Mastering Business Analysis

Are you successful? In this Lightning Cast, we explore what it looks like to be successful as a Business Analyst or Project Manager.   A Lightning Cast is a shorter form episode modeled after lightning talks. You’ll get valuable content in 8 minutes or less.   What does success mean to you and are you successful at work? Success as a Business Analyst or Project Manager is more than a fancy title, fat paycheck, or a corner office. It has nothing to do with letters after your name for all of the certifications you hold.   8 Symptoms of Success as a Business Analyst or Project Manager: There is clarity of role and the value you provide while having the autonomy to determine how to best deliver that value You have a strong sense of purpose and excited about what you do. You are constantly learning and challenging yourself. You see failure as a learning opportunity. You enjoy helping others to succeed. You are assertive and confident; you feel safe to speak up and challenge the status quo. You stay calm under pressure. Beyond your job duties, you have a clear vision of your career goals and are making progress toward those goals every day.   Listen to the full episode to understand what success is (and is not) and learn more about the 8 symptoms of success. http://traffic.libsyn.com/masteringbusinessanalysis/MBALC020.mp3   Thank you for listening to the program To get more valuable content to enhance your skills and advance your career, you can subscribe on iTunes and other podcatchers. Also, reviews on iTunes are highly appreciated! I read each review and it helps keep me motivated to continue to bring you valuable content each week. . The post Lightning Cast: Symptoms of Success appeared first on Mastering Business Analysis.

Want to take your skills and your career to the next level? A mentoring relationship can do just that. Discover how to find the right mentor and create an effective mentoring relationship.  After listening to this episode, you'll understand: Why mentoring is such a powerful tool for career growth How to find the right mentor for you What to do to start a mentoring relationship When a mentoring relationship should end SHOW NOTES An effective mentoring relationship can help you to rapidly develop your skills and send your career skyrocketing. The trick is to find a mentor that’s right for you and start that relationship correctly. A good mentor guides the mentee through overcoming obstacles and helps the mentee to enhance their skills. In the safe environment built by the mentor / mentee relationship, you can try out new things you’re struggling with without fear of failure. Learning and experimenting in this safe space helps the mentee to build confidence. The mentee learns and builds skills in an iterative fashion. The iterative learning helps the mentee to build a solid foundation upon which additional skills can be added.   Finding a Mentor The first step in finding a mentor is to recognize that you have skills or areas in which you’d like to grow and having the courage to ask for assistance. Finding a mentor can be as easy as speaking with your manager or applying for a mentoring program you may have at work. If you feel that a mentor at work wouldn’t meet your needs or if you’re unable to find a mentor at your workplace, you can seek a mentor outside your organization. Having a network outside of work can be a big benefit in finding a mentor. Professional organizations such as the IIBA or PMI often have local chapter meetings and are a great source for growing your network and finding mentors.   Listen to the full episode to find out more about how to find the right mentor and start a mentoring relationship. http://traffic.libsyn.com/masteringbusinessanalysis/MBA156.mp3   YOUR HOMEWORK Start looking within your organization and in professional organizations for people with the skills and experience that can help you grow. Once you find someone in your network, ask for mentoring support from that person. To prepare for your personal development or mentoring and to focus your conversations, perform a personal SWOT analysis on yourself. Links mentioned in this episode: Doug’s website DougGtheBA.com Doug’s previous episode The Real Value of Business Analysis Questions about the IIBA mentoring program: [email protected] Doug Goldberg, CBAP DougGtheBA.com Doug Goldberg is a Certified Business Analysis Professional (CBAP) with more than 23 years of experience. His background includes graphic design, printing, proofreading, typesetting, corporate communications, commercial kitchens, software support, online help development and training, J2EE/Java development, quality tester, and a few other sundry experiences. Doug mentors other business analysts and has a blog at DougGtheBA.com. TwitterLinkedIn Thank you for listening to the program To get more valuable content to enhance your skills and advance your career, you can subscribe on iTunes and other podcatchers. Also, reviews on iTunes are highly appreciated! I read each review and it helps keep me motivated to continue to bring you valuable content each week. . The post MBA156: The Power of Mentoring appeared first on Mastering Business Analysis.

