Diaries of Business/Systems Analysts

Name: David Wright 

Title: Senior Consultant 


What company/organization you work for?
IAG Consulting

What is your main role at your company?
Working with clients to develop Requirements for their projects.

What do you find challenging about your job?
Getting people to believe that Requirements can be defined accurately and completely if you follow a good process.

What have you found that makes your job easier?
Support from my experienced peers; even after 25 years, each day can still bring surprises and it's helpful to have good people as a sounding board.

How did you become a Business Analyst?
I was a Programmer/Analyst who was doing more analysis than programming.

What is one piece of advice that you would like to pass on to junior Business Analysts?
Becoming a Business Analyst is about the least well-defined aspect of the job, you become one by actually doing it for a while first. If you are somewhere along that path, stick with it, good things will happen. Oh, if you haven't joined the IIBA yet, do it now.

What does a day in your role as Business Analyst look like?
On the most productive day, I am facilitating a Requirements Discovery Session with knowledgeable Business SMEs. The other days exist just to get to those productive days.

If you were to learn a new skill or competency what would it be and why?
I would still love to play the piano, but I don't have the hands for it, I think.... OK, there is always something new to learn, but I can't say at any one time what the next thing will be. Scott Ambler says I should learn to code again, but I don't think that's it.

Anything else about yourself which would help others get a better perspective into the business analysis profession?
Business Analysis does involve a lot of writing, technical writing its true, but writing none-the-less. So I encourage all BAs to write as much as you can. For a long time I thought blogs were for people saying things I wouldn't care about... now I have about five of them, and they have lead me to attempting a book as well. It may be an exercise in vanity, or it might actually help some people, I don't know yet, but it shows that Business Analysis can be about more than just the daily job. See you all out there... 

For more info about David's book visit: http://stores.lulu.com/dwwright99