Eureka! My journey of discovery in becoming a business analyst at Made Tech

Kassidy Matthews

Eureka comes from the Ancient Greek word εὕρηκα (heúrēka), which means “I have found (it)”. It’s often used within mathematics as an exclamation of discovery. This is where my journey begins: at Reading University where I studied mathematics.

The analytical approach

There are many branches of mathematics and very early on I took a particular interest in analysis. I suppose my reason for this stems from my personal drive to understand why, and doing whatever I can to get that explanation. This is incredibly important within business analysis as recognising the underlying purpose, cause and belief, can really help in revealing the true requirements and aid in design. 

Equally important is problem solving, and let’s just say there wasn’t a lack of problems within my courses at university to test me on this. I distinctly remember one of my favourite subjects being water waves, where we’d be given information about an underwater earthquake and asked to calculate the speed, force and radius of the consequential waves. Being able to methodically solve this problem, and then see the benefits of applying this to a real-life situation was an eye-opener, and motivated me to seek a career that could use this critical thinking. 

Funnily enough, my initial pull for going to university wasn’t the career opportunities it could offer,  but the social life it brings.  Meeting new people, building on relationships and interacting with individuals from different backgrounds helped me to build strong social skills that can help greatly when working in a squad or managing stakeholders.

Putting theory into practice

I graduated in the early summer of 2019 and was quickly pushed into finding a job by my parents’ promise to start charging me rent! I had attended a few job fairs at university and I had worked out what I didn’t want to pursue career-wise. But I wasn’t entirely sure what it was I wanted to do. I began searching for entry business analyst roles partly because I believed it would give me a good mix of social, and analytical problem solving. But also because I needed to start somewhere. A month later I began work for a software company in the wholesale finance sector as a junior business analyst. 

This was my first role in IT and even though I had some coding experience from my classes at university, I still had a lot to learn! I threw myself head first into challenges and wasn’t afraid to ask questions or do further research into a topic I was unsure of. So, I was able to overcome my lack in technical knowledge very quickly and was appointed to a role within a squad which meant I was entirely responsible for data migration. Later on I was even known as the “Queen of Migration”. 

My first huge success as a BA was on a project in Australia where I planned and executed a large-scale, big-bang migration for the project go-live. The migration took roughly 3 days and I think I only had about 10 hours sleep across those. I distinctly remember  listening to We Like to Party! by Vengaboys on repeat, at 3am on one of those days in an effort to keep myself awake. 

Anyway – all those hours were eventually worth it when we successfully went live with a minimal number of hiccups. I remember feeling super-proud, as I had not only done my part in a huge project, but also made the first break into the Australian market for my company. Once we had recuperated from the weekend, we celebrated over food and drinks and it was at that moment, sitting with my colleagues whose work I greatly respected, that I knew being a business analyst was the right path for me – EUREKA!

Re-prioritising since the pandemic

A few years later my confidence had flourished and I was a fully-fledged member of the BA team. Then COVID struck, and like many, I felt helpless. How could I help? I hosted fundraising events, donated blood and even joined in on the NHS weekly clap, but it didn’t feel like enough. I said to my partner, “I would just love to be able to do my job and make a difference.” And as if by magic, a job advert on LinkedIn caught my beady eye. It was for a business analyst role for a company called Made Tech. 

The opening sentences read, “Our mission is simple! We believe we can use tech to make public services better.” I went on to research Made Tech and stumbled upon the case studies describing the benefits made while working with the public sector. I was thrilled to discover I could do my job and feel like I was actually making a difference to something I really cared about.

We’re hiring for a number of BA roles at Made Tech at the moment. You can find these on our careers page. There’s no “best way” to becoming a business analyst at Made Tech. This was my journey. Maybe one day I’ll get to hear yours.

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Perfect porridge: a journey to becoming a business analyst at Made Tech

Anthony Okpaloafe

My journey started as an intern Business Analyst (BA) at a consultancy helping SMEs to navigate the vast terrain of digital services. I studied a sports business and management bachelor’s degree, becoming a BA was not a career I’d planned for. And not one that I was particularly familiar with. In fact, I didn’t have a clue what to expect when I started this new role.

