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Entries for the 'Leadership & Management' Category

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December ought to be a month of celebrations, but for managers it often isn’t. In many companies this is the time for the yearly performance appraisals. When top management is not trusting employees, and employees are not trusting top management, the middle manager is usually caught between a rock and a hard place. But they don’t have to be.

» FEATURED: 21st Century BA as Creative Leader: What’s All the Fuss About?

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21st Century BA as Creative Leader: What’s All the Fuss About?

Leadership is like genius, it is one of those concepts that is recognizable when you observe it in action, but is otherwise somewhat difficult to define. And creative leadership is even harder to define because we haven’t been focusing on it in the context of business, unless we are talking about new product development. But creativity and innovati...

» FEATURED: Business Analysts: Choosing Sides

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... it became clear to me that it was time to revisit the core role a business analyst fulfills in an organization. In my experience thus far, well over 75% of the business analysts I know report through the IT side of their organization. Of the 25% that report through the business side, most have a primary responsibility that is outside of the typ...

» FEATURED: Which Should Come First, Requirements Management Tools or Processes? Hint: It’s Not What You Expect!

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Which Should Come First, Requirements Management Tools or Processes? Hint: It’s Not What You Expect!

I was asked my opinion about whether I’d want project managers to focus on processes first or tools first. Without hesitation, my response was “I don’t really care whether project managers focus on process or tools first,as long as they don’t get in the way of our doing good business analysis!”

» FEATURED: 3 misconceptions I would like to see removed from the Agile Extension to the BABOK®

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3 misconceptions I would like to see removed from the Agile Extension to the BABOK®

The Agile Extension to the BABOK® describes “business analysis areas of knowledge, their associated activities and tasks, and the skills necessary to be effective in their execution within the framework of agile software development”. Below are 3 misconceptions that, in my opinion, the current draft of the Agile Extension is helping perpetuat...

» FEATURED: It’s a New World for the Business Analyst: We need to Grow up Fast!

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It’s a New World for the Business Analyst: We need to Grow up Fast!

In many organizations, culture and conventional wisdom make it difficult for the BA to break out of mostly tactical roles within projects. However, in many ways, the future competitiveness of your organization (and consequently of your future employment) depends on it! So don’t blink or you will miss out on the best BA opportunity of your career.

» Methodologies & The Dance of the Fairies

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Methodologies & The Dance of the Fairies

In a nutshell, a methodology represents a series of steps in a project specifying Who is to perform What, When, Where, Why, and How (aka, "5W+H"), from start to finish. Perhaps the best way to think of a methodology is as a roadmap or an assembly line where a product is developed over a series of work stations.

» FEATURED: Top 10 Key Business Analysis Trends For 2012

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Top 10 Key Business Analysis Trends For 2012

I’m pleased to continue to uphold: the unveiling of this year’s top 10 business analysis trends. This year business analysts (BAs) will need not only the balanced portfolio of technical and business skills they have been perfecting, but also a more comprehensive perspective in order to meet the challenging business environment of 2012.

» FEATURED: Three Good Reasons to Initiate a BA Center of Excellence

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Three Good Reasons to Initiate a BA Center of Excellence

Creating a BA Center of Excellence (BA COE) is a proven method for effectively reaching these goals with a BA team. In addition to improving BA performance in the traditional fields of elicitation and drafting, they aid in improving the other ‘soft’ skills that are becoming increasingly mandatory for a BA to possess.

» FEATURED: Lean Six Sigma for non-industrial organizations

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Lean Six Sigma for non-industrial organizations

Lean techniques use a process-oriented approach. In non-industrial organizations however, the process is invisible. In order to apply Lean techniques successfully in this environment, the visibility of processes has to be significantly increased. Employees have to learn to look at their organization from a process viewpoint. Furthermore, it is impo...

» FEATURED: Agile vs. Traditional... - Part III: Winning Through Integrative Thinking

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Agile vs. Traditional... - Part III: Winning Through Integrative Thinking

Instead of taking for granted that either you find a flavor of agile that will fit the needs of your organization, or you must completely dismiss the use of agile methods, a much more valuable approach is to determine, for each individual project, which agile concepts should be embraced or not.

» FEATURED: The State of Business Analysis Practices in Organizations

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The State of Business Analysis Practices in Organizations

To remain competitive, it is more important than ever for an organization’s leadership team to use business analysis (BA) practices to execute strategies through innovative solutions. Over the years, business analysis has been rapidly developing as a profession and as a core business practice in many organizations; however, all too often business a...

» FEATURED: How to Effectively Engage Requirement Contributors to Achieve Project Success

(3427 Views) (1 Comments)

How to Effectively Engage Requirement Contributors to Achieve Project Success

Your new system just went live and the project, that replaced a critical legacy system, is coming to a close. Business analysts gathered requirements and worked closely with users and developers, but did you capture all of the requirements?

» FEATURED: Agile vs. Traditional Software Development: Why is the debate still going on? - Part I: The dangers of bounded rationality

(5153 Views) (16 Comments)

Agile vs. Traditional Software Development: Why is the debate still going on? - Part I: The dangers of bounded rationality

My understanding is that, in practice, successful agilists tend to bring together a number of activities, tasks, and deliverables that are from beyond the boundaries of what may be called “pure agile.” This mixing and matching of software process elements from agile and non-agile (more formal) approaches is a much more practical way of using these ...

» History Repeats Itself, But It Doesn’t Have To!

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History Repeats Itself, But It Doesn’t Have To!

Why does it take an 'act of congress' for some organizations to realize that what they are doing is not working? I have been in many industries(media, manufacturing, financial and the judicial system) and no matter what industry I've been in I’ve seen some of the same themes.

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Business Analyst Articles: Business Analysis & Systems Analysis

Entries for the 'Leadership & Management' Category

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

Business Analyst Articles: Business Analysis & Systems Analysis

Entries for the 'Leadership & Management' Category

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