Often people who have started doing business ask the question: “Business analyst - who is this and why hire him?” Having read the definition of the concept, it will become clear that he is an indispensable employee. Then you will need to find out what information his job description contains.

Concept

A business analyst is a specialist who applies business analysis methods to analyze the needs of the company, to find out the causes of problems in the implementation of activities and create proposals for solving them.

This concept is defined by the International Institute of Business Analysis as an intermediary for collecting the necessary information and verifying the requirements for creating information systems. The employee must understand what opportunities and challenges the business has that help or hinder the company's achievement of its goals.

The term in question has not been established for a long time. Synonyms can be used to name a specialist: requirements analyst and systems analyst. Business Analyst is the lowest position of a consultant when considering a consulting business.

General provisions of the job description

A business analyst is an employee of the company's development department, who belongs to the category of administrative and managerial apparatus. It is worth noting that the purpose of the position is to optimize and analyze the processes carried out by the company. A systems analyst can be appointed and removed from a position upon the recommendation of the head of the department by the chief manager of the enterprise. The employee must follow the orders of the Director of Strategic Development. To do this, he must use the appropriate regulatory documents.

Functions of a business analyst

The system analyst plans work on analyzing business processes:

• is engaged in creating a work plan for analysis, optimization and modeling of processes, after which it is agreed upon with the head of strategic development;
• is engaged in the formation of resource estimates and communication plans required to perform modeling of new processes.

Performs analysis and optimization:

• develops the structure of elements necessary to assess the effectiveness of existing functions and processes;
• applies modeling tools, adoption by the company;
• compiles a comprehensive analytical report, presented with text comments and analysis tables;
• develops recommendations for changing the organizational structure and applying optimized business processes;
• Prepares the required information for the technical writer of the development department.

Presents the optimized process to other company employees:

• the business analyst develops demonstration materials required for the presentation;
• ensures the availability of the necessary information materials, software and hardware for the presentation;
• demonstrates optimization results to other employees;
• deals with the procedure for publishing materials on the company’s website.

Engaged in improving the methodology for examining company processes:

• carries out monitoring of available sources of information to identify shortcomings in the methods adopted at the enterprise;
• conducts documentation of the shortcomings of the company's methodology, which will contain a report to the head of strategic development and ways to eliminate the problems;
• develops recommendations for the use of innovative optimization technologies.

The responsibilities of a business analyst include training and professional development for company employees:

• must undergo appropriate training and certification in accordance with the established company plan;
• trains other company employees to work with optimized business processes;
• trains other company employees to work in the instrumental environment of their modeling.

Business Analyst Knowledge

A business analyst must have the following knowledge:

• existing national standard DSTU ISO 9001-2001;
• organization standard for internal audit, regulation and system description;
• current orders and orders of company managers in the field of optimization and analysis of business processes;
• adopts domestic and foreign experience in improving management systems;
• established and current operating model of the company;
• modern capabilities of computer technology, as well as ways of using it to carry out survey work and optimize relevant processes;
• norms and rules of labor protection established by law.

Job responsibilities

To make it clear what responsibilities a business analyst has, instructions for him should be drawn up by a representative of the company in which he will work. He has the following responsibilities:

• performing the functions established by the job description;
• Ensuring compliance with company policies with high quality;
• promoting the optimal functioning of the quality management system;
• carrying out corrective measures in the implementation of its activities;
• fulfillment of the requirements stipulated by organizational documents.

The duties of a business analyst must be performed in full in accordance with the established job description.

System analyst rights

It is worth highlighting the following rights of a business process analyst:

• Request from officials and receive the required documents and materials that relate to the activities being carried out.
• Conduct surveys and interviews with company executives to perform analysis and optimization
• Carry out a survey of the company's management to ensure the collection of the required information to identify shortcomings in the functioning system and determine the need for its improvement.
• A business analyst has the right to receive reviews of documents developed by the company and required for the implementation of business processes.
• The employee must be familiar with the working hours included in the list of internal rules of the company.
• Has the right to go on business trips if necessary.

The list of rights may expand depending on the order of the enterprise management.

Responsibility

The job description of a business analyst contains a list of processes for which he is responsible:

• for insufficient quality of performance of their official duties;
• for providing false information about the quality of work performed in accordance with accepted indicators;
• for untimely submission of reports in accordance with the requirements of the internal audit regulations;
• for failure to comply with the orders of the company management and the head of strategic development;
• for violation of the company's internal regulations.

Responsibility is established separately for each enterprise. The analyst must understand that it is impossible to violate company rules.

Relationships

A business analyst's responsibilities also include relationships. They represent the implementation of information interaction with officials of the company’s structural divisions under their authority. Also, the systems analyst must provide the required information to the technical writer of the development department in the area of ​​documenting the results.

Regulations

A business analyst must be guided by the following documents and standards in the performance of his duties:

• Job description, which is developed and adopted by the company's management.
• National standard DSTU ISO 9001-2001.
• Company standard.
• The company's quality management.
• An established description of the enterprise's operating system.
• Directives and orders from the company's management in matters of analysis and optimization of business processes.
• Accepted internal rules of the company.
• Legislatively established rules and standards of labor protection.
• Directions and orders from the boss that relate to the organization of activities of other company employees.

It is mandatory to adhere to the requirements of these documents if provided by the enterprise.

Labor efficiency criteria

An IT business analyst must demonstrate certain performance results. The main criteria for labor efficiency are:

• Compliance with the established work schedule.
• Achieving a high level of employee satisfaction with the quality of work organization.
• Achieving maximum values ​​when conducting performance assessments, which are pre-established by company management.

A business analyst who has been hired to work in the enterprise development department must read the job description and sign an agreement to comply with its terms. The document must be developed by an employee specially appointed for this purpose. It is necessary to develop a job description taking into account all the requirements that must be met.

The business process analyst should read the submitted document in detail. After his signature, he can begin to perform his duties. You should also know your rights and responsibilities for violating the current rules. The job description is also signed by the head of the department and the chief manager of the enterprise.

Do Belarusian companies need business analysts? The advertisements say that this is one of the most popular professions in IT, that it is not so difficult to get, salaries are measured in thousands of dollars, and there are an incalculable number of vacancies on job search sites. Is it really? And how to become a business analyst if you are far from the IT field?

Who is a business analyst and what is the essence of his work?

The main task of a business analyst is a detailed study of the company’s structure, searching for problems and optimal ways to solve them. Most often, business analysts analyze the financial activities of an organization, develop a new or improve an old business model, optimize the work process and strive with all their might to increase the company’s profits.

Business analysts are needed by large enterprises, banks, construction organizations, and, of course, IT companies.

For example, a client contacted the company whose sales had fallen. The business analyst needs to find out why this happened: low-quality content on the site, high prices, complex interface, lack of communication on social networks. The business analyst then details the results of his research and proposes a solution to the problem.

