https://www.modernanalyst.com RSS feeds for Business Analyst Community & Resources | Modern Analyst 60 https://www.modernanalyst.com/Resources/Articles/tabid/115/ID/6756/Tariffs-Reloaded-What-Trumps-2025-Trade-Agenda-Teaches-Business-Analysts-About-Strategic-Friction.aspx#Comments 0 https://www.modernanalyst.com/DesktopModules/DnnForge%20-%20NewsArticles/RssComments.aspx?TabID=115&ModuleID=572&ArticleID=6756 https://www.modernanalyst.com:443/DesktopModules/DnnForge%20-%20NewsArticles/Tracking/Trackback.aspx?ArticleID=6756&PortalID=0&TabID=115 https://www.modernanalyst.com/Resources/Articles/tabid/115/ID/6756/Tariffs-Reloaded-What-Trumps-2025-Trade-Agenda-Teaches-Business-Analysts-About-Strategic-Friction.aspx Tariffs are not just economic instruments—they’re strategic signals. For business analysts, Trump's latest trade measures are more than policy—they’re a masterclass in navigating disruption, identifying leverage, and transforming systemic friction into strategic insight. host Mon, 26 May 2025 22:44:00 GMT f1397696-738c-4295-afcd-943feb885714:6756 https://www.modernanalyst.com/Resources/Articles/tabid/115/ID/637/Handling-Requirements-Effectively-on-Agile-Projects.aspx#Comments 0 https://www.modernanalyst.com/DesktopModules/DnnForge%20-%20NewsArticles/RssComments.aspx?TabID=115&ModuleID=572&ArticleID=637 https://www.modernanalyst.com:443/DesktopModules/DnnForge%20-%20NewsArticles/Tracking/Trackback.aspx?ArticleID=637&PortalID=0&TabID=115 https://www.modernanalyst.com/Resources/Articles/tabid/115/ID/637/Handling-Requirements-Effectively-on-Agile-Projects.aspx Why has it been necessary to write so many different, book-length treatises about requirements management on software projects? Is it not possible to develop an approach to handling software requirements that is simple enough to express concisely -- and yet can work with large, complex projects as well as smaller efforts? At the risk of using a word that disturbs many in the field of software engineering, requirements management is just a process. The more simply this process can be described, the more likely it will be to work in real software organizations. So rather than consider every possible nuance relating to managing software requirements, this article will attempt to express the essence of an approach that can work well on virtually any Agile software development project. In the appendix, I include a detailed example illustrating the key ideas. Author: Theodore F. Rivera, Software Group Strategist, IBM host Tue, 23 Dec 2008 08:54:00 GMT f1397696-738c-4295-afcd-943feb885714:637 https://www.modernanalyst.com/Resources/Articles/tabid/115/ID/477/Tracing-Corporate-Strategy-to-a-Line-of-Code.aspx#Comments 1 https://www.modernanalyst.com/DesktopModules/DnnForge%20-%20NewsArticles/RssComments.aspx?TabID=115&ModuleID=572&ArticleID=477 https://www.modernanalyst.com:443/DesktopModules/DnnForge%20-%20NewsArticles/Tracking/Trackback.aspx?ArticleID=477&PortalID=0&TabID=115 https://www.modernanalyst.com/Resources/Articles/tabid/115/ID/477/Tracing-Corporate-Strategy-to-a-Line-of-Code.aspx One of the issues high on the agenda of many CIOs is to align IT efforts with the company’s strategic goals. But how you do trace a line of code back to the strategic goal that caused it to be written? If we’re able to do this then, and only then, can it be said that IT is aligned with the business strategy.  