Now Available on Now Learning from Community Author Allen Andreas - Project Roles and Responsibilities: Business Analyst

[David Giammona1]

The Now Learning Community-Created Content program is excited to announce its newest course, Project Roles and Responsibilities: Business Analyst, from community author Allen Andreas! Allen has been innovating and creating transformation in the ServiceNow community for over eight years. He is a Now Community MVP with over ten ServiceNow certifications. Wow!

In this new course, Allen provides insight into the important impact business analysts make on ServiceNow projects. The course is designed to help guide those interested in a career as a ServiceNow business analyst, those already in the role, and other project members looking to understand the role better. The Business Analyst role provides an excellent opportunity to lead transformation in the ServiceNow ecosystem outside of technical roles, such as developer, implementer, or system administrator. The role is critical and in high demand. 

It was great to meet Allen (in person!) at Knowledge22 in Las Vegas. Did any of you catch his standing-room-only conference presentation Learn how to utilize and participate in the ServiceNow Community? Allen is a wealth of information and has a great way of explaining how to get started. He is a champion content creator, ready to roar with his YouTube channel Allenovation. Make sure to subscribe to keep in the loop on all his new content. Allen has some great ideas planned.

Recently, I asked Allen some questions about his ServiceNow journey and his thoughts on the business analyst role. I learned so much from his impactful answers. Check out his responses below the Allenovation video trailer. If you are looking for inspiration along your ServiceNow journey, Allen is someone you should meet.

I am glad everyone will get a chance to connect with Allen through his new Now Learning course and Allenovation YouTube channel. Keep roaring, Allen! Thank you for all you do. We are ready to learn. 

How did you initially get introduced to ServiceNow?

I was introduced to ServiceNow over 8 years ago when I worked for a company that had just purchased it. I was actually just an end-user submitting tickets here and there and at the time and had no idea that I'd end up where I am today. I remember that I was extremely curious about the platform. I kept annoying the ServiceNow team members back then because I'd always ask questions about what the platform could do or how it functioned in the backend. I really wanted to learn more about how the system functioned and that led me to start searching and looking into things on my own.

What is the most important thing you did to advance your ServiceNow career?

The most important thing I did was focus on learning and then incorporating hands-on activities. I always strive to learn something new every day and I carried that same thought process into my career with ServiceNow and that was the catalyst to really digging in and learning everything that I could. It's important that you set goals and challenge yourself. It's ok to feel uncomfortable. Use that fear of the unknown to push yourself! You're the main person who has the power to truly motivate yourself and push things to the next level. In the early part of my ServiceNow career, I buckled down and just focused on ServiceNow night and day for about 4-5 months straight and I came out of that with a ton of knowledge that laid the path for where I've been thus far in my career. I have several life quotes that I live by, one is: "Success is not owned, it's rented, and the rent is due every single day".

What inspired you to create the Allenovation YouTube channel focused on ServiceNow?

I've been involved with the ServiceNow Community for over 5 years now and regularly assist on the Community forums however, for 2022, I set a goal to expand my reach and try other methods of helping people learn how awesome ServiceNow is. I decided to write more articles this year than I had in the past, create video content, volunteer for the ServiceNow Developer Mentorship Program, speak at the Knowledge22 conference, and be a guest speaker for ServiceNow's NextGen Skillbridge Program. Regarding the articles and video content, I wanted to cover both because people learn differently and both present different challenges in terms of preparing the content. For the video content, I wanted to make sure the quality matched my passion for the ServiceNow platform. Another life quote I say often is: "If something is worth doing, then it's worth doing right!".

What advice would you give someone interested in becoming a ServiceNow business analyst?

Firstly, I'd say, thank you. Thank you for being interested in such an important role that helps lead to the success of a ServiceNow project. This role is great for someone who is organized and loves to do public speaking. You're going to be one of the main faces of the ServiceNow product to stakeholders involved with your project and so with that, you have a great power and responsibility! You also make everyone else's lives easier on the project, to include the development team, by gathering requirements which reveals the true pain points your stakeholders have and then translating that over to your development team. It's one of the most rewarding job roles out there!

What is often the most misunderstood aspect of being a business analyst?

I believe most people look at business analysts and think they "just write stories". I know you'll find out through this course that they do WAY more than that. I've personally been on projects where I'd had the privilege of working with some of the best business analysts I've ever seen and it's one of those roles that rewards everyone for your efforts, especially when you can go above and beyond. Not only are there vibes of being a detective, by asking questions and learning more about the customer, but each piece of information you uncover helps your team bring the best value in the end!

What have been some of your favorite changes in the product over the past eight years?

ServiceNow has really grown in many aspects over the past eight years. Some of my favorite changes are the inclusion of low-code/no-code development offerings such as Flow Designer and App Engine Studio (AES). I'm a big fan of making technology easily accessible to as many people as you can and ServiceNow is really leading the way in that regard. Additionally, they're also adding features that developers will love as well!

What is your favorite thing about being a part of the ServiceNow community?

I really enjoy helping people learn about the ServiceNow platform. I love to learn about other users' situations and business requirements and help provide insight into areas that I have knowledge of or perhaps made a mistake in and so I help explain how to not repeat the same thing I did, haha. The most rewarding feeling is when I help someone and give just enough information to nudge them in the right direction and then they take it from there and really learn from that experience. I've had several people come back to their forum post and thank me for guiding them and not just offering the exact answer or script. My goal is to help others learn and that's best done when you encourage people and give them the tools they need to get the job done.

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So, who will be the next Now Learning community author? How about you? Do you have content that would benefit from an expanded reach? Is it something that would complement the existing Now Learning curriculum or help develop different personas critical to the success of ServiceNow projects? Contact nowlearningcommunity@servicenow.com for details on bringing your content into Now Learning to help power the future of ServiceNow training innovation!