Creative work

Creative work: you need to understand what the customer needs, see ways to implement the idea, propose new solutions for the development of the company, decide what technologies will be used in the work. A business analyst is the creative face of the team, because it is he who conveys the client’s requirements to the developers and formalizes them properly.

At the same time, a business analyst must be able to politely communicate with a client and resolve conflicts, be careful and attentive to detail, be able to present a project at its final stage and be, as they say, “two steps ahead.”

Project management methods

Project management methods are one of the key requirements that employers make. In simple terms, project management is the management and organization of all processes that will lead to a goal, be it a competitor analysis or a marketing campaign.

The difficulty is that all projects are different, which means that each needs its own approach. For this purpose, a whole system of project management methodologies has been developed, and, of course, employers will demand this knowledge.

What should a business analyst be like?

What other requirements apply to a business analyst?

• Skill to work in team,
• Knowledge of a fairly large amount of software,
• Knowledge of software development methodology,
• Activity and desire to develop,
• English language.

If your level is below Upper-Intermediate, getting a position as a business analyst will be quite difficult. After all, in IT, most often the clients are Western companies.

How much do business analysts earn?

A good business analyst can expect a salary of at least $1,200. If you believe the statistics from dev.by, the median salary of a business analyst is $1,600. Senior receives about $3000. Of course, everything will depend only on your professional skills and desire to develop.

Why is project management so important for business analysts?

Why is project management so important for business analysts? Talks about this Alena Volchek, specialist in PMI, AGILE (scrum, kanban) and teacher in

- Nowadays, the most in demand on the labor market are the so-called “universal specialists”. I call them "P.M.- B.A." I myself often had to collect requirements from the customer, write technical specifications and design proposals. A project manager can be a good business analyst, but the opposite does not always work.

For guys who need to decide whether to go into business analysis or project management, this course is ideal. Because there is a basis here for business analysis and project management. Where to specialize next depends only on them.

Now project management is very relevant for Belarus, especially in the last year and a half. The project approach is being implemented everywhere, not even inIT, and, say, in the restaurant and tourism business. The only question is personnel. There are few good project managers, and those who understandITspecifics - even less.

Is there a division between humanists and techies here? Humanities students, as a rule, choose the “Business Analysis” specialization, and as for techies, it seems to me that everything is within their control, if they are not confused by the fact that in “Project Management” or “Project Management + Business Analysis” you need to constantly communicate. Not all techies can do this.

You should choose our Academy for its very comfortable atmosphere! The groups become so united during the classes that by the end of the course many become true friends and help each other with employment. Teachers build the course program, taking into account the interests of each specific group, and focus on the topics that the group needs.

The topics in the classes will be very interesting: interviews and features of team formation, protection against manipulation and conducting negotiations and meetings. And also a “mix” in the management of classics and light methodologies, i.e. agile and pmi!

Finding a job after the course is very possible. From the group, at least 2-3 people find work in the first months after completing the courses. But these people are very interested in learning and are ready to change jobs. At the same time, they understand that without work experience they cannot immediately count on a salary of $1,500, and they need to start small, with about $400. But also the level of responsibility of the assistantP.M.much lower.

As for the best graduates, everything here is like at a university. You can be the best in theory, but fail in practice. So for me, the best ones are the ones who quickly learn project management software and grasp the ideas of how to combine them. Gaps in theory can be easily filled, but you need to know the main points by heart: risks, timing, cost and team.

If you decide to change something in your life, in your profession, doubt less and do more. Without trying, you will never understand whether this is your profession or not. And while you're thinking, someone has already signed up to take your place in my group!

Humanities have a place inIT

Vitaly Borodin, a practicing business analyst and teacher, spoke about why humanities students can be better than techies, and why projects can “fail” without business analysts.

- The importance of the business analyst profession is explained very simply, and at the same time quite complex. Let's try to figure it out. In the classical sense, a BA is an intermediary between the customer and the developer, but what is behind this in practice? Hard intellectual work, which is not limited to simply relaying the customer’s wishes.

I know many projects that did not become successful precisely because of the lack of a business analyst. How it all happened: the customer says: “I want...”, and the developer realizes the customer’s desire. The customer looks at the result and understands that what he wanted has been implemented, but it is completely impossible to use it due to a certain list of reasons.

In the case when a business analyst participates in a project, he first of all analyzes the customer’s business, identifies bottlenecks, reasons why the activity is not as successful as it could be. Then he identifies and agrees with the customer the identified needs, approaches to meeting them, and defines the concept of the solution, which can be associated not only with the development of a new software product, but also with the modernization of business processes. If the proposed concept is accepted by the customer, then work can continue. At the same time, the business analyst must also remember that, perhaps, in some cases, leaving everything as is, and this will be more effective.

Five to seven years ago, analysts were not so popular with us, since we traditionally lag behind in many areas. Now companies are learning to operate more intelligently, and are coming to understand the need and importance of the role of a business analyst. Yes, a business analyst may have high compensation, but it pays off in reduced development time and the creation of better software solutions.

Business analysis is not as simple a profession as it seems. And there are many explanations for this. First of all, the software you create should not be just a program. The ideal option is when it is possible to create a new philosophy for conducting the company’s operating activities, which is integrated into business processes, and in some cases, even using a software product to build business processes, regulate and regulate the activities of each employee.

For example, who can imagine a modern company that does not useCRM? Or some kind of accounting software? Now imagine a company where each software product has integration with another, where you can get the information you need at a given moment in several manipulations in the same software environment. Just? Hardly.

Theoretically, anyone can study to become a business analyst, but with one condition: there must be clear motivation and an understanding of why it is needed. In addition, it is necessary to clearly understand that business analysis is studied all the time while it is working. You never know what project will be next: a website, a search engine, an online store, a reference and information system, a payment service, a graphic editor.

Young professionals with sky-high ambitions often completely forget that high salaries require a lot of work, and theoretical knowledge alone, acquired even at a prestigious educational institution, is absolutely not enough.

I don’t know of any profession where you can get big money right away. In any case, you need to gain a certain set of basic knowledge and practical skills. Then there will be the first project, the first bumps, again a new project, a lot of new knowledge, and so on ad infinitum. This is an experience. The experience and knowledge that a business analyst gains with each project can turn into a coefficient by which the newcomer’s remuneration will change. And after some time, it could be several months, for some, several years, you can get to the concept of “earning a lot.”

I am a supporter of the fact that this profession is more suitable for people in the humanities, since they think somewhat differently, for them the word “impossible” does not exist, they are more creators than hard workers. The main thing to remember is that the creation meets the interests of the customer. A technical specialist thinks in formulas, while a humanist describes the essence itself.

Our BelHard IT Academy has all the necessary resources and infrastructure for successful training. First of all, it's personnel. All teachers are practicing specialists; each of them has various projects in their portfolio, so the “dry theory” is explained using practical examples and specific decisions that were made during the implementation of projects. In addition, the course is structured in such a way that anyone can learn, regardless of their age and knowledge.

