Do you want to be an effective BA?   The first step is to make the key stakeholders trust you. As I wrote in my previous post it is the first step in establishing yourself when you're the only BA in your organization.  When I joined and sat down for my first meeting with the project team not only was I met with stares of host...

I remember as a 3rd grade student winning my school’s local Spelling Bee competition and going to compete in the county wide Spelling Bee. Part of the instructions we were given was that we could ask the judges two questions when we received our word. We could ask for the word to be used in a sentence and we could ask for the definition of the word...

Im fresh out of high school and am interested in becoming a Business Analyst one day. I'd like to have information regarding what steps I need to take to become a Business Analyst. All information: What to study? (Bcom, MBA etc), Work experienced required? (in business as something close to analysis, or specific number of years etc), Becoming a Bus...

Just to pass some time recently, I was reading a dictionary (like you do) and I came across the following definitions of architecture: The art and science of designing and superintending the erection of buildings and similar structures A style of building or structure Buildings or structures collectively The structure or design of anyth...

  Its quite a feat of strength to pretend you don’t have any weaknesses. I don’t pretend to be that strong. Its quite a bit easier for me to look for faults, gaps, misses, short comings, imperfections and details that spell out why something is not right. Its a blessing and a curse. Looking at my deliverables in this light is second nature...

Dear Fellow BAs,  Discover to Deliver was released by Ellen and Mary a few weeks ago. I got an opportunity to interview them and ask about what insipred them to write this book, and also discussed in-depth the various facets of the book. If you are into agile product planning and analysis, I highly encourage you get a copy of this and also l...

Given the importance of the relationship between the Project Manager and the Business Analyst on a project team, how can an organization nurture this key relationship and, in the process, ensure better team performance? Here are six basic strategies you can employ: 1.    Train and cross training PMs and BAs on methodology and r...

Everyone knows what use cases are and their use in the software requirements process. We all know there are many ways to write them: logical, physical, to describe a manual procedure or an automated procedure. The purpose of State Diagrams is well-known to everyone in the field. They help us define the transitional lifecycle of an object moving and...

Business Process Modeling (BPM) is one of the cornerstone techniques in electing requirements from our stakeholders. Business Analyst will use the model to gain an understanding of the current system and paint a picture of the solution. In the IT field, we often describe this as modeling the “As-IS” process and modeling the “To-Be” process. We deve...

You can’t work in IT and not have watched “Office Space.” I mean, it’s a prerequisite, isn’t it? It’s like being a developer and never having heard “Code Monkey.” It’s the type of movie where you sit and nod as you laugh, recognizing it is funny because it is true. My favorite dialogue in the film is between Bob Slydell (one of the Bobs tasked w...