In recent years I have done three things which have really ‘ramped up’ my performance at work.    In my readings online, in books and journals I have learned that there is serious researchedevidence that these three things are possible some of the best ways to improve your skills and ability at work (particularly in a thinking job like ...

Part of my job as a Business Analyst, it is my responsibility to facilitate business process analysis meetings with a group of very knowledgeable folks. As I stood in front of my audience, I couldn't stop thinking: "What if I don't understand what is going on here? What if I can't comprehend the issues at hand? What if i steer this group to an outc...

With more than 150 million active users, Facebook has become one of the most visited and most used website out there. It started out as another lame social network that students could join and waste their time by checking up on their friends. Today, everyone is on it. And by everyone, I mean even my parents are on it. Can you imagine? Age doesn’t d...

I work for a rather large insurance company. We aren't the largest, but we are big enough to have our own SDLC (System Development Lifecycle) that comes packed with paper work, protocol and bureaucracy. Do not misunderstand me - these processes ensure the projects that are active are delivering on time and within budget. My last two efforts 20,000+...

There are many tools and techniques available to the business analyst for a variety of tasks.  One of my favorite one is the short table-style template for documenting a "Problem/Opportunity Statement" as follows: The problem of <specify in one sentence the problem or opportunity bei...

E R Diagram View SlideShare presentation or Upload your own. (tags: er diagram)

Thirteen is all you need, at least in this point in time. I may add to them as time goes by, but I would also like to hear from readers if they have any suggestions or thoughts or their very own principles for IT Projects success. Pleae offer them and maybe we can get them into the second edition of the book...which you all remember is available at...

The BA Handbook is a wiki designed for Business Analysts.  It's aim is to create a knowledge base that analysts can use to share their knowledge and learn about new and useful things. So far the content is limited.  It needs more information and more people to contrinute to it. Maybe you can help.  If so, click on the link below an...

The 5th edition of the Carnival of Business Analysts has been published at Better Projects. This edition is focused on Requirements Analysis.   This is a series of blog posts that collect other blog posts on topics themed around the BABOK knowledge areas. Edition 5 is on Requirements Analysis.   Previous editions include Loo...

I've come to understand the necessity for stakeholder involvement throughout the Requirements Gathering process. But what if it's another BA who is the stakeholder company's point of contact whom you'll be gathering requirements from instead of the stake holder themselves? Is there an advantage? How do we leverage the strength of our Requirements&#...