host Tue, 08 Jul 2008 02:00:00 GMT f1397696-738c-4295-afcd-943feb885714:477 https://www.modernanalyst.com/Resources/Articles/tabid/115/ID/443/How-vulnerable-are-you-A-crash-course-in-software-security.aspx#Comments 0 https://www.modernanalyst.com/DesktopModules/DnnForge%20-%20NewsArticles/RssComments.aspx?TabID=115&ModuleID=572&ArticleID=443 https://www.modernanalyst.com:443/DesktopModules/DnnForge%20-%20NewsArticles/Tracking/Trackback.aspx?ArticleID=443&PortalID=0&TabID=115 https://www.modernanalyst.com/Resources/Articles/tabid/115/ID/443/How-vulnerable-are-you-A-crash-course-in-software-security.aspx Software security remains a hot topic. Everyone from grandmothers to Fortune 500 companies has heard the stories of identity theft, data loss, and general mayhem caused by viruses and attackers on the Internet. In the first quarter of 2008 alone, 1,474 different software vulnerabilities were reported with only 64 of them having posted solutions. That's a resolution rate of about 4%. With all the buzz about software and system security, the computer world may seem to be in total chaos, leading many to ask, "How vulnerable am I?" In this article I present some of the results of a recent security project at Worcester Polytechnic Institute (WPI), along with additional research. My intention is to demonstrate what software security is by demystifying common terminology and providing realistic examples of typical security exploits. This article is not intended to provide a comprehensive computer security education, but rather to serve as an introduction to some of the key topics in the vast and expanding field of information security. Author: Bob Breznak host Thu, 15 May 2008 06:04:00 GMT f1397696-738c-4295-afcd-943feb885714:443 https://www.modernanalyst.com/Resources/Articles/tabid/115/ID/226/10-signs-you-arent-cut-out-to-be-a-systems-analyst.aspx#Comments 0 https://www.modernanalyst.com/DesktopModules/DnnForge%20-%20NewsArticles/RssComments.aspx?TabID=115&ModuleID=572&ArticleID=226 https://www.modernanalyst.com:443/DesktopModules/DnnForge%20-%20NewsArticles/Tracking/Trackback.aspx?ArticleID=226&PortalID=0&TabID=115 https://www.modernanalyst.com/Resources/Articles/tabid/115/ID/226/10-signs-you-arent-cut-out-to-be-a-systems-analyst.aspx The Bureau of Labor Statistics predicts that job opportunities for systems analysts will increase at an above-average pace through 2014, as organizations continue to build and implement increasingly complex technologies. If you've been wondering whether you'd be happy in the role of systems analyst, take a look at the following list. If you see yourself in some of these descriptions, you might want to consider another career route.  Author: Suzanne Thornberry host Mon, 21 Jan 2008 06:29:00 GMT f1397696-738c-4295-afcd-943feb885714:226 https://www.modernanalyst.com/Resources/Articles/tabid/115/ID/89/A-Systems-Analysts-Career-Useful-Technologies-Tasks-and-Traits.aspx#Comments 0 https://www.modernanalyst.com/DesktopModules/DnnForge%20-%20NewsArticles/RssComments.aspx?TabID=115&ModuleID=572&ArticleID=89 https://www.modernanalyst.com:443/DesktopModules/DnnForge%20-%20NewsArticles/Tracking/Trackback.aspx?ArticleID=89&PortalID=0&TabID=115 https://www.modernanalyst.com/Resources/Articles/tabid/115/ID/89/A-Systems-Analysts-Career-Useful-Technologies-Tasks-and-Traits.aspx Systems analysts research, plan, and recommend software and system choices to meet their client organizations’ business requirements. Systems analysts primarily function as links between vendors and organizations. They develop cost analyses, system designs, and implementation schedules. They also study the feasibility of computer systems before recommending them to management. Author: Roshan Tolani host Fri, 14 Sep 2007 03:33:00 GMT f1397696-738c-4295-afcd-943feb885714:89 https://www.modernanalyst.com/Resources/Articles/tabid/115/ID/36/So-You-Want-To-Be-a-Requirements-Analyst.aspx#Comments 0 https://www.modernanalyst.com/DesktopModules/DnnForge%20-%20NewsArticles/RssComments.aspx?TabID=115&ModuleID=572&ArticleID=36 https://www.modernanalyst.com:443/DesktopModules/DnnForge%20-%20NewsArticles/Tracking/Trackback.aspx?ArticleID=36&PortalID=0&TabID=115 https://www.modernanalyst.com/Resources/Articles/tabid/115/ID/36/So-You-Want-To-Be-a-Requirements-Analyst.aspx Be it explicitly or