I will give some recommendations to beginners. Make sure that there is motivation and desire to explore a new direction, there is a willingness to study a lot, and after completing the course, start your career almost from the very beginning, and, regardless of age and past achievements, become a beginner who, after some time, will become a specialist and will be able to hear , as a satisfied user will say: “What a cool program, it was invented by a genius!” But there is a difficult and long road ahead.

How to become a business analyst?

If you are still confident in your motivation to become a part of IT, then you should find out where you can get this profession.

BelHard IT Academy offers an integrated course. Here you will learn how to design an information system and manage its development, learn effective methods for collecting user requirements, formalizing them in a form that is accessible and understandable to all stakeholders, learn how to manage the collaboration of teams that solve different problems, and learn how to create a finished product.

This course differs from ordinary business analysis in that you will learn not only to analyze a business and propose a development strategy, but also to manage projects, human resources, and risks yourself. You will acquire skills in two specialties at once, and this will double your chances of finding a prestigious and highly paid job.

Also, the BelHard IT Academy has developed a course, after which you will become a real business analyst!

During the courses, you will learn about the features of software projects and modern software development methodologies, get acquainted with the functions performed by a business analyst, as well as the basic skills of a business analyst, study the necessary tools and software, and gain invaluable experience in drawing up and completing technical specifications.

By the way, if you want to become a real professional in the field of business analysis and study this area a little deeper, you can take a course. You will learn the UML modeling language, learn what user stories are, and learn how to manage requirements.

All courses at the BelHard IT Academy are aimed at practical training in order to achieve the best results. At the end of the course, all participants submit a project, on which the final certification will be carried out. And remember that the main investment in your life is an investment in yourself and your knowledge!

There are five steps to becoming a business analyst. Where did these five steps come from? It took me about 2 years to figure out how to become a business analyst without any specific experience. How to show an employer what I had, without having specific analytical experience, and get a job in this field.

Each person looks at the same thing differently. That is, one of you will say: “I have no experience in business analysis,” then another person, looking at the same experience, will say: “I have experience in business analysis” or “I am a born businessman.” analyst” and will go and get a job in a short time.

Step 1, This analysis of your previous experience .
First of all, we have already discussed that you have the skills of a business analyst, which an analyst performs every day, and, believe me, you already have some skills. You just don't know about them yet. We will now show you how you can define these skills. And the next thing is the definition of soft skills. Soft skills are very important for a business analyst because someone said that you even need a degree in psychology in business analysis. I don’t know about the degree, but you need to be a good communicator, you need to be a “subtle” person who understands the psychology of other people. This is actually true.

Let's take a look at the analysis of your previous experience. Here we are looking for the following concepts: requirements gathering, requirements analysis, interaction with various departments and identification from needs. That is, you are looking for such terms. What can you do for this?

Basically, this is a task for both skills. Also for soft ones. That is, in order to understand specifically what soft skills a business analyst needs, we have already listed them. To understand this for now, there is an exercise you can do at home. Consider 20 open business analyst positions online. Simply search any job search sites in a search engine and write down two pages of unique business analyst responsibilities in a Word document. Here you write not your responsibilities that you once performed, but simply the responsibilities of a business analyst. This will help you understand what a business analyst actually does. Why are there 20 open positions, because YOU should analyze a large “french”, several professions, to see what is typical for business analysis. When you understand these responsibilities, then you will understand what skills are needed for these responsibilities. Job vacancies also often talk about what skills analysts should have. That is, they even write like this: for example, communication skills or the ability to communicate with customers, etc.

The purpose of this step is to understand what is required from a business analyst.

The next point in this exercise is to generally understand what is required of a business analyst. Next, analyze and understand each responsibility by going through each one, analyzing whether you have it or not. The simplest thing you can do is simply find out via Google what is meant by each responsibility.

Next, identify the responsibilities you have performed in the past. Even if you now have a resume and it is not written in the same language, just highlight those responsibilities, even if there are not many of them. Therefore, we recommend 20 items so that you get at least a sheet or half of the underlined responsibilities, depending on what you have already done or not. If less, then you will already have some overlapping responsibilities.

Step 2. The next step is training.
In training, it is important that you get results. When you understand what skills and responsibilities a business analyst should have, and compare them with what you have, then you need to undergo some kind of theoretical training. Naturally, a business analyst must have some kind of tools. In order to understand this toolkit, and also to understand what language a business analyst speaks, what language IT speaks, you need to undergo training.

It is advisable that the training should include practical tasks so that you can work with some real tasks and real team work. You must remember that any education you receive must be practical. When choosing a training, be sure to ask how many practical tasks there will be, how many role-playing games there will be. Something where you can work out the theory. This is very important for training. In training, it is important not to collect crusts, go from one training to another, from one company to another, but to find the company that will give you specific training in business analysis.

After the previous step, you will understand what is most important in business analysis and what you are missing. This will help you determine which training will be right for you.

Step 3. Of course the next step is

When you have analyzed what the market requires, you have already acquired some skills during your training, which should preferably be practical, you draw up your resume. A resume is also an important element, because it is your face, it is how you present yourself to potential employers.

Therefore, one of these interesting points... be sure to add a simple listing of your responsibilities, and also add that you will show your achievements. That is, not only list everything you did in this specific position, but also be sure to list your achievements. Because the employer likes to see not just some simple performer, one of many, but also that person who has achieved something. That is, if you did something that can be written in a resume, for example, you developed some new system for transferring an order: from the moment it arrives to the customer until the moment this request is processed. You made some new application of your own, which was accepted. And this increased or decreased the order processing time, for example, by 30%.

This is an interesting little tip. This is what employers love to see. They love to see not only a list of what you did at work, but also your achievements. For those who are working, for those who are on the job market, you can use this tip to revamp your resume and show off your achievements. How are you different from other people?

For those who are just looking, the following advice. Only include positions in your resume that are somehow related to business analysis. Let's say if you worked or are working as a secretary, then you can put the position of secretary. But after taking the first step, write down as much as possible the functions that you did as a business analyst. For example, market analysis, working with clients. This is what employers want to see on a resume, just like a business analyst's resume.

Step 4. The next step is to find a job.

When you already have a resume on which you have shown yourself correctly, positioned yourself correctly, you need to look for a job. There are, of course, many different ways to find a job. For those starting out, we would advise looking for an internship. This is practiced in America, this is practiced in the post-Soviet space. Companies very often take on talented people for internships. Sometimes they can even do training, and after that they can take the training for an internship. If there is such an opportunity, you can go for such an internship.

One option is that you can look for a job within your own company. Particularly suitable for those who have decided to change careers while already working in IT. Let's say you are already a tester, you are already a developer. And now you suddenly want to go more into business. You have the best chance of doing this in your own company. Because they will already know you for your achievements, what you do well. Let's say you are a developer, but you know how to collect requirements well, because you did this on some small projects. And you want to continue doing this and show your desire to move to a position, a career as a business analyst.