Of course, I did have some misconceptions. I had fears I’d be siloed constantly “analysing” company policies, procedures and processes. There was a worry I’d spend my time attending daunting meetings with execs endlessly throwing requirements at me.

Instead, I entered a world where I had the autonomy to establish requirements from a wide pool of users. I fell in love with the discover-as-you-work process I was encouraged to use from the start.

At each stage of a project, I’m constantly discovering and adjusting how we deliver accordingly. Each piece of work is unique as a human fingerprint. I’ve always been drawn to understanding the bigger picture. And I’ve been hooked since grasping the fundamental practices of an agile BA. 

Trying out the public sector 

Growing up in Hackney, Streatham and Brixton, raised by my hard-working mum who was a nurse for over two decades, the public sector played a huge part in my family life. 

My gratitude for all things public sector carried me through university, particularly my experiences supporting local government projects with Gloucestershire County Council and Cardiff Council. I worked alongside experienced sport development officers and education governors to develop more inclusive, active and safer communities. I also fell in love with teaching. I was offered the chance to teach secondary level physical education while studying, and this only solidified my respect and admiration for our public sector workers.  

Growing as a BA, I started to reflect on my role and how to establish myself as a fully fledged member of staff. Quite honestly, I struggled to find a reason to feel motivated by the kinds of projects coming down the pipeline. 

I began to dive into my own experiences and reflect on why some gave me the motivation to stay late. Whether this was to do more research, manage student reports or sharpen workshops. Then one day during annual leave, it hit me. I needed a new endeavour where I could use and develop my BA skills while supporting projects that would help society. It was the transparency within the public sector that attracted me. I wanted to see the positive effect my work has on real people everyday. 

I decided to end my contract with my first consultancy and embark on two contract experiences. The first at a local government council and the second an education federation governing over 20 further education and secondary academies around Bristol. I wanted to test the public sector waters as a professional. However, I was aware of the assumptions around a slower bureaucratic way of working, strict working hours and stubborn stakeholders.  

Committing to the cause

I spent two years on local council projects, supporting YMCA outreach services and enhancing digital capabilities for students and tutors. I knew the public sector was where I’d find the intrinsic motivation I needed. 

I looked for a permanent position where I could continue to use my BA skills. I stumbled across a Made Tech Job ad on LinkedIn. After giving the post a good read and doing my own research on the company, I was hooked. 

From their active and innovative ways of helping modernise public sector legacy applications and working practices to its inclusive, innovative, learning-centred, feedback-valuing company culture. But once again it was the transparency of all of these elements within Made Tech that sparked my interest. 

I joined the company to make a positive contribution working on projects that impact the lives of everyday people like my family. Surprisingly, I found exactly that. I’m currently supporting the DVLA’s Vehicle Excise Duty Reminder project. 

With my driving test looming over me in the next few weeks, it’s clear that the service will be useful to me as a new licence holder. And this is exactly why I wanted to join the public sector: the relatability. Whether it’s supporting digital capabilities for the Home Office, NHS or DVLA, the value is always to improve the lives of normal people. 

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A love of numbers: my business analyst journey

Mo Oshiberu

My journey so far has shown me you can be anything you want to, as long as you’re focused and determined. This is my story.

I’d always wanted to be an accountant from a very young age, and that became more apparent as my love for numbers grew – especially mathematics and accounting. I loved number-crunching and problem-solving. My passion led me to study an accounting and finance BA at the University of Kent.

After graduating and entering the job market, I realised employers looked for years of experience. I’d have to start from the bottom of the ladder to work my way up. And I did that for about 6 years and then realised I wanted more. 

I wanted something that wasn’t monotonous. Something more challenging and exploratory. Something that needed critical thinking, analysis and problem solving. I needed a role that would add value and make a real impact in society. It was then that I stumbled upon business analysis (BA).

I met a friend who was a Business Analysis Trainer at the time who explained the role to me. I self-studied for the BCS BA foundation, passed and applied for my first job as a BA, landing the job. 

