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There’s a lot of terminology floating around out there relating to data analysis. What’s a data analyst? What is data analysis? Is that different from data analytics? Where does business analysis fit in? Unfortunately, a lot of these terms get used interchangeably. That’s compounded by the fact that there’s a lot of overlap between the […]
I find myself running into a lot of business analysis professionals who say, “I don’t do data analysis. That is the data architect’s job.” My response: “…What?!?!” In a nutshell, a good business analysis professional knows that part of their role is to understand the business and help the business solve its problems by making sure […]
During a recent Facilitating a Requirements Workshop class, my students and I had discussion regarding decision criteria. While the discussion came out of a class centered on business analysis, the answer resonates with almost any industry. Since my students asked me for a quick write up to reference, I thought it might help others and wanted […]
The Pareto principle theorizes that about 80% of the effects come from 20% of the causes. If we apply that to our projects, then 80% of the value comes from 20% of the requirements or the backlog. People often prioritize using their gut feel, or by ‘the executive said so’, or by the squeakiest wheel […]
The Weighted Shortest Job First, or WSJF, prioritization technique might seem confusing at first, but it isn’t and can provide some powerful insight. The simple calculation divides the Cost of Delay (also called COD) by the Job Size (or Duration). Let’s explore the Cost of Delay first. The Cost of Delay can be estimated using the sum of three factors:
I love analyzing business rules. Early in my career I spent time working in the artificial intelligence field. Believe it or not, AI actually existed before ChatGPT! A lot of the early work in AI revolved around what are known as “rules engines”. Rules engines interpret business rules that have been captured in a user-friendly […]
In Part 1 of this blog post, I put a new spin on an old set of “commandments” that I learned early in my career. Drawn from a book given to me by a key mentor, those commandments encouraged me to challenge the very hierarchical environment in which I worked. Our organization structure looked like […]
As I was thinking about writing on the topic of self-organizing teams, I ran a Google search to see what popped up. All the top-level results were references from agile sites like scrum.org. That would lead one to believe that the concept of self-organizing teams is new, something that was somehow invented along with agile […]
I really love teaching. I guess that’s not surprising, given that I’m (at least) a fourth-generation teacher. Check this out: This is a clip from the 1920 Wyoming Census. The first entry on this page, Gertrude Shaw, is my great-grandmother. Widowed at 29 with three children to support, she taught in a one-room schoolhouse in […]
Who hasn’t interviewed or been interviewed at least once in your life? I would be surprised if there is anyone in the world over the age of two that hasn’t been a party to this technique! It’s actually so common that it may seem there is nothing new to discuss about an interview, but interviewing […]
My husband and I have been together for more years than I like to admit. We are like two peas in a pod…except when it comes to work. Understanding what in the world his wife does all day is NOT something my husband cares to do. He remains blissfully ignorant to my on-the-job contributions, and […]
I bet we share some of the same experiences with bad communication. I bet you’ve been in a meeting for a project that you have been working on closely and heard something for the very first time that others in the room have known for days, weeks, or maybe even months. How did you miss […]
I like to focus on the positive. I’m the person who skips right over the headlines about attacks and shootings to get to the stories that make me feel good. I figured out a few years ago that if something was really important and world altering, somebody in my family would tell me about it […]
I recently had a thought process that I wanted to share… I promise it ends with something useful! I was initially reflecting on Earth Day, which is coming up soon, and thought about how the motto of “Reduce, Reuse, Recycle” can be applied to our work – our processes, tasks, and even people. My mind […]
Here’s a question related to requirements validation that pops up regularly in the classes we teach: How do I know I’m not missing any requirements? My first response is: “You don’t!” I know that’s not what you want to hear, but you have to remember that nothing is perfect. Unfortunately, as business analysts we typically have at […]
Have you ever been a part of the “meeting after the meeting?” You know, the one where colleagues get together to debrief a meeting that’s recently taken place? The “meeting after the meeting” (MATM) typically includes two main agenda items: the debrief and the re-plan. First, attendees debrief to try to identify what actually took place or […]
When you ask an analytical person a question, you will rarely get an answer. Instead, their response will likely be in the form of another question. Why is this? Answers depend on context. Context refers to the framework of a situation or event. Even a simple conversation requires context to be understood. Consider this dialogue: […]
Maybe it’s just me, but I frequently find that the most challenging aspect of a project is the people. We refer to the people involved in a project as “stakeholders”. Just knowing who your stakeholders are isn’t enough. We need to analyze stakeholders and develop a thorough understanding of them in order to work effectively […]
Metrics of the Past Have Taught Us A Lesson Many traditional KPIs can instigate and proliferate bad behaviors in software development. In the past, programmers have measured their progress by how many lines of code they’ve written, quality was measured by the number of bugs fixed, and user needs were considered met by checking off […]
What should your metrics tell you about your organization? They should tell you: Did we succeed with what we did in the recent past? Are we succeeding now? Will we succeed in the future? Traditional metrics often measure outputs, not outcomes. In an ‘agile world’, we need to understand if what we are doing is […]
Twas the night of Thanksgiving,And all through the houseAll the dishes were readyThe food was set outAnd while we were eating,Just out of the blue,It hit: the newsletter!!Oh, what do we do?! Our oldest child does a lot of the artwork and graphics for B2T4U, our monthly newsletter. While cleaning up after Thanksgiving dinner, they […]
A long time ago in a galaxy far, far away there were two Business Analysts that wondered how they could be more than average. They wondered what habits they needed to become highly effective and how they could help others become highly effective. They thought and they planned. They collaborated and communicated across their time […]
The first step in developing a customer journey map is knowing your customer. Sounds basic, right? It’s easy to forget, though, that there is no such thing as a “generic customer” for most businesses. Before we can understand how a customer will interact with our product or service, we have to understand *them*. I recently […]
As customer experiences become more and more digital, we have to change how we interact. For most organizations, the days of winning over a customer face-to-face with a hand shake and a smile are over. Digital customers are the new norm and are transacting with us all over the world, 24/7, independent of a sales […]
I have to admit, I hate horror movies. I’m the person who covers her eyes and waits until the scary parts have passed before I can watch again. If you’re hosting a Halloween party featuring a “Friday the 13th”movie marathon, don’t bother to invite me. Not gonna happen. Nuh-uh, no way, no how. Being a […]
What are business requirements? A common answer I get when asking for an example of a business requirement is a sentence like: “The system shall facilitate the automation of email to the customer.” Is that a business requirement? Well of course it must be. The business told me that specifically, and in those words! It […]
I really love teaching. I guess that’s not surprising, given that I’m (at least) a fourth-generation teacher. This is a clip from the 1920 Wyoming Census. The first entry on this page, Gertrude Shaw, is my great-grandmother. Widowed at 29 with three children to support, she taught in a one-room schoolhouse in Wyoming. Pretty cool, […]
B2T first offered virtual classes in 2009. At the time, we were really pioneering the concept of “live virtual” classes. We initially developed our “live virtual” capability to provide a convenient way for students to attend our public classes without having to travel. As time passed, we continuously improved our delivery, striving to match the […]
I have recently been teaching and consulting in organizations that have transitioned to an agile framework AND have decided, as part of that transition, that business analysts are no longer needed. In this blog post, I would like to note where I think this mentality came from and then argue against it. The agile approach […]
We start most of our classes with introductions. Participants tell the rest of the class a little bit about themselves, their work, and what they hope to learn during their time with us. Most students include their job title as part of the introduction. Over time, we’ve noticed that fewer and fewer participants actually have […]