You also need to look for junior analyst vacancies after you have completed training and some kind of internship, or only after training. For all these vacancies, which can be searched on search engines on the Internet, you need to submit your resume. But it is also very important not to sit and wait for someone to call you from the vacancies for which you submitted your resume.

It is very important to develop your connections. Who has heard, in English it is called “net-working”, creating your own network of connections. That is, connections are not only those people who are your relatives or your very good friends. But these are your acquaintances and your former colleagues. For those who are already working in business analysis, be sure to keep in touch with your former colleagues, with your classmates, with your classmates. This is a huge resource that you will use for many, many years to come. You will help each other in your profession and career. People often miss this interesting point. This is a very good way to find a job. When you say, “I am interested in such and such a profession, do they hire business analysts from you? Can you recommend me to your boss? It is very important to build such connections.

Step 5. The next step is coaching and supporting the group.

You are now in a group that is interested in business analysis. When you introduce yourself to another person, find out what interest this person has in business analysis. Maybe the person is already working as a business analyst, or even has some kind of open position in his company. Maybe this person is a manager or programmer who already knows that the position is available and will recommend you.

Coach- It's like a team coach. A person who inspires you, supports you, mentors you. Therefore, if there is such a person, it may be either someone who has already passed this path, or a person who may already be in a higher position. Look for such people. Look for people who are already working as analysts and ask how they got there. And maybe they will undertake to lead you in this direction. That is, it is imperative that you are supported by your environment and that you have some people or one person who would be your coach or mentor.

Last year, a conference of business and systems analysts in software development was held in St. Petersburg. There was a rather interesting report by Minsk residents Maria and Sergei Bondarenko, entitled “Useful skills of analysts. How to become a professional." Below we publish an article based on the report.

Video of the report is also available:
http://video.yandex.ru/users/sqadays/view/8

My topic is useful analytics skills and aims to show you professional development opportunities in the field of business analysis.

Briefly about yourself

Maria Bondarenko, director of the Belarusian-German-Russian company GP software for software development in the field of tourism; has worked in IT for more than 10 years
Sergey Bondarenko, works at Itransition (almost 1000 people), is involved in management tasks (including in analytics departments)

Objectives of the report

What I want to show and tell in the report:
For beginners (less than a year of analytics experience) - give a general understanding of the industry, what skills may be needed and what development horizons are available
For experienced analysts: open up unknown horizons that you could not see in the context of your tasks, and also show the power and breadth of the field of business analysis

Where do analysts come from?

To the question “Which of the analysts received a professional education,” only a few of those present at the conference answered positively.
Much more came from testing and development. Some even came from a linguistic university.
In general, the field of business analysis is now quite young.
And not many people receive professional education in this area. And just as it turns out, so it becomes: there is such a vacancy, you decide “why not try?” and now your career as a business analyst begins.

How do analysts develop?

What happens next? Then you start working, performing some tasks and moving up the career ladder within the company. But your range of tasks is usually limited only to those projects that a given company carries out. Accordingly, if you come to one company and ask: “There are business analysts here, but what do you do? What is business analysis? Or you come to another company and ask “What is business analysis”, you may get 2 completely different answers.
In order to somehow improve this situation, you try to read books, read information on the Internet and somehow gain this experience, but, nevertheless, again, this all happens quite chaotically. Accordingly, such a hodgepodge happens in your head, you stew in your own juice and lack a complete understanding of the context of business analysis.

What could this lead to?

I’ve seen it many times during interviews when specialists came to me to apply for a job (and in our company it’s a common position in which a project manager and an analyst are combined) and the guys said: “In general, I already know everything in business analysis, now I want to try my hand at areas of management". In general, they come to the conclusion that seeing only some subfield of business analysis, they conclude that this is all that can be. The second possible reaction is that you don’t know where to move next, you feel sad, you are not effective enough on your projects and, perhaps, you don’t even know that there are any means to increase this efficiency in order to increase the context of understanding this area.
We'll get to that next.

Maybe it's better this way?

I would like to show you the possible roles of a business analyst in projects, possible areas of activity and necessary skills, personal characteristics and tools that may be useful to you. Below I will briefly outline what may be needed, because... For each of them, you can arrange a separate report or a separate training, so I further recommend that you independently dive into those areas that you find interesting.

Who is an analyst?

In the process of preparing the report, we were able to identify several areas in which business analysts work:
Requirements Management
Research&Analysis (Research and data analysis)
Processes Engineering
Modeling&Design (IC Design)
Delivery
Consulting

Requirements management

The most obvious thing is requirements management. This is the person who collects requirements, who analyzes them, manages changes and who makes sure that all project participants are aware of current requirements, that they are communicated correctly to the development team and that the result of the work corresponds to the wishes that the client originally had . But that's not all.

Data research and analysis

There are about 6 more areas that analysts work on. Next area - data research and analysis: A general data science task. Analyze which systems are already on the market with similar functionality, find these systems, compare them, provide information on which one is better suited to the current tasks of the project. The second aspect of this analyst’s role is the analysis of the system’s operation and the development of certain conclusions. Those. general analytical tasks.

Process Modeling

The next possible role for a project analyst is in the area of process modeling. Business analysts who work in IT and are directly involved in the development and management of requirements and system design do not always know that, in general, the primary sources of their tasks lie in the area of ​​business processes, in the area of ​​the client’s business. The client somehow performs certain operations now and does not need software now. But in the process of analyzing your current situation, you can come to the conclusion that the processes are not optimal, that they need to be reorganized and, accordingly, the task of developing software appears. So, in fact, who will help the client look at his business processes, describe and transform them into a more optimal state? This is also the task of a business analyst.

IC design

The next area of ​​activity of a business analyst is information systems design. Moreover, design can be different. And depending on the skills of the analysts, you can dig more deeply into this area or less. For example, the simplest level of system design is to sketch out mockups or prototypes of screens and then pass this on to usability specialists or designers so that they can work on it in more detail. On the other hand, if you have a deeper knowledge of these skills, for example, usability, usability, you can combine the role of a usability specialist. Those. in principle, this could be part of the work of a business analyst.

Software implementation

The next possible area of ​​activity for analysts is software implementation, in particular, when a product has already been developed, this product needs to be implemented, it needs to be customized by the client (if we are talking about large systems). This is a field of activity that requires special skills and abilities.

Consulting

AND consulting. The deeper you work in the industry, the better and higher your practical skills, the more complex tasks you can be assigned and the more you can act as an expert in the eyes of the client, and not just a conduit for his requirements to developers. Moreover, consulting may not even be directly related to the implementation of the project. Just consulting the client on technological issues and business issues. This is also the area of ​​activity of a business analyst.

