There are an infinite number of ways of looking at any system. This article examines useful viewpoints that help Business Analysts to understand the real problem and come up with …
The Business Analysis Conference Europe 2018 and Empathy
Following on from my earlier posts about Convergence, Creativity and Customer Focus, today’s article looks at another of the themes which were prevalent throughout the Business Analysis Europe Conference 2018. Rachel Drinkwater, Senior Business …
Making Workshops More Engaging and Interesting Using Design Thinking Techniques
Design thinking is a customer centric approach putting the customer at the heart of the analysis to understand what they really need and uses techniques that focus on understanding them. …
Starting a Quality Program from Scratch
Small to medium-sized companies must continuously improve or die. Approximately 84% of all American companies have less than 50 employees. There must be more focus on helping the entrepreneurial organizations …
Using Emotional Intelligence to Build an Influential BA Community of Practice
Business Analysts work with facts. It’s probably fair to say that our whole lives are dedicated to finding them out, whether it’s researching requirements, scoping problems or designing solutions (that …
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 …
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 …
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 …
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 …
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 …
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 …
Through The Lens of the Speaker
Exhausted but inspired, information overload but great ideas to experiment, implement and imbibe…. this was my feeling at the end of the Business Analysis Conference Europe 2017. What an amazing …
Why Presentation Skills Are Important for Business Analysts
I’m delighted to be presenting at the upcoming European BA Conference in London on a topic that is dear to my heart; Presentation Skills. This is a topic that would …
Business Analyst of the Year Award 2017
The search for 2017’s Business Analyst of the Year is almost complete with the closing date for this year’s entries now reached. The Award is sponsored by AssistKD and IIBA …