who else can do this? |
| write documents, work with documenting standards, quickly read and print quickly | technical writers |
| explain, argue, make presentations and write business letters | project managers, salespeople |
| understand end-user issues | interface designers, testers |
| to model in any interesting notations, to think systematically | system analysts, system architects |
| understand the principles of project management, work in a team and with a team, leadership | project managers, managers of different ranks |
| know specialist level economics, finance, marketing | economists, marketers |
| think creatively, draw pictures, visualize ideas | designers, interface designers |
It's all in a heap, and hard and soft skills. Of course, they can be structured, classified and harmonized, but I will not. Because to solve our problem, this group is enough.
What is the result?
It turns out that not only IT specialists become business analysts, and more often not IT specialists at all. I will try to explain why it was difficult for us to understand and accept this. Historically, the “Information Technology Center” IT company, we have learned to solve large and difficult tasks well in this particular area. To move from IT to the world of economics and finance, organizational decisions and process optimization is about the same as moving from a flat projection into three-dimensional space. We realized that for solving problems not always pure IT solutions are optimal. And we must go out of the comfort zone.
I do not specifically describe the way here, as we went to this realization, it is unlikely that someone will repeat it exactly, the most valuable are the conclusions we came to as a result. Only one of them is described in this article.
Since then, we have learned a lot ourselves, expanded the boundaries of perception of the problems and tasks of the customer, mastering new areas of knowledge. We have 5 times more business analysts, a whole department has grown around us, and we are not resting on our laurels.
Source: https://habr.com/ru/post/291066/
All Articles