​​Завершаем небольшую серию статей о системном анализе от бизнес-аналитика Екатерины Авдевич.

Тонкий и толстый клиенты. Что это?

📌 Клиент - это программа, которая взаимодействует с сервером для того чтобы пользователь мог получать данные о том, какие действия выполняет система.
Самым простым примером клиента является web-браузер, который отправляет запросы на web-сервер и отображает ответ на свое странице

Что такое тонкий клиент?

Тонкий клиент - это такой вид клиента который способен все запросы пользователя по обработке данных переносить на сервер.

Плюсы тонкого клиента:
📎Доступ к информации становится безопаснее, т.к. информация хранится на стороннем сервисе
📎Обслуживание ПО становится минимальным, в связи с этим сокращаются трудозатраты
📎Минимальный уровень появления неисправности
📎Низкие технические требования к аппаратуре

Минусы тонкого клиента:
📎При возникновении сбоя - “поломаются” все подключенные к системе пользователи
📎Невозможно работать без сети
📎Может снижаться объем обработки большого массива данных

Что такое толстый клиент?

Толстый клиент - такой вид клиента который обрабатывает все запросы пользователя через собственные аппаратные возможности, без помощи независимого сервера. Им является персональный компьютер пользователя который может функционировать на основе своей операционной системы.

Плюсы толстого клиента:
📎Высокая функциональность
📎Работать одновременно могут несколько пользователей
📎Возможность работы без сети
📎Оперативное реагирование системы
📎Нет зависимости от сторонних серверов

Минусы толстого клиента:
📎Обслуживание ПО становиться трудозатратным
📎Необходимо постоянное индивидуальное обновление программного обеспечения
📎Массивные объемы дистрибутивов
📎Программное обеспечение зависит от платформы, на которой были созданы клиенты

​​Good day, dear readers! The administration of the channel writes to you.

We started publishing exciting news and articles more than a year ago, and during this time we have gathered more than 1,700 business and system analysts interested in knowledge of our position! Our community has organized many online and offline meetups during this time, and we have invited the best speakers for you. And sometimes we just published thematic humor so you could relax a little.

We will continue to grow. And since July we will add a lot of new things:

- switch to English, for more audience coverage;
- we will add comments for all our publications, for live discussions on topics;
- we will hold new meetups;
- and we will add more authors' articles.

Thanks,
Stay tuned💛

​​Let’s see some interesting the latest news in spheres that related to technology and IT

📎Twitter Hires New Partnerships Boss From NBCUniversal https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2022-06-30/twitter-hires-new-partnerships-boss-from-nbcuniversal
📎FCC Official Wants App Stores to Cancel TikTok. https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2022-06-29/fcc-commissioner-s-push-to-cancel-tiktok-faces-long-odds?srnd=technology-vp
📎Gartner published an article “3 Ways to Attract and Retain IT Talent in 2022 and Beyond” https://www.gartner.com/en/articles/3-ways-to-attract-and-retain-it-talent-in-2022-and-beyond
📎Zoom Bets on Corporate Customers to Stem Post-Pandemic Crash https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2022-06-30/zoom-bets-on-corporate-customers-to-stem-post-pandemic-crash?srnd=technology-vp
📎According the latest news from USA a lot of people are worried about protecting private data in their applications.
There are some articles for this theme
➖Use That Everyday A.I. in Your Pocket https://msinformationtech.blogspot.com/2022/06/use-that-everyday-ai-in-your-pocket.html
➖Learn more about the digital security https://digitaldefensefund.org/ddf-guides/abortion-privacy/#advertisement
➖Deleting Your Period Tracker Won’t Protect You. Tweets telling women to do that went viral after Roe v. Wade was overturned, but experts say other digital data are more likely to reveal an illegal abortion.
https://www.nytimes.com/2022/06/30/technology/period-tracker-privacy-abortion.html
➖Privacy policy of the most popular tracker for women health https://flo.health/privacy-portal
➖It-company creates their own NFT for collecting money for charity
https://opensea.io/SuncharitybyAndersen
to open the link please use VPN

