Recently came across this question on Quora? And I thought that this question needs an answer as this is a pertinent question. So, the real question is – Why can’t a developer play the role of a business analyst?
Let me answer this by explaining the developer’s paradigm.
Developer’s paradigm
What Vs How: The strength of a developer/programmer is to write great piece of code. To write great piece of code, one must be good at understanding algorithms and must focus on “How things can be done?”.
A developer must think about – “How can I write the best algorithm to achieve the results in the least possible time?”. Developers always think about solution.
Requirements gathering focuses on “What needs to be done? What is the current process and what needs to be done to improve the process efficiency?”.
Requirements gathering process requires you to focus on “What” rather than “How”.
This is one of the major factors why we need a professional who thinks like the customer thinks. Requirements gathering is always about focusing on problem and not solution.
Language problem: Of course, I am not talking about English or French. I am referring to the gap between the language of business and language of programming.
Java/Python like languages are very different from languages of describing business processes. A developer, who is great at understanding multi-threaded lingo, may find him/her at a loss, if the business is talking about derivatives or debit/credit. There is nothing bad or good skills here, but these require two different skill sets and learnings.
I am not, even for a second, suggesting that developers can’t do requirements gathering or perform the role of a business analyst (I have done precisely that in my career) but that requires some unlearning & re-skilling.
If you are a developer and are reading this article, you can read moving from developer to business analyst role.
About Techcanvass
Techcanvass offers IT certification courses for professionals. We are an IIBA endorsed education provider (EEP), iSQI ATP (for Certified Agile Business Analyst Training) as well as Agile Testing alliance partner for CP-SAT certification training in Selenium.
One of the training programs, which you can explore to become a business analyst. This is the IIBA ECBA Certification Training program.
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