Hi, I’m Yulia Kosarenko, and you are watching Why Change channel.
Let’s go back to business analyst interview questions.
The next question we will tackle in this video is:
How do you plan requirements analysis?
This question is both important and tricky.
Tricky because in your eagerness to reply you may miss the word “plan”
You may go right into explaining how will you interview the stakeholders,
capture what they say and create a business requirements document.
This is not what this question is about.
And if you start answering the wrong question, not what your interviewer wanted to hear,
Then you are also losing points as a job candidate.
A business analyst must be a good listener and know how to focus on the right problems.
And so, you need to pay attention and answer the right question.
Let’s go back to the question now – and the question was,
How do you plan requirements analysis?
A good business analyst, just like a good project manager, architect or experimental scientist
Must be a good planner.
Before you start analysis activities, you have to have a plan – to structure the business analysis effort.
Without a plan, you will never know where you are, or what is missing and still needs to be done.
Of course, business analysis is an iterative process
And sometimes, when you think you are near the end,
You will discover something new or unexpected that will require more analysis.
But you still need to plan.
The business analysis plan is not just for you, the business analyst.
This will become a plan for engaging business stakeholders –
And their time and attention span are limited, and we must respect it.
It will need to become a part of the bigger project plan.
In fact, it’s in your best interests to create a requirements analysis plan,
So that you can ask for sufficient time to complete all the activities.
To plan business analysis, you must start with the big picture.
What is the project supposed to achieve?
Who are all the stakeholders?
What are the impacts of change?
What processes, systems, and groups of people are involved?
Do you need to analyze business rules? Existing data issues?
Does the required solution involve new processes?
Additional integrations? New reports and analytics?
Your plan will need to include doing research, collecting information, data and artifacts,
interviewing stakeholders – sometimes together, sometimes in small groups.
You plan will need to include a sequence of business analysis activities
to support the overall process.
This process may include immersion, discovery, workshops,
analysis of the information, organizing brainstorming or focus groups,
documenting and capturing the results,
prioritization and validation activities.
So to answer this question confidently in an interview, you need to:
First of all, understand the importance of planning,
and what information is required to support planning
You have to be comfortable with different methodologies, and how planning might differ.
Most notably, in projects that follow waterfall or agile methodology.
And don’t fall into the trap that you don’t need to plan anything
if you are on an agile team.
For any problem of a reasonable size,
lack of planning usually translates into chaos and random work.
Whether it’s a planning sprint, or iteration zero, or a discovery sprint –
a solid planning effort is required at the beginning of any initiative.
Then, a business analyst will play a key role in sprint planning meetings.
To make every sprint productive and successful,
and to work on the most valuable user stories first.
So learn more about business analysis process,
Observe how it’s done on well-run projects
And whenever you are practicing business analysis -
Start with planning, with the big picture.
This is how you can prepare for this interview question.
If you would like to learn more about business analysis process and techniques,
check out other videos on this channel, check out my book,
and the links I provided in the video description.
I’m Yulia Kosarenko – best of luck on your next interview,
and happy planning! Take care!