Have a great weekend! 💛

The Scrum framework exists to deliver value to stakeholders sooner. Sounds good, right? But when is something “valuable”? For something that seems so central to Scrum, there is little guidance on what “value” means. And we fear that it remains only a word if there is no meaningful definition for it.
Read the article below
https://www.scrum.org/resources/blog/five-types-value

​​How to apply Lifelong learning principles (LLL) in everyday life of Business Analysts

In order to be successful in a modern world it is necessary to accept its rules: constantly improve yourself in a personal and professional way. Business analysts have no excuses. To be up-to-date business analyst means to feel free and confident in our information directed society. In other words, it’s necessary to learn how to find and manage information. That’s why lifelong learning (LLL) theory is becoming more and more popular.
Let’s look through the basic principles of lifelong learning in the context of professional activities in business analysis.

📌Follow the trends
It is absolutely obvious that analytical work requires a wide mind and ability to compile knowledge from various fields. It is very important to pay attention to common situation in the world in order to establish communication from new trends in different spheres. Therefore, it is necessary to follow for innovations, novelties, scientific discoveries. It is important not to limit knowledge only in its sphere of activity. The main thing is to be sharp and combative in choosing a source.

📌Microlearning
Microlearning mean the possibility of quickly gaining information from new spheres. Business analysts work in different domains, and often get stuck with the need to learn something extremely new in short term. It can be information about a new domain, system functionality or specific tool. Microlearning doesn’t exceed the number of hours of training courses. Information is transferred by small portions. Such courses help us to form a common impression of chosen topics and get acquainted with specific terms. Modern training platforms and resources offer a wide range of courses, including volume-based workouts on specific topics.

📌Expert opinion
The possibility of receiving feedback in time and listening to expert opinion is not under the question. This is a very good chance to improve your skills. Have a question? Find the best in this area and study all the materials that are possible. Ask a colleague or a boss to evaluate the results of your work and to help you in determination of long- and short-term goals.

Stay tuned to learn other principles 💛

​​Some interesting news for this week

📎Apple plans new feature to protect journalists and human rights workers from spyware
https://edition.cnn.com/2022/07/06/tech/apple-spyware-lockdown-mode/index.html

📎Even in Death, Internet Explorer Lives On in South Korea
https://msinformationtech.blogspot.com/2022/07/even-in-death-internet-explorer-lives.html

📎NASA makes contact with satellite that broke free of Earth's orbit
https://edition.cnn.com/2022/07/06/world/nasa-capstone-satellite-contact-scn/index.html

Have a great weekend! 💛

​​Let's continue previous topic "How to apply Lifelong learning principles (LLL) in everyday life of Business Analysts"

📌Attend conferences and seminars
It's a big storage of new information. As a rule, best experts in their particular spheres present their real practical cases. As a reward - a great feeling of communion and inspiration. This stimulates the professional growth and influences the vector, according to which it is necessary to move in a professional plan.

📌Improve your communication skills
Art of clearly bring your ideas through the conversation is one of business-analysts’ must have. Someone has been gifted with this since childhood, someone needs to acquire this skill through training. Perhaps acting courses fade against the background of another thick and very clever book read. But without the ability to express your thoughts clearly and confidently, even valuable knowledge and bright ideas may not be useful. Courses of public speaking and speech techniques can be useful here. Don’t forget about psychology of human behavior in order to understand the principles of building effective communication with both the customer and the team.

📌Time management.
You may ask: how are my professional competencies of BA related to time management? I'm already doing well, I just don't have time to do everything. But let's be honest: this is also a skill, and no less important than all the others. By immersing yourself in time management, you learn to have more time, get tired less, do any tasks on time and efficiently, plan your schedule in advance, have more personal time and never be late. Aren't these indicators that you are at the place you have to be? And knowing its basics will help you to rest more, not to work on weekends and fit a well-deserved vacation into your plans.

