Induction plan for a new BA into the project

Question: You have joined a new project as a BA. What do you think you should do to acclimatize to the project and set yourself in the BA role?

Response:

In an ideal project the BA lead or the project manager should:

•         Have an induction plan and a well-defined process to bring you up to speed on the project.
•         Introduce you to the project team or at least the team members working on the module you need to work on.
•         Assignments and deliverable expectations ready for you to work on.

The fact is that this kind of induction plan never exists. At the maximum you may get your computer and get introduced to couple of team members. Many times you are left in the cold to learn the hard way.

Nevertheless, a BA should have his own induction plan. The new BA should take an appointment with the BA lead or ask to assign a person to go over the induction plan. The induction plan can include:

         

Assignments –

o   A brief Introduction about the project

o  The assignment you need to work on and how the assignment fits into the big picture. The assignment could be a change request or a brand new module. You may also want to know the background and the importance of the module.
o   Request to include you in the related status and requirement meetings

Document repository – Where does the team store the requirement artifacts? Where does the project management plans and schedule are kept? These could be at a SharePoint location or a shared folder.

Resources: Ask about:
o   The software you need to get the work done for example to read the XSD or XML files, to create diagrams, client databases, etc. 
o   The access rights to different SharePoint locations and folders.
o   Formalities to put request for the above two things.

Environmental factors - Ask your lead to explain:
o   The typical process for requirement gathering for example how the requirements are received, who is the main stakeholders, what are the general requirement gathering techniques followed, etc.
o   Templates and Document approval – where are the template and sample artifacts kept, what is the life cycle of a typical artifact for example initial draft, peer review, QMO review etc.
o   Life cycle of a release – How does a release start, how the modules are allocated, what are the release start and end activities, what are the approximate time lines, and so on. 

Organizational factors - 
o   Who could help you with the current assignments and if you can be introduced to them.
o   How the team is organized internally – For Example – Interface BA, Requirement BA, development, testing, management team, and so on. Ask where the organization chart is located.
o   The important external stakeholders for example – client, vendors involved, and so on. The client may split the project among many vendors.

You may not know the above details in one session and may have to reach out to different people formally or informally. Learning the finer details could be a gradual process. It could also vary from person to person depending upon the background knowledge and grasping capabilities.