Are you a hiring manager looking for great BA and PM candidates? Find out how to find the best candidates for your organization. Job seekers will discover how to best prepare for a job search.  After listening to this episode, you'll understand: What to do before you open a job requisition The benefits behind the different types of interviews Red flags to watch out for during interviews How job seekers can best prepare for interviews SHOW NOTES Hiring the right people is the most important task for people managers. If you don’t hire great people, you’ll pay for recruiting mistakes with lower productivity and you’ll need to spend more time coaching and managing them. The task of finding and hiring the right people comes in two phases: attracting talent and interviewing.   Attracting Talent: Current State and Future Needs Before you can attract the right candidates, you need to understand what type of people you need. To do that, first think about your company culture, the strengths of your current BAs and PMs, and future skills that you’ll need, This will lead you to identifying the skills and competencies you need. From there, you can build the job requirements. When you do this, set a high bar.   Be a Talent Magnet In addition to understanding the strengths and opportunities within your team, set up a referral program. Referrals are your best source for finding talent because great BAs and PMs know other great BAs and PMs. As a hiring manager, you should also be on social media building a network and attend meetups and industry events. The connections you make could be a good source of candidates for a future opening. Job seekers should also attend local meetups, professional organization meetings (IIBA and PMI chapters), and industry events. Doing so not only allows you to grow your network, it will expand your knowledge and provides an opportunity to improve your personal brand through volunteering or speaking. Hiring managers should also be on the lookout for disruptive events such as layoffs and site closures in competing or related organizations. This may be an excellent opportunity to find new talent. All of this can be done before you have an opening to fill. If you invest time in attracting great talent to your organization, finding the right candidate will be much easier.   Interviewing Candidates Listen to the full episode to tips and advice on interviewing and selecting the right candidates as well as how to best prepare for an interview. http://traffic.libsyn.com/masteringbusinessanalysis/MBA155.mp3   YOUR HOMEWORK Hiring Managers: Start thinking about your organization, its culture, and the current strengths and capabilities of existing Business Analysts and Project Managers. This will help you to understand what you need from future candidates. Start joining local meetups and professional organizations to build your company’s brand (as well as your own). Job Seekers: Be active on social media (act professionally) and join local meetups and professional organizations. This will build your network and expand your knowledge. Links mentioned in this episode: WIBADD: The Wisconsin Business Analysis Development Day Thank you for listening to the program To get more valuable content to enhance your skills and advance your career, you can subscribe on iTunes and other podcatchers. Also, reviews on iTunes are highly appreciated! I read each review and it helps keep me motivated to continue to bring you valuable content each week. . The post MBA155: Hiring BAs and PMs appeared first on Mastering Business Analysis.

In this episode, you’ll discover ways to help people in your organization adapt to the change associated with a new initiative; a key to successfully overcoming resistance.    After listening to this episode, you'll understand: Why people respond differently to change How to discover where people are on the change curve Ways to help people move from the status quo to a new beginning  Show Notes To successfully implement large change initiatives in an organization, you need to go beyond requirements, training, and change management. You need Change Leadership to help people adjust to the change. People affected by a change often have an emotional response to the change. The response can be similar to the stages of grief as represented by the Kubler-Ross Change Curve. At each stage of the change curve, you may observe different reactions and emotions. As change agents, it’s our responsibility to help people through the change and lessen the associated drop in productivity and other negative impacts. There are actions that we can take to overcome resistance to change if we are able to identify where an individual is on the change curve. Your response should be appropriate for the stage of the change in which an individual finds themselves. Are they at the Ending stage where they experience loss and need to let go of the status quo? Are they in the Transition stage battling strong emotions such as fear? Are they in the New Beginnings stage, exploring possibilities and starting to integrate the change into their life? Listen to the full episode to understand how to identify where people are along the change curve and help them adapt to the change. http://traffic.libsyn.com/masteringbusinessanalysis/MBA154.mp3   Z Your Homework On your next change initiative, consider the human side. Examine what people are losing as part of the change and help individuals along the change curve.   Links mentioned in this episode: Save 25% on training from Watermark Learning Get the book Managing Transitions by William Bridges on Audible (new Audible users can get this book free using this link) Thank you for listening to the program To get more valuable content to enhance your skills and advance your career, you can subscribe on iTunes. Also, reviews on iTunes are highly appreciated! I read each review and it helps keep me motivated to continue to bring you valuable content each week. The post MBA154: Change Leadership appeared first on Mastering Business Analysis.

