Srini Munagavalasa is the author of The Salesforce Business Analyst Handbook; we got the chance to sit down with him and find out more about his experience of writing with Packt.
Q: What are your specialist tech areas?
Srini: Salesforce CRM/PRM, SAP – CRM/HR
Q: How did you become an author for Packt? Tell us about your journey. What was your motivation for writing this book?
Srini: Way back when I worked with PricewaterhouseCoopers, my partner suggested that I write whitepapers on an innovative tool that I developed. This is so that other similar implementations can leverage this across the practice. With this small whitepaper, I was able to share knowledge and add value across some 12 implementations. That motivated me to write more white papers and develop templates, and I published 10+ articles through WIS publishing. I wanted to write a book for some time, finally finding the right topic, which resulted in writing this book.
Q: What kind of research did you do, and how long did you spend researching before beginning the book?
Srini: Keep me current as much as possible- reading books, reading articles, collaborating, attending events.
Q: Did you face any challenges during the writing process? How did you overcome them?
Srini: Many times I spend time without any progress and get frustrated. The most effective way I overcame this is to take a break from it for a few hours (or a few days), talk to family and friends, and ask them what they would do in a similar situation. All this helped me get back on track.
Q: What’s your take on the technologies discussed in the book? Where do you see these technologies heading in the future?
Srini: Salesforce is the #1 CRM tool that is available and it will stay for a long long time. Business Analysis in this space is picking up and there is high demand for Business Analysts.
Q: Why should readers choose this book over others already on the market? How would you differentiate your book from its competition?
Srini: Actually, I was searching for a Salesforce Business Analyst book for a long time and could not find even a remote match. I felt there was a need for a book that could help business analysts, project team members, and other team members who would like to understand salesforce business analysis activities.
This book provides you with knowledge from all that I have learned from my 20+ years of experience.
Q: What are the key takeaways you want readers to come away with from the book?
Srini: Helps you understand various techniques to capture business requirements; translate requirements into viable and acceptable solutions; verify and validate solutions; help end users how to use features and functions, and be a trusted advisor to your end users on their journey to achieve excellent user adoption.
Q. What advice would you give to readers learning tech? Do you have any top tips?
Srini: User groups/Podcasts
Technical sites like Packt, Pluralsight, O’Reilly, and so on
Attend events
Network, collaborate, and contribute
Q. Can you share any blogs, websites and forums to help readers gain a holistic view of the tech they are learning?
Srini: Some of them are techcrunch.com, informationweek.com, hbr.org/podcasts
Q. How would you describe your author journey with Packt? Would you recommend Packt to aspiring authors?
Srini: Absolutely. The Packt team is amazing. They go above and beyond to make your book successful.
Q. What are your favorite tech journals? How do you keep yourself up to date on tech?
Srini: WIRED Magazine, Tech Advisor, HBR, Symmetry magazine, Popular Science
Q. How did you organize, plan, and prioritize your work and write the book?
Srini: Book writing is usually late nights and weekends. Tried to be disciplined but it was very difficult with multiple projects at work.
Q. What is that one writing tip that you found most crucial and would like to share with aspiring authors?
Srini: Do not give up. Keep trying and you will succeed.
You can find Srini‘s book on Amazon by following this link : Please click here
