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Ken Young

5 Pitfalls to Avoid in the Requirements Development Phase

Developing requirements is a process with many moving parts. It involves aligning multiple stakeholders from different areas within an organization to determine what must be developed to fulfill a business need. Because it is a process, there are a number of factors that can cause the process to break down and lead to the development of fault...

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This entry was published on Aug 07, 2013 / Ken Young. Posted in Requirements Analysis (BABOK KA) , Requirements Management and Communication (BABOK KA), Functional Specifications, Business Analysis. Bookmark the Permalink or E-mail it to a friend.

Russell Brewer

Communication Is a Two-Way Street

Don’t you love clichés? I am sure your immediate thought when you read the title of this post was “Yet another blog telling me I need to listen more”. You’re probably right about half of it, you probably do need to listen more. We all need to listen more. But this thought doesn’t deal with the art of listening; ...

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This entry was published on Jul 29, 2013 / Russell Brewer. Posted in Business Analysis, Soft Skills. Bookmark the Permalink or E-mail it to a friend.

Lee Grinberg, CBAP, PMP

Want to be an effective professional? Follow up!

Would you like to be perceived as effective? Want to succeed? Make sure you follow up. As a BA you are involved in several initiatives at different stages of development. What separates an average professional from an exceptional one is following up on tasks assigned to others on your projects. I'm too busy,...

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This entry was published on Jul 18, 2013 / Lee Grinberg, CBAP, PMP. Posted in Business Analysis, Soft Skills, Leadership & Management, Career as a Business Systems Analyst, Getting Started as a Business Systems Analyst. Bookmark the Permalink or E-mail it to a friend.

Kunal Jain

How to identify a good (and bad) Business Analyst?

Over last 6 years, I have come across more than hundreds of analysts and have conducted almost equal number of interviews. Over this time, I have developed a knack of differentiating best analysts from good and good analysts from bad. If you face this challenge regularly, this post might help you. So how do you differentiate between g...

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This entry was published on Jul 13, 2013 / Kunal Jain. Posted in Business Analysis, Analytical and Problem Solving Skills, Soft Skills, Career as a Business Systems Analyst. Bookmark the Permalink or E-mail it to a friend.

Russell Brewer

Would the Real Stakeholder Please Stand Up?

In the BABOK, an entire section is dedicated to stakeholder analysis (version 2.0 section 2.2). The first element of stakeholder analysis as defined in the BABOK is the identification of stakeholders. It stands to reason therefore that if we as business analysts fail at the building block of stakeholder identification, then we are putting the proce...

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This entry was published on Jun 28, 2013 / Russell Brewer. Posted in Business Analysis. Bookmark the Permalink or E-mail it to a friend.

Dean J. Chapman

Would Indiana Jones be a good Business Analyst?

You might think I am crazy for wondering if Indiana Jones might be a good business analyst. Even though Indiana Jones is portrayed in the movies as a treasure hunter, he was really an archaeologist first. So what skills do archaeology and business analysis have in common? I don’t think I would have been able to draw a parallel betwee...

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This entry was published on Jun 24, 2013 / Dean J. Chapman. Posted in Business Analysis, Roles and Responsibilities. Bookmark the Permalink or E-mail it to a friend.

Anna Roosen

New Axure Book on Amazon - Reviewers Needed

Hi all, I have recently co-authored a new book on using Axure RP ("A Beginner's Guide to Axure 6.5"), and would like to hear from BAs/UXers/Interaction Designers who would be interested in writing an independent Amazon store review for the book, in exchange for a complimentary kindle copy. Please contact me at [email protected]. Amazon link: h...

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This entry was published on Jun 24, 2013 / Anna Roosen. Posted in User Interface & Usability, Tools. Bookmark the Permalink or E-mail it to a friend.

Lee Grinberg, CBAP, PMP

How to convince stakeholders of BA value for the first time?

In my previous posts I outlined how I was able to succeed being the first and only BA at a company and the importance of establishing trust between you and the stakeholders. So you're the first BA at a company. All are looking at you and thinking what can this person do for me? Good question. What can you do f...

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This entry was published on Jun 21, 2013 / Lee Grinberg, CBAP, PMP. Posted in Elicitation (BABOK KA), Requirements Management and Communication (BABOK KA), Functional Specifications, Business Analysis, Analytical and Problem Solving Skills, Career as a Business Systems Analyst, Roles and Responsibilities. Bookmark the Permalink or E-mail it to a friend.

Lee Grinberg, CBAP, PMP

Do you want stakeholders to trust you?

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...

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This entry was published on Jun 03, 2013 / Lee Grinberg, CBAP, PMP. Posted in Business Analysis, Soft Skills, Leadership & Management, Career as a Business Systems Analyst, Getting Started as a Business Systems Analyst. Bookmark the Permalink or E-mail it to a friend.

Russell Brewer

Lessons from a Spelling Bee

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...

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This entry was published on May 28, 2013 / Russell Brewer. Posted in Business Analysis. Bookmark the Permalink or E-mail it to a friend.

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Jarett Hailes

Three Audacious Goals for Business Analysts in 2013

As we start a new year many of us will take the time to reflect on our accomplishments from 2012 and plan our goals for 2013. We can set small or large goals. goals that will be accomplished quickly or could take several years. For 2013, I think Business Analysts should look to go beyond our traditional boundaries and set audacious goals. Merriam-...

Howard Podeswa

Hey IIBA, What’s Up With That?

Recently, I was asked by the IIBA to present a talk at one of their chapter meetings. I am reprinting here my response to that invitation in the hope that it will begin a conversation with fellow EEPs and BAs about an area of great concern to the profession. Hi xx …. Regarding the IIBA talk, there is another issue that I am considering. It's p...

Adrian M.

BA ABCs: “C” is for Class Diagram

Continuing the ABC series for Business Analysts, Howard Podeswa created the next installment titled "BA ABCs: “C” is for Class Diagram" as an article rather than a blog post. You can find the article here: BA ABCs: “C” is for Class Diagram Here are the previous two posts: BA ABCs: “A” is for Activity Diagram BA ABCs: “B” is for BPMN