There are various tasks involved in process improvements and new requirements before go-live. Choosing the right approach is the key to achieving your goals, from understanding processes in their current form to implementing new requirements.
By adopting an agile method, we can provide our clients with optimal support when it comes to innovations, optimizations, and enhancements.
— What are your tasks as a Business Analyst?
One of my main tasks is to analyze, specify, and implement specialized requirements from the business or projects. Topics range from smaller processes and system adjustments or improvements to larger, more extensive projects. It’s important to question things:
Why do we need this? What will we use it for? What’s missing in this process?
My tasks are complex, challenging, and exciting at the same time. I fulfill an advisory role for Transaction Banking and other stakeholders that rely on the processes we manage in the Trade Middle Office department.
— You have held this role for several years now. What challenges do you face in your work on a daily basis?
A significant and not always easy challenge is to create a common understanding among all stakeholders.
The key is speaking to people in their own language, so you can explain IT requirements and describe implementation and new processes to the departments. I have to be able to put myself in the shoes of each stakeholder, so I can understand a process or requirement (or the various processes and requirements involved) and determine the possibilities for implementation.
Developments always mean changes to work processes and thus for employees. As such, change management is another important part of my job. This mainly involves a constant back-and-forth with stakeholders, but ensuring proper communication of the changes, adequate training for employees, and correct process monitoring is also key.
«I know you think you understand what you thought I said, but I’m not sure you realize that what you heard is not what I meant.»
Alan Greenspan
Former Chair of the US Federal Reserve
— The concept of agility is becoming increasingly important. How would you describe agility in business analysis?
For me, agile business analysis describes a method of working that focuses on gathering requirements or needs as quickly as possible. My go-to approach, from analysis right up to implementation, always involves the same questions:
Am I on the right track with these ideas? Are the process steps set out in the best way possible? It’s important not to lose sight of the end product. In this way, you will review what you are doing on a continuous basis and adjust processes if necessary.
It’s a way of working that essentially organizes itself – one that allows a team to set “new” rules for itself regarding collaboration. Time management is essential in an agile work setting. Whether you’re in a meeting or in the middle of the development phase, you have to adhere to time constraints. Communication and transparency in the project team are crucial to the success of the agile method.
However, the most important thing is the employees working together in the agile structure to achieve a common goal.
— How do you implement the agile method?
When we analyze a process and create a user story, it’s very important for me to understand the current process and the requirements. I take a systematic approach during the design phase, listing requirements, creating user stories, and visualizing the process. When it comes to IT development, we work in time iterations. These include discussions around the requirement, IT development, system integration, testing, and finally the review with the project team.
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