I will tell you several versions of what happened. It's up to you who is right.
Director's version
The director came up with the whole thing. I'm not sure if the idea came straight to his head - it is probably the result of someone's hard work. The director has long wanted to do something like that, to stir up the old swamp of automation and processes at the plant.
Earlier he tried standard methods, making standard mistakes. For example, he initiated projects for automation, optimization, restructuring and reengineering (whatever that means), but expected their implementation by the current cadre of managers. When not a damn thing worked, he made the second common mistake - he kicked out managers, hired new ones (from our own village), gave time for adaptation and started projects over again. However, people, having had time to adapt, assimilate and mimic, achieved exactly the same results as their predecessors - none.
And then someone threw an idea to the director - you don't look there at all. Who do you have there? Programmers? CIO? Quality management service? Business process drawing department? This is all nonsense.
You need fresh blood. People of the profession that you have heard only from Hollywood films are analysts. And necessarily - young, not "wise by experience", ie. who have not gotten into their heads with all the nonsense about how a manufacturing enterprise should work. Clean, bright, talented. They already know how to do digitalization.
No sooner said than done. The director gives the order to hire a bunch of analysts. Provide them with the widest possible authority and a comfortable work environment. To allocate an entire floor for their placement.
HR version
Never before had she received such a strange order to hire a crowd of analysts. Necessarily young. Certainly - no experience in production. In no case - do not involve the local IT service, including the CIO, otherwise they will recruit the next goblin programmers. And, of course, urgent.
The village has a vague idea of who the analysts are. Jack Bauer was watched by many, but where to find such people? Hare was confused.
However, natural optimism and curiosity did not allow to fall into despondency for a long time. Moreover, the quick hiring of so many people promised a serious increase in KPI.
Where to find young and no experience? From university graduates, of course. I searched through the specialties of graduates, but, alas, I did not find analysts among them - such that the word “analyst” was directly present. In principle, if you remove the modern university husk, all the same engineers, programmers, economists, financiers, managers, etc. remain.
Programmers cannot be taken, as far as Hare understood. Engineers are also not good - they screw the wires, and here - digitalization. I thought about financiers for a while, but then resolutely rejected this idea. Managers generally did not fit the role of analysts - they have to think there. The economists remained.
Fortunately, universities have long understood that it is not necessary to produce mono-specialists, but some kind of explosive mixture. For example, economy + IT. It’s right for digitalization, Hare thought. And she hired half of the graduates of specialties, in the title of which the words "economics" and "information" (or, even better, "digital") were simultaneously present.
Then she solemnly reported to the director, helped the children settle down and sat down to dream about how she would spend the unexpected bonus.
CIO version
One fine day, the director called the chief IT and announced that he had made him a gift - he had hired a whole floor of analysts. I thought for a long time who to subordinate them - at first I wanted to myself, but objectively understood that I would not be able to devote enough time to them for operational management. Therefore, I decided so - to look for a new leader, some MegaSuperFuckAnalystAnalyst, and for now let the guys obey the CIO.
The CIO went to get acquainted with these saviors of all Russia. I expected to see seasoned dudes in expensive suits, with polished faces and fashionable hairstyles. I saw a crowd of slaughtered kids shaking like sheep in front of a shearer.
He asked what they could do. They said something about economic analysis, "data at their fingertips" (thanks, Billy), modern notation for drawing processes, waterfalls and agile, the priority of the process over the result, etc. I didn't learn anything particularly new for myself, but I was glad - programmers don't read village books at all, and there is no one to talk to.
True, the CIO did not know what goal, task to set these guys. Well, so as not to go nuts, not to make yourself look like a complete idiot. Therefore, I decided to give the initiative to the young analysts themselves. He asked: where do you want to start, analysts? They answered uncertainly: from the analysis ...
What you need. He gave everyone overalls, helmets, took a tour of the production. Showed where you can read the current versions of all processes. I went through the plant management, introduced me to several key managers. I took it to the programmers for a minute. The calculation was that the programmers would get a little scared and start to work better. But they didn't show it.
We decided that the analysts would spend a week analyzing production. The CIO solemnly promised not to interfere with management, because he trusts young and bright minds. So, sometimes I went up to the analyst floor, looked into the offices to pay my respects.
On the second day, vague doubts appeared in his soul. He went up to the analysts' floor several times, and each time he found them in full force in their workplaces, buried in their phones (on computers, the Internet was limited). On the third day, nothing changed. And so on until the end of the week.
I tried to reassure myself that the young knew better. The CIO has already heard the legend that the further you are from the place of value creation, the better you can automate it, optimize it, etc. God forbid you get to know the workers, foremen or the head of the shop - you will never be able to ruin his life later.
Okay, for the second week, we agreed that the guys will study the current processes that existed both in electronic and paper form. However, weekly monitoring showed exactly the same picture - hunched backs and phones in hands. The department of drawing business processes answered - no one came.
