The 10 Commandments for the Business Analyst

Business analysts use to have more contact with companies employees and sectors (the company they work for and clients company as well) than any other role. This happens because they're part of both IT and business teams.

The manner the business analyst interact with each of these people or sectors is a critical fact if he wants to establish solid relationships with them.

  1 - Be gentle

It is good to know things, but no matter how many books you have read or even wrote if people realize that it's hard to deal with you they'll start to avoid you. If you're in a contract, in the best scenario this will result, on not renewing of it. If you're an employee you can find yourself doing project secondary tasks that don't demand contact with people. Either way independently of your position the result is not good. So make an effort and be gentle with people.  

 2 - Listen

If you're a good analyst you have a lot of ideas and many stories to tell. The challenge is to limit the sharing of your professional experience and expand more time listening to what people say. It is hard to swallow this pill, but you may not be as interesting as you think you are and not everyone will be willing to listen to your stories of war. You won't learn anything if you're talking all the time, so put your ego aside and start listening. 

 3 - Remember their names

Have you ever been introduced to someone and forgot his name immediately? You're not alone! As a business analyst, you have contact with so many people, with so many names to be remembered that at some time you'll start not to save this information. However, there are some techniques that you can use to remember the names such as repeating the person name as you are introduced, for example, "Hello Mark" or "Hi Vanessa". 

 4 - Do a research about the client's company

To get equipped with some knowledge about the company you're starting a contact will demonstrate to your client that you are interested and also will allow you to use an approach that fits the client's company's culture. Here are some important facts to be considered in the research:


4.1 - Company's size and a total of employees.
4.2 - Culture, structure, and mission of the company.
4.3 - Company's history.
4.4 - Company's competitors.
4.5 - Conditions of work.
4.6 - Main product, services or programs.
4.7 - Location of parent company and subsidiaries.
4.8 - Roles descriptions.
4.9 - Dress code. 

5 - Make the client ideas your ideas

As a business analyst, you're hired to use the experience that you've gained along the past years to propose creative and innovative solutions. Your goal is to contribute to the project's success, this is your essence. We all know that you're not pleading a promotion, but your client might be. If the project is successful there is a great chance of your client get a promotion or at least a recognition, and that's because your delivery was good, because you delivered value.

Despite this, try to be humble and let the people who hired you to get all the credit for your good job. This will be noticed, your client will like and you will be rewarded with respect. 

6 - Deliver more than what's expected

Your client let his expectations very clear to you and obviously you'll prioritize them on your MVP, but this doesn't mean that you should deliver only what's expected by the client. To transcend the clients expectative will always promote that "wow!". Think out of the box avoiding the status quo, ask yourself if there is a better way to execute tasks and have in mind what's best for the client's interests and surely you'll transcend his expectations.

7 - Make new friends at the client's office

Despite the administrative employers don't get the biggest salaries on the company, they have a key role in the project's success. Naturally, their the first person on the client's company to answer your phone call. They're responsible to schedule meetings, document signatures and etc.

They're the communication link with the company's executives and they may harm you if they want to. If you treat them with respect they'll be more engaged in making things happen for you. If you treat them bad you might experience some difficulties delivering tasks that pass through them.

8 - Be a friend of a not like-minded client

Certainly, in a project, you'll find a person that is very hard to deal with. This is the kind of person that irritates you when not cooperative when disagreeing of everything that you do, when is not friendly and etc. If this hasn't happened to you yet stay calm, it's just a matter of time. And if this already happened, it will happen again, so it's a good idea to get prepared.

The first step is to understand the line that when crossed makes the difficult person a difficult person. That person might be feeling insecure in your position, he or she might be thinking that his or her co-workers don't treat him or her well or this person might even have some personal issues. You don't wanna be one more threat on this person's life. Try not to put this person on meetings or chats where she or he will feel threatened and choose wisely the topics to discuss with him or her. Your goal is to make this person feel valued.

9 - Check all documentation before send it

We're all writers that need to understand and that needs to be understood. Any documentation you produce will become a direct representation of the quality of your work.

With the orthographic corrector, there is no apology for orthographic mistakes and a poor grammar might get the reader confused and generate ambiguity.

 10 - Sometimes the good enough is perfect!

Until now all we've talked is how to be the best in what we do when acting as a business analyst. We've talked about less talking and more listening, remember people's names, about being humble, about dealing with difficult people, about rite documents e so on.

But, sometimes there is nothing wrong with taking a rest of all this perfection and be satisfied with what you are. I'm not talking about being negligent, but to achieve a balance between what's wanted and what's possible.

A perfect documentation that never finishes, for example, will never be more efficient than an 80% quality documentation already delivered which the remaining 20% might not be worth the effort to finish.