More technical, less daunting

I worked as a Business Analyst for different organisations before moving on to the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP). I want to talk about my time in DWP because that’s where I gained my experience of being a rounded BA. During this time I also gained skills and experiences in mentoring and how to be an active member of a community of practice.

I was offered a business analyst role at DWP and I found myself in the integration team. For the first three months, I wondered if I’d made a mistake. Every meeting I found myself in felt like they were speaking another language. 

I shadowed a contract BA until her contract ended and she had to move on. I cried so much. Everyone thought it was because she was leaving, yet it was also because I knew I had big shoes to step into.

I quickly reminded myself of my focus and determination. Slowly but steadily I learned about APIs, swagger documents, integration points, architecture diagrams, AWS – the list went on. Architects, developers and dev-op engineers became my best friends. I would attend every one of their meetings so I could pick up a new word or two. 

Before I knew it I started having constructive conversations and speaking technical jargon. I found myself starting to teach, coach and mentor other BAs that joined. I had become an expert in integration. The role gave me the understanding of how the frontend links to the backend and therefore the whole picture of end-to-end processes and systems. I’ll always be grateful for that.

Why Made Tech?

Made Tech sold itself to me at the first opportunity. I was introduced to the company through a friend I met on LinkedIn. I was blown away by their core values and transparency through their online handbook which tells you all you need to know about the organisation. The fact their clients are within the public sector was also a plus for me, aligning with my personal values of making a real impact in society. 

My current state

I’m working as a Senior Business Analyst in MadeTech and even in this short period I’ve been given opportunities to grow my career. It’s the place to be for any Business Analyst or those in the tech space looking for an opportunity to grow your career whilst making a difference. We have the chance to add value through being client focused, having a drive to deliver and a passion for mentoring others. 

The post 3 stories about getting into Business Analysis appeared first on Made Tech.

BAs make teams’ lives easier 

If there’s one thing I wish everyone knew about BAs, it’s that we’re not seeking to disrupt an existing way of working – we’re here to make teams’ lives easier. Sure, we may ask some hard-hitting questions and expose why something’s not working, but it’s for a good cause – to guide teams in improving processes, products and services that fulfil user needs. 

The BA is essentially the link between the technical and non-technical members of a project team. The BA needs to understand the technical and non-technical language, and create documents and output that let people from both sides understand the end goal through things like user stories, requirements, and acceptance criteria which detail how a specific requirement or user story will actually be met.

For example, there may be server constraints that restrict the implementation of an internal intranet. So it would be the BA’s job to go back to the end users and the non-technical team and present the information in a user-friendly way. We may also write up executive summaries which could detail requirements to help senior decision-makers with things like freeing up more money in the pot to deal with existing issues.

Be confident, curious, and personable

Being a good BA isn’t just about your knowledge and experience, it’s also about your character. This means being personable and relaxed, which opens the door to open and honest communication from stakeholders. 

A good BA will also have the confidence to tell teams what they need. There’s no point in just telling teams you’re going to do something in a certain way – share how, and the steps involved, with everyone on the team. 

You should also be able to document things well and clearly, in a way that is unambiguous so everyone understands what a particular requirement means for them.

A good BA will have an element of curiosity and interest to understand the details of processes and systems. It’s worth mentioning that having technical knowledge can be a plus as you can turn complex technical language into words that people without that knowledge can understand. But it’s not a necessity. There’ll be technical architects working on the same project you can collaborate with. 

Projects need BAs from the get go

If investigatory work is needed to understand a problem and how you’re transforming to a new process, there should be a BA on the project. A BA should be picked up before developers, testers, and in some cases before the product owner who will come to work with the BA closely. 

Without a BA, it can take longer to complete projects because there’s more back and forth between technical and non-technical people, and potential for conflict if they don’t understand each other.

As we work so closely with the product owners and managers, we understand what their outputs are so we can show the project team what they’re missing and what they need to work effectively. Having a clear vision for this bridges the gap between technical and non-technical teams because you’re bringing everyone together towards a nice, user-friendly way of understanding what a project is trying to achieve. 

