Otilia Hritcu is a cross-functional business analyst who has held the roles of product owner, scrum master and project manager in her business analysis career. With more than six years of experience, she is an integral part of the business analysis team at EPAM Romania.
Are you a business analyst trying to adjust to a new team? There may be a specific project language or unknown acronyms. Do you feel like an outlier, outcast or impostor? This is a typical pattern Ms. Hritcu felt with almost every new project. Here she answers our questions about what it's like as a business analyst.
How do you cope with feeling like an outlier?
A valuable skill to practice is patience with yourself. From my experience, it takes around three months to understand and master project information—the learning curve is part of the process.
In my case, even after more than six years of business analysis experience, every new project still feels like a new world. It could be a new domain, new technology, new working frameworks or new people.
Where should someone start if they feel like an outlier?
First, acknowledge and accept that you don't know much about the project. Recognize that just like you are performing the discovery phase on a project, you can also complete the discovery phase for yourself in the new context. Then, plan your own discovery and learning tasks diligently. Making a short-term plan will structure and focus your work for this 'onboarding' phase and help prepare for more long-term planning.
Can you give us a simple guide to help create a ‘get to know your BA surroundings’ plan?
- What are the business analyst’s responsibilities on this project? Is there any skill or additional knowledge you need to acquire or enhance? Is there anything that does not match your professional direction? Write these down. Who could offer advice, and what learning resources could you rely upon?
- Reach out to your resource manager and openly discuss the situation. Can the manager share any similar experience or indicate some guidance, be that learning materials or other colleagues with similar cases?
- How about enrolling as a mentee in a mentoring program? Would that help you progress with the new knowledge and skills?
Can you provide a few more suggestions to get you started on a project’s ABC?
- Is there a knowledge transfer document or session available?
- Are there other business analysts that could briefly introduce you to the project or indicate some valuable resources to get a general overview? Are there any templates already available?
- What is the scope of the project?
- Who are the stakeholders?
- Who are your teammates?
- What are the processes and the methodology?
- What are the tools used in the project?
Everyone has limited time available. But do your homework one step at a time. Read, research and consider summarizing the findings and the open points to be addressed further. Consider how creating a repo/wiki page for the team with all this info would be useful. Can the team contribute? Do they know or have heard of other stakeholders, tools, and processes? Could they update it? Can you update it regularly?
Do not be afraid to express your doubts or concerns. Be open about these. And not only now but all along the project timeline. Do ask for help. There is nothing wrong with that. Could the team, tech lead, architect, scrum master, product owner and product manager share any useful information or support in any way? Is there anything else you can think of? Add it to your list.
Do you have any final takeaways, from your experience, that you’d like to share with fellow business analysts?
There will be a rush of new info to take in at first. From my experience, it helps to take small steps daily and be transparent and open. If you were to save the last five minutes of your working schedule to reflect on the day, please list at least one piece of info you managed to add to your discovery. Is there any task from your short-term plan that you could set as ‘in progress’ or even move to ‘done’? Celebrate the progress!
In the end, a challenge for you. If you were to set a 1-1 appointment with yourself one month from now, what would you tell yourself? What could you conclude? Would you still see yourself as an outlier?
Learn more about EPAM’s career opportunities here: https://www.epam.com/careers
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