Business Analysis Interview Series - Sam Palerme

In this edition of the Business Analysis Interview Series, we visited BA Practice Manager, Sam Palerme at Hollard. Sam has over 17 years of experience in Australia and the UK. He has a diverse background across Financial Services, Professional Services, and Telecommunications. In his role as BA Manager, he gives us a detailed breakdown of all things Business Analysis.

What are some of the most important things you look for in a BA?

For me, there are two key components. The first is their technical skills, or core competencies. If I’m conducting an interview, I’m looking to see how well they can talk through the delivery lifecycle, the BA activities and deliverables. Do their answers come naturally and flow from each project stage, from understanding a problem, defining scope, eliciting and documenting business processes and requirements, and so forth.

The second component is EQ. You may have strong technical skills, you may know how to write documents like a BRD, but how well do they communicate and engage with you? I look to get a feel for their communication style, their body language. Do I feel they will build rapport with colleagues and stakeholders. How would they be presenting in front of people, or dealing with difficult stakeholders, or challenging their PM where applicable?

In terms of what I’m looking for between a BA and a Senior BA, it’s really about their depth of answer, their range of experience, and how they can give a thorough breakdown or overview.

My recommendation for people is to try not to go into lots of detail about your existing project. Focus on your explanation of your role activities, deliverables, and outcomes. I tend to frame my questions contextually – for example, “if you’re producing a BRD, what would the table of content include?” – to answer this you don’t need to explain your project, just your knowledge of a good BRD.

How can BA certification help?

In my opinion, certifications and formal training are about providing foundational knowledge and understanding the theoretical. They are the textbook or user manual, so to speak – they help explain how to do something.

But in my opinion, they can stop being useful if you try to follow them 100%, by letter of the law. Applying theory into practice sometimes requires a more pragmatic approach, a tailored approach, and this is where on-the-job experience is key.

As such, my recommendation (if you’re willing to do so), would be to do a range of certifications so you gain a good understanding of different methodologies and delivery approaches, understand how they differ, and which works best for your type of project. This will help give you a more rounded understanding and experience.

In your opinion what differentiates a BA from a Senior BA?

For me it’s about range and depth of experience. The analogy I always use is that of a driving licence.

For instance, a Junior BA may be like a learner on their L’s. They have undertaken some theory, but their on-road experience is limited so they’re still developing their skills and understanding what needs to be done.

A Business Analyst may be like a new driver, on their red P’s. You have a little more experience, you can do the job, but there may still be restrictions or limitations – for instance, you may not be asked to facilitate a large workshop, with senior stakeholders, on their own.

A Senior Business Analyst would then be your green P’s. You have more experience and more exposure. The restrictions are reduced. And as you progress towards Lead BA it’s then like being on your full licence. You’ve perhaps worked on multiple types of projects, perhaps across industries and geographies, using different methodologies. In a driving sense, you have experienced day, night, dry conditions, wet conditions, and you’ve driven overseas on the other side of the road – all of which provide valuable learnings and how to adapt accordingly.

In my experience, I find some BAs want to progress too quickly, skip steps and therefore haven't achieved that depth of experience across different types of projects, and so forth.

This can be noticeable in interviews when providing answers. How much detail they can go into, without being prompted or asked follow-up questions. How much of their experience is about I and not We? Are they evidencing more senior skill sets, such as BA leadership, planning, and coaching more junior team members?

What is one piece of advice that you would give to an aspiring BA?

Be comfortable making mistakes. They will happen. At times there tends to be a fear of failure, a belief everything must be right the first time.

I’ve worked in project delivery for 17 years now and I have never had a project go-live without a mistake, without a change request, or a defect. These things happen, things get missed.

But the key is to learn, to grow from these situations. As the saying goes “don't make the same mistake twice, learn from it”.

During your time as a manager working closely with a team of BAs, what made your best BA different from the others?

I think there are a few things, a few similar traits with some of the best BAs I have worked with. These have included:

·?????? Less handholding, more trust: you know if you ask them to deliver something they know how to approach it, when to drive vs. when to stop and ask, you know they will deliver what is being asked to a high standard every time.

·?????? Going above and beyond: whether this be taking extra responsibility, undertaking extra tasks, or knowing when to keep driving forward – for instance when engaging business stakeholders knowing which answers are final vs which may trigger additional thoughts and questions…an experienced BA will ask those questions and go down those avenues, they proactively dig deeper.

·?????? Not afraid to challenge: when you have lots of experiences to lean upon, don’t be afraid to use them! The best BAs have been curious, asked questions, validated the approach, or even challenged me so I can learn and be better too.