Business Analyst Community & Resources | Modern Analyst

BA World Sydney - A review

Craig Brown — Tue, 27 Jul 2010 00:31:00 GMT

I went to the Business Analyst World Conference in Melbourne on the 19th and 20th of July. Like last year it was a great event. On day 1 I spent the whole day in one room (introducing speakers.) and got to listen to three very different stories.

Matthew Coppola from Perth training outfit Paramount Training gave a talk on Understanding Strategic Planning.

It’s always useful advice to go back to basics: Where do you want to be? Do you understand your capability? Mathew’s talk gave a simple framework to drill into these two questions. (See a transcripts of the whole talk here.)

Something that struck me while listening to his talk is how odd the world is. So many of us profess to know this stuff, but when you get out into the pressure of deadlines and complicated personal relationships – how many of us stick to the agenda and define the problem sufficiently before getting into implementation mode.

The second talk I saw was by John MacLeod of IBM’s Rational team on Steps to Better Requirements Management. This was the basics of requirements management: Start with a technology neutral business requirement statement, evolve it into a solution constrained by a particular IT or system scope and finally resolve it into specific statements of functionality. And trace things from front to back to keep up with what is getting done and what isn’t.

The third talk was a case study of a project delivered in NSW police by Peter Stanford of Artefaction called Architecting change – from Here to Eternity, or Agile and Now. This talk centred around the problems of getting consensus on big decisions in large, complex and diffuse organizations. The guts of the answer seemed to be making the decisions frequent and small, and using prototypes wherever possible.

On Day 2 I filled in for Paul Culmsee who was unable to attend – and did an ‘intimate’ Q&A session for two tables of people who wanted to ask questions about implementing agile practices. Matt Hodgson and Peter Stanford also sat in answering questions. It was fun and the people there seemed to like the more interactive nature of a conversation over yet another lecture.

The rest of the session was really interesting with lots of good content and speakers. I was happy I went and recommend anyone in Australia (or NZ) to pop along to the Sydney event on the 17th and 18th of August.

(Also posted at www.BetterProjects.net)

Abandon the use of Non Functional Requirements

Craig Brown — Thu, 24 Sep 2009 11:57:00 GMT

This model is provided by Don Firesmith of SEI. Note the lack of an NFR category.

Video: Get things done with Autofocus

Craig Brown — Mon, 20 Jul 2009 13:29:00 GMT

This video offers a great way to manage your task list. Check it out and consider how it can help you stay on top of your work.

Slideshow: Agile for Analysts

Craig Brown — Mon, 30 Mar 2009 12:17:00 GMT

Agile for the rest of us

BABOK 2.0 Launch

Craig Brown — Mon, 30 Mar 2009 12:12:00 GMT

Kevin has shared the beginnings of the IIBA's BABOK 2.0 chapter on Enterprise Architecture with us all on his website. We'll be digesting it in the next few days.

In the meantime there is an online launch of the new BABOK and you are invited. It's tomorrow so check out the details now.

Agile plus Prince2

Craig Brown — Fri, 13 Mar 2009 12:07:00 GMT

My view is that you are making a serious compromise to the potential benfits of swapping across to agile methods if you hang on to a traditional pm process like PRINCE2, but others have different views.

Here is one from New Zealand (I think.)

Test driven development

Craig Brown — Sun, 08 Mar 2009 04:18:00 GMT

Test driven development is not actually a test methodology. It's a design philosophy that says "start with the end in mind" (Thank you Mr Covey.)

Here is a slideshow introducing some of the concepts and ideas within the agile method called Test Driven Development.

Test Driven Development Tutorial:

Scrum in one hour

Craig Brown — Wed, 04 Mar 2009 10:28:00 GMT

Here is the co-author/assembler of the scrum process describing it at Google. It's a more in-depth description of the process.

Check back with the last agile post's questions and think about whether this presentation has given you a deeper understanding.

Scrum in 5 minutes

Craig Brown — Thu, 26 Feb 2009 10:23:00 GMT

This 5 minute video explains the basics of the scrum process. Scrum is one of, if not THE most, popular agile method.

This process raises a few questions:

As a BA are you more suited to the role of scrum master, product owner or team member?
How do you change the way you manage requirements when you are targetting small increments of product rather than large ones?
How do you integrate the requirements elicitation and analysis work with the development process?
How do you have to change the way you analyse requirements to work with a product backlog?

