Hello friends,

Welcome back to my #SwottingAsABusinessAnalyst series. Read my previous post here.

If you're new here, explore the initial post of my journey 'Swotting' as a budding Business Analyst.

Week 7, here comes the practical!

Meta meta learning continue to be exciting and gradually harder. The week involved shadowing senior BAs during key rituals within the Software Development team.

These rituals included daily stand-ups, sprint retrospectives, sprint goal planning, sprint refining, and sprint reviews. Each activity served a specific purpose, fostering collaboration, reflection, and strategic planning.

Activities in week 7 involved :

1. Rituals faciliations

2. Establish and understanding of the software development’s main product

3. Understanding organisation’s product vision/mission

Software Development Rituals

1. Daily stand ups - Daily meetings that takes about 30 mins to go round the group for a quick update from each team members. They’d be answering / provide updates on the tasks status, any blockers, any support required and the next steps. Tools used : JIRA

2. Sprint Retro - This is when team get together and reflect on their achievements in the last two weeks. They’d be asking : Tools used : Retrium

   1. What’s working well

   2. What didn’t work well

   3. Questions for next step.

3. Sprint Goal Planning - This discussion always ties back to Objective Key Results that team set up during Quarterly OKR meeting. Major takeaways from this planning will keep team in focus, establishing the right amount of estimations for team to prioritise. Tools used : Confluence, JIRA , Planning Poker . Other reference for planning poker (refer videos below)

4. Sprint Refining - This happens once a week, sometimes two. Not everyone will join this session, but usually team will still turn up to discuss and provide inputs. Based on what was discussed in planning, team will re-discuss if there’s anyways they can refine the planning, if it’s do-able to achieve the sprint goals discussed. Tools used : JIRA

5. Sprint Review - At the end of the sprint another 30-45 mins were spent to review all of the work done during the current sprint period. Is there anything we missed, any blockers, any additional work that needs support to be moved to next sprint etc. Tool used : JIRA

Key Takeaways from Shadowing: (from a Business Analyst (BA) perspective)

1. As a BA, staying informed about project tools, updates, and understanding team members' activities is crucial ~ this can include design, product and engineering.

2. Over time, BAs gain domain knowledge, delving into the specific subject area the team focuses on, such as the product being developed.. For instance, the team I am in works on job application platform. The team im in is Apply Experience domain which means they work on building and maintaining features/ process that relates to job application.

3. Note-taking during observations is essential, covering the meeting process, tools used, objectives, and key updates:

   1. What is the process from the moment team got into the zoom meeting. In this case, ice-breaker is essential to any rituals

   2. What is the ready to go tools that is used for the rituals

   3. What is the objective of the ritual e.g retro, stand ups, review etc.

   4. What’s the main update that BA needs to know from team members or to provide team members. This probably means BA needs to be alert on latest movement of the cards on JIRA, the organisation news that relate to products and people management. For this to work at minimum, team Quarterly OKR and JIRA page is BA’s bible to facilitate the convo

4. As a newbie, effective time management is important in balancing time to do the following : (be prepared with notebook, materials, questions log)

   1. Domain knowledge

   2. BA knowledge

5. Asking more questions quickly and directing them to the right person enhances the learning experience

6. Be comfortable to make mistake. Learn by doing it! Just jump right in the role and start facilitating the ritual. Senior BA is there to support for sure.

I facilitated my first Daily Stand-up!

Here’s my reflection :

What’s working well

• I did it, although it was nerve wrecking as hell

• Utilized process guides effectively ( I prepared a separate doc as a guide page for me to use)

• Grasped the context of JIRA cards.

• Retained information from previous meetings for productive follow-ups.

• • Proactively raised relevant questions, enhancing learning.

What’s not working well

• Adapting to differences between software development and non-software development stand-ups. Adapting takes time!

• Identifying areas for improved facilitation skills, including word choice and comfortable handling of silent gaps.

• Awareness of team members' availability (Take note of the team updates to know their availability! It’s good to know to plan for meeting)

• Potential nervousness due to unfamiliar software development terminology.

Questions/ Next Step

• Ask more, do it again! I have got to run more stand ups to gain confidence and familiarity

• Take up learning to improve facilitation skills whilst practicing on the job

• Actively note unfamiliar terms and research before seeking team assistance.

• Continue asking more questions promptly and direct them to the right individuals.

Organisation product knowledge

This is an ongoing learning to equip myself with the latest organisation updates. Continuing the learning journey, interactions with partnering teams focused on understanding the broader organizational vision and mission. This provided valuable insights into how the team's domain-specific work aligns with the overall organizational objectives.

In a nutshell,

Week 7's practical exposure proved instrumental in bridging the gap between theoretical learning and on-the-job applications. The experience confirm the importance of proactive learning, effective communication, and continuous adaptation for a budding Business Analyst. As I navigate this dynamic landscape, each engagement contributes to my growth, aligning theory with the realities of a thriving software development environment.

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You can also explore my other blog post on Agile Delivery, Project Solutions, Agile Mindset and Career Bits on WorkWizard. Leave me a comment, would love to hear if we are on the same wavelength!

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