In this Lightning Cast, we discuss what a Business Analyst does when on a Scrum team and how you can use your BA skills in a different way to help the team.   A Lightning Cast is a shorter form episode modeled after lightning talks. You’ll get valuable content in 8 minutes or less.   Listen to the full episode to understand how a Business Analyst can be a valuable member of a Scrum team. http://traffic.libsyn.com/masteringbusinessanalysis/MBALC019.mp3   Thank you for listening to the program To get more valuable content to enhance your skills and advance your career, you can subscribe on iTunes and other podcatchers. Also, reviews on iTunes are highly appreciated! I read each review and it helps keep me motivated to continue to bring you valuable content each week. . The post Lightning Cast: BA on a Scrum Team appeared first on Mastering Business Analysis.

In this episode, Elizabeth Larson talks about current trends in the Business Analysis field and how they will affect you.  After listening to this episode, you'll understand: What key trends are affecting the business analysis field The big news about the BA role in Agile How to stay current and be seen as a Trusted Advisor  Show Notes Change is the only constant. To keep up with today’s fast changing environment, we need to keep abreast of current trends and understand how we need to adapt. Our role has always been to be management consultants and trusted advisors. We define the real business problem and make recommendations to achieve the business goal. With some of the current trends in our industry, Business Analysts will need to use the skills and competencies that we’ve developed, but in a new way.   Trend 1: The Digital BA What is the role of the Business Analyst in a digital transformation? Is a BA still needed? To adapt to the trend of digital transformations, our role becomes one of helping organizations introduce cognitive technologies. This includes machine learning and artificial intelligence. There are a lot of issues related to the adoption of these technologies and a BA can advise the organization and help them make the right decisions. Questions to ask about adopting cognitive technologies include: Are we getting the right data? What is the data source? How do we interpret the data? What are we doing with the data (from an ethics standpoint)? Does the way we use data change for different cultures or across borders? Business Analysts can help organizational leaders understand the impacts, dependencies, and issues relating to data and cognitive technologies. We need to understand the problem the organization is trying to solve and the capabilities of the organization to adopt these technologies. This leads to advising on overall organizational strategy and future initiatives based on new capabilities.   Trend 2: DevOps DevOps helps organizations adapt to faster delivery of small changes while mitigating risk to the production environment. It requires a different way of working and the adoption of new tool sets. Business Analysts can help with DevOps adoption by advising on the tool chain strategy. We can also help by breaking down organizational silos so that technology and operations teams can communicate more effectively. To do this, we need to step outside of the project box and see the entire value stream to make sure the organization is taking advantage of the new tools and DevOps approach.   Trend 3: Certifications in the Gig Economy Many people are turning to short consulting stints instead of long term employment. This trend will continue to grow. With the emergence of the gig economy, are certifications still relevant and how do we need to shift our skills to be more marketable? If you’re going out on your own into the gig economy, certifications will give you a leg up. They help provide the assurance to hiring companies of a consistent approach. But not all certifications are equal. The trick is to choose relevant certifications. Additionally, expanding your skills and knowledge to become a Full-Stack Business Analyst makes you in high demand and opens more opportunities.   Trend 4: Agile Business Cases Organizations often make the mistake of entirely stopping business cases when they transition to Agile. The decisions that come about from a business case are still needed, just in a different form. Regardless of the project approach, we still need to answer some basic questions such as “How bad is the problem and is it worth solving?” We can do that analysis formally or informally and it leads to advising the organization to make the right decisions. While we need the information in the business case to make the right decisions, we don’t want to take a long time to do it. Instead, build the business case incrementally on smaller pieces and at the right time.   Trent 5: The Agile Business Analyst Many organizations have shifted away from having Business Analysts on Agile teams. However, a recent trend is to bring BAs back into Agile teams and use their skills in a new way. There has been a recognition of the value that a Business Analyst can bring to an organization adopting Agile practices. The practitioners might not be called Business Analysts, but the BA skills are critical to success. The type of work will shift depending on the time horizon of the work and a mindset shift is needed for BAs to adapt to an Agile way of working.   Keeping up with these and other trends will allow you to understand how you can shift your skills and continue providing value as a Trusted Advisor. Listen to the full episode to understand trends in the business analysis field and what you can do to adapt and thrive. http://traffic.libsyn.com/masteringbusinessanalysis/MBA153.mp3   Z Your Homework To be a Trusted Advisor, you need to be knowledgeabl