Hard & Soft Skills

Given this range of possible tasks, certain skills are highlighted that allow them to be performed more professionally. The classic division of skills is hard and soft. Hard skills are knowledge of tools, technologies, techniques or notations, or what can be learned. Soft skills are personal and interpersonal characteristics that are given to him from birth, but they also develop and can also be trained and there are development methods for them.
Within the framework of these skills and the scope of possible analyst roles on projects, the following dependencies can be identified (see table).

1. Hard skills

For convenience, we divided all the skills from the hard skills group into 7 groups: basic competencies, theory and analysis techniques, business fundamentals, knowledge of IS development, documentation, additional competencies, foreign languages. At the intersections of roles and competencies, it is indicated for which tasks the analyst needs certain skills.
Regarding foreign languages: there are question marks because, in principle, a great analyst can work in the local market and only the Russian language will be enough for him to perform his work. But given that the field of business analysis is quite young and there is not much literature, forums and communities in Russian in which you can find out information, of course, knowledge of foreign languages ​​will allow you to develop better and gain more professional knowledge than you know only 1 language .
As for soft skills, they were divided into several groups and criteria were determined for which roles certain soft skills are most important.
Below we will tell you in more detail about all the listed hard and soft skills.

Let us describe hard-skills, which involve purely technical skills. They are the easiest to train and quite important, because... form the basis of effective analyst work.

1.1 Basic competencies

What is included in the basic competencies?
These are a number of things that you must learn before you even begin to step into the field of business analysis. They will allow your thoughts to be put into a certain form. These are fairly simple things, but basic ones that no one will teach you separately. The implication is that you must have it.

a. Business ethics

Firstly, general business ethics, telephone communication skills, written correspondence skills. Namely, such tasks as: how to write a letter correctly (start with a greeting, at the end put a final phrase encouraging the client to action, and a signature), how to communicate with the client by phone. This, of course, should be known to you in advance. Why am I talking about this - I personally saw situations when analysts came to a project and the letters looked like this: “Can you send us the latest documentation on the project?” Neither “hello” nor “goodbye”. It's just not pretty. This is a basic skill that you should have and doesn't even need to be talked about.

b. Internet skills

The next skill is the ability to work on the Internet, work with instant messengers (Skype, for example, is very popular nowadays). Thanks to them, you reduce the distance and the client can contact you online. In Skype, you can form group discussions, involve the entire team in communication with the client, and then issues regarding the project are resolved faster. You should also know what screen sharing is, how to transfer files, etc.

c. Collaboration

The next block is the ability to work together. Knowledge of tools such as Google Drive will help you
Goggle Drive is an accessible, free tool through which you can exchange documents with the client and the development team. If your company doesn't have a collaboration tool installed, this is the easiest choice to give clients access to documents. And what’s also important is that you can work on the same document simultaneously and jointly. We use this technique - together with the client we open a document with requirements and discuss what should be implemented and in what order. You change the priorities in your document and the client sees it on his screen in a couple of seconds.

d. Online conferences

In the same group are tools for online conferences. It is very useful when an analyst not only sends documents to the client, but demonstrates, in particular, intermediate versions of the system’s functionality and shows prototypes. For this you will need some kind of platform. Of course, there is the option that you come to the client if he is in the same country and city. But often we work with Western customers or remote teams. Among these online conferencing tools are GoTo Meeting and GoTo Webinar (this is from the same series), WebEx and others. Moreover, they can be useful not only for presenting results, but also for collecting requirements.

e. Wiki storage

Another tool such as MediaWiki may be useful. This is an online library, like the well-known Wikipedia, which you can deploy locally for your client and the entire team using your administrator. You can keep documentation in it, and the good thing is that you don’t need to save files to storage to track versions, forward them to colleagues, you won’t be able to forget the file - up-to-date content is always available. For example, user manuals or specifications can be written in MediaWiki.

f. Reading and printing speed

Another block of basic competencies of hard skills is speed reading and speed typing (although there may be debate as to whether this can be classified as soft-skills).
An analyst needs to process a lot of information: on the one hand, read a lot (study and comprehend), and on the other, write a lot (record the results), so it will be extremely useful for you in your professional career if you train these 2 skills. For example, you can compare - the average typing skill is 100 characters per minute, I type at a speed of 400 characters per minute. If everything is clear what to write in the document and you only need to record the agreement in words, write a protocol of the agreement with the client, then you can imagine - it takes me 4 times less time than the average specialist. Accordingly, by improving this skill, you make yourself more efficient and save time on your projects.

g. Office tools

Also, as part of basic skills, I would like to note a number of other tools, such as office tools (Word, Excel, PowerPoint and Visio), which allow you to present the results of your work in a high-quality and visual manner. If you know how to open a Word document and know how to type text there, but do not know how to customize header and table styles, format notes, use templates and document properties. Or you can open an Excel document and know what a spreadsheet is, but don’t know formulas, macros, conditional formatting, then believe me, you still have room to dig within these tools. Just for the sake of interest, you can open a certificate about the program or some test for this program, and you will learn a lot that, it turns out, you did not know before. Accordingly, there is always room for development here.

h. Visualization

The next tool is MindManager. This is also quite a useful program that relates to basic skills and allows you to structure information in the form of a mindmap.

i. Graphic editor

Graphic editors can also be useful for analysts - not only complex Photoshop, but also, for example, classic Paint. There is an even more powerful program - SNAGIT - I recommend it.

j. Multimedia editors

Of course, you can use PowerPoint for presentations, but in the modern environment, the Prezi tool is becoming quite popular. It makes presentations more interesting and interactive. Plus, if you master the creation of video clips, in particular, the Camtasia Studio program, which allows you to record video sequences demonstrating the operation of applications, then this will be useful in the sense that the client cannot always devote time to you now, but you can provide him with a video -file, and the client is more likely to look at it than if he clicks on the system buttons on his own.

1.2 Theories and techniques of business analysis

The next block is the theories and techniques of business analysis. These are the skills that help you become a business analyst directly.
In this context, knowledge and skills in the following areas are considered:
Requirements management
Change management
Development of design artifacts
Related Tools

a. Requirements management

The first block of knowledge is requirements management. Here it is important to know how to identify sources and how to identify requirements, and what to do with them after that: analyze, specify (document), check.

b. Change management

This is a requirements management subblock, but I have taken it out separately to draw your attention to it. The fact is that it is very important to understand traces (there is a separate report on this topic at the conference). It is important to know how to manage the scope of a project.

a. Project artifacts

Next is the ability to describe the Vision, Software Requirements Specification, and prepare a user manual. Sometimes I heard the opinion that an analyst should not write user manuals, that this is the job of a technical writer. I think this is a rather narrow view of the world, because, in general, the task of an analyst is to contribute to the creation of a product that will be successful and useful, and a technical writer is not always allocated to the team. Those. there is no need to “outweigh the dogs” against each other. Most effectively, instructions for working with the system and user documentation can be written by an analyst. Even if he doesn’t write, he should have a general understanding of what user documentation is and how it differs from baseline documentation and specifications.

