You might think that Spider-Man is a fictitional superhero living only in coming books or on the big screen.  You might be right!  But what if? What if Spider-Man is out there trying to decided where to move next, where to take his crime-fighting super-skills? Well, Sean Smith, a business analyst, wondered just that.

In the simplest explanation of the term, a UX writer is an author who writes for user experience. When using a digital product, you follow text in order to obtain the user experience you’re after. This text should be precise, brief, and straight to the point. The writer’s goal is to guide the user through the different stages of product use.

The term gets mixed up with technical writing and copywriting. The difference is that UX writing is much more concise.  An effective copy results from the collaboration between the writer and the entire design team.

Let’s start with the specifics: how can you improve your UX writing skills and contribute towards an improved final product?

Business analysts are expected to be the ones who will create plenty of documentations that will guide the design, implementation and maintenance phases of a system. Documents varies from Business Requirement Documents (BRDs), Functional Requirement Documents (FRDs), System Requirement Document (SRDs), Project vision Document, Requirement Management Plan and other. Also a business analyst may contribute to the formation of a Request for Proposal (RFPs), validate and comment on contracts and write user manuals and other type of explanatory documents regarding a solution. It is crucial the documentation created to add value. Every party that has access to documentation must find easily what is looking for and after reading it to gain specific knowledge and understanding of a specific issue.

As a business analyst you will have to decide how will present the information in a document in order to maximize value for he readers. Include diagrams, screenshots, pictures, as well as text descriptions at your documents. Apply what is suitable taking into account the context and the specific characteristics of the project. Tailor any template or approach to the specific context. The solution team will use the diagrams more than the words, especially since they are most likely going to render the words into diagrams for development anyway. The business community may relate to a drawing of a screen layout better than to a three-page textual description of the same screen layout.

Business people call remote meetings virtual or on-line sessions, or simply conference calls. For many years we have been utilizing this form of communications to save time and money. Due to the global virus pandemic, remote meetings are now not just convenient, but a necessity for maintaining social distancing. Fortunately we have technology that assists us in managing these remote sessions to not only hear the stakeholders, but see them as well. However, remote stakeholder interviewing and meetings have their additional challenges beyond face-to-face encounters. Regardless of the technology used, we need to be keenly aware of these additional negative risks and pursue mitigations.

In the computer age, we’ve limped along literally for a human lifetime without blueprints for business knowledge and the vocabulary used to communicate it. How well is that working out?

If you have any doubt, do a quick internet search on all the problems associated with ‘data quality’ and their costs. Or look at the still dismal success rates of IT projects. Or consider how much sharper your decisions could be if the data were better.

A business knowledge blueprint, whose core component is a concept model, permits you to deeply analyze your concepts, your vocabulary, and your business knowledge. In this post, Ron explains all the critical reasons you need that blueprint.