At the beginning of February, we announced the Analyze.ME competition for analysts . To participate in the project, everyone could register from February 3 to February 23, 2021 on a special website .
Further, from February 26 to February 28, volunteers had to submit solutions for the competition tasks proposed by the organizers .
As a result, more than 400 participants expressed their desire to compete for the prize fund of 360,000 rubles . On February 28, 12 finalists were identified ... Below the cut is a detailed story about the competition problems and information about the winners.
Introduction
Since we held the competition, the tasks were directly related to our business. There are over 1000 stores in the M.Video-Eldorado trade network in more than 250 cities. Modern realities require us to be closer to our customers: to increase the speed of ordering and offer them convenient and fast ways to deliver goods. This requires changing numerous processes and IT systems.
The pandemic has greatly accelerated the transformation of our company. Previously, it took several months to implement a major revision. Now we are increasingly using an iterative approach to deliver the MVP first, and then add features sequentially.
For example, when all our stores were closed due to quarantine, in just a few days we launched the MVP for express delivery of goods by taxi, and then iteratively developed it. First, there was manual registration, then we automated the taxi call, then we began to optimize the ordering process on the website. But some improvements are still difficult to implement due to the legacy technologies on the site.
Unfortunately, we cannot change and improve all our systems overnight: many outdated systems have accumulated in M.Video-Eldorado over the years of development. We understand this very well, we are constantly rewriting and updating them.
For example, projects have now been launched to completely transfer the site to a new technology stack. We are also optimizing the mobile application by transferring it to Core services. But getting rid of legacy takes a lot of time and effort.
Therefore, we are going in two ways: we are introducing new functionality, striving to centralize the common logic, developing a layer of core microservices used by front systems and gradually rewriting retail systems, websites, CRM system, and so on.
We needed such a long introduction to explain the general context of the problems presented to our competition.
First task
First, the introductory data .
The client visits the site, selects products, puts them in the basket, changing its contents as desired, and then chooses a convenient way to receive it. Now the goods can be received by self-pickup, delivery from the warehouse, fast delivery from the store or from partner points of issue.
For each delivery contractor, restrictions on the weight and dimensions of the order can be set. We try to use more on-foot couriers, because vehicles are environmentally harmful, although a car can fit much more than a backpack. Delivery price may depend on a number of parameters.
For example, from the value of the order basket (for more expensive purchases, delivery is cheaper or free) or the distance to the customer. If the product is in stock nearby, it also reduces shipping costs. By taxi, we can now deliver only orders paid on the site. Participants may have proposed to remove this restriction.
By choosing the method of receiving the order, the buyer confirms the order. Discounts and bonuses are taken into account when paying. An order is collected in a store or warehouse. Products for orders placed on the site must wait for their buyer, stores cannot sell them. At the same time, the goods in the store are in two zones: in the warehouse and in the trading floor. For the sake of environmental friendliness and saving paper, the order should be handed over to the courier without paper confirmation: any receipts, sales receipts, invoices and other things.
Couriers of different companies can work in their own information systems, with which they can be integrated via API. The buyer can view the status of his order on the website or in the mobile application. The stores have a retail information system - we will assume that it is still legacy - in which inventory balances, sales, and so on are kept.
Each store has its own copy of this retail system with a database, server applications, cashier applications, storekeepers, and so on. And there is a central database to which data from each store is transmitted at regular intervals.
When redesigning the architecture of this system, participants could choose any method of integration. We also have a service for calculating an order taking into account the applied discounts and services that return master data on goods (catalog, name, characteristics), prices, promotions, and so on.
Now let's move on to the task itself. Participants were asked to describe, in any notation, the business processes of placing an order, from opening a website by a client to receiving an order. Including actions that are performed without the participation of the client.
The task consisted of two parts:
- description of the process and system architecture;
- offering new ways to receive an order to make it even more convenient for customers.
Participants could use any open sources with information on the assortment, the location of our stores, the number of goods, their dimensions, and so on.
After describing business processes using the example of any one delivery method, it was necessary to describe the project architecture or draw up a component diagram with integration flows. Components not listed in the task description could be added at will.
After that, it was necessary to choose one of the interesting systems that turned out in the architecture, and to describe in more detail the functional (use cases, activity diagrams) and non-functional requirements for this system.
If desired, you could use any other diagrams, for example, state diagram, sequence diagram, and so on. It was also useful to describe the logical data model for the chosen system (in any notation).
Second task
The second task was not intended for business analysts, but for cross-system analysts. What is the difference between them? Cross-system analysts are the same analysts, they just look at the problem from a different angle.
Typical business analysts work within one system, that is, the analyst closely and daily interacts within the framework of a specific functionality or a specific product. And cross-system analysts are used when it is required to solve a problem that affects several functions at once within M.Video - Eldorado.
For example, now the country is introducing mandatory labeling of certain groups of goods. This also affected our assortment. Implementation of labeling is required in two of our brands, in six of our front-end solutions. It is necessary to finalize the back office, a large number of services, and such tasks are taken on by cross-system analysts.
Thus, the result of the work of a cross-system analyst is not a requirement for the system, not a functional or technical task, but design solutions: documents that describe what task is being solved, which business processes of the company are subject to change, how these processes should proceed in the context systems.
That is, at what point in time, what operation and in what system should be performed, when the system should turn to another system, what actions of the employee accompany this event, how much the process changes relative to the current one.
The second task at the competition was formulated in the same way as the first, but it had to be solved in the form of a fairly detailed description of business processes, in the form of a design solution. It was necessary to describe the proposed process and the necessary improvements in all systems included in the change being performed.
Additionally, the participants had to draw up a checklist to check the correctness of the created functionality. In our company, this is an integral part of the work of a cross-system analyst.
Winners
426 people took part in the competition . 107 reached the semifinals , and in the final 12 people met , solving a problem for business analysts, and 6 - solving a problem for cross-system analysts.
All the solutions proposed by the finalists were very interesting and executed at a high level. So it was really difficult to choose the winners.
Prizewinners who solved the problem for business analysts : Elina Semenova took the
third place with a prize of 30 thousand rubles . She described the process of placing and executing an order, worked out in detail the delivery management system. Second place
Pavel Bobrov won with a prize of 50 thousand rubles . He paid a lot of attention to architecture and also described the business process at a high level.
And the jury unanimously gave the first place with a prize of 100 thousand rubles to Alexei Nikitin . He described in detail the process of ordering and delivering goods, on the architecture diagram he proposed his vision for the implementation of these processes. Alexey perfectly presented the result of his work, talked about the goals and problems that he wanted to solve.
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Prize-winners who solved the problem for cross-system analysts : Pavel Orazbayev won the
third place with a prize of 30 thousand rubles . He offered the most clearly defined solution, and a specific company, Delivista, was proposed as a delivery contractor. It was calculated why it might have advantages over other companies. Pavel even suggested how to implement a method of delivering orders within half an hour to those buyers who want to receive their purchases on a specific day. The second place with a prize of 50 thousand rubles was taken by Ksenia Alekseeva . Its solution is also made at a higher level in terms of working out processes, it uses different types of UML diagrams.
And the first place with a prize of 100 thousand rubles went to Mikhail Berezovsky . His solution most closely coincided with the acceptance criteria for the assignment, it was designed exactly at the level that was set.
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The last competition was our first competition for analysts. By the end of the year, we plan to double our IT department, and we invite specialists not only from Russia, but also those living abroad to work. We work remotely and do not plan to return to the offices, but we will deliver a working laptop to your home.
If you are interested in an interesting job, feel free to go to the site or write directly to the mail: dmitry.treskunov@mvideo.ru.
