This article is a reflection on my experience at the BA 2017 Conference in London last month, I found it amazing and worth attending as it provided me with the opportunity to listen, learn and network with delegates from many countries and organisations. It helped broaden my knowledge and perspective about business in general and business analysis in… Read More »
*****If you are interested in learning more about Target Operating Models you could sign up to join my online training course – Handling Transformation using a Target Operating Model. A Target Operating Model shows how an organisation should be supported by its employees and its organisational structure to deliver and execute the organisations future strategy. It provides a… Read More »
Commercial off the shelf packages (COTS) are packaged solutions that can be used out of the box or configured to meet the business needs. This is instead of creating software from scratch. The benefit of the latter is that the solution can be developed to meet the requirements exactly. Using COTS may involve requirement trade-offs but: May be… Read More »
Using business analysis techniques have the following benefits: Techniques can be applied with no/little reliance on business knowledge as it provides a structure to follow and provides guidance on the questions to be asked. Cross transferable across companies and industries. Usually internationally recognised standardised formats and notation. Saves time as same technique can be re-used each time without… Read More »
With the Business Analysis Conference Europe 2017 being hosted in London on the 25-27 September this article sets out the reasons why attending a conference might be of benefit. It can be used to decide whether attending a conference is right for you and pointers for building a business case if you need your company to pay for… Read More »
One of the benefits of having a business analyst on the team is that they can ensure what has been discussed and agreed is written down to ensure a common consensus and understanding. They can also ensure there is no ambiguity or gaps by elicitation from all impacted stakeholders, other sources of information and conducting analysis. However, all… Read More »
When is the technique applicable Mind maps are a visual picture for capturing information that relates to a central topic. Examples of situations where mind maps can be useful are: New to the subject area and wish to understand more about it Have some gaps in knowledge of the subject area To help with identifying scenarios / concepts… Read More »
Key performance indicators are a method for setting out criteria for measuring performance and understanding success. When is the technique applicable They can be defined for a number of reasons: To assess performance of current state To determine whether future state has been achieved or whether further action required To identify whether business objectives have been achieved To… Read More »
Purpose of Business analysis approach The purpose of the business analysis approach document is to set out the business analysis involvement for the work concerned to set expectations, to feed into a wider plan and gain agreement on the deliverables. When to put together a Business Analysis approach document This could be put together as part of the… Read More »
During the early stages of a project or change assessment one of the challenges is getting the time and information you need from stakeholders so you can elicit, document and gain consensus of the processes and requirements from them. Reasons why this can be difficult is: You might not be their manager and they don’t have to report… Read More »