not, someone always performs the role of requirements analyst on a software project. The official title may be requirements engineer, business analyst, system analyst, product manager, or simply analyst , but someone needs to translate multiple perspectives into a requirements specification and communicate with other stakeholders. Perhaps most importantly, the analyst helps determine the difference between what customers say they want and what they really need—and that’s easier said than done. Author: Karl Wiegers host Mon, 04 Jun 2007 22:43:00 GMT f1397696-738c-4295-afcd-943feb885714:36 https://www.modernanalyst.com/Resources/Articles/tabid/115/ID/10/Using-UML-Activity-Diagrams-for-the-Process-View.aspx#Comments 0 https://www.modernanalyst.com/DesktopModules/DnnForge%20-%20NewsArticles/RssComments.aspx?TabID=115&ModuleID=572&ArticleID=10 https://www.modernanalyst.com:443/DesktopModules/DnnForge%20-%20NewsArticles/Tracking/Trackback.aspx?ArticleID=10&PortalID=0&TabID=115 https://www.modernanalyst.com/Resources/Articles/tabid/115/ID/10/Using-UML-Activity-Diagrams-for-the-Process-View.aspx In this article, the focus shifts to a particular view in the 4+1 Architecture Views, defined by the Rational Unified Process. We will examine how to use Activity Diagrams as "roadmaps" for the Process View, to capture processing flows as a series of steps. We will also discuss several techniques for creating these diagrams and ensuring their effectiveness. Author: Ben Lieberman host Tue, 01 May 2007 17:54:00 GMT f1397696-738c-4295-afcd-943feb885714:10 https://www.modernanalyst.com/Resources/Articles/tabid/115/ID/8/UML-Activity-Diagrams-Versatile-Roadmaps-for-Understanding-System-Behavior.aspx#Comments 0 https://www.modernanalyst.com/DesktopModules/DnnForge%20-%20NewsArticles/RssComments.aspx?TabID=115&ModuleID=572&ArticleID=8 https://www.modernanalyst.com:443/DesktopModules/DnnForge%20-%20NewsArticles/Tracking/Trackback.aspx?ArticleID=8&PortalID=0&TabID=115 https://www.modernanalyst.com/Resources/Articles/tabid/115/ID/8/UML-Activity-Diagrams-Versatile-Roadmaps-for-Understanding-System-Behavior.aspx The core purpose of software development is to provide solutions to customers' real problems. Use cases are a vital aspect of a technique that has been used successfully to ensure that development projects actually focus on these problems. They are used to discover, capture, and present customer requirements in a form that is accessible to developers, testers, and other stakeholders in a development project. To detail a use case, it is critical to capture basic, alternate, and exceptional flows of execution, which represent major and minor threads of execution the system encounters as it processes customer requests. Using the "standard" use-case form, these flows can be captured using plain English to describe sequential activities. These descriptions are quite detailed, however, and they can be difficult to decipher -- especially within a complex set of use-case scenarios. This article describes another way to capture these flows: by using Unified Modeling Language (UML) Activity Diagrams that depict the flows as "roadmaps" of system functional behavior. These roadmaps are analogous to AAA (Automobile Association of America) roadmaps, in that they show what routes you can take but do not indicate whether you will take them. An AAA map, moreover, supplies only enough information to identify locations of interest, leaving detailed descriptions of the road for companion travel guides. Similarly, Activity Diagrams show a comprehensive summary of use-case flows but leave the design details up to other artifacts. We will also take a brief look at other ways to use Activity Diagrams during the development lifecycle. Author: Ben Lieberman host Tue, 01 May 2007 17:46:00 GMT f1397696-738c-4295-afcd-943feb885714:8 