I recently had the opportunity to participate in a business visioning exercise for Business Analyst Mentor called ‘History of the Future’. It is typically used for issues identification, first-cut development of solutions, and it also helps understand and align business vision amongst multiple stakeholders. The exercise was organized and facilitated by BA Mentor Joan Davis who [...] Read more »
Tools & Techniques
You know there is a long list of skills and techniques you should master as a business analyst. But where should you start to get an immediate boost in your productivity? Discover here why some techniques are particularly powerful. Read just the high level introduction or dig into some more detail. You’ll find articles on process modeling, use cases, peer reviews, prioritizing requirements and many more!
The problem with BA Tools Part 1
The failure of MS Word as a BA tool As BAs, one of our primary goals is to improve the productivity and effectiveness of the businesses we work in, yet many of us are using tools that are detrimental to our productivity and restrict our ability for effective information management, communication and stakeholder engagement. This [...] Read more »
Business Process Modeling Notation (BPMN) Interview from a mentee’s perspective
Have you ever wanted to know what BPMN is all about? Pete Cohen certainly did and, fortunately, one of the mentors, Mike Eckersley as been experimenting with BPMN ever since it first appeared in 2005. That’s one of the benefits of having access to a pool of expert BA’s – if you want to know [...] Read more »
Lend me your ears
I watched a TED video (Julian Treasure: 5 ways to listen better) the other day that got me thinking about communication skills. Everybody knows that excellent communication skills are a “must have” if you are going to be a highly successful Business Analyst. Communication skills development tends to concentrate on speaking, writing, and presenting, with [...] Read more »
Speaking about use cases at IIBA event in Bristol – 27th July
I will be talking about how to create compelling use case models at Bristol on 27th July. Ian Richards from Fujitsu will also be talking about Requirements Estimation. This is the latest event for the IIBA Southwest branch and I hope those of you living in the UK who are local will be able to [...] Read more »
The humble business rule – from a frog to a Prince
I attended the IIBA UK Chapter event in London at the end of last month, where Larry Goldberg was giving a talk about Business Rules and his latest book called “The Decision Model”. With my BA hat on I have been monitoring what has been going on in Business Rules arena for the last couple [...] Read more »
Insiders Guide to Core Techniques is now available for FREE!
I promised I was going to make it available for NOTHING and now here it is. Before you click the link and sign up, make me one promise: You will get the full benefit by contributing to the course community. If you would like to ask a question; share an experience or answer a question [...] Read more »
Why everyone should have a mentor
I’ve written the following article for BA Connections, the IIBA newsletter. It’s coming out in June but I wanted to give you a sneak preview: In this article, I’d like to explain why I think mentoring can be so valuable in helping you through the professional development minefield. I will share a story to illustrate [...] Read more »
Pragnalysis team announce free Requirements Management Software tool!
Two of the new board members at the IIBA UK Chapter, Adrian Reed and Joe Dasilva, are not only very active community members but devote much time giving back to the community. Their website, pragnalysis.com, has many free requirements templates but they have gone beyond this now with a free Requirements Management Software tool. [...] Read more »
Accelerate past your professional development obstacles
There are many obstacles that get in your way in trying to achieve your goals as a business analyst. Your goal could simply be getting the best out of your stakeholders in tomorrow’s workshop. You might be thinking longer term about using a new technique you’ve read about such as a swimlane diagram for modeling [...] Read more »