I am deeply sure that most of us intuitively build our professional career on most of these principles. However, I think it would be useful to take another look at this list and think about what else interesting and inspiring I can do to become a better professional.

❓ What are your guiding principles in work and life?

​​TODAY or again waiting for MONDAY?🤔

Especially for those who need motivation, IT company Andersen announces Sport Marathon🏃‍♂️

Five winners and five great gifts.

🔥 The winner will become an owner of an innovative Ninebot electric scooter.

🔥 2-5 places will get Thule brand bags.

In order to take part, all you have to do is 2 small steps:
1️⃣ Be subscribed to Andersen Instagram account⤵️
https://www.instagram.com/andersencompany

2️⃣ Post in your Instagram stories a photo or video report of how you perform the sporty tasks👌

We are actively diving now into the cardio week 🏃
Details about #AndersenSportMarathon can be found below👇

https://www.instagram.com/andersencompany

Let's go!🔥

Who do the same?🤣
#BAmeme

​​Some interesting news for this week🔅

📎Amazon's Ring has provided doorbell footage to police without owners' consent 11 times so far this year https://edition.cnn.com/2022/07/14/tech/amazon-ring-police-footage/index.html

📎Facebook users may soon be able to create multiple profiles under their accounts https://edition.cnn.com/2022/07/14/tech/meta-facebook-multiple-profiles/index.html

📎Netflix Changes Tack With Marketing Spree for $200 Million Film https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2022-07-15/netflix-changes-tack-with-marketing-spree-for-200-million-film?srnd=technology-vp

Have a great weekend! 💛

Nice article about the integration of AI and Big Data for digital transformation 👉
https://www.modernanalyst.com/Resources/Articles/tabid/115/ID/6088/The-Integration-Of-AI-and-Big-Data-For-Digital-Transformation.aspx

​​Andersen invites all Business Analysts to the Andersen Talks evening that will be held on the 28th of July. We will discuss new trends and chat in a relaxed atmosphere in our office. Each guest will receive a present from the company. The special guest of our evening is Ilona Kedracka – an experienced Product Manager and Blogger at poczatkujaca.pl. Also, you will enjoy speeches from our Business/System Analysts Uladzimir Fedarau and Vitali Birchanka. Business Analysis Andersen Talks is the best party that will bring together a community of professionals and like-minded people in Krakow. You will be able to exchange experiences and discuss your pains and problems, as well as brag about your successes! Do you miss face-to-face communication with colleagues? Then you definitely need to visit us. And we will take care of cold beer and the most delicious pizza in Krakow. Register to personally visit the event: https://lnkd.in/eGEhjSmg Register for online broadcast: https://lnkd.in/eWcKJChQ

​​This week we will publish a series of articles about BA’s work in the Presale phase

Involving Business Analysts in the Presale phase is becoming a common thing nowadays. It has been noted that the processing of incoming requests with BA’s engagement makes possible the revealing of the clients’ hidden expectations and make more precise estimation of the project. In this regard, it is necessary to discuss the particularities of the BA’s activity on the following issues:
📎the differences in the BA’s work on Presale in a product and outsourcing companies
📎possible artifacts of the Presale phase
📎working on Presale with various input data

What is Presale?
In general, Presale is a set of presale activities carried out by an IT service provider before signing a contract. At this stage the client and the service provider are trying to understand how they can meet mutual expectations to strike a deal on the most favorable terms for both parties.
In other words, it is important for the IT company to sell our proposal! To do this, the company takes certain steps aimed to investigating the request of the potential customer, giving the most advantageous offer for him and reducing the risks of incorrect (underestimated or overestimated) price for the work that will be needed.

Role of BA in Presale
Today, most of IT companies involve a BA to work in the Presale phase, where the analyst acts as a mediator for the customer, sales managers and the technical team. The task of the BA in this phase is to understand the customer's need, explain it to the technical team, determine the expected scope of the solution, explain it to the customer and approve the agreed scope, and help the team correctly evaluate the expected solution.

