Marianna:

Key Point:  The business analysis community is very immature.    Example:  Try finding a serious discussion on how a BA is to be guided through the system decomposition process.   (Note:  Analysis of complex business systems is largely about decomposition.)    I was recently consulting at a large insurance company that had spent tons and tons of money on formalizing a BA and software development processes in which the most important BA task of all - decomposition - was completely ignored.     How do they handle this critical task:  They use the default forced, artificial method, otherwise known as "sledge hammer" decomposition, further otherwise know as "Ya just gotta have the right feelings about this".

What makes this situation so stunning is the amount of time and money the company put into defining how to do BA (and development), yet they completely miss the most basic essentials!  Imagine how bad things are at the more "typical" organization.

So, the BA needs to go outside to learn how to be efficient and effective.     Social networking sites, however, probably are not going to be of much help:  They are too focused on the popular and not so much on the essential.   My example of a lack of serious discussion on proceeding with a proper decomposition is but one example.

Tony