Leveraging Developer Tools as a Business Analyst

The role of a Business Analyst (BA) has evolved beyond gathering and managing requirements. BAs are now expected to have a solid understanding of the technical environment in which their projects are developed. Understanding how a website or application functions, especially from a performance, accessibility, and user experience perspective can dramatically improve how effectively BAs communicate with stakeholders, developers, and designers.

When you right-click on a webpage and select “Inspect”, you open the browser’s Developer Tools. This suite of tools provides a wealth of information about how a website works behind the scenes. Here are the key tools you should focus on as a Business Analyst:

• Elements Panel
• Console
• Network Panel
• Performance Panel
• Lighthouse
• Application Panel
• Sources Panel
• Security Panel

1. Elements Panel – Understanding UI Structure

The Elements panel, commonly referred to as the Inspect Tool, gives you direct access to the DOM tree that make up the front end of a webpage. This tool allows you to examine, edit, and test changes in real-time.

How Business Analysts Can Use the Elements Panel

• For UI validation, you can inspect specific UI elements, such as buttons, forms, and modals, to ensure they match the design requirements. For example, if a stakeholder reports that a button is misaligned or not functioning properly, you can inspect the button’s HTML and CSS to identify potential issues.
• For CSS and Styling, by viewing the CSS applied to each element, you can see how styles are affecting layout, color schemes, or responsiveness. This is especially useful when working with designers or ensuring branding guidelines are being followed.

2. Console – Debugging and Tracking Errors

The Console tab is primarily used by developers for logging errors, warnings, and messages generated by the website's code. However, Business Analysts can also use it to gain insights into what might be causing front-end issues or bugs.

How Business Analysts Can Use the Console:

• For error identification, the console will display any JavaScript errors, which can help you understand why certain elements are not functioning as expected (For example a broken button or form validation error).
• Tracking User Interactions can see if certain user interactions trigger specific functions or errors, helping you communicate more accurately with developers.

3. Network Panel – Monitoring Load Times and API Calls

The Network panel allows you to monitor all network requests made by a webpage, including the loading of images, CSS, JavaScript files, websocket connections and API calls. This is extremely useful for understanding how the page loads and identifying performance bottlenecks.

How Business Analysts Can Use the Network Panel:

• You can view the Page Load Performance according to which resources (e.g.: images, scripts) are taking the longest to load and provide feedback on performance bottlenecks.
• API Monitoring, if the website relies on external APIs (e.g.: to fetch data or submit forms), you can see how these requests are functioning and whether they are returning errors.

4. Lighthouse – Comprehensive Performance and Accessibility Audits

Lighthouse is an automated tool built into Chrome’s Developer Tools that runs audits for performance, accessibility, SEO, best practices, and Progressive Web App (PWA) capabilities. It provides a detailed report with scores for each category, helping you quickly assess key areas of improvement.

How Business Analysts Can Use Lighthouse:

Can be used for Performance Auditing by running Lighthouse to generate a performance score, along with suggestions on how to improve it. You can report this to stakeholders or developers to prioritize optimizations.

• Accessibility Auditing as Lighthouse identifies accessibility issues like missing alt text, poor contrast, and more, which are critical for ensuring a user-friendly experience for all users.
• SEO Audits, If SEO is a business priority, Lighthouse will highlight technical SEO issues, such as missing meta descriptions or improperly sized images.

5. Application Panel – Managing Cookies and Storage

The Application panel allows you to inspect all data stored by a webpage, including cookies, local storage, session storage, and indexed databases. This tool is especially useful for understanding how data is being stored and accessed.

How Business Analysts Can Use the Application Panel:

• In Cookie Management, if your site relies on cookies for authentication or tracking, you can inspect the cookies to ensure they’re correctly set and working as expected.
• Local Storage, for web apps that store data locally (like user preferences), you can view and manage that data to ensure it aligns with user requirements.

Developer tools such as Lighthouse, and the broader suite of browser DevTools are invaluable assets for Business Analysts. By incorporating these tools into your workflow, you can gain deeper technical insights that enhance your ability to gather accurate requirements, validate UI/UX consistency, ensure compliance with performance and accessibility standards, and facilitate better communication with developers.

Understanding how to use these tools not only improves the quality of your analysis but also strengthens your role as a key player in ensuring that web applications align with business goals. As a BA, leveraging DevTools empowers you to go beyond documentation, enabling you to provide data-driven recommendations, troubleshoot issues effectively, and contribute to the overall success of your projects. By embracing these technical insights, you become a more proactive and impactful participant in the development lifecycle.