How to Step Out of the “Forwarder” Shadow?

Must-Have Tools for Business Analyst

In today’s fast-evolving tech world, working smart has become even more crucial than working hard. In IT environments — and in any modern business — managing a growing amount of complex work can’t rely solely on memory, scattered emails, or individual Excel sheets. One of the most effective ways to boost productivity intelligently is through the use of supporting tools.This isn’t just a trend anymore — it’s quickly becoming the standard in many companies. For Business Analysts (BAs), the right tools don’t just make you more efficient — they make you more professional. Let’s explore some essential tools every BA should have in their toolkit 👇 1. Draw.io A free, intuitive diagramming tool to visualize processes, systems, data, or ideas.It’s ideal for modeling workflows and mapping business logic. Key Features: Free and no registration required — just go to diagrams.net.Flexible storage — save files locally or to Google Drive, OneDrive, GitHub, GitLab.Rich icon library — supports UML, BPMN, flowcharts, network diagrams, and more.UML & BPMN ready — perfect for use cases, activity diagrams, and business flows.Easy collaboration when stored on shared drives.Cross-platform — available on web, desktop, and as a VS Code extension. Limitations: Real-time collaboration isn’t as strong as tools like Figma.Performance may drop with very large or complex diagrams. 2. Miro Miro is an online collaborative whiteboard designed for teams to brainstorm, plan, and visualize ideas in real-time. Key Features: Infinite canvas — visualize projects without space limits.Real-time collaboration — comment, vote, and co-edit instantly.Rich templates — includes user story maps, journey maps, mindmaps, Kanban boards, and wireframes.Integrations — connects with Jira, Confluence, Slack, Teams, Google Drive, and more.Great for mapping processes, use cases, roadmaps, or even UI mockups. Limitations: Free plan limits the number of boards.Large boards with many assets may slow down performance. 3. Trello Trello is a Kanban-based task management tool that helps teams visualize and track progress easily. Key Features: Simple drag-and-drop interface.Highly customizable boards, lists, and cards.Each card can include checklists, attachments, labels, due dates, and assignees.Seamless integration with Google Drive, Slack, Jira, GitHub, and others.Real-time updates across all team members.Works on web, desktop, and mobile. Limitations: Free plan limits the number of integrations (Power-Ups). 4. Jira Jira by Atlassian is the industry-standard project management tool for Agile teams. Key Features: Built for Scrum and Kanban teams.Highly customizable workflows, fields, and automation rules.Transparent tracking of tasks, blockers, and progress.Integrates with hundreds of DevOps, CI/CD, and testing tools.Scales from individual tasks to enterprise-level project portfolios. Limitations: Steep learning curve for beginners.Can be costly for large teams.Requires experienced admins for setup and maintenance.May run slower on large, complex projects. 5. Typescale A handy tool for generating consistent typography systems (font size, line height, spacing) for web or app design. Key Features: Automates type scale creation.Multiple presets and flexible customizations.Preview and export CSS directly.Ensures responsive and accessible typography. Limitations: Not suitable for all design systems or content types.Limited control over detailed responsive behavior. 6. Adobe Color An intuitive color palette generator to create harmonious and accessible color schemes. Key Features: Easy-to-use color wheel with real-time updates.Auto-generates color harmonies based on color theory.Supports HEX, RGB, and CMYK formats.Integrates seamlessly with Adobe tools like Photoshop, Illustrator, and XD.Community palette sharing and inspiration gallery. Limitations: Contrast still needs manual checking for accessibility.Some auto-generated palettes may need manual tweaking.Colors can look different on various screens. 7. Contrast Checker A simple but vital tool to ensure readability and accessibility by checking text and background contrast per WCAG standards. Key Features: Simple interface — input colors and get instant feedback.Ensures compliance with accessibility guidelines.Real-time updates as you adjust colors.Bridges design and development — everyone can validate contrast easily. Limitations: Doesn’t reflect results accurately for complex backgrounds.Doesn’t account for font size, spacing, or user testing conditions. Why Use These Tools? Transparency: Everything — from tasks to deadlines — is clearly tracked. For example, Trello helps answer questions like “Who’s doing what?” and “What’s the current status?”Visualization: Tools like Draw.io help transform abstract logic into clear, easy-to-understand diagrams.Collaboration: Integrating tools like Miro, Jira, or Slack ensures everyone stays aligned and reduces miscommunication. Tips for Getting Started Start small: You don’t need every tool at once. Begin with Jira or Trello, then expand.Build shared habits: Tools only work when the whole team uses them consistently.Learn by doing: Explore free trials and tutorials, then apply them directly in your current projects.Stay updated: Tools evolve fast — keeping up helps you stay ahead. Using tools isn’t just about having more software — it’s about changing the way we work.They make our processes more transparent, our teamwork more seamless, and our output more efficient. For Business Analysts, these tools are not just “nice-to-have” — they’re what turn you from a task executor into a strategic enabler for your team. Read more related articles from SupremeTech!