b. Tools

In the field of theories and analysis techniques, tools for requirements management are also highlighted, such as Enterprise Architect, Borland CaliberRM (a separate stand was presented at the conference, and a report was read), etc. Non-specialized tools are also used for requirements management - Excel, Jira

1.3 Business Basics

How can you benefit from knowledge of business fundamentals for your development?

a. Basics of Economics

You will need to know what TCO (total cost of ownership), ROI (Return on Investment), EBIDAT (Earnings before depreciation and taxes), ABC (Activity-Based Costing), etc. are. These terms should be studied because you, as a business analyst, must contribute to the success of the business, and understanding the basics of economics (understanding what software is made for and how the effectiveness of software implementation will be assessed) is extremely important for the analyst to make good decisions. You need to not only gather and manage requirements, but do so within the constraints of the project (which are often related to economics - resources are not unlimited, and neither is money).

b. Business Process Engineering

Business process development skills can also be useful. Moreover, this also includes the understanding that business processes can be main and auxiliary, and also that their design takes place in the AS IS (as it is now) and TO BE (as recommended or as it should be) paradigms.
I won’t go into more detail, because... For my purposes, it is to identify the points of development of the analyst, and then it is expected to independently study these areas.

c. Process Modeling Notations

To engineer business processes, you will need knowledge of certain notations in which you will describe processes. Of course, they can be described simply in words, but the following business process modeling notations are also quite common: BPML (Business Processes Modeling Language), IDEFx, CFF (cross-functional flowcharts) and regular flowcharts.

d. Tools

The corresponding tools in the field of describing business processes and economic planning (which I have encountered) are BPWin and Business Studio.

1.4 IS development

An analyst who develops information systems must master the techniques and methods of their development.

a. Architecture Basics

The first block is the basics of architecture - a general understanding of what an IS is, an understanding of client-server technology and database construction, knowledge of the structure of sites (including understanding of HTML, CMS devices, knowledge of ready-made CMS), as well as an understanding of protocols and data transfer formats (XML, CSV, etc.).

b. Design Notations

Design notations such as UML, DFD, flowcharts may be useful to you.

c. Ergonomics

In addition to general knowledge of IP development, you will need knowledge of ergonomics (usability), and in this regard, pay attention to standards such as web-style guide, mobile-style guide. And IP development for iPhone and Android has a set of best practices and requirements standards for how mobile applications should be designed. In particular, on the AppStore you will certify your application, and if it does not meet the standards, it will not be allowed.

d. Tools

The toolkit allows you to carry out design efficiently and conveniently from the point of view of the project and from the point of view of those for whom this project is being done. In particular, these are prototyping tools (Balsamiq Mockups, Axure, JustInMind - including mobile interfaces). MS Visio is also used for these purposes.

1.5 Documentation

a. Competent language and correct formatting

The next block of skills is documentation. Analysts write documents and they (the documents) must be literate both in terms of language, correct use of technical style, competent writing, and in terms of design. This factor is determined by how pleasant your document is to hold, how neat and uniform it is, and how well it is prepared for printing. This, by the way, is a very important point - 90% of the documents that external analysts send me, when I try to print them (especially for Excel tables), are displayed on 10 sheets in a chaotic order. Then you have to manually try to assemble them, which is practically impossible. But the fact is that Excel does not format the page for printing by default. Analysts should know that there are special settings for the structure and type of page, which set the printing format, page order, and numbering. Pay attention to this - prepare the document, then print it out and see if it is convenient to use or if the document needs to be put in order.

b. Ergonomics

For document preparation, there is also a set of standards in the field of ergonomics (or usability, as it is now more popularly expressed). In particular, among technical writers, the MS Manual of Style is considered one of the proven standards. At the moment there are more than 400 pages and it is very good in terms of how to write English-language technical documentation - what terms to use (for example, “click the button” or “click on the button”), how to properly format and structure it.

c. Tools

And of course, document preparation tools. This could be MS Word, OpenOffice (for Linux). Programs for generating PDF documents (Acrobat) are also required. And Wiki is also useful for documentation. In particular, knowledge of wiki markup (a specific language that can be mastered fairly quickly) will allow you to better understand when to format a document in Word and when to use Wiki.

1.6 Additional competencies

Additional competencies in the field of hard skills that I would like to draw attention to are the following.

a. Fundamentals of Management

The analyst, in one way or another, always accompanies the manager on the project and somewhere shares areas of responsibility with him, somewhere he can replace him, somewhere, communicating with the client, he one way or another makes decisions on including requirements in the project. Those. This is, on the one hand, analytics, and on the other, management.

b. Subject knowledge

Here, domain expertise can be very useful (and more often it is fundamental). Whatever project you start doing, clarify in which domain it will be carried out - it could be finance, insurance, tourism - and carefully familiarize yourself with this subject area. Of course, in terms of overall development, it is not advisable to tackle all areas, because There are a lot of them, and immersing yourself in the domain in which you are running a project can be useful.

c. Applied expertise

Applied expertise is also important as an additional competence. Moreover, different application areas may be important from project to project. For example, if the project is carried out in the field of tourism, then knowledge of the “traveling salesman problem” in graph theory, which is studied in applied mathematics, will be useful. Namely, you need to understand how to transport tourists from the airport to hotels, provided that the group and hotels are located in 10 points of the city. Possessing this expertise, the analyst will be able to offer a more competent solution than if he is not in the know.

d. Business Toolkit

Knowledge of the tools that the business uses, such as ERP systems, CRM systems, etc., can be useful.
We also included the foreign languages ​​mentioned above in the group of additional competencies. In addition, it should be clarified that it is highly recommended to learn English at a decent level - at least because this will allow you to understand a lot of useful literature that is published in English, but, unfortunately, is not always translated into Russian, as well as communicate on forums with colleagues -analysts from other countries.

2. Soft skills

Next, I propose to move on to a review of personal characteristics that develop more complexly and over a longer period of time. Let me remind you that my task is to pay attention to key skills. Tips for development - read relevant literature, attend trainings, try it in practice.
So, among soft skills, the most important are, firstly, basic skills.

2.1 Basic skills

Among them, first of all, are:
independence,
learning ability,
good memory,
clarity of information presentation.

a. Independence
Analysts rarely lead a project in large groups. Typically, an analyst either completely manages the project himself, or, even if he works in a team of analysts, each analyst is still responsible for one zone. Accordingly, the analyst must be able to independently manage his entire project.

b. Learning ability
The work of an analyst is always research, i.e. A large amount of information passes through it and it needs to be quickly grasped, processed and transmitted.

c. Good memory
It is needed for the same reasons as learning ability - you have to keep a lot of details in your mind.

d. Clarity of information presentation
When transmitting information to the customer or developer, there should be no misunderstandings. Information must be clearly structured.

