S1E05 Team Roles - Business Analyst / Product Owner

In this Episode we have invited our colleague Swathi Poddar to discuss why the Business Analyst and Product Owner are such important roles for every successful delivery team. Successful projects are based on a clear understanding of the domain, specifically goals and needs, and how to best satisfy these with a solution within the given constraints (time, money, regulatory, etc). With the Product Owner hat on, we take care of the up-front bit, i.e. the focusing on strategic fit, while with the business analyst hat on, we focus more on the nitty gritty details of the solutions. But really, both roles are just a different focus the same spectrum. In practice they can be taken on by the same or different individuals. Ultimately both roles are about ‘making sense’ of a problem domain, enabling teams to articulate complexity, explore items under discussion and converge towards a clear and valuable outcome. As with most roles in the ‘21st century’, knowledge of tools and techniques (how to do things) are being downgraded to hygiene factors, while approach and mindset (how to go about things, specifically communication and collaboration) become factors of excellence. Consequently the business analyst and product owner are key roles for any well run project. Swathi Poddar is a Business Analyst, Product Owner and Software Consultant. She has worked and studied in the UK, US and currently works out of Pune and Banglore, India. Show Notes Further thoughts on the topic can be found at our blog: The Business Analyst Role ‘analysed’: https://thedigitalbusinessanalyst.co.uk/how-to-become-a-business-analyst-1-mindset-vs-skills-435ef3bf1c5a Successfully interviewing as Business Analyst or Product Owner: https://thedigitalbusinessanalyst.co.uk/product-owner-interview-guide-d504ad1de1e2 BA Career survey: https://thedigitalbusinessanalyst.co.uk/business-analysts-how-did-you-get-into-your-role-cea4b64b8017 Our guest in this episode is Swathi Poddar, Business Analyst, Product Owner and Software Consultant. She can be ‘found’ and contacted here: https://www.linkedin.com/in/swathi-poddar/ – More information at https://www.theburnup.com This podcast produced by Burn Up Media Ltd under under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License. Further Information at: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/