A little bit about business intelligence in IT
Historically, business representatives and programmers do not understand each other very well. On the one hand, there are complex technical terms and solutions that are not very interesting for people not related to IT. On the other - the ever-changing desires of the customer, for which it is so difficult to keep an ordinary developer.
How to prevent real chaos in this situation? Business analysts come to the rescue.
Standard requirements for the nature of a business analyst: teamwork, ability to identify and solve problems, perseverance and creativity. Brrr ... As if I read the description of another boring job.
Having rejected all the extra tinsel, I would say that the main qualities for our profession are independence and the ability to find an approach to a person.
Business analysts by the nature of their activities are most often located somewhere between the team and the client. It is to them that the customer will first of all contact with new system requirements, a list of necessary changes, or a complaint about another bug. In such situations, it is necessary to independently decide on further actions, inform the team, suggest a way out of the situation, or organize a meeting for broad discussion.
Many fellow IT pros are familiar with these kinds of situations and have enough stress tolerance to solve them (make last minute edits or find a critical error on Friday night). Therefore, if you want to try something new and additionally pump out "soft" skills - I recommend trying your hand at business analysis.
Most often I meet colleagues from two directions.
The first are people who purposefully, themselves or at the behest of their parents, entered the relevant specialty at the university, confidently learned it and gained basic knowledge of systems analysis and adjacent areas.
The second are those IT workers who were at some point tired of programming, and they began to wonder why. “Why am I doing this?”, “Why are we working right now on this module?”, “What problems of the client will this solve?” And so on.
Honestly, I myself do not know if there is any advantage in this or that way. It is safe to say that the people who were themselves involved in the development before the analysis understand programmers better and can translate the customer’s requirements into technical language in more detail. On the other hand, people who have received specialized education usually immediately possess a large set of techniques and tools necessary for collecting requirements and describing how systems function.
I think half of the answer to this question is already laid in the question itself and the title of the position we are discussing. Obviously, we just need to be able to understand business matters at the same time (it would be ideal if the analyst also knew the subject area of a particular customer with whom he works), and technical knowledge also does not interfere.
It is worth remembering that, perhaps, all the conversations on the side of the customer boil down to one thing - money. Obviously, there are only two global ways to increase profits: increase revenues or reduce costs.
If a customer is looking for solutions in IT, most often they are shifted to two areas:
To solve problems of the first type, the analyst needs both skills directly from the customer's subject area, and a general analytical mind, the ability to quickly delve into the problem and learn. It is impossible to understand at the same time in all directions, so when changing the project and the client, you will have to immediately switch to a new subject.
Fortunately, the tasks of the second type are a bit more general and can be prepared for them. Here knowledge in the areas of UX or UI, an understanding of how advertising and network promotion works, the ability to think like a user, will be very useful. No one will require you to work as a designer or marketer, but reading articles on design on Habré or Medium to understand trends, bad and good practices is still worth it.
If you came to work as an analyst in IT - you definitely have to communicate with the development team, testers, designers and managers. This is where previous experience in such positions can really come in handy.
On the subject of necessary technical skills and how to develop them, I would like to write a separate article, but in short I can say:
Perhaps all the analysts with whom I had to work had a very broad horizon. With such it was possible to discuss fishing and world politics. Despite the seeming insignificance, I think this is a very important aspect - a considerable part of the business is done not at the negotiating table, but during lunch and coffee breaks, accompanied by informal conversations.
From myself I will add only that I managed to establish the strongest relations with my project partners, discussing German beer and Norwegian fjords. In general, learn, learn and learn again!
Despite the fact that, at first glance, it may seem too difficult and long to learn, do not rush to panic. The truth is that a lot of the described one way or another develops along with your studies, work experience or reading such articles. The rest is details that are built on the existing foundation, and this is always faster and easier.
As soon as you feel that the usual development begins to bore, and the desire / ability to develop to the architect or lead is not - try to play the role of the client and start asking questions. Suddenly you will like and our analyst regiment will arrive?
How to prevent real chaos in this situation? Business analysts come to the rescue.
Two important assumptions
First of all, we will agree on two important things:
- I began and continue my career outside of my native country. Therefore, all the observations described in this and subsequent articles are based on the realities of the western market.
- I myself have a technical education in the field of artificial intelligence and always try to keep a balance between development and business. The tasks of analysts in banking, real estate and other areas may differ, but here we will have a conversation exclusively within IT.
Who might like to be a business analyst?
