Now Learning is thrilled to announce its newest community author course, Identify Project Stakeholders for Business Analysts, from Atul Grover. In this new course, Atul provides insight into the different types of stakeholders and the unique roles they play within various ServiceNow projects. It also provides learners with recommended communication strategies for approaching each type of stakeholder. Business analysts, those who want to become business analysts, and others involved in managing ServiceNow projects will benefit from Atul's explanation of how to direct the contribution of different ServiceNow project stakeholders.
Atul offers over 14 years of experience within the ITIL space, serving in various ITSM/ITIL Business Process Consulting roles. He has focused heavily on ServiceNow techno-functional consulting, ServiceNow architecture, IT operations, and process improvement. With more than 10 certifications in Information Technology, Atul brings a wealth of knowledge to the ServiceNow community. He is the recipient of multiple awards of excellence and it’s not hard to see why! He has delivered upwards of 25 guest lectures at various Universities and institutes and has trained over 5,000 students. Wow!
I recently had the privilege of talking with Atul about his ServiceNow journey and his thoughts on the business analyst role. I urge you to read our full conversation below! You can also connect with Atul through his new Now Learning course and Learn & Grow Together with Atul G YouTube channel. Don’t forget to subscribe! Thank you for sharing your wisdom and passion with us, Atul!
How did you initially get introduced to ServiceNow?
Atul: In 2015, I joined a new organization as a Change Manager. There, I began working with ServiceNow as an end user. Shortly after, one of my seniors suggested I learn ServiceNow from a development perspective. I followed her advice & today ServiceNow is my bread, butter, and jam!
What is the most important thing you did to advance your ServiceNow career?
Atul: Advancing my ServiceNow career was not an easy journey for me. I spent hours and days training and learning ServiceNow. To stay updated in the domain, I always keep an eye on ServiceNow’s latest releases, product enhancements, and Now Learning.
What inspired you to create the Learn & Grow Together with Atul G YouTube channel focused on ServiceNow?
Atul: My passion to share knowledge with the community inspired me to start my own YouTube channel. On the personal front, I’ve delivered 27 guest lectures in colleges and deemed universities. This motivates me to share my knowledge on bigger platforms, like YouTube.
During my initial days of learning ServiceNow, it was difficult to find content to learn the basics as a consultant. After 5-6 years of experience in ServiceNow, I thought it was my time to pay back to the community, so I started my YouTube channel. There, I share ServiceNow content and other technical topics. Today, my channel has more than 200 videos on ServiceNow topics.
Do you have any helpful recommendations on how learners can explore the content on your YouTube channel?
Atul : With God’s Grace, my videos have helped many pass the CSA exam, crack the interview, and start careers working in the ServiceNow domain. My channel has a lot of helpful content for ServiceNow and many other areas as well. It includes playlists, such as:
- ServiceNow Techno Functional Batches: A playlist of almost 8 batches with more than 40 videos in each batch that I delivered in the last 2 years. These batches have content from admin to advanced topics, including scripting. These batches are 70% Functional and 30% Technical. Every batch has a number and every video is sorted by day. Every batch has something different from the previous batch. Initial batches were in Hindi, while the latest are in English. These are NON-EDITED videos, directly downloaded from trainings and uploaded to the channel.
- Business Analysts: This 31 days series covers 10 chapters and 30 + techniques mentioned and written in BABOK (Business Analyst Body of Knowledge).
- ServiceNow Standard Topics: A playlist of standard and standalone topics like major incident management, CAB workbench, features of the Tokyo/San Diego release, change and release management, and many more.
- Knowledge sharing sessions: Covered topics which I delivered in guest lectures and conferences like Innovations, MSM, Career Guidance, Workflow Automation, and more.
- Other playlists: ServiceNow scripting for Business Consultants, ITIL, and ITSM are also available on the channel.
Lastly, you can even enjoy stories for kids and the Ramayana Epic.
What is the most important advice you like to share with new Business Analysts?
Atul: There are two points that are important for new Business Analysts:
- Be open-minded and understand the customer requirement as a user vs. a consultant or Business Analyst.
- Keep learning and don’t change your roots for any problem statement. For Business Analysts, it is important to follow the basis and foundation of business terms. It’s also important to keep learning new techniques and methods to optimize your Business Analyst work.
What have been some of your favorite changes in the ServiceNow product over the years?
Atul: When I entered the ServiceNow domain in 2014/2015, the market was saying that if you know incident /change and problem, you know everything. At that time, ServiceNow was being used as just a ticketing tool. In the last 7-8 years, I’ve seen ServiceNow grow into an ocean of services. Some of my favorite features to be added are the Visual Task Board, Process Optimization, Spotlight Ranking, CAB Workbench, and Governance Risk and Compliance (known as Integrated Risk Management). As I am more on the process side, changes in Flow Designer and the introduction of a Flow to a Process are other favorite changes.
What is your favorite thing about being a part of the ServiceNow community?
Atul: It offers a one-stop shop for all problems related to ServiceNow. Even though I am not a developer, the ServiceNow community gave me the idea for my next video. Many good members share their knowledge on the platform and I’ve learned a lot from them.
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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!
