January 11, 2010 – 8:53 am –
I am very excited about the agreement reached by the IIBA and the Business Rules Community to hold a joint conference in 2010. The Business Rules Community has established itself as a very valuable resource for business analysis professionals learning about business rules. The conference will also incorporate business process improvement topics. I have included [...]
December 4, 2009 – 4:35 pm –
A tough challenge for our profession is getting true management support for business analysis work. Many BAs are caught in a “catch-22″ where their management does not understand the value of business analysis and as such, don’t give BAs time to analyze. When we don’t have time to analyze, management doesn’t see the value of [...]
October 22, 2009 – 3:03 pm –
Tuesday the Wisconsin IIBA Chapters hosted a BA Development Day called WIBADD! What a great event. Over 400 BAs gathered in the Alliance Energy Center in Madison, Wisconsin to share their experiences and knowledge. The event was extremely well run and provided everyone with lots of networking opportunties. Door prizes included two WI game systems [...]
October 6, 2009 – 8:54 am –
The first day of the BA World conference in Denver was a great success. Lots of interesting discussions about current business analysis topics with many different perspectives. Dave Bieg, from the IIBA provided the keynote address on Building a Mature Business Analysis Practice. He outlined the IIBA’s plans to help corporations and government agencies continue [...]
September 25, 2009 – 3:42 pm –
I have always been a big advocate of status reports and am surprised when I hear people say they are a waste of time. Regular status reporting is one of the most important productivity tools a BA (or anyone) can use. Status reports were originally invented by managers who wanted a written record of the [...]
July 20, 2009 – 9:08 am –
We all know that the way to become a more proficient business analyst is to practice. But practicing is not the complete answer. I can go to the driving range and hit three buckets of golf balls – practicing - but if my coach is not there to tell me to tilt my shoulder further [...]
June 26, 2009 – 1:50 pm –
Over the past few years I have been advocating that business analysis is a distinct profession, separate from project management, separate from development, separate from quality assurance. I believe that eliciting, and analyzing requirements; and making sure they are used to create a good quality solution is a full time job. I also believe that if [...]
April 14, 2009 – 3:10 pm –
As I hear more and more BAs talking about user stories I feel the need to begin a dialogue on our blog. User stories have been promoted by the iterative and agile software development approaches as a quick way to elicit and document user requirements. Some BAs are being told that user stories are the [...]
April 2, 2009 – 4:23 pm –
The Business Analysis Body of Knowledge® (BABOK®) is the collection of knowledge within the profession of Business Analysis and reflects current generally accepted practices. As with other professions, the body of knowledge is defined and enhanced by the Business Analysis professionals who apply it in their daily work role. The BABOK® Guide describes Business Analysis areas of [...]
March 9, 2009 – 8:32 am –
You have been given a user request to add a new field to a screen. You notice that the request is 6 months old. When you call the user to introduce yourself and let her know that you are going to be working on the request she tells you to cancel it! She found a way [...]
Barbara Carkenord, CBAP, 