2.2 Analytical skills

First of all, this is analytical thinking, which implies the ability to think critically about the situation, the ability to transform what you receive into a data structure, and not directly transmit what is received as input.
The analyst also requires the ability to work with large amounts of information, the ability to work under conditions of uncertainty, and presentation skills.

2.3 Personal skills

a. Activity
It is important for the analyst to be active: when moving the project forward, he must take an active position and clarify the requirements. Also, during the acceptance of the project results, he cannot afford a passive position.

b. Pedantry
Analysts must be detail-oriented and must not overlook any critical things. Those. the phrase “it will do” is not about a real analyst - he must be different in character.

c. Creativity
The fact is that analysts always not only receive information, but also create something: either they determine the reengineering of processes (then they need to come up with the most optimal way to do it), or they come up with new systems (that is, they are creative from scratch).

2.4 Interpersonal skills

a. Communication skills
In the area of ​​interpersonal skills, the most important things for analysts are communication skills, sociability, the ability to ask questions and correctly convey information, and the ability to tune in to the client’s wavelength.

b. Teamwork
It is also important that the analyst knows how to work in a team. Those. Someone who is moody and prefers working with computers rather than people is unlikely to be a good fit for an analyst position. In this case, I would recommend developing your sociability and teamwork skills.

c. Organizational ability And
Self-organization and team organization skills are also quite important for an analyst.

2.5 Business skills

Next, we will explain what should be included in the business skills of an analyst:
Customer focus
Business acumen
Negotiation skills
Stress resistance
In particular, many books have been written on the topic of negotiation skills. It is highly recommended that analysts know how to effectively communicate and convince (for example, often some features cannot be included in the release, and in such a situation the analyst needs to be a diplomat).
Regarding stress resistance, let me remind you once again - analysts, as a rule, work in conditions of uncertainty and this quality will be very useful.

3. Increase efficiency

How can you improve the efficiency of an analyst? I can give 2 basic tips besides basic tools.

3.1 Analyst assistants

Firstly, there are quite good analyst assistants - all kinds of collections (icons, graphic primitives). For example, you found something you like and saved it to disk or asked a designer to draw it. In this case, it will be easier to later prepare documents and draw prototypes using these elements (that is, as development progresses, you will not be looking for where to get it or where to draw - the images will look beautiful and neat).
Email templates and functional patterns also help analysts. Where can they come from? After completing previous projects, save the results (best practices) to your knowledge base. Thus, from project to project you will accumulate not only experience in your head, but also a good base of ready-made developments that can be used in future projects for better efficiency.
Analytical materials (for example, market reviews) are also a good source of knowledge.

3.2 Objective assessment of reality

And the second tip about what can improve your effectiveness is an objective assessment of yourself. You need to understand how well you have certain analytical skills (you can use the above list to test your hard and soft skills). This check will allow you to understand where to move next.
There are a lot of examples in life when people think they are cool, but they are not. Most often, self-esteem is inflated. But when an analyst thinks that he is cool, he cannot work more efficiently. Remember the words of Socrates, “I know that I know nothing,” and their continuation: “But others do not even know this.” If a person believes that he is already at the top, then he cannot climb further. For example, with regards to MS Word, 90% will say that they are “fluent” in it, although they do not know how to use either fields or macros.

4. Development plan

The point is that once you realize the depth of your ignorance, you can develop a development plan. And if you also carry it out honestly, then your effectiveness increases most quickly. This plan allows you to constantly move forward.
Never stand still, because... whoever stands still inevitably slides back. But in the modern world this is basically unrealistic.

What can be done?

1. Identify areas of activity that interest you
2. Record your current skill level
3. Form development goals and achievement criteria
4. Identify ways to achieve your goals
A fairly large number of areas of activity and tools that can be useful to analysts have already been outlined above. It’s not a fact that you own it all and that you need it all right now. But, nevertheless, from the list above (and maybe something else - I do not pretend to be complete), determine what is most interesting to you.

1. Identifying areas of interest

At this step, you can write down all the possible skills and tasks of analysts in a table like the one attached (the presentation file is available on the AnalystDays-2012 conference page). Then you should put a weight next to each skill - how important this or that skill is for you (and/or for the company - depends on the level at which the plan is being built). You can use a scale from 0 to 5 or from 0 to 100 (the example uses a scale of 0..5). In principle, this same classification can be used in your career.
Our company uses a gradation into 3 levels of specialists - Junior, Specialist, Expert - and within them there is a division into 3 levels from R1 to R3. For each of these levels, certain criteria have been introduced for what skills they need and at what level of proficiency.
As recommendations: the plan should take into account both broadly applicable skills and highly specialized skills. But everything is worth taking into account. You should also include in the table those additional skills that, although not fundamental in the work of an analyst, nevertheless simplify life and make his work more effective.
Also, when drawing up a plan, the following criteria should be taken into account: individuality, connection to the certification system, specificity, measurability, consistency with management.
As a result, based on this classification, you can not only draw up a personal development plan, but also at the same time determine what career opportunities arise for you when mastering certain skills.

Dilemma of choice

When drawing up such a development plan, the question arises - speaking about analysts and the requirements for them, is it correct to mix analysts involved in different tasks or not? And is it worth spreading yourself over everything or concentrating on some narrow area of ​​activity? The question is quite philosophical, and everyone answers it independently. For example, you have personal preferences for business process modeling and therefore want to study this area in more depth - no one will stop you from doing this. Or someone might want to explore various areas of business analysis more broadly, which will also be good for your career, because... You will understand where and what methods can be used, and you will be able to flexibly select them depending on the specifics of your project.
And I would like to give a few points about how it might be useful for analysts. wide horizon.
The thing is, with a plan like this, the sky's the limit. Most likely, your entire life will not be enough to master the entire breadth of the topic from start to finish. You will still concentrate on some subset of it. However, the already studied subset is valuable for the market and you just have to go and agree on this with your employer.
Those. a wide horizon of skills is useful, interesting, and profitable.

2. Assess your current skill level

After determining the scales, you should determine what current level of skills and knowledge of technologies and tools you have. One of the fairly convenient assessment methods is analogues of assessing knowledge of foreign languages ​​(from Basic to Intermediate and Advanced). Each of these levels is assigned a score from 0 to 5. You then calculate the total score as the sum of the weighted scores.

3. Definition of development goals

Then you fill out 2 more columns in the plan table - what level of knowledge and skills do you expect to have in a year and in a month. This approach is somewhat close to the modern trend of unification, when you subordinate your development to numerical measurements (in essence, accumulate points). There is still room for development, how this table can be optimized, what “buns” you can give yourself for achieving a particular level.

4. Determining ways to achieve

After that, you determine ways to achieve the goal. For each item that you plan to improve, you identify literature, training, conferences, etc. You must have a clear understanding of what you plan to do in the next month and next year in order to develop in business analysis.

