From the category archives:

Marketing your value

Business analysts often feel like they do not get what they deserve when it comes to responsibilities and recognition. We talk about this a lot at Bridging the Gap, because through marketing our value individually we grow the profession.

Help a BA! How Do I Market Myself as a Contractor?!

by DougGtheBA on November 9, 2011 · 2 comments

in Career Check-In,Contracting and Consulting,Help a BA,Marketing your value

One of our older posts to Help a BA!! had our reader asking the following… I started off as an IT BA putting together functional specifications and detailing user-interface screens. Later, moving companies, I worked as a Business BA undertaking requirements facilitation, BPMN process mapping as-is, to-be, covering Lean/Six Sigma practice. I then moved into [...]

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Enterprise Analysis: Our Mount Everest

by Curtis Michelson on August 18, 2011 · 0 comments

in Business architecture,Enterprise Analysis,Marketing your value,Strategic Business Analyst

Thus far in this series of articles, we’ve surveyed the topographic terrain of Business Analysis from the local hills and valleys, with a tacit assumption of an analyst working at an application or project level and interfacing with things like rules, process, agile development teams, BA centers of excellence, and so on, all towards improving [...]

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Are you proud of your LinkedIn profile?

by Laura Brandenburg on August 15, 2011 · 26 comments

in Finding a BA Job,Marketing your value

If you have not yet created or invested some time in crafting a good LinkedIn profile, you are missing a huge opportunity to control your professional online identity. LinkedIn is the place recruiters go to look for candidates (or look-up candidates before they contact them). It’s the first research tool I use before making a [...]

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Help a BA! How do I avoid appearing meek when starting a new job?

by Laura Brandenburg on August 1, 2011 · 38 comments

in Engaging the Business,Help a BA,Marketing your value

Michelle asks: Could you provide tips to not appear ‘meek’ in interviews and during your first days on the job? When I start a new job I’m usually quiet while I listen and gather information. I am called a sunny person because I smile and talk positively around everyone. So, the context is from other [...]

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You could be running the company

by Laura Brandenburg on July 18, 2011 · 11 comments

in Leading Organizational Change,Marketing your value

Last week in the IIBA Career Call-In Show, we discussed leadership for BAs and, specifically, how BAs (whether they have the authority of a lead/manager role or not) are well-positioned to be leaders within their organization. I mentioned a couple of times how leadership is getting pushed down in organizations as complexity increases the sheer [...]

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Recognition is important, but it’s not everything

by Ryan Knapton on June 2, 2011 · 4 comments

in Engaging IT,Engaging the Business,Marketing your value

Is your BA style to go for glory? Do you seek praise around every bend? Do you want to be seen, heard and acknowledged? Do you vigorously voice your ideas and take all the credit? In today’s cutthroat business world I do not blame you if you do; often when one is at the project [...]

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I’m a software developer, why is this business analyst on my project?

by Laura Brandenburg on April 18, 2011 · 54 comments

in Engaging IT,Marketing your value

Last week I had the pleasure of speaking to the Phoenix Chapter of IIBA on the ROI of Business Analysis. Two really significant themes emerged early in this presentation: Over 90% of the BAs report through the IT organization. The most pervasive problem with selling the value of BA lied with members of their own “IT” [...]

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What are the next steps for a BA Center of Excellence?

by Jenni Doyle on March 31, 2011 · 3 comments

in Marketing your value,Maturing your BA Practice

Reader question: In trying to create a Center of Excellence, we have created templates for requirements documentation, use cases, stakeholder analysis, use Visio as the software for flowcharting and identified a standardized process for requesting BAs and identifying the high-level scope of work to be used for prioritization.  What suggestions would you have to help [...]

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Getting your BA career path on the critical path

by Laura Brandenburg on March 21, 2011 · 1 comment

in Marketing your value,Professional Development Strategy

In How to be a Star at Work (a wonderful book recommended by Adriana Beal) Robert Kelley talks about taking initiative. Robert Kelley writes: Most companies evaluate an initiative by how well it improves the flow on what I refer to as the critical path–the line that moves all the efforts of workers and managers [...]

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Coming Of Age, Part 2 – Learn, Share, Stretch and Grow

by Curtis Michelson on March 3, 2011 · 0 comments

in Marketing your value,Maturing your BA Practice

As someone once said, “There’s only one thing better than learning from your own mistakes.  That’s learning from other people’s mistakes.”  And indeed, these days, with rich blogging communities like this one, and so many other forums and networking events for BAs, the ability to learn from others has increased dramatically.  In the first installment [...]

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