Role of a Business Analyst
A Business Analyst maps the digitalisation requirements of a real business into the functionality of an enterprise software platform, like Odoo.
We hire BAs to execute digitalisation projects in SME companies. This page will help you to wrap your mind around the requirements of the job, and how you can prepare to interview for it.
BA Onboarding
Onboarding into the role of an Odoo Business Analyst is a 2 step process.
Bootstrap into Odoo
First, you will learn the functionalities of Odoo in a 1-2 week bootstrapping program (depending on how fast you learn).
Implement Use Cases
Then you will perform 12 unique use-cases live on the latest version of the Odoo software. These will be assessed by a senior consultant for your preparedness to enter real-life business and industrial projects.
Analysis – Implementation – Writing – Explaining – Research – Demo
These are the 6 super powers that help you excel in the role of a BA.
Analysis
As a BA, you will analyse the needs of the customer and find intelligent, most cost effective (current and TCO) and technically smart solutions for a customer's digitalisation needs.
You will hold 1-on-1 workshop sessions with a customer, ask them wide and deep questions about their business, and how they manage it right now – with the intention of collecting maximum information for engineering an Odoo solution for their needs.
Odoo Implementation
Over 90% of the features needed in most projects are available in Odoo out of the box.
As a Business Analyst, you will configure the software using the Odoo Implementation Methodology (OIM), so as to meet the daily needs of the Customer's users and company departments.
We aim to minimise the development of new custom modules. But if we need to, we have our own Odoo developers.
Writing
Once your solution is clear in your mind, you document it for the customer, sometimes Odoo developers and other internal and external project participants.
Odoo is very powerful, hence the out of the box is often sufficient. But for those cases where additional customisations are needed, so called "custom modules".
Each module provides a unique functionality and a Business Analyst writes a functional specification to describe the feature that an Odoo programmer needs to program.
Explaining
Once the solution is implemented, it has to be explained to the customer and other project participants.
You might also be training the users at the customer company, in groups or 1-on-1 (usually on video).
Strong communication skills are indeed a super-power in this role.
Research & Learning
In an increasingly complex IT landscape, learning is a daily activity. Sometimes someone is already providing a solution to the problem you are trying to solve. Sometimes a competitor needs to be checked. Sometimes industry best practices have to be understood.
Intensive research is a part of a Business Analyst's daily activity.
Software Demos
To aid Customers in early stages, together with our sales and marketing team, a Business Analyst does software-demos to show the general capabilities of the software, aided by some slides + a live Odoo installation.
During the Demo we also use the opportunity to collect important requirements information.
What does the typical day of an Odoo BA look like?
The typical day of an Odoo Business Analyst is very exciting, because they are constantly solving problems.
Here's a bullet-point list of all the things you might catch yourselves doing during the course of a workday.
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Talk to Customers to understand their business requirement.
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Device solutions within the Odoo framework.
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Research technologies either within the Odoo framework, or from other proven solution-providers, if they could be utilised in customer's situation.
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Consult solutions with Odoo developers, or explain business situations to them, so that they can produce the necessary software.
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Write custom module specifications for developers.
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Perform Customer and management reviews.
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Write documentation for project participants.