Author Archive for JB
Jonathan Babcock is a business analyst who thoroughly enjoys what he does. Practical Analyst is his outlet for sharing what he's learned, and for interacting with like-minded folks. To keep up with the latest on Practical Analyst, you can subscribe to the RSS feed, follow Jonathan on Twitter, or view his profile on Linked In.
Survey: Help a BA (Mentor) Out!
Alex Papworth, author of the Business Analyst Mentor blog, asked if I’d spread the work about the brief survey he’s conducting to help him gain insight on a few key questions.
Be an Unselfish Business Analyst!
You may be a great facilitator, an excellent “elicitor” of requirements; your analytical skills may be second to none, but if you can’t package and present information in an easily usable form, then you’re not completing the job as a business analyst.
Quoteworthy: Chinese Proverb – Involve me and I’ll understand
Tell me and I’ll forget; show me and I may remember; involve me and I’ll understand. – Chinese Proverb
Business Analysts: What Do We Want to Create?
We help our organizations arrive at an agreement as to “what we want to create” within the parameters of the elicited needs and constraints.
Quoteworthy: Cicero – Be Brief
When you wish to instruct, be brief; that men’s minds take in quickly what you say, learn its lesson, and retain it faithfully. Every word that is unnecessary only pours over the side of a brimming mind. – Marcus Tullius Cicero
Quoteworthy: William Strunk – Vigorous Writing is Concise
Vigorous writing is concise. A sentence should contain no unnecessary words, a paragraph no unnecessary sentences, for the same reason that a drawing should have no unnecessary lines and a machine no unnecessary parts. This requires not that the writer make all his sentences short, or that he avoid all detail and treat his subjects [...]
Business Analysts: Don’t Forget Your ROI!
It’s important that we take our own advice when it comes to our analysis efforts and keep ROI (Return on Investment) at front of mind.
Quoteworthy: Hunt & Thomas – Don’t Repeat Yourself
Every piece of knowledge must have a single, unambiguous, authoritative representation within a system. The alternative is to have the same thing expressed in two or more places. If you change one, you have to remember to change the others… It isn’t a question of whether you’ll remember: it’s a question of when you will [...]
Quoteworthy: Aristotle – Rest satisfied with the degree of precision which the nature of the subject admits
It is the mark of an instructed mind to rest satisfied with the degree of precision which the nature of the subject admits and not to seek exactness when only an approximation of the truth is possible. – Aristotle
Quoteworthy: Mike Krzyzewski – Five fundamental qualities that make a team great
There are five fundamental qualities that make every team great: communication, trust, collective responsibility, caring and pride. I like to think of each as a separate finger on the fist. Any one individually is important. But all of them together are unbeatable. – Mike Krzyzewski (Coach K.)
Quoteworthy: Paul Martin Lester – Words and Images Work Together
Words and pictures are intricately linked in journalism, advertising and educational contexts. Words printed under a photograph, the caption, signal the importance of the common sense representations portrayed in the image. Words beside a picture in an advertisement explain a product and its attributes clearly to a potential customer. Words spoken by an instructor give [...]
Quoteworthy: Kipling – Six Honest Serving Men
I keep six honest serving men (They taught me all I knew); Their names are What and Why and When And How and Where and Who. – Rudyard Kipling
Seven Steps and a Nice Little Process Template
I recently read and highly recommend Barbara Carkenord’s book, Seven Steps to Mastering Business Analysis, and must admit it has quickly approached the top of my list of favorite business analysis resources. It covers the basics needed to help get new analysts off to a productive start, but is also a nice handbook for the [...]
Don’t Forget the Constraints!
In addition to eliciting and specifying the requirements, an important part of the analyst’s value-add lies in helping business stakeholders and delivery teams identify and understand the constraints that will apply for the solution.
Begin with what you HAVE to do
The simple fact is, you can’t know all the details upfront. You can and should, however, be able to work with your stakeholders to identify the broader range of necessary capabilities and constraints, or “placeholders for conversations”.
Free Desktop Tools a Business Analyst Should Know About
Below is a short list of free desktop/productivity tools that I use regularly. I thought some of you might benefit from knowing about them as well.
Quoteworthy: C.S. Lewis – Don’t use words too big for the subject
“Don’t use words too big for the subject. Don’t say infinitely when you mean very; otherwise you’ll have no word left when you want to talk about something really infinite.” — C.S. Lewis