May 12, 2025

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A reader wrote to me with questions regarding a development project that he thought involved too many requirements and too little flexibility around requirement priorities. (You’ve never heard of such a thing before, right?)

Business Analyst as a General Contractor

By adopting the General Contractor mindset and the practices described in this article, you move from “requirements writer” to builder of business value. The next time ...

The Power of Respect: Unlocking Career Success Through Institutional and Interpersonal Influence

In business analysis, success is not only measured by the projects you complete but by the respect you earn along the way. Institutional respect may give you power, but interperson...

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» How do you decide whether to optimize or re-engineer a process?

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BA Humor & Cartoons

Templates & Aides

Templates & Aides: find and share business analysis templates as well as other useful aides (cheat sheets, posters, reference guides) in our Templates & Aides repository. Here are some examples:
* Requirements Template
* Use Case Template
* BPMN Cheat Sheet

Community Blog - Latest Posts

Jayaram.K

DOR & DOD: The BA’s Compass in Agile Delivery

As Business Analysts in Agile teams, we often hear about Definition of Ready (DOR) and Definition of Done (DOD). But beyond the buzzwords, these two concepts are powerful tools to drive clarity, consistency, and quality in our work. Definition of Ready ensures a user story is truly ready for development. It answers: Is this story clear, feasible...

Jayaram.K

The Business Analyst's Superpower: Bridging the Gap Between Business and IT

In today's fast-paced digital world, successful projects aren't just built on great code—they're built on clarity. And that clarity often comes from one key player: the Business Analyst. At the heart of every great product or system is a need—a business goal, a customer pain point, or a regulatory requirement. But busines...

Bekka Ball

Recipe Redesign: There Is No Box, Only Possibilities

I have always loved cooking. I learned from my Grandma June and her kitchen was her sanctuary, a small, warm sunlit space filled with jars of spices, stacks of cookbooks, and the comforting smell of something always on the stove or baking in the oven. Grandma June was as great a cook as she was a teacher to me. She never followed a recipe “to...

MA Blog - Selected Posts

Hey IIBA, What’s Up With That?
Recently, I was asked by the IIBA to present a talk at one of their chapter meetings. I am reprinting here my response to that invitation in the hope ... Read More...

Continuing a project in the penumbra...
INTRODUCTION Being dropped in the middle of a project that is already in a bad shape (over budget, over schedule and under compliance) is not easy (o... Read More...

The Dirty Harry Approach to Requirements, or “Are you Feeling Lucky, Punk?” Solve Problems First, Ask Questions Later - Part 1
Have you ever had to use a map to get somewhere, and after navigating around the wilderness for hours, eventually had to ask for directions because it... Read More...