Standard requirements for the nature of a business analyst: teamwork, ability to identify and solve problems, perseverance and creativity. Brrr ... As if I read the description of another boring job.
Having rejected all the extra tinsel, I would say that the main qualities for our profession are independence and the ability to find an approach to a person.
Business analysts by the nature of their activities are most often located somewhere between the team and the client. It is to them that the customer will first of all contact with new system requirements, a list of necessary changes, or a complaint about another bug. In such situations, it is necessary to independently decide on further actions, inform the team, suggest a way out of the situation, or organize a meeting for broad discussion.
Many fellow IT pros are familiar with these kinds of situations and have enough stress tolerance to solve them (make last minute edits or find a critical error on Friday night). Therefore, if you want to try something new and additionally pump out "soft" skills - I recommend trying your hand at business analysis.
How does the analyst's way in IT begin?
Most often I meet colleagues from two directions.
The first are people who purposefully, themselves or at the behest of their parents, entered the relevant specialty at the university, confidently learned it and gained basic knowledge of systems analysis and adjacent areas.
The second are those IT workers who were at some point tired of programming, and they began to wonder why. “Why am I doing this?”, “Why are we working right now on this module?”, “What problems of the client will this solve?” And so on.
Honestly, I myself do not know if there is any advantage in this or that way. It is safe to say that the people who were themselves involved in the development before the analysis understand programmers better and can translate the customer’s requirements into technical language in more detail. On the other hand, people who have received specialized education usually immediately possess a large set of techniques and tools necessary for collecting requirements and describing how systems function.
What skills do IT analytics need?
I think half of the answer to this question is already laid in the question itself and the title of the position we are discussing. Obviously, we just need to be able to understand business matters at the same time (it would be ideal if the analyst also knew the subject area of a particular customer with whom he works), and technical knowledge also does not interfere.
Business
It is worth remembering that, perhaps, all the conversations on the side of the customer boil down to one thing - money. Obviously, there are only two global ways to increase profits: increase revenues or reduce costs.
If a customer is looking for solutions in IT, most often they are shifted to two areas:
- Internal - process optimization, development of control and monitoring systems, automation;
- External - website update for attracting new customers, marketing, creating a mobile application.
To solve problems of the first type, the analyst needs both skills directly from the customer's subject area, and a general analytical mind, the ability to quickly delve into the problem and learn. It is impossible to understand at the same time in all directions, so when changing the project and the client, you will have to immediately switch to a new subject.
Fortunately, the tasks of the second type are a bit more general and can be prepared for them. Here knowledge in the areas of UX or UI, an understanding of how advertising and network promotion works, the ability to think like a user, will be very useful. No one will require you to work as a designer or marketer, but reading articles on design on Habré or Medium to understand trends, bad and good practices is still worth it.
Development
If you came to work as an analyst in IT - you definitely have to communicate with the development team, testers, designers and managers. This is where previous experience in such positions can really come in handy.
On the subject of necessary technical skills and how to develop them, I would like to write a separate article, but in short I can say:
- If you do not have technical experience / education - see a couple of computer science courses for beginners. Search for "Computer Science 101" and go to Coursera, Udemy or edx. By the way, I do not in vain recommend overseas resources - the jargon in IT largely consists of Anglicisms, and watching a video in this language will help you strengthen it;
- Try yourself as a tester. The next time you stumble upon an error on Vkontakte, Facebook or anywhere else - remember and write down exactly what you did before, and suggest how the system should behave;
- Read at least a couple of articles on personnel and product management. Imagine how to divide tasks between several programmers, how to compile a report on the work performed, how to describe customer requirements.
From own interesting observations
Perhaps all the analysts with whom I had to work had a very broad horizon. With such it was possible to discuss fishing and world politics. Despite the seeming insignificance, I think this is a very important aspect - a considerable part of the business is done not at the negotiating table, but during lunch and coffee breaks, accompanied by informal conversations.
From myself I will add only that I managed to establish the strongest relations with my project partners, discussing German beer and Norwegian fjords. In general, learn, learn and learn again!
Instead of conclusion
Despite the fact that, at first glance, it may seem too difficult and long to learn, do not rush to panic. The truth is that a lot of the described one way or another develops along with your studies, work experience or reading such articles. The rest is details that are built on the existing foundation, and this is always faster and easier.
As soon as you feel that the usual development begins to bore, and the desire / ability to develop to the architect or lead is not - try to play the role of the client and start asking questions. Suddenly you will like and our analyst regiment will arrive?
Source: https://habr.com/ru/post/440932/