In this Lightning Cast, we explore Powerful Questions and how they can help you create a new level of discussion, explore new possibilities, and create a true partnership.   A Lightning Cast is a shorter form episode modeled after lightning talks. You’ll get valuable content in 8 minutes or less. Powerful questions are a way to challenge our thinking, stimulating deeper conversations, and uncovering hidden truths. By asking powerful questions, we create a new level of discussion; a greater possibility for new learning. It also creates a sense of true partnership because the person with whom you’re speaking feels heard and understood. A powerful question differs from a regular question in a few key ways. Powerful questions: Are open-ended Are clear and concise Evokes deeper thinking Come from a place of curiosity and with a beginner’s mind This type of question is considered powerful because it requires a stakeholder (or whomever you’re speaking with) to reflect on their answer and explore new possibilities. They also helps overcome some of our biases that may hinder the ability to make good decisions.   Weak Questions We often ask closed-ended, yes/no type questions that don’t explore the subject in any depth. Even when we ask some open-ended questions that start with who, where, and when, we limit exploration because you’re simply asking for a known answer or list. Questions that start with words like why, what, or how require more exploration and can lead to deeper discussions and reveal new learning. Make sure your questions don’t have any underlying assumptions which will limit exploration of the real issue.   Examples of Powerful Questions The number one question you should ask is “Why?” This is the more powerful one-word question you can use. Beyond a simple “why”, here are a few powerful questions you can use in different situations. Scoping What’s important about that? (or Why is that important?) What if we did nothing at all, what would happen? Why should we make this investment? What would this initiative mean to you, your department, and to the rest of the organization? How does this align to our corporate goals and vision?   Initial Assessment What would success look like to you and how would we measure it? What would a proof of concept look like? How can we prove this idea? How would this change affect the rest of the organization? What will the impacts be upstream and downstream for this process?   Background What led up to this problem? What have you tried so far? How do you deal with that problem today?   Risks What do you think is our biggest risk or roadblock on our way to success? What’s are biggest risk and how do we mitigate it? What are people thinking, but afraid to discuss? What are our options and alternatives if we run into issues?   Clarification Can you tell me more about that? That’s interesting, what process did you go through to reach that conclusion? (or Can you give me more detail on the logic used to arrive at that?) What will be the key performance indicators for this? How will we measure them, and what hurdles do we need to overcome to be successful?   Elaboration What else? What concerns do you have about this initiative? What assumptions are we making? How can we challenge some of the assumptions we may be making? Why is this important to you? What haven’t I asked that would be important? Are we missing anything here?   The Key Trait The ability to ask powerful questions is dependent on your curiosity. Ask questions with a beginners mind; with a natural curiosity and an eagerness to learn more so that you can appropriate advise your organization. If you want to find powerful solutions and solve the right problems, ask more powerful questions. Listen to this episode to understand the power behind powerful questions and how to use them. http://traffic.libsyn.com/masteringbusinessanalysis/MBALC018.mp3 Thank you for listening to the program To get more valuable content to enhance your skills and advance your career, you can subscribe on iTunes and other podcatchers. Also, reviews on iTunes are highly appreciated! I read each review and it helps keep me motivated to continue to bring you valuable content each week. . The post Lightning Cast: Powerful Questions appeared first on Mastering Business Analysis.

