From the category archives:

Enterprise Analysis

The business case is the main deliverable of enterprise analysis activities. The business case defines the problem and the potential ROI of the proposed solution, helping the business make a decision to fund a project.

If your project is a turkey, kill it early

by Adrian Reed on February 1, 2012 · 2 comments

in Engaging the Business,Enterprise Analysis,Leading Organizational Change

Right, I might be branded a heretic, but I’m going to say it. Organizations that deliver every project that they kick off (with the project’s scope intact) are either extremely lucky, extremely risk averse, or extremely misguided. This sounds like a contrarian view, and may even sound a little controversial.  In fact, you might (quite [...]

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BA Stories: Mind the Gap – The Capability Gap (BABOK 5.2)

by Laura Brandenburg on November 14, 2011 · 3 comments

in BA Stories,Enterprise Analysis

Assess Capability Gaps is one of those tasks that we almost all do, but when we read about it in the BABOK we might wrinkle our brow. It seems so obvious that we may not have been aware of it as a discrete task until we take the time to read the BABOK (or you [...]

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BA Stories: Do You Define the Business Need? (BABOK 5.1)

by Laura Brandenburg on October 10, 2011 · 10 comments

in BA Stories,Enterprise Analysis

The business need is one of the most fundamental aspects of business analysis. Yet, I know many BAs do not consider themselves part of defining the business need. Today, I’d like to challenge your assumptions. According to the BABOK, the purpose of defining the business need is to: Identify and define why a change to an [...]

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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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Project Sponsors: Saving Face or Saving Costs?

by Nik Gebhard on April 21, 2011 · 7 comments

in Enabling informed decision-making,Enterprise Analysis

In today’s fast paced technology world it is common, if not mandatory, for financial institutions to replace legacy systems in order to gain competitive advantage. In my experience business stakeholders will often have decided on the technology before bringing an analyst or consultant on board. A lack of analysis from the onset means uninformed decisions [...]

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Help a BA! Is this Sales or Enterprise Analysis?

by AaronWhittenberger on February 10, 2011 · 3 comments

in Enterprise Analysis,Help a BA,Strategic Business Analyst

Reader Question: I have a background as a software engineer, but have been doing various business analysis activities throughout my career, as a team leader and project manager.  This is my first role with the actual BA title.  My company is in the health industry, specifically medical imaging (radiology).   We have a lot of difficulty [...]

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6 pre-emptive tips for easier prioritization

by Adrian Reed on January 5, 2011 · 7 comments

in Engaging the Business,Enterprise Analysis,Requirements Analysis

Working with stakeholders to prioritize requirements is an important part of the BA role.  Often, prioritization can be a difficult exercise, with stakeholders asserting that every single requirement is a “must have”. When this happens, it can be a sign that insufficient attention has been paid to the project foundations. Prioritization should be based on [...]

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What a BA should know about the UX profession: Interview with Patrick Quattlebaum

by Laura Brandenburg on November 11, 2010 · 16 comments

in Enterprise Analysis,Interviews,Roles and Responsibilities

We are looking for possibilities through the lens of the user. Editor’s Note: This relationship started when I queried on Twitter for some help planning a usability study. Leslie Shearer led me to Patrick Quattlebaum, Chief Experience Officer at Macquarium. Patrick graciously suggested a few books. It turned out that Patrick was speaking about BA/UX [...]

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Asking provocative questions to encourage lateral thinking

by Adrian Reed on November 3, 2010 · 9 comments

in Enterprise Analysis,Requirements Elicitation

At the start of many projects we are in a state of natural ignorance, as we don’t yet know what we don’t know.  This is esepecially true when defining a problem or strategy or eliciting requirements.  It is extremely valuable to uncover as much relevant information early in a project’s lifecycle, so that we can [...]

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BA Success Story! Becoming an Enterprise Analyst – Dr. Laura Kesner, CBAP

by Laura Brandenburg on October 11, 2010 · 13 comments

in Enterprise Analysis,Interviews

At last week’s Denver BAWorld, I had the great pleasure of sitting in Dr. Laura Kesner’s presentation on Enterprise Analysis. I’m sharing it here as a success story because that’s how I see it. Laura and her colleague BA have expanded the business analyst role in their organization and leveraged the opportunity to build their skills and [...]

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