The tasks assigned to the analyst by office work sometimes require repeated repetition of the same tasks. Over time, a person, of course, learns to perform them more efficiently, more successfully, more accurately and faster, BUT … The increase in his efficiency in speed and quality of problem solving is measured by ten to twenty percent.
At the same time, the use of professional software allows, if not replacing the analyst himself at work, then increasing his productivity several times. The time spent on routine tasks is reduced, which allows you to free up space and save energy for more important tasks. As a result, an employee who has doubled speed can become 5-10 times more useful for an entrepreneur.
The Web Academy team has collected TOP 5 applications for you that will help you not only quickly solve business problems, but also significantly increase your productivity. Go!
1 Visio. A product that helps organize upcoming tasks through Mind Maps and flowcharts. Suitable not only for solving business problems, but also for communication on tasks between a programmer and a manager.
2.Excel. It would seem – a banal software that every office employee has. But the use of macros and scripts greatly expand its functionality, allowing you to solve multiple tasks.
3. Confluence. A closed wiki platform that allows you to structure all the knowledge and data about the company. Supports standard HTML and Wiki markup.
4. Jira. Project management software. It has functionality similar to Visio, which is more adapted to business supervision and error correction. Allows you to create a list of tasks – with deadlines, etc.
5. Balsamiq. A useful program that combines functionality for creating powerful layouts, and suitable for prototyping interfaces of any complexity.
Now let’s take a closer look at each of them:
Microsoft Visio
Microsoft Visio is one of the most underrated tools in business. Many perceive it solely as a means for constructing flowcharts. At the same time, the use of Visio provides the employee with the following opportunities:
1. Quick work on creating Mind lists.
2. Standardization of design. This is especially important because if your company has employees who know the meaning of the blocks, then their adjustment and use can significantly reduce the time for adjustments, drawing up tasks and plans.
3. Circuits assembled on the knee look professional. After a little polishing, they can immediately be used in landing pages.
Creating a flowchart using Visio is done by selecting the appropriate library of elements that are located on the workspace. This allows you to quickly and efficiently make a full-fledged prototype of the future design in blocks.
Microsoft Excel
Second on the list, but not least, is Microsoft Excel. This “program for accountants” allows you to solve a wide range of business problems.
1. Reporting.
2. Project coordination.
3. Creation of automated script templates for calculating estimates, creating quotations.
4. Formation of other automated tasks requiring mathematical calculations.
Other little-known but important features of Excel include parsing and comparing data, which are so important when making quick business decisions. The simplest example can be a software comparison of two price lists, with the selection of the most advantageous positions from each.
Note: if you don’t want to spend a lot of money on buying a license from Microsoft, you can use alternatives like Libre office, or more familiar google spreadsheets. The last two software, although inferior in terms of convenience and functionality, are able to solve the same tasks as the product from Microsoft.
Confluence
Confluence is one of the most powerful business tools out there. It allows you to create a rich internal system based on wiki markup. It can store and structure:
1. Submitted resumes.
2. Data about employees.
3. Data on the assigned tasks.
4. Important background information about the project.
5. Manage workspaces.
6. Delegate your own tasks.
7. Connect / disconnect people to ongoing projects.
In fact, this is such a GitHub – but for analysts, not programmers. The software has received the greatest application in the field of delegation of work on outsourcing and freelancing. When there is no direct communication with the employee, but you need to provide all the necessary information.
Jira
Jira is a powerful electronic project manager. Its main feature is the ultimate ease of management. Built a mind map. Distributed tasks. The software supports imports from other sources, and paired with Visio can become a powerful tool for delegation.
In addition, customizable Push notifications have been added in the latest versions, which can notify you of a change in the workspace (for example, when a task has moved from the “in progress” to the “under review” category).
The tool allows you to coordinate the work of a large company, analyze the effectiveness of certain departments, using the functionality of internal statistics. And most importantly, Jira allows you to manage not just one, but to delegate several fundamentally different projects and tasks at once.
Balsamiq
Balsamiq is one of the most powerful yet simple prototyping tools. The main task of the software is to create preliminary layouts of interfaces. It doesn’t matter if it’s a prototype landing page. Or a prototype of Messenger’s internal screen.
The main feature of the program is the ultimate visibility. You can arrange not only the key elements of the future interface, but also arrange them under the browser / phone window, with scrolling.
This is useful for creating adaptive prototypes, which are then provided to layout designers. With such a program, the issues of misunderstanding between the analyst, designer and layout designer completely disappear.
Summarizing
Remember that these are not all tools suitable for solving business problems. But each of them makes life much easier for you as an employee. Do you need to draw interface prototypes by hand on paper? Is it necessary to understand the words of the programmer. Do you need a diary to solve current problems. How not to get confused in all this? Use management programs, create Mind lists with a couple of mouse clicks, and then you can concentrate on more global tasks that require real knowledge.