In this episode, Richard Larson shares five techniques you can use to discover the underlying problem or opportunity to solve create the right solution.  After listening to this episode, you'll understand: How to find the real problem to solve What to do when you’re given a solution to implement What questions to ask to discover value-creating opportunities Techniques to visually map root causes and options  Show Notes Are you always given a solution to implement or do you use your skills to discover the underlying problem to solve? Finding the right project is more than separating needs and wants. Being a Trusted Advisor means digging in and finding the root cause; the underlying problem to solve or opportunity on which we can capitalize. Quite often, we implement a project that only partially addresses a problem or create solutions that people never use. To become Trusted Advisors, we must focus on real business needs and not just what stakeholders tell you they need. Once you understand the need, a business case can help you recommend the right path for your stakeholders. There are several techniques that you can use to discover the underlying problem or opportunity related to the real business need.   Consultative Interviewing Asking the right questions while interviewing stakeholders can help you uncover the underlying need. These types of questions are designed to get stakeholders talking about their true needs and not solutions. Your questions should be open ended and avoid leading questions that have a hidden solution in them. This type of question helps your stakeholder to explore the problem more deeply and perhaps find other problems beneath the surface.   Five Whys Another approach for digging deeper and discovering the root cause is the five whys technique. This technique can be used in conjunction with consultative interviewing. People are frequently impatient and want to move to the solution. The five whys technique helps people to avoid prematurely talking about a solution and find the true root cause behind their initial request.   Fishbone Diagrams and Mind Maps For a visual way of decomposing a problem to find the root cause or contributing factors, you can use a mind map or a fishbone diagram. Both of these techniques support brainstorming and allows you to engage with stakeholders to collaboratively discover causes and effects. These diagrams also provide a more holistic view than simply interviewing stakeholders. Mind maps are less hierarchical and more free-flowing than a fishbone diagram while the fishbone diagram provides more structure.   Pareto Charts When you have problems or opportunities where you can use data to understand the situation better, you can use a Pareto Chart to help guide you to selecting the right problem to address. Using the Pareto principle, you get 80% of the benefit from solving 20% of the problems. A Pareto chart is a way of visualizing the data to understand where the biggest impact is. This gives you the means to prioritize your backlog to work on the most valuable things first and prevent some of our biases from influencing prioritization.   Interrelationship Diagrams For more complex problems, Interrelationship Diagrams allow you to see the different parts of a problem and how they might interact with each other. It helps you better understand causes and effects when changing different factors related to a problem. This technique supports systems thinking by giving you a holistic view of the problem, the contributing factors, and the relationships between those factors. Similar to the Pareto Chart, you should address the most impactful contributing factor you discover with the Interrelationship diagram.   The goal with all of these techniques is to discover the real problem or opportunity and address the underlying causes. Listen to the full episode to get all of Richard’s tips for discovering the real problem or opportunity behind your project. http://traffic.libsyn.com/masteringbusinessanalysis/MBA152.mp3   Z Your Homework Choose one of the approaches that Richard mentioned and learn more about it. Once you have a basic understanding of the techniques, find a safe environment to practice using it.   Links mentioned in this episode: Rich’s Website Watermark Learning (Listen to this episode to get a 25% discount) Watermark Learning’s Resources Richard Larson Founder and President, Watermark Learning Richard Larson is Co-Principal, Founder, and President of Watermark Learning. He has over 30 years of experience in business, project management, business analysis, training,and mentoring. He has presented numerous workshops, seminars, and training classes since 1985 to over 10,000 participants on five continents. TwitterLinkedIn Thank you for listening to the program To get more valuable content to enhance your skills and advance your career, you can subscribe on iTunes and other podca