It is important to understand that the work of the BA is only part of the Presale phase, which can be described as the following algorithm:
📌The company receives the RFx (RFP, RFI, RFQ)
📌Sales managers analyze the RFx
📌BA analyzes the RFx
📌BA meets with the customer to identify needs (optional)
📌BA describes the solution (in collaboration with the team)
📌BA meets with the customer to present the solution (optional)
📌The estimates the approved solution
📌Sales managers prepare the commercial offer

Stay tuned to find out about BA’s tasks in product and outsourcing companies ⭐️

​​We are now on Facebook too!
It is possible that in a new place it is more convenient for someone to read various articles☺️
We plan to duplicate materials.
Join via link https://www.facebook.com/BAunity

​​Today we continue topic BA’s work in the Presale phase

BA’s tasks in product and outsourcing companies
The scope of work of a business analyst in the Presale depends on the type of customer. It can be a large company with well-established processes or a startup with a high level of uncertainty and flexibility. The difference of BA’s working approaches in product and outsourcing companies is also worth mentioning. Both cases has their own nuances, but in general, the list of BA tasks is the following:

Product company:
● Study the RFx
● Analyze of the compliance of the existing product with the customer's request
● Communicate with the customer in order to determine the importance of the missing functions in the product (optional)
● Define the project’s scope and describe the missing functions
● Estimate the effort of BA on the project
● Take part in the preparation of commercial proposal (optional)
● Take part in the presentation of a commercial offer to the customer (optional).
At this stage, the BA demonstrate to a potential customer the expertise and readiness to implement an existing solution in the shortest possible terms with maximum efficiency.

Outsourcing company:
● Study RFx
● Analyze the business processes and existing solutions of the customer, existing competitors, or search for similar solutions on the market
● Communicate with the customer in order to find out additional information (optional)
● Determine the scope of the project and a high-level denoscription of the solution
● Estimate the effort of BA on the project
● Take part in the preparation of commercial proposal (optional)
● Take part in the presentation of a commercial offer to the customer (optional)

Artifacts
The work of the BA in the Presale phase is aimed on creating clear artifacts for the technical team to estimate the amount of their work on the project. The most common deliverables are:
● Check-list with a denoscription of the customer's request
● Draft document on the vision and scope of the solution (Vision and Scope document)
● Feature List
● Architecture of the solution
● Prototypes of application interfaces
● Estimation of the BA’s effort in the Discovery phase (if planned)

In the nextt episode we will discuss artifacts in more detail⭐️

​​Next episode of article "BA’s work in the Presale phase"
Today we will discuss Artifacts😎

The work of the BA in the Presale phase is aimed on creating clear artifacts for the technical team to estimate the amount of their work on the project. The most common deliverables are:
● Check-list with a denoscription of the customer's request
● Draft document on the vision and scope of the solution (Vision and Scope document)
● Feature List
● Architecture of the solution
● Prototypes of application interfaces
● Estimation of the BA’s effort in the Discovery phase (if planned)

Check list
Defining the scope of the project. We are trying to find out more about the customer’s idea with the help of general questions, for example:
● What are we going to develop?
● What problem will the solution be solving?
● What are the goals and criteria for the success of the project?
● Who are our competitors and what successful analogues are known?
● Who will be using new system? What classes (roles) of users can be identified? What is their difference?
● How is the process going now? What is the main workflow?
● What are the advantages of the current process, what are the disadvantages? What needs to be improved/changed?
● What is the scope of the first version of the project? What are the main features that should be implemented?
● What technologies are planned to be used?
● What will the developed solution have to be integrated with?

Draft of the Vision and Scope document
A brief denoscription of what will and will not be done during the development. It is necessary to highlight critical functions (minimum viable product, MVP) and the functions that can be postponed to subsequent releases. We can also specify the context of the solution being developed (background for developing the solution, problems to be solved with it, goals and success criteria, business and market needs, risks), as well as project priorities.

