2014: 5 Most Popular Business Analyst Learnings Posts
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Here's a list of the most popular 2014 posts, as determined by BAL readers.
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A List of Free Ebooks & White Papers For Business Analysts
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Looking for free Business Analyst eBooks?
This post is a growing collection of free resources you can download for your reference and personal library.
Read MoreCoursera: A List of Courses For Business Analysts
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The courses listed here provide the knowledge needed to recommend effective business solutions, manage stakeholder relationships, cope with stress on the job and assume leadership positions.
Read MoreWhat Prototyping Entails
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Your choice of whether or not to use prototypes should depend on the complexity of the domain and the tendency of requirements to change. Imagine an architect trying to explain how a structure as complex as a building will look without a drawing.
Read MoreWhen Processes Become Problematic: 3 Ways to Correct Bottlenecks
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Processes where input have to be received from preceding steps are extremely prone to bottlenecks. Bottlenecks can cost the company time, money and valuable customers. Customers will switch to faster competitors if they do not get their products on time. If tasks sit for days in a person's inbox waiting for attention or engineers are constantly waiting to receive product specifications, improvement efforts and projects will suffer.
Read MoreWhat Is The Role Of A Business Analyst In A Startup?
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Someone asked me an interesting question recently. She wanted to understand the role of a business analyst in a startup. Here is my response:
Read MoreBeyond The Storm: 10 Things To Do After A Brainstorming Session
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In reality, the intended results of the brainstorming session do not always see the light of day. In some cases, the ideas are left to fester until the initial enthusiasm fizzles away, leading to a failed effort.
So, what is the missing link?
Read MoreWhat To Do With The Results Of A Brainstorming Session
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Picture this: You have just finished a brainstorming session and are left with a huge pile of post-it notes to work with. You know some of the ideas will never see the light of day. How do you go about finding, “the one”?
Read MoreThe Six Thinking Hats Every Business Analyst Should Wear
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I particularly like the Six Thinking Hats Technique because of its practicality and relevance to analysts. When you apply this technique, you gain a well-rounded view of all the major aspects to a situation by evaluating it from different angles.
Read MoreHow to Deal With A Difficult Stakeholder
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Dealing with difficult stakeholders is in fact, no different from dealing with difficult people. This article sheds light on 5 major tactics you can employ to ensure you get a stakeholder to cooperate or at least, prevent him or her from derailing your project completely.
Read MoreEssential Skills Every BA Should Have
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Business Analysis is the culmination and interplay of diverse skills. This article covers 3 essential skills every business analyst should have.
Read MoreCreativity, Innovation & The Business Analyst
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A Business Analyst can be compared to a Swiss army knife. Do you know what brought the Swiss army knife to life and subsequently to market?
Its innovative nature.
Read MoreBusiness Processes & Procedures - Can You Spot The Difference?
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One common area of confusion when mapping business processes is the difference between a process and a procedure. The 2 words, process and procedure, are often used together in different contexts. Though similar, they differ in the level of information they convey.
Read MoreWhat You Should Know About Documenting Business Procedures
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In documenting procedures, it's easy to evade the many possible wrong turns. This article sheds some light on how to document a business procedure in an accessible and understandable manner.
Read MoreThe Essence of Business Analysis Methodology
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As to methods & techniques, there may be a million and then some, but principles are few. The man who grasps principles can successfully select his own methods. The man who tries methods, ignoring principles, is sure to have trouble - Ralph Waldo Emerson.
Read MoreBig Data & The Business Analyst
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Without undermining the importance of experience and intuition, the days of relying exclusively on them are over. Big data has the capacity to revolutionize current ways of thinking, how businesses are managed, how quickly businesses respond and the benefits they are likely to gain from exploiting the opportunities that come with big data.
Read More10 Benefits of Business Process Management
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BPM is a combination of practices centred on driving organizational value through a process-improvement culture. It can be as simple as defining unclear processes, continually looking for areas of improvement and making changes, or as complex as a complete business process re-engineering venture. Whatever your approach is, there are certainly many benefits to be had.
Read MoreThe Role of BAs in User Interface Design
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As far as the customer is concerned, the interface is the product - Jef Raskin.
Read More20 Nuggets for Conducting Stakeholder Interviews
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The quote by William Shatner certainly underscores the importance of the interview as a fact-finding technique. While interviews provide analysts the opportunity to learn about stakeholders’ needs, stakeholders in the process of being interviewed, also start to unravel the intricacies of what they want – their elusive requirements.
Read MoreTypical Challenges of UAT Sessions
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While User Acceptance Tests (UATs) sound extremely straightforward in theory, reality is a different ball game - they come with many challenges. This article explores 5 challenges of UAT and proffers recommendations on how they can be tackled.
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