Modern Analyst Blog - A Collaborative Business Analyst Blog

» 10 Things I Wish Someone Had Told Me When I Was Starting Out As A BA

(12982 Views) (21 Comments)

I am no longer a Webinar virgin. Thanks to the good folks at the IIBA, this week I had my first Webinar experience as an interviewee as part of the IIBA’s ‘ABC’ (Authors, Books and Conversations) series. The host, Julian Sammy, was brilliant in being able to pick out the questions that would be the most difficult for me to answer. (I hear that’s wh...

Posted by: Howard Podeswa

» What are the Quantitative Benefits of Business Analysis?

(5651 Views) (1 Comments)

At the end of my IIBA Webinar I tossed out a question to listeners: What are the quantitative benefits of business analysis? It’s something I’ve been spending some time on. While there are many touted (and self-obvious) benefits of analysis , hard figures are hard to come by – and it’s hard figures that high-level executives want to see when we ma...

Posted by: Howard Podeswa

» 6 Traits Of A Great Business Analyst (And How To Interview For Them)

(20325 Views) (16 Comments)

Whether or not you have ever been a Business Analyst yourself, if you work with enough Business Analysts over time you learn what sort of characteristics make a BA successful. Regardless of the Business Analyst’s skills, experience, domain knowledge or certifications, there are inherent traits that will more often than not help a person succe...

Posted by: Jarett Hailes

» Intermediate Business Analyst Certification Brings Hope for the Junior Business Analyst: CCBA

(4348 Views) (2 Comments)

The International Institute of Business Analysis (IIBA) has recently announced a new intermediate business analyst certification called the Certification of Competency in Business Analysis (CCBA). The CCBA is being offered by the IIBA as an intermediate business analyst certification for a more junior business analyst who may not meet the more stri...

Posted by: Chris Adams

» BA ABCs: “B” is for BPMN

(4652 Views) (6 Comments)

#2 in the series: “B” is for BPMN This blog continues a series on BA tools, based on my book “The Business Analyst’s Handbook”. In each blog, I move through the alphabet, highlighting a BA tool that begins with the letter of the day. Today’s letter is “B” – for Business Process Modeling Notation (BPMN). BPMN is the name of a standard often used fo...

Posted by: Howard Podeswa

» Business Analysis Conference Europe 2010

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The Business Analysis Conference Europe 2010 is building on its highly successful inaugural conference with more workshops and a third track – Business Agility and Business Analysis. It brings together business analysis specialists from across Europe and beyond, providing a platform for promoting the BA profession and opportunities for BAs’ p...

Posted by: Adrian M.

» When the Client Isn't the Customer

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Usually when a Business Analyst is working on a project the client (which I’ll define as the party or stakeholder who receives the benefit of the Analyst’s services) and the customer (the party who is paying for the Analyst to render the services) are one in the same, at least from an overall organizational perspective (i.e. the client and customer...

Posted by: Jarett Hailes

» Video: Business Analysis and User Experience Activities

(3544 Views) (4 Comments)

This is a great presentation covering business analysis and UX activities and how the two distinct yet overlapping disciplines related to each other and cannot be split. Free one hour education in business analysis & UX design. During the Opencast Matterhorn Leadership and Planning Meeting, Allison Bloodworth and Judy Stern of UC Berkeley Edu...

Posted by: Adrian M.

» BA ABCs: “A” is for Activity Diagram

(4571 Views) (3 Comments)

This blog begins a series on BA tools, based on my book “The Business Analyst’s Handbook”. In each blog, I’ll be moving through the alphabet, highlighting a BA tool that begins with the letter of the day (not quite Sesame Street, but not PeeWee ‘s Playhouse either). Today’s letter is “A” – for activity diagram. Example: The following activity dia...

Posted by: Howard Podeswa

» Spring Cleaning Your Personal Backlog

(3248 Views) (0 Comments)

As spring begins to plant its roots in the Northern Hemisphere, many people will begin an annual spring cleaning of their home. All the clutter that has accumulated over the past 3, 6, 9, or even 12 months since the last cleaning is collected, assessed and then dealt with (either by moving stuff to a better location, actually using the thing,...

Posted by: Jarett Hailes

» BABOK 2.0 Free Download/Access (V2)

(56087 Views) (2 Comments)

I've seen so many questions being asked by people looking for a free download of the BABOK® 2.0 (Business Analysis Body of Knowledge®). And the clear answer is yes and no. Members of the IIBA (International Institute of Business Analysis) can download the BABOK® 2.0 for free from the IIBA's website (login required). Outside o...

Posted by: Adrian M.

» The Lost Stakeholder Analysis Dimension: Engagement

(3616 Views) (2 Comments)

Stakeholder Analysis is an important and often ongoing activity that Business Analysts perform as part of their duties. Solution delivery team members need to understand who else is involved or impacted by their work effort, how they can interact with these people or groups, and what sort of tradeoffs exist in pleasing one group over another....

Posted by: Jarett Hailes

» Why I Don't Use BPMN

(11712 Views) (11 Comments)

First off, let me just say that I really like the BPMN standard, especially the 2.0 Beta specification. I find the notation to be a powerful and expressive language that takes into account not only the standard elements in business processes but also considers all sorts of interesting possibilities that may arise. I think the new Choreo...

Posted by: Jarett Hailes

» Root Cause Analysis: Using the Five Whys

(7322 Views) (2 Comments)

Business Analysts are often thrown into projects to help gather requirements around a known, defined problem. Other times we’re asked to analyze the current state of a certain process, organization, system and look for ways to improve areas that are clearly lacking. I’ve noticed that when we are brought on a project, the problems descri...

Posted by: Jarett Hailes

» Mitigating the Risk of Story Point Drift

(5128 Views) (3 Comments)

In many Agile projects requirements are not typically written in the form of a formal requirements document. Instead, a collection of concise but effective means of describing what must be built called user stories are often used. User stories describe the behaviour, performance, or interface of a system from a customer’s perspective....

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Join the Premier Community for
Business Analysts, Business Process Professionals,
Systems Analysts, Data Analysts, and more…