Tools and Techniques for a Digital Business Analyst

Being a successful Business Analyst is highly underrated. The roles and responsibilities of a Business Analyst is very crucial in determining the quality of the product being delivered to the client. While there are many specializations within Digital BAs who have varied skillsets, but few tools and techniques are always handy which could be put to great use irrespective of the profile of BA.

If you are reading this then I believe you are here to either equip yourself with the right set of tools or are interested in upskilling and improving your knowledge. Maybe you already have a sound understanding of the best suited method for yourself but adding a second perspective to it is definitely a good idea. In all cases, I am going to share few basic tools and techniques that would strengthen your foundational ways of working and will aid you in any type of project you are in.

Considering you are Business Analyst on a project from its inception to the delivery phase, as the project progresses through different phases the role and contribution of the Business Analyst changes accordingly and hence you need to work differently on each of these stages.

Tools used by Business Analysts

So, the following tools will help you advance from one step to another:

Jira

A proper usage of JIRA can really systematise project set up. You can see in the below picture that Jira has many options in ‘Issue Type’ field, and this is not an exhaustive list. I have also added below on what all main categories these issue types could be divided. One can configure Jira software cloud site to suit the agile development process as per the project requirement.

Few of the things you can do in Jira:

Confluence

Confluence is an excellent tool to organise the content and information in precisely anyway you like. It gives you flexibility and features to customise the content in a manner that you would want to showcase to your audience. In the image below you can see few types of documents you can create with Confluence

Few things you can do in Confluence:

• Collaborate on content and get notified in Confluence
• Use Confluence with other applications
• Extend the functionality of Confluence using Macros
• Use gadgets to add dynamic media
• Use Team Calendars for Confluence
• Manage your account and permissions in Confluence
• Revert to an older version

Various Techniques used by Business Analysts

Essentially our ways of working define the perfect techniques for us to flourish in the most successful way.

I will share some of my techniques which I have found extremely useful.

Auditing Website

If the client requirement is to re-platform or re-design the site, then in the inception phase of the project the first and foremost thing to do is a comparison between current state and the ideal future state. This will not only deep dive into separate requirement gathering session specific for each feature arising from this discussion but will also open broader dialogues about technical feasibility of new platform for the stated requirement, estimations for the new piece of work and hence the scope definition.

I believe this phase of the project marks the foundational building blocks of a project and hence it is one of the most crucial steps in the delivery. If the right scope is defined at this time, the work that flows down to the development team is very structured.

Pain Point Deep Dives

Once the inception phase is complete, then the discovery phase kicks in where the team actually goes deep into the feature building discussion and the nitty gritty of it.

This is a perfect opportunity to understand why at the first place they have hired you as business analyst for their business. Client requirements gives the bread and butter to BAs. Hence it is very important to understand what they want and why they want.

After gaining a deeper insight into the client’s working model, it is up to us to make sure to align ourselves to the right Subject Matter Expert (SME) and touch base with them on their areas of expertise. Organise deep dive sessions with each of them, to understand their pain points and categorise it under suitable heading i.e. are they customer related, employer related, marketing related etc. As part of these sessions, make sure to have meeting minutes comprising of all attendees, questions raised and answered, actions captured and the owners against each of the item. This will go a long way in aligning the product development to the actual needs of the client.

Epic/Feature Creation

Problem solving becomes easy if the features are identified and categorised as the business needs it. This could be achieved in the Business Analyst world by creating Epics or Features. Also defining the personas and their roles is part of this journey which will give us the different actors, and through their lens we have to create scenarios that needs to be addressed by the user stories created further down the line.

Some use cases also involve thinking of different customer journeys and how each feature will play a role in it.

Design Jams

Once the Business Analyst have written well defined features and business rules, then Business Analyst need to support designers to create screen designs considering all the business restraints, legality of content, audience, technical feasibility and last but not the least making sure all the pain points are considered. Once these designs are approved by the business then clickable prototypes are created which will help in emulating the user behaviour by doing user testing on these designs and incorporating those feedback back into the designs.

Technical Jams

Business Analyst present designs to the tech leads of the team and run it through them so that everybody on the team is on the same page from the expected functionality perspective.

The development team will then be equipped enough to give the right estimations for the delivery of each of the functionality/feature.

Sprint Ceremonies

Running Sprint cadences efficiently adds to the overall pace and hence the efficiency of the team. Regular Sprint ceremonies like Stand Ups, Grooming Sessions, Estimations, Sprint planning, Sprint Kick off, Retro meetings will add value to each member of the team by expanding their holistic understanding of the Sprint and hence making them focussed on the sprint goals. This will overall impact the sprint delivery.

When the work is structured and there is a feedback loop in the team, everybody’s moral is high and they know their voice is heard.This helps in team bonding and of course has an amazing impact on the delivery of the team.

Final Thoughts – Tools and Techniques for a BA

I hope my views related to the tools & techniques for a Business Analyst would have resonated with you if you have worked in the Business Analyst profile. If you are looking to switch to a BA career path then I can assure these tips and tricks would be a good starting point for you to understand how a Business Analyst works and what are their ways of working that can help you fit into the role.

The outcome of our work is always dependent on how much detailed we have gotten into. Those becomes the defining moments for us when we ourselves makes amends to make sure our quality of work is not compromised. Always makes sure to give your best and try implementing the tools and techniques that I have shared here and I am sure this will provide benefit to all of you.

Never the less do share this article with you friends and colleagues if you find this useful and leave a comment if there is any thing else you want to know related to this.