Results

So, business analysts can have many skills and knowledge, they can be different, they can be applied in different ways to your current projects. But if you feel that you have already reached the ceiling and that you know everything within the framework of the work that you are currently doing right now on projects, do not despair at all - try to remember today’s report, try to look at the world more broadly and think that I still don’t know where else I can develop, where I can move. Definitely, this will be useful for you from a career point of view, and your employer will also appreciate it. Which means you will be more successful professionally in your IT career.

Question 1

What are the criteria for assessing the quality of an analyst’s work? How to objectively evaluate the work of your subordinate analysts?

A good place to start is by agreeing with the analytics team to ensure that the quality of work is presented equally across all members. For example, for me, one of the criteria for an analyst’s work (not the main one) is the quality of the documents they provide. At the same time, it is important for me that the document is beautifully designed, meaningfully and logically structured, so that there are no jumps from section to section, etc. Accordingly, we take this specific atomic unit and discuss with the analyst that the quality of the document should be like this, and he answers you that he didn’t even think about it. For example, there is no page numbering and that's fine. He thought that the main thing was to write the text. Thus, having sat down together and discussed these points with him, we come to a common understanding of the quality of the document.
Accordingly, you need to go through all the steps of the analyst’s work and discuss the quality criteria.
Based on the assessment, I can say the following: we undergo periodic certifications (1-2 times a year), the assessment for which consists of several criteria. Analysts are, first of all, communicators, i.e. they receive information from clients and pass it on to developers. A very important evaluation criterion is what the client thinks about the interaction with the analyst: how quickly he responds to requests, how clear and understandable the information he provides to the client and how effective he is in interacting with the client. This questionnaire is filled out by the client. A similar questionnaire is filled out by developers (i.e., the project implementation team): how accessible the analyst is to them, how much they understand the documents provided to them, how comfortable they are working with this analyst on the project.
This is one of the points that analysts evaluate, and it is very important, because he is a translator between the client and the developer, and if there is a weak link at this stage, then no matter how well he designs and writes, he has not achieved his goals.
The second point is the effectiveness of the project. Of course, not only the analyst is taken into account here, but, nevertheless, we evaluate the entire team. But since the analyst was a translator of requirements and, together with the team, formed what this product should do, this is also a fairly important characteristic.
The third point - if possible, is an expert assessment of the documents and requirements that the analyst produces. For example, for six months he wrote requirements, but did not include some of them in the basic requirements or forgot about them. Or in relation to specifications - how clear, specific, and consistent they are. In this way, you can expertly evaluate these documents. This is not always possible. Usually only the customer or the development team can say anything about it.

Why are domain knowledge classified as additional competencies? It seems to me that this is the basic thing: an analyst can draw bad diagrams, but he must understand what he is doing. There are many people who draw beautiful graphs and UML diagrams, and those who do not understand the essence of the work and do stupid things are the majority.
I agree with this position. However, in the process of preparing the presentation, Sergey and I argued quite a lot about grouping skills for the convenience of their presentation and understanding by analysts. The same basic skills are the foundation that does not allow you to become an analyst; it only allows you to start delving into this industry. Therefore, it may not contain domain expertise. Of course, there is absolutely no way to successfully complete projects without it.

Question 2

At one time I was of the same opinion that analysts can write documents, until I met a professional technical writer (from Europe). And I realized that this is a huge area, people even receive special education in this area. And there is a huge difference between what business analysts, salespeople, project managers, developers write, and what technical writers write - in fact, it is an abyss. It seems to me that if possible (for example, large companies have such a practice), outsource technical writing to a professional company. They give out public information about a product and they immediately write professional documentation, rather than trying to do it internally.

I started my career as a technical writer, so all this is very close to me, I understand very clearly what you are talking about now. Based on my feelings and how I performed my analytical functions, having a technical writing base, and comparing this with analysts who do not have this base, I still believe that analysts should have the skills to write technical documentation. This makes you look more professional.
Regarding the fact that something can be divided and outsourced, my entire report can be broken down into pieces and said, for example, that the design of business processes should be left to a specialist in business process modeling (I met such a specialist who did what something none of my business analysts could do). But this is just proof that the better you delve into the areas outlined in the report, the better your result will be and the more you will cause a wow reaction from everyone around you.

P.S.. You can meet Maria and Sergei at future conferences in the series

The business analyst is the primary person responsible for identifying, analyzing, documenting, and validating project requirements. This is the main communication channel between the customer group and the development team (Figure 4-1), although, of course, it is not the only one: there are others. The analyst is responsible for collecting and disseminating information about product, and the project manager - for sharing information about project.

Rice. 4-1 Responsibilities of a requirements analyst: building communication bridges between the client and developers

Business analyst- this is one of the roles of the project participants, and not necessarily the title of the position.

They are also called requirements analysts, systems analysts, requirements engineers, requirements managers, application analysts, business systems analysts, IT analysts, and simply analysts. The title of this position varies greatly among organizations. One or more specialists can be assigned to this role. In addition, other team members can perform analyst functions in parallel with their responsibilities, such as a project manager, product manager, product owner, subject matter expert, developer, and even a user.

It is important to note that when a person in the Business Analyst role has another role on a project, they are doing two different jobs. Imagine that the project manager is also a business analyst on the project. The manager must create and manage plans, including schedule and resources, based on the work performed by the business analyst. The project manager must help manage project boundaries and adjust the schedule as project boundaries change. Now he can perform the role of a project manager, and in a minute he will perform the work of a business analyst. But these are different roles that require slightly different skill sets.

In consumer product organizations, the analyst role is often filled by a product manager or marketing specialist. In essence, a product manager acts as a business analyst, often with an added emphasis on understanding the market landscape and anticipating the needs of external users. If a project has both a product manager and a business analyst, the former usually focuses on the external market and user requests, while the latter translates this information into functional requirements.

Agile development projects also require business analysis. In such projects there is usually a Product Owner role who performs some of the traditional tasks of a Business Analyst. And some teams prefer to also have an analyst role (Cohn, 2010). The business analyst helps introduce users and understand their needs, and performs additional business analyst activities described later in this chapter. Regardless of the job title, the person performing the tasks of an analyst must have the appropriate skills, knowledge and personal qualities.

Attention! Don't assume that any talented developer or experienced user will automatically become a professional requirements analyst without training, reading, or training. All of these roles require different skills, knowledge and personal attributes.

The success of the project depends on the talent of the analyst. One of the clients I consulted found that requirements specifications created by experienced analysts could be learned twice as quickly as those created by novices because the former had fewer flaws. In the Cocomo II model, which is widely used for project evaluation, the experience and ability of the requirements analyst strongly influences the material and labor costs associated with project delivery (Boemn et al., 2000). By hiring experienced analysts, you can reduce project-related labor costs by a third compared to similar projects employing inexperienced analysts.