Being a BA

Last week, I went to New York City to help out a team, which arrived from India office, to kick off an Inception/Discovery process. This was the first time, I was actively involved in such an exercise, and to be frank, I was not very confident about my ability to add much value to the exercise. The week started and apart from a very stringent security check while entering the building, there wasn’t anything else which provided enough challenge. In fact, the building security was very helpful but it was the client’s security desk which was more painful. I also didn’t protest too much because it is client’s work place and I was there only for few days. As the work started, I found that I was able to plan things, guide the team and navigate through the client organization. At the end of the week, it became clear to me that I could play a Business Analyst role and figure out high level problem definition and identify epics / stories for the problem.  I also could identify various users of the application, and come up with possible scenarios in which these users would interact with the application. Though, in order to be very effective at this role, I know that I still need to learn more tricks of the trade e.g. 5 Whys exercise, Ice Breaker exercise, Hopes and Fears session, Futurespective exercise etc. Nonetheless, this was very exciting for me because this could be one mechanism for me to contribute effectively in a project team. I had this feeling that I could do this, but this was the first time that I was doing it and could prove to myself that I am capable of handling it. Wondering why I didn’t try it earlier?