A clear, well-ordered backlog leads to more focus, less time in refinement, and delivering the most important items first. In this Lightning Cast, you’ll find out how to order your backlog.   A Lightning Cast is a shorter form episode modeled after lightning talks. You’ll get valuable content in 8 minutes or less. WHY ORDERING YOUR BACKLOG IS IMPORTANT There are many reasons why having a healthy, ordered product backlog is important to teams. An ordered backlog gives the team clarity as to what the next most important thing to do is. This brings focus to the team and helps them to limit work in progress (WIP), which in turn helps accelerate delivery. By focusing on the most important items, if the team is unable to finish everything that they forecast they’ll be able to complete, they’ll complete the most important work first and any incomplete work will be less important. Ordering the backlog is helpful in helping you identify which backlog items the team needs to refine to a ready state. Items at the top of the backlog should be in a ready start while items further down can have decreasing levels of clarity. Ordering the backlog helps keep refinement meetings short and focused.   WHEN TO ORDER THE BACKLOG Ordering the backlog is not a one-time event. The team must review priorities regularly and update the backlog order. The backlog should be re-ordered whenever we learn new information. This includes: For Scrum teams, after the Sprint Review / Demo when you receive stakeholder feedback When the team identifies dependencies between backlog items As items are added or removed from the backlog As time changes; priorities may change based on urgency and cost of delay As organizational priorities change, the order of items in the backlog may change. This does not imply that one backlog item is more important than another item; it simply means that one item needs to be completed sooner than another item to meet program or organizational priorities. It’s important to note that the backlog is not a To Do list. The intention is not to complete all the backlog items in order. Teams must continually seek feedback, learn, and adapt their approach and priorities, which the backlog should change frequently. Once a team commits to an iteration (Sprint) plan, the priority of the committed backlog items should not change.   APPROACHES TO ORDERING YOUR BACKLOG There are several ways to order the product backlog. MoSCoW Prioritization: Gain initial clarity by considering how each backlog item contributes to the Minimum Viable Product (MVP) and then separate backlog items into one of four categories: Must Have Should Have Could Have Won’t Have (at this time, but would like in the future)   Value Based Prioritization: Consider the impact each backlog item will have on customers and the outcomes it will produce. Items that contribute more value or create better outcomes should be done first. When ordering by value, you should also consider: dependencies between backlog items size and cost of delay (prioritize smaller items with a higher cost of delay first) risk (you may elect to attempt high risk items earlier so you can adapt if needed) learning (if there is uncertainty, you may prioritize a few backlog items that allow for learning opportunities)   Value-Complexity Matrix: When ordering your backlog, it’s helpful to consider both customer/business value as well as the effort and complexity needed to deliver that value. A rapid, visual way of ordering your stories, features, or initiatives is with a Value-Complexity Matrix. A Value-Complexity Matrix allows you to plot backlog items across two dimensions – business value and complexity/effort. You should add each backlog item to the matrix relative to others (e.g., items higher in value are farther right and items that are more complex or require more effort are plotted higher on the matrix). The example below shows a Value Complexity Matrix. You can use this tool with the entire team to gain a shared understanding or as an initial step by the Product Owner to understand high level priorities and what should/should not be considered. Backlog items that are high value and low complexity should be done first. These are quick wins that add a lot of value. Items high in value and moderate complexity should be done next. Low value, low complexity items can be considered next. For backlog items that are low in value and moderate complexity or high value and high complexity, you should carefully consider if they are worth doing or if there’s a simpler implementation that can bring value. Backlog items that are low value and high complexity should not be done unless absolutely required (e.g., regulatory). If that’s the case, explore how to simplify or reduce the effort needed.   Value-Complexity Matrix   ORDERING BUSINESS VS. TECHNICAL PRODUCT BACKLOG ITEMS As you continue implementing features, the system must scale and code needs to b

