A Business Analyst acts as a face of Customer to the Development team, most of the time. A Business Analyst should be credible enough and the team should have absolute faith in him. Development team should be able to ask any question regarding the system and they should believe in the answers that BAs provide. If they start having doubts on the answers BAs provide they may get tempted to develop something that is not needed by the business or spend extra time in clarifying the doubt from various sources.
The development team should trust a BA; this was the first lesson that I got from a senior BA. When I asked him how to do it, he told me that you have to figure that out for yourself there is no proven formula. Some of the things that I tried and how they helped me in building a good rapport with the development team.
- Interact with the developers regularly and keep asking them if they have any doubts. The idea is not to overdo it as they may get a feeling that you are trying to judge their work. Keep it simple and just make sure that they know you are there if they need any clarifications in the requirements.
- Make sure you run the development team through the requirements before they start with the implementation. Do it on module-to-module basis, plan with the Project Managers and Team Leads. Make sure you keep these sessions as informal as possible and try to make them understand the business pain points rather than teaching them (as they may switch off).
- Encourage the team to approach you for any clarification in the requirements. When they approach you make sure you clarify their issues or get the issues raised to correct person, if you are not the right one.
- It is a good idea to explain the business side to the developers and also let them know about the domain, as you have that knowledge. Have these talks at non-work timings like lunch, coffee or while traveling. Make sure you don’t come out as a person who is bragging about his knowledge but as a person who is genuinely helping. Keep it honest; if you are not comfortable don’t try it.
I tried these things and they helped me immensely in building a good relation with the development team. Do let me know what works with you and how you achieved it?
October 7th, 2009 at 7:10 pm
Yeah there’s nothing worse than losing the trust and respect of your developers, seriously.
October 25th, 2009 at 3:26 pm
Thanks for following me on Twitter. And now that I have your site, I am going to add you to my favorite bookmarks.
Thanks!
Yashar
October 30th, 2009 at 12:19 am
This is a useful article. I wish you would have made it longer to provide more info on how to build up business credibility.
November 4th, 2009 at 12:51 am
I need a clarification about my career. I completed my Masters in Business Management and then started working with an IT company as a Preoject Executive, where my job role was to analyze the client’s business requirements. After 6 months I switched from there and joined another IT company as a Sales Executive, where my job was to analyze the requirements, map our product and sell with customization. Now i am working with an IT company as a Consultant – Sales Manager. My product domains are ERP and HRMS. Here my job role is to manage a team, visit the prospects, understand their requirements, show demo, documentation (business requirements documentation, proposal, service level agreement etc.).
My question: Can I become a Business Analyst? How; please advice…
It will be better if you can directly mail your comments at avi2217@gmail.com.
Regards,
Abhijit Ghosh
February 16th, 2010 at 5:06 am
yes ….u have all the capabilities to be a business analyst…go for it and all d best
November 9th, 2009 at 4:05 pm
hey there…realy great article and useful too…what else to say…realy great
November 12th, 2009 at 7:49 am
Definitely a good biz site. Bookmarkin’ this!
November 18th, 2009 at 3:25 pm
Great and insightful article. I found it through Twitter. I am going to rss you, and read some more of the other articles you have written.
December 21st, 2009 at 7:17 am
Hi,Please suggest me about my career steps, if any once can.
I started my career as QA/QC Engineer, involved in software QA and Testing process and got around 3+ years of experience it . I am very much inrested to opt BA profile , but now its very ambiguous to me that what should be the steps (either training, certifications or anythng else) to get into this field. It will be great if any one suggest me for same. Thanks in Advance.
January 28th, 2010 at 1:25 pm
Please suggest me…
I got the offer as a analyst…but i am not interested in that…I want to make my career in software development…so for a time being shall i join this…is it possible to switch from analysis to development phase…please reply me on my email…i.m.4th.idiot@gmail.com
February 20th, 2010 at 8:19 am
yeah… i like this article…