As a software developer, you probably spend a frustratingly large amount of time staring at code every day, trying to figure out why it’s not working. Sometimes it’s a pretty obvious solution in hindsight, which stings.
Sharpening your analytical skills can help you find solutions to technical problems faster. So you can spend more time being creative and less time scratching your head.
In this post, we break down exactly how to be more analytical as a software developer and solve problems faster.
Let’s dig in!
What are Analytical Skills?
Analytical skills are the ability to investigate a problem and find a solution in an efficient and timely manner.
Here are some of the things you do when analyzing problems to find solutions:
- Detect patterns and make connections
- Brainstorm and theorize
- Observe and interpret data
- Integrate new information
- Pick between many solutions
- Make decisions based on multiple factors
Software development relies heavily on strong analytical skills because of the amount of problem-solving involved in the field.
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Analytical thinking in software development (and on a tech team in general)
Analytical thinking helps you develop a better understanding of a complex technical problem so you can solve it. The process is derived from the scientific method and has the following steps:
- Encounter a problem.
- Observe the problem and conduct research.
- Hypothesize possible solutions based on an understanding of the problem and your past knowledge.
- Evaluate and compare the effectiveness of each solution and the feasibility of implementation.
- Communicate results and your chosen solution.
Thinking analytically involves some trial and error as well as an element of creativity.
The skills that make up analytical thinking can be both hard and soft skills. In the case of software development, they’re mostly hard skills.
Let’s take a look at what it means to be analytical as a software developer.
The exact process can vary depending on several factors like:
- Team size and composition
- Team maturity
- Type of product
- Technology available
- Type of company
- Company culture
If you’re a software developer at a company that’s selling a product, you need to solve problems fast. There are always critical bugs to fix and new features to develop for customers. You need to have a reliable process for analyzing problems that allows you to find solutions in an efficient way.
When you first encounter a problem as a software developer, you observe it, collect information about it, and try to understand it. You may analyze the surrounding code to find clues or patterns. Walking through the functions and variables in the code can help you find the root of the problem.
Once you’ve found the root of the problem, you start brainstorming possible solutions. Past experience with similar problems is helpful for coming up with reliable solutions.
You can also go on Stack Overflow to find out whether anyone else has encountered a similar problem. There may be some creative solutions worth exploring.
Once you’ve identified multiple solutions, you begin to narrow down your options based on factors like technical complexity, impact on performance, cost, availability of talent, etc. You can’t test all possible solutions so you need to pick the best solution based on the information you have.
You’ll likely change your mind and rethink your approach a few times at this stage. You might even need to ask for feedback or suggestions from other software developers or tech leads to find the best solution to the problem. Collaborating with other team members is key to finding creative solutions.
When you’ve decided on your final solution, you communicate your findings in a clear and concise way. This includes articulating why your solution is the optimal solution for the problem and what impact it will have on the greater organization.
Now, before we talk about how to improve analytical skills, let’s dive into the different skills that analytical skills are composed of.
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Types of analytical skills
There are five core types of analytical skills:
- Problem-solving skills
- Critical thinking skills
- Research skills
- Creativity skills
- Communication skills
Let’s walk through them one by one.
Problem-solving skills
Problem-solving allows you to find a solution that’s efficient, feasible, and optimized, which is important whether you’re a spare-time coder or software engineer professionally. Truer still if you work as a data analyst, financial analyst, or business analyst! It involves analyzing problems and making decisions on what solutions are best. Sometimes that means making a decision to try a solution to uncover whether it works so you can move on to the next solution if needed.
Being good at problem-solving is largely based on experience — seeing many problems in the past makes you better at analyzing similar or related problems.
Critical thinking skills
Thinking critically involves considering every possible aspect of a problem and evaluating your findings in an objective way. It’s important to not rely on assumptions and intuition. Instead, ask questions to validate your assumptions before evaluating all possible approaches.
When one of your solutions doesn’t pan out, critical thinking involves assessing where things went wrong to avoid making the same mistakes in the future.
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Research skills
Research involves collecting data about a topic or a problem. Such as a new solution, how to integrate new technology, or the pros and cons of different approaches, including cost. You might also compare your sources of information to make sure you have accurate information.
Creativity skills
Software development is part science and part art, making creativity an important analytical skill. It involves thinking of ways to combine unlikely sources and perspectives to come up with the best solution. Because, after all, the most obvious solution is not always the best solution.
Communication skills
Finding the right solution isn’t enough — you need to share the findings behind your analysis with your coworkers and demonstrate to them why your solution is the best. This requires the ability to read the room and tailor your communication appropriately.
You also likely need to communicate with other software developers when gathering information about a problem or getting feedback on a solution you’re implementing. And, don’t forget to work on intercultural communication skills, especially on remote or global teams!
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Skills that are complementary to analysis skills
A great way to improve your analytical thinking skills is to get better at skills that are complementary to them.
Here is a list of skills that are related to thinking analytically:
- Decision-making — the ability to choose a relevant option from a variety of alternatives by assessing situations and making valid judgments
- Logical reasoning — the ability to draw logical conclusions and rationalize choices
- Data analysis — the ability to examine data, identify patterns, and extract insights
- Time management skills — the ability to get quality work done while using your time effectively
- Presentation skills — the ability to deliver engaging and effective presentations to different audiences
- Troubleshooting skills — the ability to deconstruct an issue and pinpoint the source of failure
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Important Tips for Improving Analytical Skills
We’ve covered why analytical skills are important, and how they help you become a better software developer. But how do you improve them? Fortunately, there are some ways you can do this.