The Story of a Business Analyst – My Journey into The Field

 "You don’t need an IT background to become a Business Analyst — as long as you have passion, perseverance, and a willingness to learn." Hi, I’m Quỳnh Anh, currently working as a Business Analyst (BA) at SupremeTech. If someone had told me a few years ago that “you might end up working in the tech industry,” I probably would’ve laughed and shaken my head — because I studied at the University of Foreign Language Studies – University of Danang, which has nothing to do with IT. And yet, somehow, fate led me to the BA role — something I had never even heard of before, but have now come to truly enjoy and feel connected to every single day. Here’s my “beginner’s journey” — from having zero knowledge to finding my path in the fascinating world of technology. First steps into the IT world Back then, I had no idea what a BA was. I only vaguely knew it was something “related to IT.” Through a friend’s recommendation, I joined a basic training course at a software company to explore the field. That course introduced me to my very first concepts of business processes, programming, databases, and MySQL. Everything felt new — sometimes even overwhelming — but incredibly exciting. Still, when the course ended, one question lingered in my mind: “What does a BA actually do every day? And how are these lessons applied in real projects?” That question stayed with me — until I got the chance to intern at SupremeTech. Internship – Where my Business Analyst journey became clearer Thanks to a collaboration program between SupremeTech and my university, I was accepted as a BA Intern. That became the first turning point that allowed me to truly “touch” the profession. Although I wasn’t directly involved in client projects, every day during my internship opened new doors for me: Learning how to listen and communicate with clients to truly understand their needs.Getting familiar with common Japanese IT terms used in the workplace.Writing clear and concise business documents.And most importantly, understanding how a non-IT person can effectively communicate and collaborate with technical teams. The seniors in my team were always patient, sharing not just knowledge but real project experiences. Thanks to their support, I no longer felt intimidated — instead, I grew more curious and passionate about becoming a BA. Read more articles: When Technology Meets a Pioneering SpiritSparking the Fire, Spreading the Passion From intern to Full-time Business Analyst My internship eventually ended, but my journey with SupremeTech didn’t stop there. With a proactive mindset and eagerness to learn, I was offered a full-time position — and that’s when my real BA journey began. This time, it wasn’t about lessons or training sessions anymore, but about real work: Analyzing business requirements with clients.Writing detailed documentation for developers.Reviewing and validating requirements to ensure the product meets business goals.Communicating constantly in an Agile environment — where things move faster than you expect. Of course, it wasn’t always smooth. There were days I felt overwhelmed, confused by technical discussions, or unsure how to convey ideas clearly to the dev team. But thanks to the solid foundation from my internship and the support of my teammates, I learned to stand firm and keep moving forward. What being a Business Analyst means to me For me, being a Business Analyst is a journey without a finish line — there’s always something new to learn, new people to connect with, and new problems to solve. If you’re curious about this career, my advice is: “Don’t be afraid to start, no matter what background you come from. Keep your curiosity alive and never stop learning — you’ll eventually find your own path.” I’m deeply grateful to SupremeTech for giving me the chance to begin, to make mistakes, to grow, and to become who I am today. And if you’re curious about the BA world, stay tuned for our ‘The Story of a BA’ series — because who knows, you might just see a bit of yourself in the stories to come.

