How agile your enterprise needs to be (meaning how quickly and easily it can do things) depends on what you want it to achieve. For some of your goals, you’re probably agile enough. For any …
Embrace Gamestorming
First of all, let’s get this out of the way. Gamestorming is not new. Gamestorming is a collection of ‘games’ put together under the banner of ‘gamestorming’. As a business …
The Digital Business Analyst
At the IRM Business Analysis Conference Europe in September 2018, I conducted an interactive session about the business analyst (BA) in the digital enterprise. The main point of exploration was the change …
Forming a Business Analyst Community at AO — Part I
We’ve been on a journey for the past few years as a business and as a Business Analysis function. As a BA function we’ve grown from a team of 2 …
Exciting Times
It’s that time of year when a lot of my time is dedicated to the Business Analysis Conference Europe in London. For the last two years I have been privileged …
Using Purposeful Workplace Rituals To Build Better Teams
When you think of a traditional team-building activity, what comes to mind? Muddy assault courses, paintballing, a sports competition or even the newer trend of escape rooms? These have all come …
Process Improvement and Process Innovation: What’s the Difference?
Often used interchangeably, process improvement and process innovation are actually two different concepts that can affect your business in separate ways. Implementing each requires a different skill set and a …
Agile Projects Require Continuous Analysis
Too many agile projects fail to analyse the problem they are trying to solve because they feel analysis takes too long. All too often the decision to introduce IT is taken …
Here’s How To Think Strategically As A Team
Great teams are those where each team member has the ability, and the opportunity, to think strategically. Everyone has insights from their day-to-day work that can provide useful information to …
Options Engineering
People working on IT and business change projects spend a lot of time deciding what to build or change. Many, many ideas are generated and many, many decisions are made during …
Anytime, Anywhere, Anyhow – How To Achieve The Best Customer Experience?
How to achieve the best customer experience (anytime, anywhere and on any device). Many companies in diverse industries are struggling to design perfect cross-channel experiences for their customers – solutions …
How to Split User Stories
User story splitting is an established practice on agile delivery teams. But in my experience, it’s really difficult to do well. In this article I’ve pulled together everything I’ve learned about …
To Swim in a Lake or in a Pool? How to achieve the best possible customer experience – Part II.
Many companies in diverse industries are struggling to design perfect cross-channel experiences for their customers – solutions that incorporate the advantages of digital technology to provide their customers with invaluable …
BA Conference Europe 2018 — See You There?
As many of you know, I enthusiastically believe in the value that good quality Business Analysis can bring, and I love speaking, writing and presenting on this and many other …
Re-Framing Teamwork
As the shape of teamwork shifts and changes, so is the way we’re thinking about it. More of us are working in and across teams and remote working is on …
The Importance of Problem Analysis
In a fast moving business environment, organisations need the ability to respond quickly to changes in their business environment. Many industries are facing ‘disruption’ from emerging business models, new ways …
Business Glossary or Glossary for Business?
Playing with Numbers As you will see from my signature at the end of this note (provided you have enough patience to finish it), I am a business analyst in …
The Praetorian Business Analyst
The Prologue The Emperors of ancient Rome lived a life defined by power and authority, but also with the corresponding risk of betrayal and death, so it had its ups …
Automation – The Missing Link In Your Analytics & BI Environment
How does automation fit in the landscape of BI and Analytics environments of today? Which tasks – if any – can be automated and at what purpose? A short introduction …
Audience Analysis: A Technique to help with Business Change
This blog is to provide a brief and the essence of my talk I delivered on this topic at Business Analysis Conference in London, September 25-27 2017. This is to …