Common understanding is a recipe for success

If there’s an ongoing conflict or ambiguity about what the project requirements and processes are and you’re going round in constant cycles, success isn’t likely. Success happens when you’ve reached a common understanding with a project team about what needs to be achieved, and you’ve made sure what you’ve implemented is adding value and improving the overall user experience. 

It’s also about making sure you’ve considered time and cost. Success means being as close to the expectation that you set out at the start, understanding the limitations that you may face along the journey, and making sure you account for that in the cost benefit analysis. 

Work with us

If you’d like to learn more about how business analysts can contribute to your projects and teams, please get in touch. Or you can connect with me on LinkedIn.

The post The business analyst’s role in building successful teams appeared first on Made Tech.

Our Product capability helps project teams understand why the project is being done. We do this by identifying who the project’s outcomes will benefit and the value of the benefit. If you’re clear about this, then prioritisation, risk management and what you actually build is far easier to define.

Watch the full interview.

Q: How did you become interested in tech?

A: I’m from the Lake District way up in the North which meant there wasn’t much tech, especially a long time ago. In 1984 I saw a poster for the first-ever Macintosh called Test Drive a Mac and I knew I wanted one. I was sold from that point on. I couldn’t afford one for about a decade but just got into computing, as everybody did in the 80s, to make games and that kind of thing.

Q: Outside of tech, what hobbies do you have?

A: I raced mountain bikes competitively for a couple of decades but I had a big crash in 2015. The recovery took a long time and I lost my nerve so I said I’ve retired from that. The key thing I do now is I’ve rediscovered my passion for making electronic music. I had a studio when I was young and I’ve got the opportunity to do that now again so I’ve really indulged myself with some nice shiny bits of kit. 

Q: Had you worked in the public sector at all before you joined Made Tech? 

A: Yes, at my previous company I’d done projects for Camden and Westminster Councils for about four years. We did five projects for them over that time, so loads of Local Government experience. No Central Government stuff, that’s the new area for me at Made Tech.

Q: How do you find working in the public sector?

A: I really love the difference in focus. Prior to this, in a lot of commercial work, I focused on a product or competition, and now it’s about making things for the public. I love the fact that we make the thing that the public actually uses and interacts with. We make the tangible bit for them and I feel really proud to do that. 

Not to degrade commercial work because that’s how products get made but their agenda really is about being in a competitive market space and being one step ahead and they use agile for that. Whereas we use agile in the public sector to be more efficient and to make better products. I like that real purity of it.

Q: What attracted you to Made Tech?

A: I liked that they had a way of working that really fitted with me. Although what actually happened is I just kind of got chucked in at the deep end which was scary but it was also really great because I could say we should work in a certain way. Made Tech had clear values so I had boundaries to work within but I could say we’re going to run inceptions, promote a particular flavour of agile and work in these particular ways. Then when they do work they’re great and they become part of how we do things, and when they don’t work, we don’t. So the freedom to experiment as well is really valuable. 

Q: What does your role here involve?

A: I spent a long time on projects at Made Tech and now I’ve become senior and started having members of staff. It really is about pushing the value of products into all of the projects because despite the growth I’ve seen in two years we’ve got a massive heritage of digital engineering. The majority of our members of staff still are digital engineers and so I have to defend product’s corner. 

Similarly, Harry’s come on as Head of Design, another facet of digital delivery, and we have to elevate these disciplines to the same level of credibility as engineering. I love that challenge. I was a Designer for such a long time and it’s nice to have people to talk to about Designery things and not just talk about engineering or products. Now I meet people who share the same passion for that.

Q: What do you like most about your role?

A: I’m really enjoying getting to coach and mentor people in Made Tech and client teams. I’ve got 20-25 years of experience now of doing projects really badly and then getting them less wrong through all of that time. For example, this morning in a project review they were saying that everything is too big, there’s too much, we can’t possibly do all of this. So I gave them two strategies to follow, recommended what to do and how, then said we’ll have a quick catch up tomorrow to see if it worked. That kind of thing makes people feel far more confident. 

