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Laura (Brandau) Brandenburg

Building a mature business analyst practice: Interview with Mark Jenkins

March 11, 2010 by Laura (Brandau) Brandenburg

Mark Jenkins and I had the opportunity to chat a few months back while he was Manager, Business Analysis at Websense. He has since taken on a new role on the other side of the country as Associate Director, Business Analysis at KPMG. We initiated a conversation as the result of a Twitter stream [follow [...]

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Help a BA! Where should I locate my new BA? With the developers or with the product manager?

March 8, 2010 by Laura (Brandau) Brandenburg

Reader question:
If the Product Manager and the development team are located in two different states, where should the BA reside?  I am in a very tough position right with hiring a BA and my development team is in another state. Where should the BA reside to best help the team? Should they be with [...]

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What part does the IIBA play in your professional development?: Interview with Kym Byron, CBAP

March 4, 2010 by Laura (Brandau) Brandenburg

The best business analysts are open-minded. They let you help them get better.
Editor’s Note: Before the holidays I had the opportunity to sit down with fellow-IIBA-Denver board member, Kym Byron and talk about her role and her career advice for other BAs. It’s always amazing to me how you can collaborate with someone and not [...]

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Help a BA! How big is the gap between sales and business analysis?

March 2, 2010 by Laura (Brandau) Brandenburg

Reader question:
I have been in sales now for about 15 years, mostly in the financial industry. I am thinking of changing careers and the business analyst route seems interesting to me. From what I hear there is the interaction part with people along with communication skills and the liaison aspect between departments. My question is, [...]

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Akk! The developers won’t use my requirements specs!

March 1, 2010 by Laura (Brandau) Brandenburg

Ask not what your developers can do for you, ask what you can do for your developers.
These past few weeks I’ve been practically overtaken by a waterfall of humbling experiences. To be perfectly blunt, the developers did not like my requirements specifications. It was hard to realize that I had failed to communicate requirements in [...]

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IIBA introduces a new performance competency model

February 23, 2010 by Laura (Brandau) Brandenburg

Last week IIBA introduced a performance competency model. Angela Wick and her Competency committee have done a great job culling the BABOK Guide for performance competencies and pulling together list of expected behaviors and interlinking them with the knowledge areas, techniques, and underlying in the BABOK. There are 53 competencies total and the model describes [...]

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Help a BA!: Will I gain portable BA skills as a Technical Analyst?

February 22, 2010 by Laura (Brandau) Brandenburg

Reader: I had a question for you and would really appreciate your insight into this. I have 5 years of experience in IT and a very good balance of development (.NET framework) and core BA work. I was looking for BA position but I recently accepted a Technical Analyst role. The job is in mortgage [...]

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Using social media as part of your BA job search strategy: Interview with Colleen Chan

February 18, 2010 by Laura (Brandau) Brandenburg

Every day I make a mistake and every day I learn something new.
Colleen Chan, “Business Analyst with a Difference” from Sydney, Australia, shares her inspiring story about her entrance into LinkedIn and blogging and discovering a true passion for social media all as a result of trying to find that “next opportunity”. Colleen brings a [...]

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Help a BA! How do I find volunteer positions?

February 15, 2010 by Laura (Brandau) Brandenburg

Reader: I recently relocated to Seattle and I am interested in pursuing a career as a business analyst. I am willing to start by volunteering.  How can I come to know about volunteer business analyst positions as part of organizations or non-profits?
Laura: In this recent post I provided several different business analyst volunteer opportunities. I [...]

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Durga Patil on being a business analyst in the insurance domain

February 11, 2010 by Laura (Brandau) Brandenburg

Learn from the mistakes of others. You can’t live long enough to make them all yourself.
Last month I had the opportunity to speak personally with Durga Patil, a business analyst with L&T Infotech. Durga has been a business analyst for over three years and prior to becoming a business analyst held various roles in software [...]

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