Week 1-3 : Newbie swotting as a Business Analyst
My journey as a Business Analyst …(for context, after few months of building a proposal to express my interest in exploring new role, I am being seconded to a different team as an Associate Business Analyst which sponsored by a new internal program, “Business Analyst School”. A six months program that’ll runs from 4th Dec 2023 till 31st May 2024)…And this is my story as a newbie…
Me, after 7 years of being at SEEK doing all sorts of operations and L&D related program management work; I changed my thought on what I’d do for a living. I am always curious and passionately curious of how the engineering team architect and build a platform that evidently change people’s lives. How much effort are put together to help meet Charlotte’s needs to have a better living (Charlotte is the fictional persona that I imagine all these hard work are designed for at SEEK).
There is no best way to explore by being the insider and seeing how things are thought, design and built to create impact. Wawa’s objective is to use herself and her 10 years worth of toolkit (also all theory learned from the recent achievement of the Project Management Professional (PMP) Certificate) in this experiment to unlearn and relearn, to help amplify the impact and to double down swotting.
And this is my story as a newbie…
Week 1 Ice-breaking
We just had a full on HIVE Week (networking week) the week before and many are down with bugs and Covid this week. I supposedly start on Monday but I showed up on Tuesday. Friendly guided by a Senior Business Analyst, Sharee, patiently walked me through the logistics. Well hello! I am Wawa, the pilot member for the Business Analyst School and this is my weekly reflections of me learning what matters in the Software Development role. Perhaps, this program will be a new way of hiring potential Business Analysts (BA) from across our organisation.
First week takeaways :
Ice-breaking session and learned what the product the team works on (e.g am assigned to a team who works on a ‘candidate application experience’ for SEEK website)
Getting invited to all team’s cadence for an experiential onboarding (e.g daily standup, sprint review, sprint estimation, sprint planning etc)
An introduction to Business Analyst / Integration Manager 3 Hats (e.g business analysis, itegration manager and leadership).
Knowing me, knowing you exercise (e.g Gallup strength)
Week 2, Part 1 : What’s a business analyst superpower?
It’s always a great idea to start an early morning training on a Monday with Russel Peters! This cracked all of us in the zoom room carving a big smile and muted laughs (well cos we are on a zoom, we muted ourselves!).
So, what’s a business analyst? how do you explain that to your family members at holidays? on a serious note, what’s business analyst superpower in the engineering?
An interactive conversation with two of the mentors Sharee van Rooyen and Jamie Stirk unfurled the superpower of this role at SEEK.
Second week takeaways :
Interacted with few people from different occupations and team at the organisation. Documented their reactions and learned what do they think of a Business Analyst role. I spoken (pretty much just chatting on Slack) to few people across roles like Principal Product Manager, Software Engineering Manager, Asia Strategic Account Director and Architect Practice Manager).
Receptive listener is one key skill for a business analyst (Source : Become a Great Listener by Skillsoft)
Understanding what type of listener you and others are is the very first step to becoming a better listener.
“I see what you mean.” A genuine interest in understanding and “trying” to comprehend others will bridge the connection between you and others in a conversation. It is quite similar to coaching; when you sit in for a conversation, you must leave judgment outside of the room and believe that what other people are saying has value. It takes practice to do this, but in my personal experience, the better you listen, the better you get at seeing others’ perspectives.
Staying in the moment: Concentration is key to staying engaged in the conversation. Even if you don’t understand what people are engrossed in during the conversation, pay attention not only to the verbal language but also to the non-verbal language. Recognize other people’s signals. Observing their body language and facial reactions can help you stay interested in the conversation.
Listen to understand: Asking open-ended questions will help you clarify information and verify your understanding of what others are saying in the conversation. Using the 5WHYs & 1How is one way to gain a better understanding and keep the conversation going.
Week 2, Part 2: Agile 101
“At regular intervals, the team reflects on how to become more effective, then tunes and adjusts its behavior accordingly.” — The Agile Manifesto
A 45 mins interactive session with both Sharee and Jamie sums up the general introduction and number of factual points to whatis-why-who uses Agile in software development.
Agile is a management fad, a manifesto and even a framework. Joshua Kerievsky sums up an introduction to agile mindset in the video. He is also an author for Joy of Agility book. He emphasize how can a team solve problems by getting fast feedback to succeed fast. Can’t wait to have a copy of this book in my hand soon! Probably will have a separate write up to discuss this topic.
This is a fun way to learn agile or if you are helping someone to have an experiential learning while exploring agile mindset. A quick 5 mins exercise on a miro board (see image below), demonstrate how waterfall methodology vs agile methodology can affects productivity and completion time.
Courtesy of Sharee & Jamie at SEEK
Second week takeaways :
Agile enable us to learn fast and succeed fast
Agile helps to save time and increase productivity
Business analyst plays an important role as a facilitator to enable a collaborative discussion in an engineering team. We have few people in the organisation who are certified facilitator by ICP-ATF.
Week 3 What product is team working on? The real deal…
Stepping out of a team who creates learning & development program for engineers into a software development realm is a big shift for me. The real deal is to explore and learn a new product that’s essential sits in a total different environment.
Before this session, a feature or any features on a website on SEEK (or any website) means absolutely nothing to me. Just like Charlotte (fictional persona who uses SEEK website to apply for jobs ~ I created this for me), an “Apply” or “Quick Apply” button just means a button that will help connect my pages of resume to potential hirer. A simple process where I submit my resume and bam! the employer would be viewing and deciding on whether they would hire me!
Being in a software development team changes all that simplicity! I am no longer just a user who’s looking for a job or even a recruiter who scouts for potential candidates. Now, I get to see how much efforts are put together (so many layers of tasks) in creating a single action button to help make that “applying experience” magic to happen.
I’ve had a chat with passionate members of the team I am assigned to, who are product manager, designers and engineers. They methodically shared an overview of the technicality of how a feature is created for a website and mobile apps.
So many information that needs to be marinated and to look for answers (in layman term!) in the next few weeks which includes :
From all of that engineering context, what’s in the “requirements” that Business Analyst needs to help gather and prioritise for the team?
What does this (#1) means for someone who has never done a software development project before, like me?
What’s a ‘story point’ and how does team make an estimation?
What is considered as ‘issue’ to fix in this software environment?
What are the list of terms the team use at meetings / conversation, and what are those means?
How can I relate the terms (#5) used in software development to a layman words to help me understand the product and the technicality better?
Week 2 and 3 mentoring topics seems to quite a lot as it was packed together within limited period ~ everyone are scrambled after a busy hackathon week and just a fast week before we all go for long year end holidays.
Week 2 and 3 are the new mysteries that I’ll unveil once we are all back from the very much needed X’mas break soon! Till then, just remember friends “Everything is Workable!”
Continue reading Week 4-6 here
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