Now it's time to study the current information system. At this point, the CIO has grown bolder and decided to stage a provocation. Said the settings for connecting to the database, but did not give out logins and passwords. Nobody asked for them for a week.
Okay, thought the CIO. We need to load these guys with real work. In the end, you can use analysts for the purpose accepted in IT - to analyze the requirements of business users and draw up technical specifications for programmers. I chose several simple requests from different services, noted in the system that they were paused - so that programmers would not start doing it (although they wouldn’t have started doing that anyway, without a kick), I printed it out and gave it to analysts. He ordered to analyze the requirements, compare them with the current capabilities of the system, determine the need for improvements, and "what else can you do, analysts."
During the week I asked analysts how they were doing. Normally, they answered, lifting their heads from the phones. Analysis in progress? Sure.
He himself periodically asked users whether analysts had contacted. Alas, there was not a single appeal. Nobody requested access to the information system.
Here the CIO has already started to burn. As an old corporate player, he knew that the director would ask the result from him, not from these kids. I had to do something.
He came, and in a rather harsh form got to the bottom of the first analyst he came across - what was the problem, what the user said, how the process now works in the system. Naturally, I got wet round eyes in response, shaking lips, “but I don’t know who to call,” “but I have no access to the system,” and so on. He took a piece of paper with a task from the analyst's hands, circled the user's contacts with a pen, wrote the login / password below to enter the system. He ordered to draw up technical specifications for programmers in two days.
The next day in the morning there was a meeting with the director. Usually this is a rather boring planning meeting, with brief reports on the implementation of the plan and invariable "all issues are resolved in the working order." But this time, several executives asked the same weird question to the CIO: Are you kidding me? What kind of idiots did you get? Where is Kolya / Seryoga / Vitalya (these are the programmers)? Why do some idiots call my employees and ask them to tell me how they work? And if you start talking, then they ask a million stupid questions? Like "what is an order?", "What kind of transactions in the accounting department", "how WIP, PF and GP are deciphered", etc.
The CIO listened and smiled. And the director, who was also present at the meeting, blushed a little.
However, quite a bit. He got up and explained that he had hired an entire floor of analysts. And do not dare to offend them. Yes, they are not very experienced. Yes, they don't know production. Yes, they are not familiar with our system - it is bungled on our knees, we ourselves do not understand how it works. Well, okay. We need to help the guys.
I turned to the CIO with a question: what is the fastest way to immerse the guys in processes and the system? The answer was already ready: to put them on the first line of technical support. On that and decided.
Organized everything within an hour. The guys were given headsets, showed how to use a corporate dialer, where to drive tickets, etc. And left alone until the end of the day.
The next day, the CIO was a little late for work. When I got to the office, I was very surprised - a crowd of analysts stood in front of the door with pieces of paper in their hands. I launched it into the office, listened.
All analysts unanimously wrote a letter of resignation. They demanded to remove them from technical support, tk. this is “stupid work for idiots from vocational schools”, but “analysts are needed for something completely different”, and in general “everything is wrong here” and “everything must be redone from scratch”.
The CIO asked, just in case, why the guys didn't go to the shop, read the processes, and study the system. He listened to the savory sound of collective chewing of snot, nodded his head in understanding.
He suggested a way out: to remove analysts from technical support and send them to programmers. Let them sit next to them, listen, look, ask around. Still, programmers have the most systematic knowledge of enterprise processes and their automation. For now, at least. So far, analysts have not penetrated.
He explained how to find programmers, whom to ask, showed him off, threw out the papers with statements, sat down and stared blankly out the window.
Programmers version
Some young assholes came and said they wanted to analyze our work. They will sit, watch, listen, ask questions. They told them to find their own chairs and not interfere.
For half a day, the idiots sat on the phones, then decided to drink coffee. They ran into our bank, emptied it by a quarter. An hour later, they repeated it. By the end of the day, it remained on the bottom.
We told them: hey, hell, if you want coffee, buy yourself a can and blow as much as you want. We ourselves threw off on it.
The next day none of the assholes came.
IT community version
Strange resumes began to appear on the Internet. A person, for example, graduated from a university three months ago, and has already managed to work as an “analyst on digitalization of production”, “leading analysts of corporate information systems”, or even “head of a digital transformation project”. And everywhere - the same place of work - a highly respected plant in the city.
You call on the social security, you ask around - not in the tooth with a foot. The terms written in the summary can only be quoted, without explanation of their meaning and practical application. He asks for a salary like a seasoned programmer. To the question "what did you do at a reputable plant?" responds evasively, making a savory chewing snot sound.
I had to give hare some instruction. If the resume contains the words "anal *", "digital *", "transform *" and, alas, the name of a respected plant - do not waste your and our time on this candidate.