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Organizational Gravity: Three Steps to Foster Continuous Improvement, Defy Obsolescence and Take Flight

Gravity can be a wonderful thing. It is an irresistible force that keeps us grounded on this big, beautiful, floating blue marble. It is even applicable to organizations in the form of organizational gravity. For example, I worked with an organization that coined a catch phrase for a challenge beyond its scope of control, deeming the situation a "g...

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This entry was published on Jan 12, 2012 / James D. Murphy. Posted in Leadership & Management. Bookmark the Permalink or E-mail it to a friend.

James D. Murphy

Executive Coaching and Debriefing for Corporate Leadership Development Programs

In today's management environment, new forms of and tools for corporate leadership development programs have emerged. One of the most popular development tools is executive coaching. The number of executive coaches has more than doubled in the past decade and corporate leadership development programs are utilizing their services more frequently. Ho...

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This entry was published on Dec 19, 2011 / James D. Murphy. Posted in Soft Skills, Leadership & Management. Bookmark the Permalink or E-mail it to a friend.

James D. Murphy

The Red Team: A Simple But Effective Method to Improve Mission Planning

The May 1, 2011 mission to find Osama Bin Laden has become one of the most celebrated military mission planning successes in recent memory due to the utilization of a little-known and seldom-used practice called the Red Team. The mission was a daring raid executed by the courageous members of the U.S. Navy SEAL DEVGRU, also known as SEAL Team Six,...

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This entry was published on Oct 27, 2011 / James D. Murphy. Posted in Project Management, Leadership & Management. Bookmark the Permalink or E-mail it to a friend.

palvarez

Breaking Through the BA Mystique

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...

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This entry was published on Oct 11, 2011 / palvarez. Posted in Business Analysis, Career as a Business Systems Analyst, Getting Started as a Business Systems Analyst. Bookmark the Permalink or E-mail it to a friend.

James D. Murphy

Thirteen Elements of Effective Planning

All plans are not good plans. In fact, even good plans can fail. We cannot predict the future – we can only imagine it imperfectly. In our companies and organizations, effective planning is a social activity. Deciding on a strategic planning process as a group, rather than as an individual, adds even greater complexity to an already complex task. C...

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This entry was published on Sep 21, 2011 / James D. Murphy. Posted in Leadership & Management. Bookmark the Permalink or E-mail it to a friend.

David Wright

Getting to FRs, part 3 - it's the process, dammit

People expect a lot from their information systems, but it usually it comes down to one thing: the system has to do stuff. When you talk about systems, the verbs are active: the system is running, it is executing a function, the system is responding, .... And what do you want it to do? You want it to do as much of your business p...

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This entry was published on Sep 01, 2011 / David Wright. Posted in Business Analysis. Bookmark the Permalink or E-mail it to a friend.

David Wright

Getting to FRs, part 2 - Scope is not just mouth wash...

Let me reprise the words of Mr. Brooks ... “… the hardest single part of software development [remains] deciding precisely what to build." Fred Brooks Author of the 1986 paper "No Silver Bullet” The unspoken corollary to this is you have to be sure you don't build the wrong system. Knowing what and wha...

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This entry was published on Aug 24, 2011 / David Wright. Posted in Business Analysis. Bookmark the Permalink or E-mail it to a friend.

David Wright

Getting to Functional Requirements, part 1 - the never-ending open-ended question...

Back to the nasty question - what sort of Information System shall will we build? "What sort of system do you want?" "hmmm, one that processes all our customer orders, I think. What do you think, George?" "Well Fred, I suppose so, but I know it has to be fast, and run 24/7." "OK.........(???)" We already know the problem with asking people...

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This entry was published on Aug 16, 2011 / David Wright. Posted in Business Analysis. Bookmark the Permalink or E-mail it to a friend.

David Wright

The "R" Word

Software is a uniquely new invention, different than anything else we humans have come up with in the past. ... "The software-controlled electronic information system is fundamentally different from physical labor-saving devices such as the cotton gin, the locomotive, or the telephone. Rather than extend the ability of hand motion, leg motion, ...

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This entry was published on Aug 10, 2011 / David Wright. Posted in Business Analysis, Leadership & Management. Bookmark the Permalink or E-mail it to a friend.

James D. Murphy

Effects-Based Thinking Part III

In Part I of this series, I introduced the concept that, from the perspective of complexity, everything exists within a system. In Part II, I outlined a three-tiered framework of effects-based thinking (EBT) and planning that is critical to understanding how change propagates throughout these complex systems - the organizations, markets and communi...

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This entry was published on Aug 09, 2011 / James D. Murphy. Posted in Leadership & Management. 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