Feature List
Definition of the list of main functions with their denoscription. An example list structure:
● Requirement ID
● Function name
● Denoscription of requirement
● Assumptions
● Questions to the customer.

Solution architecture
The fundamental organization of a system, embodied in its elements, their relationships with one another and with the environment, and the principles that guide its design and evolution. In this artefact we present an exemplary model of the architecture of the proposed solution, describing our vision of the possible solution. It is also necessary to indicate the assumed non-functional requirements (availability, fault tolerance, scalability, etc.) within the framework of the proposed model.

Application Interface Prototypes
Top-level prototypes or user interface mock-ups for each of the planned roles. That’s how we can approve a general concept for the main features, available for the users within the system.

Evaluation of BA performance in the Discovery phase
Prepared according to the company's template. We indicate the time costs of the BA, taking into account the artifacts planned for provision and communication between the BA and the customer.

Next day we will finish this fascinating topic. Stay tuned⭐️

​​Finally!
The last part of article "BA’s work in the Presale phase"

Input data
Depending on the inputs provided by the customer, we can choose the approach to the work of the BA in Presale phase. Let’s discuss the main possible cases:

A working solution with full design documentation and well-defined improvements
The best option for BA. We’ll need only to review an existing documentation and estimate new features. A list of functions with a denoscription is also being prepared. BA answers the questions from the team during estimation. In this particular case an additional communication with the customer may not be required. Output: feature list with estimation.

Working solution without documentation
The BA performs reverse engineering activities with the solution, estimates new functions, prepares a list of functions with a denoscription. We answers to the team's questions during the estimation on our own or request communication with the customer.
Output: follow-up from a meeting / call from the customer, feature list with estimation.

Mock-ups/prototypes without documentation
The BA investigates the presented prototypes, identifies the main functions, prepares their list of features with a denoscription. We answers to the team's questions during the estimation on our own or request communication with the customer.
Output: follow-up from a meeting / call from the customer (if any), feature list with estimation

Documentation
The BA examines the presented documentation, forms a list of questions, creates a draft of feature list, parses the draft of feature list with the team, collects questions. We clarify all questions during the communication with the customer, composes a final feature list.
Output: feature list with estimation, a list of questions with customer answers.

Idea
The BA asks the questions to the customer according to the checklist and processes the received information. A high-level feature list is composed and estimated with the team. If necessary, the communication with the client is requested several times.
Output: checklist with the customer's answers, high-level feature list with estimation.

That’s all we’d like to tell about the role of BA in the Presale phase.
Please, fell free to contact us if something needs an additional discussion⭐️

The winner is the topic about discovery😎
Let’s start.

So what is the Product discovery phase? In simple words, the Discovery phase is a part of the planning phase from PMBOK. It is strictly required to create a product roadmap and to make budget cost estimations.
The Discovery phase usually results in
Vision & Scope
Design Concept
Architecture Vision
Sometimes discovery phase can even result in avoiding spending millions on a product that is not worth it.
So let’s get a deeper understanding of what is a Discovery phase and what it consists of.


Product Discovery Phase Benefits

So let’s return to our skyscraper example. Just imagine you are building a skyscraper and when the 50-th floor is ready, you suddenly understand that you have forgotten about one additional entrance just because your plan has not been detailed enough?
Well, OK, in this case, you really can do nothing, and in software development, you actually can add one additional entry. But there is no such thing as a wonderland, it is going to cost the product team way more time and money than it might cost in case this entrance had been included in the preliminary plan.
The other problem is time to market, which is deadly important to any startup product.
Of course, the Agile approach to software development is the best way of managing product development, but in some cases, it can be quite dangerous. A lot of products fail because it is very easy to dive deep into details or fall into scope creep when all features seem to be so important. Agile is good, but don’t forget about clear and precise vision! Without that, time, effort and money are going to be lost.

So one of the main goals of any Discovery phase is to create such a vision and align the whole team with it.

#Discovery