Collaboration Between PM & BA

As you might know, Project Manager & Business Analyst are key players in every project. To understand why their collaboration is the most important part of the project. And how to make a good partnership between them? Let’s dive in. Firstly, have a look at basic terms: Project & Product? Project is temporarily formed to create a productProduct is something that delivers value. For example, a car, a tool, a software … Project & Product Goals The goal of the project is to finish on time, within cost, and provide the right product.The right product must be valuable and meet business and customer needs.It’s actually the same as the picture below You can see, those factors are constraints and we need people to manage/maintain them, it's time to involve Project Manager & Business Analyst in. Project Manager & Business Analyst PM is responsible for Time: making the schedule for the whole project base on the Scope, defining processes, managing Costs before and during the development phase, guiding others to perform the best, and keeping the project on track in any situation.BA is mainly focusing on business needs and providing the proper functionalities that meet all requirements, working with PM & stakeholders to finalize the Scope, BA is also taking care of the product’s quality as the client's expectation. So: Without BA, build wrong things.Without PM, exceed budget, extend the schedule.And without a great collaboration between them can lead a project to all the things above. PM & BA overlap tasking Let's get back to the above picture, it’s easy to reveal that Project & Product is strongly dependent on each other. Imagine that, the client adds essential change requests to the product, and promptly it makes the project scope get bigger, the cost of building the product would be increased and it take longer to complete. It’s just a popular example, but in actual work, other things can happen in many many ways, and then potentially to lead the project to fail. To keep everything are under control, it’s necessary to have a tight collaboration between PM & BA, bellow are kind of works they have to share in daily activity: Scope & Requirements ManagementCommunications ManagementRisk ManagementStakeholder Management Go ahead with the following sections to understand deeply how to perform a good work and how to collaborate on those items. What & How to collaborate? Scope & Requirements Management As mentioned in the above section, requirement changes actually happen in every project, but without control procedure it would become Scope creep. Some change requests are essential, scope creep is a situation that generally considered harmful to the project. To welcome the good and needed, and also avoid scope creep, all the changes have to be recognized, judged and managed carefully. The process to control them: Identify changeUnderstand whether it provides business valueDiscuss the impact on quality, budget, scope and scheduleIs it feasible?Give options for stakeholders to choose Following those steps makes everything clear and every provided selection is reasonable, therefore the team and stakeholders can easily make a decision. Further, it helps to build trust in one another by removing all concerns and worries. Communications Management Communication is vital within projects. PM & BA communicate to share understanding about requirement and intent, the priority, timeline, and also keep track on what the team are working on. Since both PM & BA interact with the same stakeholders, many detailed conversations in different contexts, friction may arise. To avoid this, they have to make transparency on: What am I working on?What are my priorities today?Who do I plan to interact with?What are key messages that we need to collaborate on? So that they can ensure consistent messages are being communicated to the team and stakeholders.Beside communicating with each other, the equally critical part is to have this with team and stakeholders: Listening to stakeholders - What do they need? What do they want? How do they feel?Sharing understanding, knowledge, experience and also learning from themHaving a clear communication flow to engage appropriate stakeholders for each type of communication in the project. That allow to connect better, build trust and stronger relationships with one another. Thus, contribute to project success. Risk Management When starting the project, PM & BA might feel no risk, but during the implementation phase, risks are always ever-present. So what kind of risk do they have to pay attention to? Stakeholders involvementBuilding wrong thingsThe risk to schedule For example, if there is a complicated requirement, we need the client to involve in, but they can not because they're busy(the project is just a low priority task in their daily activities), then we make an assumption, if our assumption is not true, it’s a big risk that affects on the output and schedule as well. So PM & BA should have a process to manage all those kind of risk together and ensure the risks is well understood and under control: Identify the risk factorsMeasure the effect of each risk factorPropose and take appropriate actions to mitigate the high-risk factorsMonitor the low-risk factors and repeat the process when situations come Stakeholders Management Continue with the example above. It's sometimes hard to involve stakeholders due to the time and they might not understand how important they are in the project, so please let them know: Role, responsibility and expectationHow their work connects with the projectWho do they have/should