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Seilevel

“So, what do you do for a living?”: A BA/Product Manager’s guide to surviving cocktail parties

By Jhulgan I used to dread hearing the question, “So what do you do for a living?” This was often usually asked by a family member or other acquaintances not familiar with the software development lifecycle, IT, or business processes in general. For business analysts, product managers, and other software requirements types, it’s diffic...

5 Responses

This entry was published on Jun 10, 2010 / Seilevel. Posted in Requirements Management and Communication (BABOK KA), Business Analysis, Interviewing & Hiring Business Systems Analysts, Soft Skills, Career as a Business Systems Analyst, Salary Info for the Business Systems Analyst, Getting Started as a Business Systems Analyst, Technical Topics, Roles and Responsibilities. Bookmark the Permalink or E-mail it to a friend.

Dr. Mohamed El-Attar

Academia World vs. Industry World

I am a firm believer in the value of a business analysts and requirements engineering. I am an new Assistant Professor and I have been conducting research in the field for over 6 years now and I can safely say that there is a HUGE gap between the academic and practitioner worlds with respect to business analysis and requirements engi...

1 Responses

This entry was published on Jun 08, 2010 / Dr. Mohamed El-Attar. Posted in Business Analysis. Bookmark the Permalink or E-mail it to a friend.

Miles Barker

BA Careers - Domain knowledge versus analysis skills

I've been thinking a lot recently about the value of the BA, and BA recruitment - at all levels. A common question that comes up is "Do I need to have experience in Industry X/Domain Y to work as a BA in that industry/domain?" In a nutshell: Is it like that now? Yes. Should it be like that? Probably no...

8 Responses

This entry was published on May 27, 2010 / Miles Barker. Posted in Business Analysis, Interviewing & Hiring Business Systems Analysts, Leadership & Management, Career as a Business Systems Analyst. Bookmark the Permalink or E-mail it to a friend.

Martin

Humor: Project Management Speak vs. Business Analysis Wisdom

It is common for project managers to question the number of BAs they need on a project or how much time needs to be spent on analysis. The underlying concern seems to be a fear of “analysis paralysis”. Whilst not overtly stated, for many project managers, analysis is a necessary evil that if not carefully controlled, will delay the “real” work of w...

3 Responses

This entry was published on May 13, 2010 / Martin. Posted in Project Management, Business Analysis, Roles and Responsibilities. Bookmark the Permalink or E-mail it to a friend.

Karl

How to solve problems?

As an analyst I almost daily have to solve some kind of problems and I bet you do also. Problems can be in different forms, but I’ve been noticing that the same pattern for finding the solution keeps coming up. I think this pattern is something essential and we use it often but i think it is a good idea to put it on paper. First, every problem has...

2 Responses

This entry was published on Apr 26, 2010 / Karl. Posted in Analytical and Problem Solving Skills. Bookmark the Permalink or E-mail it to a friend.

Leslie

Eliminating Software Documentation

Not a suggestion for eliminating the process of documenting a software application, but rather a proposed for replacement of the documenting activity and manually produced documents with something more manageable and less likely to frighten the development team. Initiative for this work comes from a number of discussions I have been following and ...

1 Responses

This entry was published on Mar 22, 2010 / Leslie. Posted in Requirements Management and Communication (BABOK KA), Functional Specifications, SDLC, Process, and Methodologies. Bookmark the Permalink or E-mail it to a friend.

Leslie

Best Practices - Ad Hoc Procedures

Ad Hoc Procedures My belief is that software development should be more of a science and contain as little artistry as necessary. It is great to come up with ingenious processes and guidelines for developing your software, but if they impact your colleagues you must get buy-in from everyone who is impacted before you start using them. Some people...

1 Responses

This entry was published on Mar 18, 2010 / Leslie. Posted in Requirements Management and Communication (BABOK KA). Bookmark the Permalink or E-mail it to a friend.

Leslie

Best Practices - Document Content

Unnecessary Documentation The first section that I look for in a document, is the paragraph that describes ‘who this document is written for’ and ‘what benefit they can expect to gain by reading this document’. If I do not see my role, or I do not see any benefit from me spending time reading the document, then I have to ask myself the question, ‘...

1 Responses

This entry was published on Mar 15, 2010 / Leslie. Posted in Requirements Management and Communication (BABOK KA). Bookmark the Permalink or E-mail it to a friend.

Leslie

Best Practices - Inconsistent Documentation

If you are writing a letter to your mother, it is fine to create a new a new blank document, type your random thoughts, add highlighting, colors and emphasized text where you want to make and get a point across, and basically format the document with any creative ideas that you feel appropriate. When working with documents in the workplace, ad hoc...

1 Responses

This entry was published on Mar 13, 2010 / Leslie. Posted in Requirements Management and Communication (BABOK KA). Bookmark the Permalink or E-mail it to a friend.

Marc Thibault

Quantitative Risk Analysis

I may be overreaching but I include risk analysis as a proper subject of systems analysis. I've done enough TRAs to justify that position—at least to myself. So here's a risk analysis topic. Toying with the idea of getting some certification I took a look at the CISSP and ISC Common Body of Knowledge. One thing I found odd enough to exchan...

4 Responses

This entry was published on Mar 07, 2010 / Marc Thibault. Posted in Analytical and Problem Solving Skills. Bookmark the Permalink or E-mail it to a friend.

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Jarett Hailes

Three Audacious Goals for Business Analysts in 2013

As we start a new year many of us will take the time to reflect on our accomplishments from 2012 and plan our goals for 2013. We can set small or large goals. goals that will be accomplished quickly or could take several years. For 2013, I think Business Analysts should look to go beyond our traditional boundaries and set audacious goals. Merriam-...

Howard Podeswa

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 that it will begin a conversation with fellow EEPs and BAs about an area of great concern to the profession. Hi xx …. Regarding the IIBA talk, there is another issue that I am considering. It's p...

Adrian M.

BA ABCs: “C” is for Class Diagram

Continuing the ABC series for Business Analysts, Howard Podeswa created the next installment titled "BA ABCs: “C” is for Class Diagram" as an article rather than a blog post. You can find the article here: BA ABCs: “C” is for Class Diagram Here are the previous two posts: BA ABCs: “A” is for Activity Diagram BA ABCs: “B” is for BPMN