Skip to main content

Business Analyst role during this new normal

[PLACEHOLDER]

In recent months Covid-19 pandemic has shaped a new reality for all of us. In this new reality working from home, using virtual meetings and workshops have become the new normal. However, this has also given us the opportunity to adapt and improve the way we work. Consequently the practice of Business Analysis is also affected by this change. But I believe Business Analysts are best equipped for this new work environment. This is because as Business Analysts we often work with stakeholders who are physically in different locations than ours similar to this new reality.

In this article I will share with you three (3) lessons I learned from my mentors and from my own experience that helped me to become an effective Business Analyst in circumstances which are comparable to the new reality. Some of these lessons were handed down to me by my managers whom I thoroughly admire and were pivotal to my success in the roles.


Lesson #1:

Pick up the phone. In my first role as a Business Analyst I was working for Nissan US. I was working in Toronto, Canada while my key stakeholders were based out of Nashville, Tennessee. Consequently I had to rely heavily on virtual meetings, workshops and emails to elicit requirements from my stakeholders and provide walk throughs. While working for Nissan, one of the best pieces of advice I received from my then manager was to establish communication channels with my key stakeholders outside the existing structured virtual meetings by calling them. I followed my manager’s advice and started calling my stakeholders when I needed to elicit more requirements or request further clarifications on business needs. This helped me remove blockers in my work faster by seeking information from my stakeholders in a more timely manner. In addition over time the various calls with my stakeholders helped me to develop a better empathy for my stakeholders and understand their business needs better. I came to realize verbal communication is an essential tool for Business Analysts and it becomes more essential when our stakeholders are not in the same physical location as us similar to our current work environment.

Lesson #2:

Use pauses, and paraphrases. Two of the key challenges I encountered when I started participating in virtual meetings, calls and walkthroughs were the following:
  1. To ensure I gave my stakeholders sufficient opportunities to ask questions, raise concerns and provide feedback.
  2. To ensure my understanding of a feedback, concern or a business need is aligned with theirs.
I often noticed team members would speak at length during meetings without providing key stakeholders the opportunity to share their feedback and thoughts. I quickly learned that one great way to make sure stakeholders have the required opportunity to provide feedback is to incorporate pauses and actively ask for feedback during meetings and walkthroughs. And based on my personal experience the best way to ensure that our understanding of our stakeholders’ comments and feedback are on the same wavelength as theirs is by paraphrasing their comments and feedback in our own language. Even though these practices may seem simple however they can significantly lend to the effectiveness as a Business Analyst specially in today’s world of working from home and social distancing.

Lesson #3

Document effectively: Use tables, diagrams and examples effectively.
When we work with stakeholders who are located in a different location than ours, communication using documentations becomes more important. This is because our stakeholders can’t simply go across the aisle to our desk to ask for clarifications. Instead they rely heavily on the clarity of the documentations we provide. Hence as a Business Analyst we need to document requirements and specifications as clearly as possible in the new normal. I received numerous recommendations on good documentation practice over the years from my managers and mentors. However I found the following three (3) recommendations most impactful from my own experience: 

  1. Use tables wherever applicable. Tables allow us to provide structure to information and readers are more susceptible to understand structured information.
  2. Use examples. This is a holy grail when it comes to explaining complicated information.
  3. Use diagrams and screen shots. As people say, a picture says a thousand words. On the same thread, diagrams and screen shots can provide more context and information to the reader to help them better understand information.
To top that all it is also strongly advisable to break down requirements in digestible chunks. This helps the stakeholders to understand the requirements easily.


In summary as Business Analysts many of us may be better equipped to adapt to the new reality of work. However I hope the above lessons will also empower others who are adapting to working from home, virtual meetings and workshops during this COVID-19 pandemic.

Trending posts

Democratizing AI

Democratizing AI is all about empowering others to use it, by making it available to them. Audiences, such as marketers in a company, will be able to access AI capabilities as part of their MarTech solutions, without the need of being technical. It could also be schools, where the younger generations are learning how to use it in responsible, secure, innovative, and creative ways. This is the year where companies, after discovery phases and teams experimenting, are looking to activate and take advantage of the AI advances. Generated with Microsoft Designer   And so, questions emerge, such as “What to democratize when leveraging AI?” There are common scenarios, as well as specific ones, that will depend on the company, and the industry they belong to. A common scenario, seen in many industries, when democratizing data is the data visualization and reporting . In digital marketing, as an example, data scientists and data analysts can automate reporting, making them available to the c...

SLA-SLO-SLI and DevOps metrics

Companies are in need of the metrics that will allow them to stay in business by making sure they meet the expectations of their customers. The name of the game is higher customer satisfaction by winning their trust and loyalty. To do so, you want to provide good products and services. Therefore you need to find ways to monitor performance, drive continuous improvements and deliver the quality expected by the consumer in this highly competitive market. Photos from AlphaTradeZone via Pexel and Spacejoy via Unsplash SLAs, SLOs and SLIs are a good way to achieve the above. They allow clients and vendors to be on the same page when it comes to expected system performance. If we go one level deeper, vendors/providers work on NFRs (Non-Functional Requirements) when working on their solutions. NFRs define the quality attributes of a system. I bring them up because the relationship between them and the SLAs is that they provide, in a way, foundational aspects for the SLA-SLO-SL...

Take a break on zero emission day 2024

 Do you know how much you contribute to the daily emissions in your city? How much does the city you live in contribute within your country? How much does your country contribute to the emissions on our planet? Do you know its impact? Do you know why we have a zero emission day? Photo by Pixabay via Pexels Let us start by getting our acronyms right, shall we? You may have heard the term GHG emissions, wondering what that means. GHG stands for Green House Gas. These gases are part of the cause of the rising temperature on Earth. What is interesting about them  is that they absorb infrared radiation resulting in the greenhouse effect. Within the greenhouse gases you find carbon dioxide, methane, nitrous oxide, ozone, water vapour. The vast majority of carbon dioxide emissions by humans come from the burning of fossil fuels. Key sectors to consider for GHG Fuel Exploitation Power Industry Transport Waste Agriculture Buildings Industry combustion and processes Top GHG emissions...

Effective framework to resolve conflict in the Workplace

 Conflicts are a part of our daily lives and are often unavoidable at work. Therefore, it's essential to have the tools to effectively manage conflicts and leverage them to our advantage - to spur new ideas, challenge and strengthen our beliefs, and evolve our perspectives when necessary. However, conflicts often trigger our fight-or-flight response and can cause chronic stress and mental fatigue and diminish our productivity. Having the right tools can help us face conflicts confidently.  AI Generated with Microsoft Copilot + Designer by Beolle   Recently, I took a course from Harvard ManageMentor® * to enhance my conflict resolution skills. I summarized the key takeaways from the course in the framework below to help you better prepare for resolving conflicts. The framework consists of six (6) parts Identify the type of conflict   Identify your own and your counterpart's conflict styles   Determine how you want to address the conflict   Prepare to resolve...

This blog uses cookies to improve your browsing experience. Simple analytics might be in place for pageviews purposes. They are harmless and never personally identify you.

Agreed