Business Analyst @ Thoughtworks
The interesting stories about Business Analysts in Thoughtworks in my experiences.
Hello, Pop is here. I had been a Quality Analyst for Thoughtworks based in Thailand for about 3 years. Yes, that’s right, I was a QA. The perspective here will be much reflected from the observation view. During the observation, I feel fascinated and got inspired by some of the BAs. Time flew by, I sparked more joy. so, I decided to jump into the boat to explore the BA role.
Instead of boring you with how the BA is working here, I will jump right away about what the BA doing here is shining. In the view of an observer, what makes me spark joy and what it could spark joy **Ching**(make a sound like Marie Kondo with joyful face) to you too.
Ching 1: Problem Space vs Solution Space
“What’s your problem” “Let me try to understand your problem first” the voice is popping up in my mind.
Do you like the book Start with Why? I have witnessed many times when people in the workshop, stakeholders, and whoever tried to jump immediately to the solution, “hey you see, that is the problem, here is the solution, so simple”. Normally everyone is hungry to solve the problem without understanding the problem, and BAs here try to bring everyone back to the problem space, to understand it, before jumping to the solution.
In a world where there are tons of solutions, people crave to fix all the problems we have. I feel that if we stop running to the train, we could see dirt on our shoes clearer. I feel like BAs here are helping me to reThink twice what is the root of the cause that causes this and that.
Instead of solutions and loading tons of works to the development team, BAs are shaping the problems to make them clearer before anything else. How can we shape the problem then? That is why the next Ching for me is to come with “Analysis”
Ching 2: Analyst — The big word in BA title
“Analyst” plays a very critical role here. In Thailand, when I asked people what BA does? the major answer could be BA is a person who translates business requirements into the work that a developer can work on. That is very far from the word “Analysis”. It is like we highlight the wrong paragraph.
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Recently I read a book called “Outcomes over Output”. The book tells a story about why Outcomes are so important, why it is not about the number of features we going to deliver. I cried from bottom of my heart as at that time the book seems to say the thing I want to say out and “Analysis” plays a big role here to shape the outcome and impact. Without analysis then there might be a lot of output but meanless.
The analysis is not about BAs, but also UX people always invest time to understand the root cause of the problem. BAs and UX invest time and efforts to understand the pain point, do analysis, and map with the key objective/vision/strategies. Not just analysis of the business value, or how important it is, But also analysis for what is the thing worth for analysis, analysis for what not yet worth for analysis and analysis whatever come into our daily life.
Analysis — a BIG word here I think it could mean that how good we can think systematically, engage in the unknown world, pick the right tool to break the problem into smaller pieces, rebuild them into an understandable form, and then can share that understanding back.
There are many times that I was lost in detailing and then when I have a coffee break with a BA, I chit-chat about a thing, a situation, the thing I do then they show me a clearer big picture of my problem and situation, point out important things around it, shift the head to say from many points of view, different angles, different points of interest. That’s amazing.
Ching 3: Inception
Inception — a week or two weeks workshop to settle things. The things are about alignments from C-level to execution. The alignments are about company vision, strategies, OKR/KPI, roadmap, way of working, etc. Once I have a chance on this phase, mind blown. It’s amazing and powerful.
Business analysts are very critical in facilitating the workshop where stakeholders are selected from everywhere in the company. It is very intensive but it is also worth it. It always sparks joy when I see people talk at the end of the workshop about new realizations.
Other than facilitation, there are many more. Alignment, Prioritization, Story Breakdown, Shared understanding, Confirming, Planning, Value-ing, Hmm-ing (like Huh? moment), Asking, Telling: It is like completing a perfect jigsaw and then people have shared the same understanding from top to bottom.
That’s amazing. Really really amazing. I intensely love it and want to have more experience with that.
Before going too long, let me end the **Ching** moment here. In conclusion, I feel those things are the key that makes the BA journey shine. The “Analysis” word, the Facilitation, the focus weight more on the problem space. There are still a lot of things that I haven’t been talked about in this 3 minutes blog. Those are the thing I learned as an observer, and now I am on the way to learn from great people around me. Ika, Mine, Anna K, I learned a lot from you.
So, How do you feel? Have you **Chinged** during traveling with me in this post? Anything else that you made you spark joy in your BA journey or as a witness? Please add a comment below, I would like to hear stories from you too.
/ Thank you, Yuu for being a proof-editor.
