BA Methods – Fads and Fashions

Technologies come and go, change MUST cover all the same topic to analyze the business requirements for a new business solution. Why are there so many methods for doing it? Could it be that being a BA is hard and every method claims to incredibly make it easy? Could it be that some methods are designed to help developers develop a code and not the business development for the business solutions or could it be that there is more money in these new methods?

This converse was given at the Project Challenge show in Olympia and intends to debunk the subject area and expose what is – in essence – the simple (if hard) process of business analysis. It uncovers the framework that is behind every method and makes the case for a pragmatic and practical use of that framework in the analysis of business changes.

 

Business Analysis Chain of Reasoning

There is a chain of reasoning that leads from a statement of a problem to the definition of a solution. If any part of that chain is missing, a poor quality solution will be delivered. This paper presents a high-level overview of the logical steps involved in transferring from problem to solution.

 

Two Perspectives: Sponsors vs. Business Analysts

This article proposes that sponsors have different expectations of what role and function BA’s play in a project change compared to the role and function that Business Analysts need to perform. This mismatch of expectations results in sponsor and BA disturbances. The solution suggested is that, Business Analysts need to demonstrate through performance of their activities that their role and function is a logical consequence of project change life-cycles – that there is no rational alternative for successful projects.

 

Computer Aided Software Engineering (CASE) tools

At the Provision users conference a question was raised concerning the poor take-up of CASE tools.

This presentation provides the reasons for the poor take-up of CASE tools commercially covering the scope of Business Analysis, Business Models and alignment with strategy.

Sometimes projects fail and we need to analyze the reasons behind it.

This presentation analyses some real-life examples of what goes wrong, why and what BA should be doing to mitigate the risk of failure. It challenges the idea that Business Analysis is hard or that it is an art. It is more closely aligned with a science which follows a chain of reasoning leading from the precise definition of a problem/opportunity to a set of solutions, proving every step of the way that each subsequent step is aimed at resolving the problem/exploiting the opportunity.

 

The importance of the Business Analyst role

This article proposes that as a programmer cannot proceed in a rational fashion without the activities that the business analyst performs, BAs must be considered fundamentally important.

 

To propel your career as a successful Business Analyst, contact us at ZaranTech or call us at 515-309-7846.