Day in the life of a
Senior Business Analyst
Tackling all things tech, our Senior Business Analyst, Kayleigh Bell walks us through a day in the life of her role, including her morning wake-up and go-to hot drink.
Morning:
Coffee and nature
I generally start my day with a big cup of coffee to get energised. I’ve just got a new coffee machine so I’m always trying to perfect my barista skills! If I want to change things up, I’ll also reach for my current favourite alternative – a freshly brewed cup of Wagh Bakri Masala Tea.
Once my hot drink is prepped, I head out for a walk accompanied by my playful puppy. This helps set the tone for a productive day ahead and gets me ready to work.
The work day begins
The first thing on my list is always to sift through emails to get up to speed for the day ahead. I then head into my first meeting; the daily scrum. Here the IT team talks about our current projects, where we are in the sprint process and if there are any blockers stopping our Developers or Analysts.
Over the past year our team worked hard to launch our portfolio management system, Cosmo, and this remains an ongoing labour of love. We are continually working on new iterations to enhance user experience and increase the value of this tool for the business. This means most projects align with this platform’s development.
Following the daily catch-up I tend to be in back-to-back meetings until lunch. On a regular week I will catch up with members of our Risk, Portfolio and Finance team and try to figure out how we can improve our internal systems. I gather information on what the business needs, what the requirements are and current processes so we can build our Cosmo system to be as best fit as possible. My role requires a lot of attention to detail, so consistent meetings and fact finding sessions are vital.
If I’m catching up with anyone externally, it will be with our third party providers, who help us with things outside the scope of our team.
Lunch
Refuel and go
Lunch for me is normally a speedy one as I fit it in around my to-do list for the day. I normally have leftovers from my meal the night before to get me fuelled for the afternoon ahead.
Afternoon
Planning and evaluation
After a busy morning of meetings, my afternoons tend to be more focused on reviewing specs and strategising for the next sprint development. While we have a lot of different projects going on, the team’s main focus right now is building out our factoring module, which helps our working capital clients upload invoices, documents and other essential information to contribute to the smooth running of their finance facility.
Every time a new functionality has been released, we take considerable time to ensure there are no bugs and it’s working as well as it should be.
Evening
Close of day and time to play
After a busy day I am always itching to get outside, and love to get out for a walk on the mountain with my dog. Once I’ve got my nature fix, I like to unwind by cooking a meal and enjoying a nice glass of wine.
