Functional Analyst: “Intense but fascinating“
The Functional Analyst is an indispensable link in the chain that leads from idea to IT solution. This person ensures that the business and developers pull together. It’s a role that not only requires knowledge of business and IT. You need to have a broad range of people and communication skills too. Discover the story of Liesbeth, a Functional Analyst at Equalminds.
meet Liesbeth
Liesbeth De Belder studied commercial sciences and began her career at a company that specialized in testing IT applications. “That’s how I got into the sector,” she laughs. She later moved into functional analysis and, as a freelance analyst, worked at a bank in the transport sector and a telecom company, among other places. “That’s how I came into contact with Equalminds,” says Liesbeth. “I’m currently working on several projects for VAB.”
VAB is a mobility organization that is committed to road safety, mobility, and the environment. The organization is implementing a complete overhaul of its IT environment. “They are replacing their core application which runs on Oracle,” explains Liesbeth. “As an analyst, I’m involved in all the other projects — everything that is not directly related to that Oracle trajectory. This includes a project on a system that manages fuel cards and digital requests for roadside assistance, for example via the VAB site and the KBC app.”
Collaboration between business and IT
In concrete terms, it’s the business that launches an idea. “They draw up the business case,” says Liesbeth. “Then the analysts do their thing. We break the project into smaller pieces, which are then fleshed out one by one through IT development. We first look at how things work and what’s feasible in practice. Then we run workshops with the business. This results in user stories, which ultimately form the basis for the list of features that need to be developed, including the acceptance criteria, the necessary tests, and so on.”
In other words, the analyst acts as the link between business, development, and testing. The analysis captures the vision of the business, transforms it into a concrete project, and feeds that plan back into the business. “Explaining things, that’s what we do,” Liesbeth laughs. “There’s a lot of contact with both business and development. We facilitate that contact and ensure that everyone is on board with the story.” A good analyst works in a structured way and thinks clearly. “That’s really crucial,” she says. “In the role of analyst, you receive an enormous amount of information. You have to capture and process a lot in order to then feed the information back to the right stakeholders in a very targeted and precise manner.”
Never a dull moment
Liesbeth is currently working full-time on the project at VAB, but her next assignment may be in a completely different sector, with a completely different type of company. “That’s what makes the job so exciting,” she says. “Equalminds has customers in very different industries, so you always end up in a different environment.” Likewise, analysts often work on projects in different departments of the same company.
“There’s a lot of variety in the job,” says Liesbeth. “Although the role of the analyst is often very intensive. You’re always familiarizing yourself with new material. But that’s precisely what gives me energy, and that’s precisely why I’m never bored. It’s a job in which you’re always learning, in which you’re constantly facing new challenges, getting to know new sectors, and meeting new people. It’s the ideal job for me!”
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