Challenges Faced by a BA / Consultant

Are you a Business Analyst / Functional Consultant?
Are you primarily into a Client facing Role and your job involves understanding Business cahllenges? Then this post is for you.













Challenges faced during Req gathering:

1. Starting at the very basic: Getting time from Business Stakeholders - When Project Stakeholders lack interest in a project, it can be challenging getting them to make time for the project. BAs in this situation may end up spending a significant portion of their time chasing after stakeholders & remember you are given strict timelines to complete your sessions!

2. When the Business users do not know "How To" define their requirements; We may have multiple discussions but no concrete outcome in terms of "defining" the requirement; More Meetings, No Outcome.

3. Challenge: During the requirement gathering session or "Grooming" session as it is called in most MNCs, when you have multiple stake holders, rather than requirement gathering the discussion revolves among-st the clients about which path to take, what Validations to have, whether it is good to have or good to let it go.. etc.Again, if you are working in Agile/Sprints you are expected to complete the module within a given period of time - you could try to get them to hold an internal discussion, come to a conclusion & then hold the session with you so that you can straight away jump to jolting down the requirements .

4. It is expected that we understand the Business Process process in one day, break that down and create User Stories, while the process itself may be very complex & you realize this as you start digging in.

5. Conflicts:Getting everyone in a room to discuss a problem and getting everybody agree on the same point is difficult - This requires a strong leadership and soft skills. (Usually this happens when you have Stake holders from Multiple Departments: IT Vs Sales team or Marketing Vs Sales - The session turns into a battle ground you can actually see egos clashing. - In this situation it might help to get a senior person from the Clients to get involved who is neutral to both parties.)

6. Lack Of Clarity - When the BA himself doesn't understand the requirement!!

7. Misalignment Between Business Needs and Technology - when the business wants something that the Solutions team simply cannot deliver – either due to unavailability of resources or due to product limitations.

8. Lack of Solution Architect / Tech Leads in the Project - (This does not directly impact us, but hampers the project completion within timelines) essential to take the discussions forward especially when the discussions involve complex integrations.

9. Expectation Mismatch: When you are a Functional consultant and the expectation is to be more Technical-oriented - Example: Create a "SIMPLE" VF Page report - Regardless of how Simple or Complex the VF Page is, we simply are not equipped !!! :D

10. MY FAVORITE - The BA-Is-Always-At-Fault Mentality - I was particularly petrified in this one particular Project which was to go live in EVERY Corner of the World where the company had it's presence marked - I was asked several times "Have you covered negative scenarios also for testing? If not then it's your neck in the line, You do realize that, don't you? I hope you have covered all the functionalities, if we missed anything that we will have to face Escalations - GEO-wise!!!! AMER, EMEA etc :(

11. I hate to say this but another challenge is "LAZY" Developers (Not all but the Trouble-makers!) sometimes just one day prior we get a Red Alert from Development Team that a critical piece of information is missing without which they cannot complete the production which is due to be showcased the next day! Ofcourse you cannot reach the Client who is in a different time Zone to "Clarify" the doubt & fit in the missing piece of information in the nick of time AND be "Demo-Ready. "Requirement is Not Clear" is unfortunately one of the most common excuses used by some trouble makers who simply don't wanna work - Girl-friend issues, want to leave early today to watch a movie, I'm depressed, I'm simply in no mood to work - You can name all the excuses under the sun.

he abobe form only the tip of the Ice berg and certainly teher are many more factors that need to be addressed.
This Blog will either have a Sequel or be continued in the same Post.
Note: The Author is a working Mum, and is currently busy juggling a job, long commutes , late nights nad office work. This post will be revisited for minor edits at a later point in time

It's not about the company you work for, it's about the Technology that you work in...."

"It's not about the company you work for, it's about the Technology that you work in...." In conversation with a fellow commuter who had just bought an iphone8. Causally asking for the price, rolled my eyes when I heard - Rs.1 Lakh. The usual question any iphoner would hear - Apart from making calls and sending messages what is it that you do that any Android cannot. Still not impressed with the FaceScan, 3D, hard- touch screen, how you can start typing a note on your phone & continue editing it on your MacPro or any Apple Environment. That maybe sort of got my interest and got him an "hmmm..." good to have feature; & after displaying 20 such other cool features he showed me, I was still not convinced. He then shared his vision - A former Google student; Used to be a Mobile App developer, having worked for 3 Startups - he says by looking at different Social apps we have today, it is important to be able to understand why they're built the way they are - It is very important to understand why people switched from Whatsapp to Snapchat to Instagram. Instagram also has DM but why do people still use Whatsapp? On Instagram pictures different from what we post on Facebook. The Audience is different on Instagram. There its not about likes.How UI impacts the User's decision to buy. What are the things a developer must keep in mind while creating something. For him it was not adding just another "Fancy" gadget that someone gifted, or something that he could simply afford to buy, but an "investment" for his future as he is preparing to follow his Passion - App Development. For a change it is refreshing to see a reason so justified in buying an iphone worth $$$
When you are focusssed on what you want, it's No longer a dream, it becomes goals. This guy, whenever he decides to leave the company, when he says he has enough savings to start his dream, will be paid in Gold, for sure. In his words ".....it is not the company he is working for but the Technology he is working in"..... - Inspired. And that's something that you cannot see on a CV.
Surround yourself with people who inspire you and push you to do more, the lesser drama you surround yourself with, the better.