Agile, erm, yeh sure... I know what you are talking about

Craig Brown — Sat, 21 Feb 2009 13:10:00 GMT

Guys and gals

Observing the forum here and industry discussions there appears to be some radical changes going on that are being ignored by the BA community.

It appears to me that the BA community is largely ignoring this Agile revolution.

Is this true? Are you ignoring it and focusing on getting your job done, and maybe even doing it better, but pretty much ignoring the agile community of methods and techniques?

Over the next couple of weeks I'll post up some YouTube clips and Slideshare decks explaining some of the more common agile methods.

If you want to keep working in IT projects over the next few years you'll need to understand what is going on and how it will change your job and career prospects.

I'll also open up a discussion thread in the forum where you can go and discuss your thoughts.

Craig

www.betterprojects.net

Help your stakeholders review your requirements

Craig Brown — Fri, 13 Feb 2009 10:58:00 GMT

3 Guaranteed ways to become a better BA

Craig Brown — Fri, 30 Jan 2009 11:22:00 GMT

In recent years I have done three things which have really ‘ramped up’ my performance at work.

In my readings online, in books and journals I have learned that there is serious researched evidence that these three things are possible some of the best ways to improve your skills and ability at work (particularly in a thinking job like ours.)

These three things are relatively cheap, the tools are only a click or two away right now and only take a small amount of time on an ongoing basis.

And I am going to tell you what they are for free.

But before I do I have to warn you that most of you won’t be able to achieve this cheap and easy path to career success.

Most of you (research suggests over 95% of you) simply won’t have the motivation and desire to take the first step. Why is that? Probably because complacency and inertia are powerful forces.

I have a close friend who is both very smart and creative. But he has a lousy McJob which bores and frustrates him (as well as not paying very much.) But no matter how much I try to convince him to use his smarts, charm and wit to move onto something more rewarding he simply refuses to budge, following the patters and routines he has for years. That’s a shame for him. And possibly it’s also a shame for you.

The good news is that you are reading this.

To have gone to ModernAnalyst.com and sought out information on how to improve your career puts you in that 5% of people who really are going to try to do better.

But five minutes browsing does not make you a top-gun BA. You’ll need to make a personal commitment to yourself; to change and to do the activities it takes to change.

Are you up for it?

Great! Keep reading.

These three things are all based on research from psychology and neuroscience, as well as being observations that managers and trainers have had over the last few years (decades?)

They are based upon a few principles that you are probably already familiar with.

We learn better in groups
Public speaking is scary because we don’t want to look silly
Teaching is the best form of learning

Do these phrases ring true with you? If not, maybe take an hour or two to go research these ideas online.

Or you can quit now. Your choice.

If you are still with me, I’m ready to tell you my three very special secrets to mastery of the BA profession, and then explain briefly to you how each one will help.

Participate actively on forums like Modern Analyst & Sign up to a few message groups in your field
Start your won blog (or blog here at ModernAnalyst) and do it on a regular basis
Find someone to mentor or coach

Stop for a moment and reflect on these recommendations.

Do you feel vague hints of “yes that‘s a good idea, but how do I start?”

Fine. We can work with that.

Let me explain a bit further.

1. Participate

Participating with groups such as Modern Analyst (and maybe a local or regional BA community) expands your horizons and introduces you to new ways of thinking.

Also discussing ideas means you learn from the conversation. And by that I don’t mean you turn up and read/listen. I mean you participate. Put up straw man ideas for discussion, or ask questions if you don’t have a strong opinion on a topic.

At the very least you have one question you want to know the answer to. “How can I best tackle tomorrow’s work activity?”

Ask this one a few times and you’ll be amazed at how much more you’ll want to discuss.

2. Blog

Blogging achieves some of the benefits of community participation, but develops other skills also. Forums and meetings are conversations where ideas are exchanged. Blogs tend to be more one way messages. You speak to an unknown (at first) audience.

This teaches you to write well. You get concise and learn to structure your thoughts in a way that is digestible for your audience. (Erm, yes this is a long post.)

As a BA your job is all about good written and verbal communication. This is a massive opportunity for you. Don’t waste your time.

Go straight to google’s blogger, to ModernAnalysts Blog home page, or to any of the other free blogging tools out there and sign up today.

Make your first post before you go to bed tonight. And then make a commitment to post at least once a week for 3 months.

