thank you
The problem is more profound. When one looks up the word "analysis" in a dictionary, he/she will discover that analysis is largely about partitioning and entity into its component parts. But ask 99.9% of all BA's how they proceed in partitioning a system during analysis and all you will get is a blank stare.
A BA can read all the books in the world on how to be a star, but until he/she knows what analysis is and how to do it, it is not going help much.
Tony
"The problem is more profound (...). A BA can read all the books in the world on how to be a star, but until he/she knows what analysis is and how to do it, it is not going help much."
Tony, perhaps you could further explain your point? I'm not sure what you were trying to say here, since my article was not about reading books, but rather about finding opportunities to practicing skills in an effective manner, so you can become more proficient at business analysis.
I also think that it is important for BAs to develop a broad understanding of what analysis means, which goes beyond partitioning an entity in its component parts. Another definitions of analysis in the dictionary is "an examination of a complex, its elements, and their relations". A high performance business analyst will look for opportunities to practice various approaches to performing analysis, from decompositional analysis to systems thinking, integrative thinking, and many other frameworks.
Adriana:
Perhaps talking about reading books is confusing, let me restate: Until a business analyst knows what analysis is and how to do it, he/she is not going to become a high performing analyst by setting goals. How can one achieve goals to be a better analyst without knowing what analysis is?
Refering to your example example: How can an analyst achieve a performance improvement goal related to developing accurate estimates for business analysis tasks without knowing what analysis is?
By asking a Project Manager how they do such :-)
Adriana, I feel that the definition of analysis that you give is incomplete. Outside of skin deep analysis, before an analyst can examine an entity (complex), he/she needs to partition (decompose) it. Partitioning is especially important in software analysis because, as you can not see it, feel it, or touch it, determining how to properly partition it is especially difficult.
Tony
Tony,
Thank you for taking the time to clarify!
"Until a business analyst knows what analysis is and how to do it, he/she is not going to become a high performing analyst by setting goals. How can one achieve goals to be a better analyst without knowing what analysis is?"
I completely agree with your point. I didn't address what business analysis is in my article because there are numerous articles that discuss this topic, here at Modern Analyst, at Bridging the Gap, and in many other websites dedicated to the BA community, but of course, before one starts setting goals, there has to be a very clear understanding of not only what the BA role is in general, but also what are the expectations for the role in the specific organization.
"I feel that the definition of analysis that you give is incomplete."
Oh, I wasn't trying to provide a comprehensive definition of analysis in my comment, I was just pointing out that what you mentioned, partioning a system to look at its elements, is not the only way of performing analysis.
"Outside of skin deep analysis, before an analyst can examine an entity (complex), he/she needs to partition (decompose) it."
I would probably phrase that a bit differently, but I agree with you that in order to understand the "whole", it is important to identify its constituent elements. However, it doesn't mean one has to dismantle or separate the whole into its parts to perform analysis. In many cases, you will achieve a better understanding of a system by examining the linkages and interactions between the elements that compose the entirety of the system, as is done when you apply systems thinking.
Again, thank you for this opportunity to exchange ideas about such an interesting topic.
Adriana
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