The basic weapon as a business analyst in an agency
Let’s reflect and imagine for a moment before we delve deeper into this discussion. One day, you encountered a problem with your house where there were always rats roaming around every night. After thoroughly checking, you found no gaps or any other unusual things. You tried calling your neighbors and a handyman, but couldn’t find a solution. Eventually, you decided to visit a home repair service office.
The office charged a higher cost, but the results were quite surprising. Within four hours, they managed to solve the issue by identifying a problem with the storage room above that allowed the rats to enter. Now, the question is…
In this case, who plays the most important role?
Certainly, it is someone who analyzes the problem and finds the solution. In the world of software agencies, software houses, IT solutions, or whatever they may be called, we often refer to this role as a business analyst.
A business analyst plays a vital role as they are responsible for identifying various aspects related to user needs from a business perspective. My six years of experience in the agency world has made me realize that there are three fundamental skills often overlooked and overshadowed by other abilities such as creating BRDs (Business Requirements Documents), flow charts, or similar tasks performed by a business analyst.
1. Business Analysis
Many people misunderstand business analysis as merely understanding a client’s business model or workflow. However, business analysis goes deeper than that. It involves not only understanding but also comprehending where potential fraud may occur, identifying areas that need optimization, understanding how stakeholders work in those areas, and determining the reports that are required.
When it comes to agencies, many business analysts only focus on understanding the projects they handle rather than the business itself. Therefore, business analysis skills need to be continuously honed to become better.
2. Writing Requirements vs. Writing Features
Most agencies assign business analysts to provide explanations to developers using requirements. However, in reality, what is often written by business analysts is a list of features. This has an impact on project managers who ultimately assign tasks based on these features.
Writing requirements is different from writing features because we need to ensure that what and how we write can be understood by developers even without a Q&A session.
3. Data
From an engineering perspective, the emergence of data can change many things, and this aspect is often overlooked by business analysts in software agencies. They focus on understanding but neglect to consider the data required or displayed. If this problem persists, it will inevitably affect the project timeline.
Looking at various courses in my country, Indonesia (quality may vary in different countries), most online courses equip individuals with tools but forget to teach the three fundamental aspects that form the foundation of a business analyst.
This writing is purely based on my experience working in various software agencies, both national and international. If you are interested in discussing more, please feel free to contact me here.