If you are stuck for a first-post topic try the theme of “What did I learn this week?” Everyone wants to hear Lesson Learned. Especially me.

While you are at it you can link back to my blog at BetterProjects (here) and I’ll tell my share of the BA world about your new blog.

3. Mentor or Coach

As I said above, teaching is a great way of learning. Coaching and mentoring also gets you to focus on the people side of the business, and to hone your ‘people change’ skills.

Additionally, by sharing your knowledge around you help your personal ‘professional community’ get stronger. And you get the feel-good rush of helping someone. And the list goes on.

So, are you in?

I hope so.

Craig Brown

Better Projects

Software project methodologies

Craig Brown — Sun, 18 Jan 2009 09:26:00 GMT

Jurgen Appelo runs a blog at Noop.nl. He posted a summary on some project methods. I migrated them into a ppt for slideshare.

I hope this is intereting for you.

Software Project Methods

Enterprise analysis

Craig Brown — Fri, 09 Jan 2009 12:16:00 GMT

Enterprise Analysis IIBA Webinar

Writing requirements

Craig Brown — Fri, 09 Jan 2009 12:14:00 GMT

Requirement Writing for Product Management

The 6th best job in America

Craig Brown — Fri, 09 Jan 2009 12:10:00 GMT

The Best Jobs in America

Invest in User Stories

Craig Brown — Fri, 09 Jan 2009 12:01:00 GMT

User stories have a place in modern requirements management. They may not be going to replace use cases but you shoulod know how to write them well.

Invest In Good User Stories

View SlideShare presentation or Upload your own. (tags: agile scrum)

How to write Entity Relationship Diagrams

Craig Brown — Fri, 29 Aug 2008 04:29:00 GMT

E R Diagram

View SlideShare presentation or Upload your own. (tags: er diagram)

26 reasons why projects succeed or fail

Craig Brown — Tue, 25 Mar 2008 05:14:00 GMT

There are several studies out there that identify why projects go wrong and what you have to have in place to make sure they have a chance. Naturally the readers of Modern Analyst (and BetterProjects.net) are aware of the importance of good requirements management, a theme which permeates the list below, culled from a range of PM literature[1].

You will have heard of many, if not all of these issues before. Today I want to put them into a new context for you; that of the business analysts’ role on projects and what you can do to help your project achieve success.

Consider firstly the degree to which the business analyst can control, influence or block each of these issues, then reflect on your personal experience. What techniques have you applied in these areas, and how effective were they?

Critical Factors for Projects

Support from senior management
Clear realistic objectives
Strong/detailed plan kept up to date
Good communication/ feedback
User/client involvement
Skilled/suitably qualified/sufficient staff/team
Effective change management
Competent project manager
Strong business case/sound basis for project
Sufficient/well allocated resources
Good leadership
Proven/familiar technology
Realistic schedule
Risks addressed/ assessed/ managed
Project sponsor/champion
Effective monitoring/control
Adequate budget
Organizational adaptation/culture/ structure
Good performance by suppliers/ contractors/ consultants
Planned close down/review/ acceptance of possible failure
Training provision
Political stability
Correct choice/ past experience of project management methodology/tools
Environmental influences
Learning from Past experience
Appreciating Different viewpoints

Now your mission, should you choose to accept it, comes in two stages.

Firstly comment below sharing your stories, and secondly go back to your project and see what you can do differently to help your team deliver success.

[1] I picked up this list from a doctoral thesis I read, but the copy I saw did not have the Author’s name on it.

Business Analysts Needed - Everywhere!

Craig Brown — Wed, 13 Feb 2008 18:42:00 GMT

A new survey highlights the importance of proper requirements management

“More than half "did not have professional, trained staff dedicated to the function of getting requirements, and the vast majority view the process of getting requirements to be inefficient," the report states.

Read the original article here.

Key points I got from the article;

Companies still aren’t paying attention to requirements management.

Come on people, if you don’t stop and think about what you want to get out of this project, of course you are going to go over budget and beyond the schedule.

Non-IT people managing requirements doesn’t work, but neither does having IT people management requirements.

In both cases the wrong people are managing the requirements. The article goes on to say that a business-IT joint effort gives better results, but still not good enough. What is really needed is trained and experienced business analysts, who’s profession is managing requirements.

The rate of project failure is still huge.

The article gave a definition of failure that included very late, way over budget and with a significant portion of the requirements missing. I really did think we were doing better as an industry these days.

