Between You and Your Business Analysis Career
From the category archives:
When was the last time that you spoke with your customer at length about the things that are most important to them? When was the last time you asked yourself what you thought the customer might say to you if this question were posed? If you have been waiting for the most recent defect log [...]
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In my last article, I explained why I don’t see any benefit in moving beyond the term “requirements” when describing the key activities performed by a business analyst. My point was that business requirements and solution requirements represent the logical progression toward establishing a solution for an identified business need. This article from Practical Analyst [...]
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As business analysts, we talk a lot about gathering or eliciting requirements. In some situations, business stakeholders simply don’t understand what’s possible because their view of technology is limited by the current capabilities or by what a rogue developer told them was “impossible” a few years back. As business analysts take on increasingly strategic roles [...]
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The initial meetings with a stakeholder can be nerve-wracking. Oftentimes projects come to us for “analysis” with very little detail. It can feel like everyone else knows more and is better prepared. Yet we, the business analyst, own the next step. Especially as new business analysts or business analysts in new organizations who have not [...]
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Oftentimes a business analyst gets involved in a project with multiple different business stakeholders with competing views. Before jumping into the analysis of the project or even defining scope, it can be helpful to pull together all the competing requests and categorize them. This activity can help shed light on the nature of the requests. [...]
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We all know that meeting notes are important. Some of us live and die by our notes. Some of us loathe getting “stuck” taking the notes. In many organizations, the leader of the meeting must fill multiple roles. You probably created the agenda, are guiding the discussion, and trying to take notes. Having someone else [...]
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It’s hard to avoid talk about the rising costs of health care these days. And if you are like me, you would love to apply your best business analysis efforts to help solve the problem. But the myriad of organizations, stakeholders, processes, and technologies involved seems so complex and overwhelming that it’s difficult to figure [...]
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I recently posted a project to a site called “IdeaOffer” to receive some ideas about Bridging the Gap. It was an insightful experience. I learned a bit about using online tools and services to engage with other people’s ideas and received some insightful feedback on the site. To frame the idea, I provided the following [...]
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In a new business analyst position, it can be a challenge to figure out how to learn everything you need to know to be successful. Knowledge about the business and industry is a core competency for a business analyst. It can be acquired over the life cycle of a project, but oftentimes you need to [...]
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I know you have shared this experience with me. You are running a meeting, probably about software requirements for some project, and someone in the room gets squirmy. Maybe they are shuffling their papers. Maybe they are bored and checking their emails. Or maybe they are restless and start finishing your sentences and communicating with [...]
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