The Business Analysis Blog

As Business Analysts we face some very hectic days, especially at the start of the projects. All of us have seen days when we keep running in and out of Requirement Gathering workshops and meetings with the stakeholders. These workshops and meetings generally last the whole day and the routine continues for days.In midst of all these meetings the Business Analyst is supposed to make sense of the business problems and keep working on the deliverables as well. There are so many things going on that it becomes difficult to stay on top of your work.

Here are some tools that I have been using, it works really well for me. I hope it helps you.

• Get Offline and maintain a personal notebook to record all the project related info: Yes it is very important that you get off your laptop. Your laptop is your workstation and it believe it will distract you with so many things like mails, pings from other people, your use cases and other documents and deliverables. It is important that you move away from your laptop to organize your work. Invest in a personal notebook to maintain all the project related information.
  

• Keep calendar marked for important dates and tasks: As there are tonnes of things going around in the project you need to stay on top of the so many different dates. When is the next workshop, whne is the next meeting with the stakeholder, when is the deliverable due dats, when is the date to respond to all the queries, when is your boss visiting you, when is the meeting with the tech team .... Yes the dates will drive you crazy. We do use Outlook for organizing our meetings but it is also very important that we keep an offline record in our notebook. So that we can plan our work accordingly.
  
• Tip: Paste prints of monthly and yearly views of the calendars
• Tip: Color code the meetings.
• Keep all the important numbers handy: We meet so many new people in a project and you never know who you might need at what stage of your project. Though we all have a phone and you have their number in it but it is difficult to remember all the name (yes it is not easy for me) and unless we have a phone with great search tool (my phone doesn't have it) it is better to have the list of number ready to use.
  
• Tip: Take a printout and paste the list at the start of the notebook.
• Divide the notebook into sections: Divide the notebook logical sections. This will help you to find the appropriate information quickly. Also it helps you to better organize the information.
• Spend half an hour at the start of everyday to plan your day: This is the most important activity. When you start our day by going through the notebook you get a quick snapshot of the current status of the project. You should start your day with looking at the upcoming important dates and tasks for the day. It will help you to plan your day and keep tab on the day's activities.
  
• Spend half and hour at the end of the day to fill the gaps and updating the work book: End your day with updating the notebook with the learnings of meetings and workshops you attended during the day. You must do this exercise without postponing it to the next day. It doesn't take more than half an hour to complete this activity but it will help you to stay on top of your work.
  
• Carry the book to every meeting and keep taking notes: Do carry this notebook to every meeting you attend and make small notes. This will help you to sync up at the end of the day. Believe me when you are attending more than one meeting everyday it takes a lot out of you and it becomes difficult to remember each and everything. These notes will help you to retain pointers to important decisions or discussions you had in the meeting.
  
• Over the time it will become the most important BA tool: If you maintain the notebook properly it will become the most important BA tool as it is going to help you to do you Business Analysis tasks better.
  

Points to remember:
Not easy to do, there is a learning curve.
Tip: Keep doing it religiously for a month and it will definitely help you to stay on top of your work.