Prince Lite has a strong focus on Requirements Management and Stakeholder Engagement.

Craig Brown — Sun, 20 Jan 2008 18:38:00 GMT

“A recently launched website aims to define a simple lightweight project delivery framework designed to combat the phenomena of PINO (Prince2 in Name Only). The new site is the brainchild of Dr. Peter Merrick and it is a synthesis of Prince2, RUP and waterfall. The main points of this new framework is it explicitly recognises the needs of all management stakeholders, it defines artifacts that are easy to understand, yet based on UML so they can be transformed into solutions, and it comes with downloads of worked examples. www.princelite.co.uk"

About Peter:
He hold a PhD from UEA in Software Engineering. I'm a UML use case expert. A paper on this subject was published last week in www.requirementsnetwork.com. This work is the subject of a paper to be delivered in Barcelona at a conference of peers in software engineering. He has worked for the Health and Safety Executive, HMRC, Great Hotel, University of Cambridge Examinations Syndicate and the European Patent Office. He currently holds a senior contract position with central government.

His motivation

"It upsets me greatly the amount of money wasted in software that never delivers. I don’t buy the excuses that are routinely bandied about for this, which normally boils down to the supplier blaming the customer for changing the requirements. This is rubbish. Suppliers are giving customers the run around. Customers have some blame to shoulder for delegating responsibility on the grounds that IT is ‘too difficult’.

Yes, databases and OO modelling is a specialist subject, but anybody can understand use case models, activity models and screen mockups. That’s all the business people need to understand."

UML takes care of the rest, because we know how to transform these ‘business oriented artifacts’ into code! The other great thing about this method is the user acceptance tests are described upfront. Progress can be measured. Success is defined. Come on customers; stop letting the tail wag the dog. Look into PrinceLite – it really is Prince in name only – and that’s a good thing."

Do you have what's in the BABOK?

Craig Brown — Sat, 19 Jan 2008 18:34:00 GMT

How do you measure up against the IIBA's BOK. Take a quick self assessment and then work out a personal development plan to help you get ready for certification.

| View | Upload your own

A wiki project for Business and Systems analysts

Craig Brown — Tue, 15 Jan 2008 18:24:00 GMT

The BA Handbook is a wiki designed for Business Analysts. It's aim is to create a knowledge base that analysts can use to share their knowledge and learn about new and useful things.

So far the content is limited. It needs more information and more people to contrinute to it.

Maybe you can help. If so, click on the link below and add oredit some of the content.

http://businessanalyst.wikia.com

And spread the word. If you know someone who has some cntent taht would be useful - tell them about the site.

Carnival of Business Analysts #5 - Requirements Analysis

Craig Brown — Sun, 16 Dec 2007 18:22:00 GMT

The 5^th edition of the Carnival of Business Analysts has been published at Better Projects. This edition is focused on Requirements Analysis.

This is a series of blog posts that collect other blog posts on topics themed around the BABOK knowledge areas. Edition 5 is on Requirements Analysis.

Previous editions include Looking at the role of the BA, the BA and Quality, Requirements Planning and Requirements elicitation.

Read it here.

Agile Business Analysts?

Craig Brown — Wed, 28 Nov 2007 18:17:00 GMT

Do Business Analysts belong on Agile Projects? Some say yes, but isn't a better model for Agile developers to learn BA skills?

Don’t be fooled. Agile projects threaten the role of business analysts on IT projects.

An important thing to consider for Agile projects is that users need to be senior enough to be able to look beyond local agendas at broader business benefit.

Furthermore, the BA can be the one to add that broad view, but can't replace the senior user, as unless they have worked in the role they can't really know it. Additionally the business unit hasn't ‘bought in’ to the new system if done by proxy through a BA. The business definitely needs to send in their user/s.

We had a short discussion about this topic at Better Projects a while back and the consensus was that a BA can't replace the business representative on an Agile project – mainly for the above reasons.

In fact, on Agile projects the developers are expected to do the analysis in an agile project. That’s why they require A-grade team members and work best in less complex business environments.

Potentially a Business Analyst can participate in the team to add depth and skill to the analysis. Certainly they could be working on the next (or future) iterations while the development team are busy building this round.

Another alternative is that the skills of the business analyst are adopted by Agile developers. Teaching Agile development teams the disciplines of business analysis will help them accommodate more complex business environments and deliver more consistent results and in the end better projects.

What are your thoughts?