To code or not to code

Morning folks. This is Better BA. A practical newsletter for business analysts that gets straight to the point.

We won’t give you pointless buzzword sentences like ‘Employing an integrated paradigm of predictive analytics synergised with agile frameworks’ 🤮 If that sentence really gets you going, then you’re probably in the wrong place.

Lets get to it

INSIGHT
Do I need to know how to code?

Let’s get into a subject that’s rearing its head in the BA community, especially amongst the newcomers. It’s the age old question ⬇️

‘To code or not to code’ - William Shakespeare

To put it simply, the answer to whether a BA needs to have coding skills or not is.. ‘Nah, not really’.

Let me explain using some basic personas.

Jeff 🧔‍♂️
Jeff is a ‘Pure’ BA. He won’t go near the code. He takes the classic ‘What, not how’ approach, as he should. His focus is on understanding what’s under the hood, not fixing the engine!

Amy 👩
Amy is a ‘Techy’ BA. She can write SQL queries. She’s dabbled in code in the past out of self interest. Amy will occasionally ‘read’ code to figure out how things are put together, but she can’t write it. Nor does she need to.

Dave 👨🏽‍💻
Dave (Also known as ‘Davo’) is an ‘Ex Dev’ BA. This guy used to be a Developer. He can read and write code effortlessly. Specifying technical solutions is his bread and butter 🍞🧈. Unfortunately though, his fixation on the technical details distracts him from focusing on the true needs of the stakeholder.

_{Note - There’s no right or wrong answer as to which of the above personas is the ‘Better BA’. We can’t answer that without more context. Having said that ⬇️}

Key takeaways

• Jeff and Amy represent the larger majority of BAs. If you work within software development, aspire to be more like Amy (Learning more technical skills never hurt anyone right?)

• Dave is a genius, but that may be his downfall. Of course not all ‘ex devs’ are like Dave. Though he does provide an example of why an in depth knowledge of code may actually do more harm than good.

All this noise about coding could just be a case of mistaken identity—confusing BAs with Business Analytics. Or maybe it's the vocal minority of coding-savvy BAs making making a fuss.

At the end of the day, let's remember what a BA does best: bridging the gap between business needs and technical solutions. We're the translators, the facilitators, the ones who make sense of it all. You don’t need code for that. 

WISDOM

'One of the best ways to ensure a solution is well-reasoned is to be 'forced' to describe it verbally or by flowing out the logic.'

MEMES