Review other developers’ code
Reviewing other developers’ code is a great way to get better at thinking analytically because it forces you to think about why certain decisions were made and how the code can be improved. Code reviews also often lead to interesting discussions about different software development approaches, resulting in the best solutions.
Learn more about your area of software development
Knowledge and experience play a critical role in software developers’ abilities to solve problems in their area of expertise. So, the more you know about your own area of software development, the faster you’ll be able to identify patterns and alternative approaches to different problems.
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Get into the habit of doing more research
Get into the habit of doing research — for work, and for personal reasons. Research exposes you to new information and improves your ability to process different information, assess the accuracy of sources, and synthesize information. While this is mandatory when practicing data analyst skills or financial analyst skills, it’s certainly important as part of a well-rounded software engineering skillset, as well!
Research software development problems and solutions
Browse or search through websites like Quora and Stack Overflow to see how other software developers have solved problems and implemented solutions. The more solutions you see, the more solutions you’ll be able to come up with when solving your own problems.
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Teach technical concepts and solutions to others
Find opportunities to teach technical concepts to others. Use the challenges they have to think of different ways of explaining things. Try to explain things clearly and include many examples. Teaching others is a great way to deepen your understanding of something.
Request constructive criticism
Others can see things you can’t. Ask them for constructive criticism on how you approach problems, the quality of your analysis, and the solution you selected. Code reviews are a good time to have these discussions.
Some software developers might find it easier to send an anonymous survey to coworkers asking questions like:
- What do I do particularly well?
- What do I need to do better?
- What should I do more of?
- What should I do less of?
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How to Showcase Your Analytical Skills
On a resume or cover letter
Writing “strong analytical skills” on your resume isn’t enough. You have to include concrete examples that demonstrate those skills and highlight the exact outcomes you drove.
Here are some examples:
Resolved a critical production issue within the 1st week at the company by analyzing raw data from 3000 faulty applications, saving the company $240k.
Developed a site search solution for a new website using Elastic Search within a three-month project timeline and $50k budget, after assessing three other vendors for functionality, pricing, and time-to-market.
Debugged a long-pending auto-login issue by collecting additional bug reports and investigating a suspected connection to an existing third-party issue reported on Stack Overflow.
Lead with impressive details like “within the 1st week at the company” to grab attention. And make sure to describe your method and any specific information about the problem to provide context. The third example, “Long-pending auto-login issue,” conveys that nobody else had been able to solve it.
Use quantifiable outcomes like “$240k saved” to highlight the impact you made. Numbers also make skimming easier, which is what most recruiters do with resumes, anyway.
Wherever you can, focus on how you can analyze and solve problems in a short amount of time. Businesses need solutions fast so showing how you’re able to go through the analytical process quickly can help you stand out.
The goal with your resume and cover letter is to pique the recruiter’s curiosity and give them cues on what to ask you about in an interview.
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In an interview
To demonstrate your analytical abilities in an interview, walk the interviewer through the exact process you followed to solve a particular problem.
You should talk about how you:
- Gathered the necessary information
- Assessed various sources
- Identified different solutions
- Decided on the final solution
- Took action and what the result was
Explain your thinking at every stage, especially if you changed your mind on an approach. What observations or data prompted you to change your approach?
Whenever possible, try to think of an example that demonstrates a creative solution to a problem. Refrain talking about obvious solutions to problems because the interviewer may already know about them and it won’t help you stand out among other candidates.
To make yourself more memorable to the interviewer, talk about a unique solution or approach to solving a problem. It’ll likely spark more interesting questions from the interviewer that you can use to further showcase your data analysis skills.
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On the job
A great way to showcase your analytical skills on the job is to explain the method you used to arrive at the solution. Show that you analyzed the problem from multiple angles and why you chose the particular solution.
You can do this either in a meeting or by writing documentation about your solution.
Another way to demonstrate your analytical thinking is to expose yourself to as many problems as possible. Help your coworkers solve problems they’re stuck on or volunteer to solve more problems.
This kind of exposure will show more people the level of your analytical skills.
Dealing with a situation where you and a coworker disagree on which approach to take is a good opportunity to showcase your strong analytical skills. Make clear arguments and counter-arguments, backing up your arguments with evidence and data.
Look at your coworker’s arguments from different perspectives to identify hidden flaws in their logical reasoning.
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In a remote work environment
To demonstrate your analytical skills in a remote work environment, you need to leverage documentation more than you would in an office setting.
When updating your progress on project management tools like JIRA, document what approach you decided to take, why it’s the best approach, and what else you considered. This kind of paper trail helps demonstrate your analytical skills by demonstrating critical thinking.
If you’re developing a new solution, you should document how it works in a tool like Confluence or Notion. Again, the key is explaining to others your process and why you selected the solution you did.
Sometimes text-based communication isn’t the most effective way to explain your approach or solution. Using screencasting tools or asynchronous video communication tools like Loom can help you convey your reasoning more effectively without having to schedule a meeting.
Wrapping Up
You should now understand:
- What being analytical in software development or as an analyst (business, data, financial, etc.) means
- What individual skills are part of analysis skills
- How to improve your analytical skills
- How to showcase your analytical skills on a resume or cover letter, in an interview, on the job, and in a remote work environment
Before we let you go, here’s a bonus tip:
When dealing with incomplete information about a problem, timebox how long you’ll spend looking for answers before making a decision based on your assumptions.
With all these analytical skills, it’s easy to get lost in analysis paralysis. And remember, sometimes making any decision is the right solution. If it’s wrong, you can learn from it and move on to the next solution.
Happy analyzing!
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