Just in time BA coaching – testers wanted!

Training for BAs is a million miles better than it was in 2000 when I started as a freelance BA. However, I believe it is often a poor solution for today’s time starved business analyst who needs on the spot, relevant and actionable coaching. Some BA’s that I’ve been talking to about training and Certification [...] Read more »

First BA Café – What is BA competence and how do you gain credibility?

Joan Davis, Pete Cohen and I ran the first BA Café on the 27th April. As this was a pilot, it was a free event to understand your needs, test the technology and the process itself. Joan and Pete did the lion’s share of the work with Pete at the helm of MaestroConference (supports audio [...] Read more »

BA’s and employer’s view on Certifications

Here are some thoughts on Certifications from BA’s who have made the Certification journey: Adrian Reed compares the CCBA/CBAP with the ISEB BA Diploma  Brett Arthur shares Part 1 of his CBAP journey – there are two more posts to complete the story!   And here are the results of our questionnaire answered by individuals [...] Read more »

Confessions of new(ish) BA

At work I recently made a confession. Despite having a couple of years BA experience and a number of projects under my belt, I had never received formal training to do my job. I didn’t actually know for certain how I should be doing my job. Looking at the people around me made me feel [...] Read more »

What will Business Analyst Mentor deliver in 2012?

In 2012, I’m going to provide the community with a platform where you can really share your expertise and develop your skills. You could be doing one or both of these things, depending on the area and your experience. For example, if you have pursued certification you will be able to share your ‘journey’ and [...] Read more »

Deciding whether to mentor? – Just do it!

I recently started the wonderful journey of being a Mentor. I expressed my desire and reasons for wanting to mentor in an email to Alex Papworth, at Business Analyst Mentor. My drivers included my continuous quest to develop a broader understanding of the business analysis field by communicating my skills to others, the sharing of skills [...] Read more »

Look out for the new mentors ‘top tips’ on LinkedIn

I’ve been looking for ways for the new mentors to start sharing their expertise other than through one to one mentoring. When Joan Davis suggested that we send out a weekly, bite size piece of advice on LinkedIn, I loved the idea. If you look at the Business Analyst Mentor company page, you’ll see the [...] Read more »

When is Enough Enough with Mentoring?? Finding the Right Balance.

Each time a mentor engages with a mentee, there exists a delicate balance between several factors that occur in the mentoring relationship. It’s important for the health of the parties involved that the mentor find and adjust to these balances as the situation dictates at any given time. Let’s take a look at a few…. [...] Read more »

Pete Cohen, mentee, starts blogging

I’m pleased to see that Pete Cohen has started blogging after being advised by Doug Goldberg, his mentor. He’s contributed to his fellow Australian’s blog - Better Projects by Craig Brown. Craig introduces him here and this is Pete’s first post on how to word risks. Well done Pete for taking the plunge – I [...] Read more »

Shoulda Woulda Coulda Had a Mentor Back in My Early Years

We can read all the pro-mentoring diatribe on Alex’s site here on how great mentoring is and why you should buy into it and why it’s important until one of us passes out cold. But Really! If YOU don’t buy into this enterprise and concept, there really isn’t a point. Right? So I’m going to [...] Read more »