to work with After clearing all the things above, PM & BA should keep the project team is coordinated by: Always scheduling for stakeholders' meetings - let them proactively in arranging their time.Making the meeting agenda - let them well prepare for the meeting.Combining meetings as much as possible - helps to save time, gives them a chance to interact and learn more from others. Through it, build better relationships and trust.Sharing key messages before and after the meeting - make things transparent and let others feel comfortable to contribute. Doing those would show stakeholders to see the value of their time and how it would be used. Working with the team helps them in other areas. PM & BA also ensure that the time is used well to maximize this. Conclusion The sign of the great collaboration between PM & BA is performing their work as the same person, understanding everything about the project and product. To do so, they have to clean up roles and responsibilities on each side, share their work and support each other. PM supports BA to know the terms of project management: time, cost, and scope. BA has to impart business needs, and client expectations to PM. The important thing is to spend enough time communicating to be able to respond to daily changes. For external, define the working flow, and communication flow. Tactically involve stakeholders & project members in daily activities. Unique them in one team and lead them on how to collaborate with one another to achieve the project and product goals. Reference https://www.pmi.org/learning/library/business-analyst-project-manager-collaboration-6512https://www.linkedin.com/learning/business-analyst-and-project-manager-collaboration

How Team Người Việc Won SupremeTech’s AI Hackathon 2025 with AI-Assisted Development and Agile Thinking

24 hours. 10 teams. Countless lines of code. One team claimed the spotlight and took half of the 100 million VND prize pool. SupremeTech’s first-ever AI Hackathon was more than just a competition, it was a test of endurance, creativity, and teamwork. For one intense day and night, our participants pushed the limits of AI-assisted development, turning raw ideas into functioning prototypes under extreme time pressure. Among them, three teams rose above the rest. Their solutions not only showcased strong technical execution but also revealed how AI hackathon use cases can bring real business value in areas such as customer experience, automation, and data-driven decision-making. These top three use cases highlight the future potential of AI and the passion of SupremeTech’s people to turn vision into reality. Brought home the Top Prize - Team Người Việc stood out for their sharp strategy and teamwork. Their winning project solved a familiar yet complex issue in the tourism industry: managing group travel efficiently while ensuring every participant enjoys a seamless experience. Presented in clear business logic, executed with agile methodology, and powered by AI-assisted development, their solution proved that innovation thrives when technology meets human insight. Introducing the Team: Small but Strong Team Người Việc brought together a crew of four: Hung Dinh, Huy Nguyen, and Dung Nguyen as front-end engineers, and Khanh Nguyen as the business analyst. While other teams had five members, this smaller team turned their size into strength. With Khanh shaping the business logic and user journey, and the three engineers transforming those ideas into a functional product, they created a strong link between business insight and technical execution. Each member brought a distinct perspective: one focused on monetization and business value, another on operational flow, and others on technical quality and user experience. Together, they created a strong team that has both business insight and technical execution. Khanh shared that: “Everyone respected each other’s opinions. We weren’t chasing perfection, we were building something real, something that worked”. The Challenge: Turning Hot and Heavy Topic into Opportunity When the AI Hackathon began, the participating teams didn’t get to choose their challenge. Each team drew a topic randomly from a pool of three, and fate handed team Người Việc a challenge that was both broad and complex: Destination and Experience Management System for Tourism. Instead of seeing it as an obstacle, the team saw great potential in this topic: “It’s actually very close to what SupremeTech does,” one member shared. “Tourism and service coordination are among the industries where our clients face similar pain points. If developed further, this could even become a real product for the company”. For most teams, tackling something this wide in just 24 hours would be overwhelming. But for Người Việc, it became the perfect opportunity to combine business logic, agile thinking, and AI-assisted development into a single solution. Dũng, one of the front-end engineers shared: “We didn’t see it as just a travel problem. It’s a coordination problem that every company faces because of too many people, too little time, and too many things to track.” The Idea: Transforming Tourism Coordination with AI Manual planning and coordination often create time-consuming processes, lack of feedback, and fragmented communication across travel agencies, corporate HR departments, and trip participants. To solve this, Người Việc envisioned an end-to-end platform that connects all stakeholders, from travel agencies and corporate planners to event organizers and trip participants.The system enables users to: Create and customize travel itinerariesConnect