I like that people can just say, ‘Hey Dreas, I just need a direction on this. Or this is going wrong, how would you fix it?’ I love doing that because I think I’ve made all the mistakes you can make and I’m always discovering new ones, but I’ve never failed on a project yet. So by some way I’ve clawed it back and can say don’t worry because we can do this. I like making people confident that they can do the job.

Q: What would you say are some of the most challenging things about your role?

A: I’ve finally got the ability to talk openly about my dyslexia. For years there just wasn’t the culture to be able to talk about the fact that you’re not good at some things and you’re always going to have a problem. 

In my role, writing is unavoidable. I’m always asked if I can do a blog post, a whitepaper or a case study and I find that massively difficult. Similarly, the way my syndrome works is that I have massive problems with short-term memory. Thankfully computers and phones have helped me out immeasurably but it’s the key fact that Made Tech is supportive of this. Once you actually say, ‘I have this problem,’ then people understand it’s reasonable to expect some of my sentences to go on for a long time and people help me out with that. The intent is there, the content is there, it’s just not always as good as it possibly could be.

Q: Do you have any advice for someone who wants to join your team?

A: I think my team is the best team because we’re there to answer the questions of why, who for, and how do we know we’ve got this thing right. All the really fascinating stuff on a project and all the questions about value. When it comes to delivery or research, it’s about lowering risk. We’re the people there who explain how you lower the risk and we’ll know we’re right when we’ve met this measurement. It’s the glue in between all the projects. So anybody who wants to get involved in product, come and join the team or learn the skills. 

Q: What do you like most about working at Made Tech?

A: I’ve written down this phrase here called torturous freedom. I mentioned before, when Luke just kind of went, ‘you’re the Head of this capability, just go and do it,’ and I was like oh my god. That’s the best because one of the things that I really suffer from is I get bored. But now I’m in the position where there’s always something to do and there’s always another challenge, like how can we make recruitment scalable or how can we start working at program level and at project level and things like that.

Two years ago I would have thought, why am I in governance on a project? How can that possibly be interesting? Now I’m the one going, we really need to talk about governance here, how we can make it more efficient, how we can make the team own it, that kind of thing. Until people tell me to stop doing that which never happens at Made Tech. So it’s that freedom to do things and the fact that I torture myself with it, that’s the best bit. 

Q: Do you have any books or resources you’d recommend for someone interested in joining your team?

A: Yes, I made a big list and I reduced it down to some real nuggets. The first thing I’d recommend is Henrik Kniberg. He’s the guy who drew the diagram of the MVP skateboard to car and about how we iterate. He currently works for Mojang, the people who made Minecraft, and he’s got a blog post there. The YouTube videos that come off that blog post are brilliant. He’s also just written a book, Lean from the Trenches, about pragmatic lean and actually deploying it on large-scale projects.

Everybody uses the diagram he must have drawn about 15 years ago but very few people understand what it means. I’d say take the time to not just reproduce his diagram in a deck when you show you are doing agile in a project, but actually understand what he meant. That’s the really important bit. 

Similarly, when I was starting, service blueprint design and user story mapping was kind of emergent. Jeff Patton wrote User Story Mapping: Discover the Whole Story, Build the Right Product. The interesting thing in it though isn’t the bit about user story mapping, it’s all the other stuff in there about how you get there and the why. Then make up your own way of user story mapping. I know I did and that’s why anybody who knows how to do user story mapping then says to me that mine is different, and I say that’s because it’s mine and it works for me. I understand this and I think I could tell the story better by doing that. 

Finally, the whole world of product is really quite strange because it’s loads of bits that come together. The best single place for all that to be put together is Jake Knapp’s The Sprint Book on how to make massive decisions in just five days of intense workshops. It summarizes products so neatly.

Those three people I would strongly recommend. I’ve got a massive stack of all of these but often you just get value from a single bit within a book and the rest of it you’re a bit meh about but those are ones where I said the whole thing is worthwhile.

The post Exploring the role of product management appeared first on Made Tech.