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A vast MAJORITY of software projects fail during development. Let us help you get in the MINORITY

So, you are worried that when an overwhelming percentage of projects fail with experts at the helm, how would you be able to cope with it with a lot less resources and time.

Let us learn how.

There are three components that are essential for any successful software development.

• You must have the right skills and also choose people with the right skills
• You must have the right processes in place
• You must have the right tools to manage, monitor and communicate

We will go through each one of these in great detail. But, remember, it all boils down to Skills, Processes and Tools.

If this sounds straightforward and you already knew it, but it is not helping you manage projects successfully, take it as reinforcement that you are correctly placed to successfully develop and manage software projects.

You just have to apply it correctly.

Just read on and see what is different in what you do from what we talk about here. If you do things very similarly and yet have issues, share with us your case and we will try our best to incorporate that in Celeroo.

Step 1: Know what the right skills are

Be motivated, Hard-working, Visionary, Not bossy, … Yeah…yeah! Sure! We have heard them all. Well! These are general traits that are required almost universally. Let us instead talk about what THE Business Analyst of the Future needs.

• Understand the customers’ business requirements, define the pain points, and develop a solution. Many a times, there is no single document that conveys the bigger picture. The business users are also not able to define the needs clearly. No one has the big picture and they all look up to you to have it. You must see the bigger picture. You should be able to close your eyes and visualize how the application will be after it is built.



• How do you do the above? By constantly communicating with the end users and thinking logically.
• Logical thinking requires you to think of cause and effect in a systematic manner.
• First note down all the types of users who will be using this application
• Then talk to at least one from each group and understand how they plan to use this app
• Detail the workflow for each one of these users, etc.



• Write and speak the customer’s language. No, we are not referring to English, French, Quack-Quack, etc. What we mean is that there should be no communication gap.
• For example, you are building a Leave application software. You need to explain your ideas to the staff who will be using it and the programmer who will be building it. Here is what you should say
• To the Staff: You can login, check how many days of leave you have and apply for a leave using a simple form. If you are the one to sanction the leave, you will be notified of the leave application through an email; when you login, you will see the employee application, leave (marked on a calendar highlighting if any of those days overlap with meetings you have planned) and the number of days of leave taken by that person, and the number of days available to that person.
• To the Programmer: There will be two types of users: Manager and User. Both should enter through a login screen where you collect the user name (the email ID) and a password (this must be same as the active directory ID of the user). There is no need to provide a Create Account or Forgot Password option here. The user should see a dashboard where they should see the latest leave applied and the status (Approved, Pending Action, Rejected) and the number of days of leave available. A link named “Äpply for leave” must open a form that collects…

Actually you are saying the same in both! You got the point, right?

• Develop an eye for detail. Unfortunately, it is not enough if you just see the big picture. You should see the detail like an English teacher sees that one spelling mistake in a 25 page draft. So, divide the workflow into as small tasks as possible. Draw them on the whiteboard. Look at where things can go wrong (identify as many outlets for failure as possible). Think of what feature, validation, etc. you need to have for that.
• Understand the technology. Even if you don’t have to don the role of a Tech Lead, you must understand the technology from a high level. You may not need to code. But you should be able to tell good code/good design from a bad design. Ask whether your teams are using any framework, commenting their codes, formatting them properly, and the like. Learn to study the architecture and data models.

So, that is what you need to be “THE Business Analyst of the Future”. Celeroo has a built-in process that helps you acquire these skills almost without thinking about them.

Next Article in this Series
Does “Process” sound synonymous with “Bureaucracy” to you? Take a fresh look…

Discussion

234Commentshttp://www.celeroo.com/blog/2008/11/skills-you-must-have-to-be-the-business-analyst-of-the-future-no-the-list-does-not-include-formal-training/Skills+you+must+have+to+be+%22THE+Business+Analyst+of+the+Future%22%E2%80%A6No%2C+the+list+does+not+include+%E2%80%9Cformal+training%E2%80%9D2008-11-17+07%3A43%3A28Celeroo for “Skills you must have to be “THE Business Analyst of the Future”…No, the list does not include “formal training””