directly with travel agencies through a marketplace modelTrack schedules via QR codeProvide instant feedback during the trip. In short, it bridges the gap between demand and supply in hospitality, creating a more transparent, interactive, and seamless travel experience. The Process: From Brainstorming to AI-Assisted Development What set Người Việc apart was their strategic mindset before touching a single line of code. Instead of rushing to use AI tools right-away, the team began with a face-to-face brainstorming session, mapping out what a real group trip looks like from start to finish: from planning and agency communication to real-time updates and user feedback. To validate their ideas, they even called friends working in hospitality to understand pain points from the field such as: how agencies handle client requests, where information gets lost, and what travelers actually expect. Only after this discovery phase, the team moved into design and development. They first created clear user stories and workflows on their own, then applied story-based prompting by feeding those stories into ChatGPT and Copilot to generate database schemas, API endpoints, and code snippets. This structured use of AI helped them align technical output with business logic and speed up development. Their approach became a model of how AI-assisted development and agile methodology can complement each other, keeping logic clear while boosting speed. Their mantra throughout the process was simple yet powerful: Think first, then use AI smartly. This mindset kept their workflow focused, turning AI into a productivity multiplier instead of a shortcut, and became a highlight in their AI hackathon journey.Without a QC member, the team stayed flexible and shared responsibilities across roles. Each member could take on multiple tasks when needed, but they still kept a clear structure in how they worked. The PTL and BA stepped in as real users, testing features and giving feedback from a user’s point of view. After defining their user roles and business logic, Team Người Việc translated their ideas into a working prototype. Their platform acts as a bridge between corporate planners and travel agencies, creating a space where requests, itineraries, and feedback flow seamlessly in real time. The system’s core features included: Trip creation and customization: HR or operation teams can build itineraries, adjust timelines, and submit requests tailored to their needs.Agency collaboration: Travel agencies receive those requests, update details, and negotiate directly through the platform, no more back-and-forth emails or lost messages.Participant tracking: Each trip generates a public QR code, allowing members to follow updates, view schedules, and send instant feedback during the journey.Transparency and engagement: The platform closes the communication loop, giving every stakeholder a clearer view of the process. With these key flows completed, the team delivered a functional MVP, a product with clean logic, smooth handoffs between roles, and enough structure to be reused or scaled for other industries. Modern Tech Stack Built for AI-Driven Innovation To bring their concept to life within 24 hours, Team Người Việc designed a tech stack that was modern, lightweight, and AI-friendly. Every layer from frontend to deployment was chosen to balance speed, scalability, and maintainability. Frontend Layer: Fast and Built for Clarity The team developed the user interface using Next.js 15 to handle both page rendering and API routes. Combined with TypeScript, it provided type safety and consistency across all modules, reducing human errors in the rush of development. For styling and components, they used Tailwind CSS and shadcn/ui, which allowed them to quickly create a clean, responsive design without spending time reinventing basic UI elements. Despite the tight schedule, the frontend still delivered a cohesive experience from trip creation to QR-based tracking, proving that with the right stack, agility doesn’t mean sacrificing structure. Backend Layer: Structured Logic and Data Flow Behind the interface, the team used Prisma ORM to manage the database layer. Its schema-first approach, paired with TypeScript integration, helped them maintain data consistency while iterating rapidly. The backend services were also written in Next.js, utilizing server functions to keep everything unified and easy to deploy. This setup gave the team clear control over their data models and allowed them to focus on the business logic, ensuring that trip creation, feedback collection, and participant interactions all flowed smoothly without manual handling. Infrastructure & Deployment: Stability under Pressure To keep their development-to-demo pipeline fast and reliable, Người Việc deployed their system on AWS using Dokploy - a self-hosted CI/CD solution that automates Docker-based deployments. This environment allowed them to push code, test changes, and release updates seamlessly without dependency conflicts. By using Docker containers, they replicated production conditions from the start, ensuring that the MVP remained stable and demo-ready throughout the hackathon. The setup was simple enough for rapid iteration yet robust enough to be scaled for real client use. AI Tools: A Smarter, Not Faster, Way to Build AI played a key role in the team’s workflow but only after the foundation was set.ChatGPT acted as their assistant for ideation and logic design, helping refine user stories, define acceptance criteria, and clarify user flows. Meanwhile, GitHub Copilot served as their pair programmer, generating