https://www.modernanalyst.com/Resources/Articles/tabid/115/ID/6/UML-Activity-Diagrams-Detailing-User-Interface-Navigation.aspx#Comments 0 https://www.modernanalyst.com/DesktopModules/DnnForge%20-%20NewsArticles/RssComments.aspx?TabID=115&ModuleID=572&ArticleID=6 https://www.modernanalyst.com:443/DesktopModules/DnnForge%20-%20NewsArticles/Tracking/Trackback.aspx?ArticleID=6&PortalID=0&TabID=115 https://www.modernanalyst.com/Resources/Articles/tabid/115/ID/6/UML-Activity-Diagrams-Detailing-User-Interface-Navigation.aspx The author illustrates how to use UML Activity Diagrams to capture and communicate the details of user interface navigation and functionality, and explain three stereotypes: presentation, exception, and connector. Author: Ben Lieberman host Tue, 01 May 2007 17:05:00 GMT f1397696-738c-4295-afcd-943feb885714:6 https://www.modernanalyst.com/Resources/Articles/tabid/115/ID/11/Five-Things-IT-Managers-Should-Know-About-Software-Requirements.aspx#Comments 0 https://www.modernanalyst.com/DesktopModules/DnnForge%20-%20NewsArticles/RssComments.aspx?TabID=115&ModuleID=572&ArticleID=11 https://www.modernanalyst.com:443/DesktopModules/DnnForge%20-%20NewsArticles/Tracking/Trackback.aspx?ArticleID=11&PortalID=0&TabID=115 https://www.modernanalyst.com/Resources/Articles/tabid/115/ID/11/Five-Things-IT-Managers-Should-Know-About-Software-Requirements.aspx Some days, you wish you had telepathy. You just know that your development staff is holding back in some way, but you don’t know how to get them to communicate. Is the project in trouble, but they’re afraid to tell you? Since your software development staff won’t tell you what they’re really thinking, I asked them to confide in us instead. I posed a single question to professional programmers and testers: If you could get your CIO to understand just one thing about software requirements, what would it be? From the answers, I collated the five things at the top of their minds. If you grok these concepts, you will win the respect and support of your programming department (prizes you’ll also earn for understanding the term "grok"), and you’ll optimize the chance of success for your next software project. I must warn you that this will shock some developers. Most of them don’t expect you to have a clue. Author: Esther Schindler host Tue, 06 Mar 2007 19:18:00 GMT f1397696-738c-4295-afcd-943feb885714:11 https://www.modernanalyst.com/Resources/Articles/tabid/115/ID/12/UML-RUP-and-the-Zachman-Framework-Better-together.aspx#Comments 0 https://www.modernanalyst.com/DesktopModules/DnnForge%20-%20NewsArticles/RssComments.aspx?TabID=115&ModuleID=572&ArticleID=12 https://www.modernanalyst.com:443/DesktopModules/DnnForge%20-%20NewsArticles/Tracking/Trackback.aspx?ArticleID=12&PortalID=0&TabID=115 https://www.modernanalyst.com/Resources/Articles/tabid/115/ID/12/UML-RUP-and-the-Zachman-Framework-Better-together.aspx This article proposes innovative ways to combine three of the most important methodologies that have emerged in the past decade in the field of information systems architecture: UML, RUP, and the Zachman Framework. Over the past decade, the advantages of using the Unified Modeling Language (UML) for modeling software applications have become clear. During this same timeframe, the Rational Unified Process, or RUP, has proved itself as a software development process, and the Zachman Framework has proved itself as a framework for organizing and communicating architectural artifacts. Amid the swarm of overlapping methodologies, these stand apart as three pillars of modern information systems architecture. This article considers the combined usages of these technologies by examining their meta-characteristics and proposing some ways to apply them in combination within organizations. Author: Vitalie Temnenco host Fri, 02 Mar 2007 18:32:00 GMT f1397696-738c-4295-afcd-943feb885714:12