clean snippets, suggesting improvements, and handling repetitive coding tasks. Instead of using AI as a shortcut, Người Việc used it as an accelerator by integrating it at the right moments to enhance productivity while keeping control of direction and logic. >>> Read more related articles: AI-Assisted Ecommerce Solution Wins Third Place at SupremeTech AI Hackathon 2025How Human Intelligence and AI Capabilities Can Redefine Software Development | Featuring The 1st Runner-Up of SupremeTech AI Hackathon 2025 Judges’ Feedbacks Business Perspective From a business perspective, the judges saw Team Người Việc as a perfect example of practicality and vision. Their solution showed how AI-driven development can address real client needs, especially in industries like travel and hospitality. However, the judges also provided constructive feedback for future improvement. While the idea covered a broad scope from sales to operations, they suggested narrowing the focus to one specific stage in the travel management cycle. By doing so, the solution could achieve higher feasibility and faster adoption in real-world scenarios. The judges also encouraged documenting the team’s AI-assisted project management workflow as a reference for future AI hackathon journeys within SupremeTech. The final presentation showcased all the best qualities of their teamwork. The judges highlighted Người Việc’s clear storytelling, strong time management, and smooth demo delivery that effectively illustrated how their system worked. The team’s confident, structured presentation left a lasting impression and perfectly captured the spirit of SupremeTech’s AI Hackathon. Technical and Engineering Perspective From a technical point of view, the judges recognized Người Việc as a team that combined strong engineering skill with thoughtful use of modern tools. They developed their product on a well-defined code base with clear development standards, following a structured flow from analysis and design to implementation, which is remarkable under the time pressure of a 24-hour hackathon. The highlight of their approach was the story-based prompting technique, which kept the project’s logic coherent from start to finish. By crafting prompts around user stories rather than isolated tasks, the team ensured that every AI-generated piece of code served a real business purpose. This balance between automation and human reasoning became one of the defining features of their success. Teamwork: Staying Calm When Things Went Wrong No hackathon story is complete without chaos and Người Việc had their moment too. Just before the final presentation, disaster happened: the team’s slide suddenly became inaccessible because their shared drive was locked by the judges. With only minutes left, they borrowed a laptop, rebuilt the slides from scratch, and walked onto the stage calm and composed delivering a confident demo that looked effortless to the audience. The team recalled “After 22 hours of coding, what stayed with us wasn’t exhaustion. It was that moment when everyone looked at each other and said: We'll make it work, no matter what.” Voices from the Winners For Team Người Việc, winning the hackathon was not just about the prize, it was about learning how humans and AI can truly collaborate. Reflecting on the experience, Dũng shared: “We realized that AI isn’t just a tool, it’s a real teammate, if you know how to ‘talk’ to it. Each team used AI differently: some for brainstorming, some for UI design, others for presentation. But the prompts we gave were never the same, and that’s why the results were so different. AI only shows its real power when people know how to guide it.” As winners, the team also offered advice for those who will join future hackathons: “Prepare everything you can beforehand: boilerplate code, deployment setup, tools, and your fighting spirit. Once the event starts, every minute counts. And above all, trust your team” Conclusion Team Người Việc proved that real innovation is not only about technology, but about people working together with purpose. By combining business insight, teamwork, and the smart use of AI, they turned a difficult 24-hour challenge into a real achievement. For SupremeTech, this victory is more than just a competition result. It’s a reminder that the future of development starts with clear thinking, strong teamwork, and the courage to explore new ways of building with AI. Appendix: 1. How the Team Applied AI Throughout the Project StageApproachAI Application/ Tools UsedAnalysis & DesignThe whole team brainstormed together, role-playing as real users to map out workflows and features.No AI used — this was the most human-driven stage focused on critical thinking.User Story writingConverted rough ideas into logical workflows, defined goals, and acceptance criteria.ChatGPT acted as a virtual BA, turning brainstorm notes into professional User Stories and Acceptance Criteria.Coding (User Story Based)Developers implemented each User Story while communicating directly with the AI assistant for suggestions and refactoring.GitHub Copilot served as a coding partner, reading stories, suggesting code, refining syntax, and accelerating implementation.Testing & ReleaseThe PTL and BA acted as real users to test the product, identify bugs, and refine the UX before release.No AI used — manual testing for real-user validation. 2. Team Tech Stack LayerTech StackFrontend & Backend (Fullstack)Next.js 15 (App Router)UI Libraryshadcn/ui + TailwindCSSAI AssistantChatGPT + GitHub CopilotInfra / DeployAWS + Dokploy 📩 Read more articles about us here: SupremeTech’s Blog