In this episode, author, consultant, and thought leader Karl Wiegers shares his tips and advice on getting started with consulting.  After listening to this episode, you'll understand: The difference between consulting and contract work How to build a personal brand The pros and cons of going it alone How to get up to speed quickly in a new environment  Show Notes Have you ever thought about leaving your corporate job and starting your own consulting business? There’s a lot to consider; finances, travel, finding new clients, etc. The upside is that you can potentially make more money as an independent consultant and you’ll have more freedom. Striking out on your own also comes with challenges. Even if you don’t want to leave your corporate job go it alone, Karl shares his tips on building your personal brand, getting up to speed quickly on a new project, and more information that you can use.   Listen to the full episodes to understand the benefits and challenges with striking out on your own as a consultant as well as tips you can use in your current role. http://traffic.libsyn.com/masteringbusinessanalysis/MBA151.mp3   Z Your Homework Take an inventory of all of the intellectual property that you have available that may be valuable to your perspective clients. This includes templates, processes, checklists, spreadsheet tools, whitepapers, and presentations. After you have an inventory, think about how you can use that intellectual property in multiple ways. Be sure to respect ownership and copyrights associated with any materials.   Links mentioned in this episode: Karl’s personal website KarlWiegers.com Process Impact website ProcessImpact.com Karl’s books on Amazon Karl Wiegers Principal Consultant at Process Impact Karl Wiegers is an independent consultant, author, speaker, and thought leader in the project community. His books on software requirements are considered required reading for Business Analysts and Project Managers. As a consultant and trainer, Karl has worked with more than 100 companies and government organizations of all types, helping them improve the effectiveness and efficiency of their software development activities. Additionally, his publications have been recognized as helpful contributions to the domains of software requirements, process improvement, project management, and quality improvement. TwitterLinkedIn Thank you for listening to the program To get more valuable content to enhance your skills and advance your career, you can subscribe on iTunes and other podcatchers. Also, reviews on iTunes are highly appreciated! I read each review and it helps keep me motivated to continue to bring you valuable content each week. . The post MBA151: Your Consulting Practice – with Karl Wiegers appeared first on Mastering Business Analysis.

In this Lightning Cast, we’ll explore different forms of communication and decide which to use in different contexts. A Lightning Cast is a shorter form episode modeled after lightning talks. You’ll get valuable content in 8 minutes or less. You don’t always need to meet face-to-face. However, you do need to choose the right communication format for your message. The wrong medium for your message can lead to misinterpretation, confusion, and delays. So which format should you choose?   Email: Choose email for one-way broadcast messages that are direct and easy to understand. It can also be used to reach a large group to inform them of updates, sharing documents, and for simple requests for which a quick response is not needed. Make sure the subject line and beginning of the message provides context. Avoid email for collaboration and when you need a fast response.   Instant Message/SMS: Choose instant messaging (IM) for short, simple requests or updates. Be sure to set the context so that you and your audience start on the same page. Avoid IM when you need to collaborate and when the subject is complex. Similar to instant messaging is the use of tools such as Slack. Slack notifies groups of new messages, allows you to use text and pictures, and allows everyone to see responses. The difference with Slack is that it keeps the communications thread even after users shut down so you can search it later. It even allows you tag specific users or groups and react to messages using emojis.   Phone: Use phone conversations and conference calls when you require interaction with the listeners, when you expect questions, or when the subject is a bit more complex. This is a higher bandwidth communication medium because it brings in tone, rate of speech, vocal inflection, and other para verbal cues to develop a better understanding. Avoid using the phone when the subject is more complex or you need to build relationships and trust. You can augment phone conversations with screen sharing tools for more complex issues and better collaboration.   Video: Use video conference tools to help strengthen relationships and increase collaboration. Video allows you to pick up on both para verbal and non-verbal cues, leading to a richer discussion. This medium also helps to lessen the possibility of multitasking and other distractions. If people are collocated and you can meet face-to-face, avoid video and go directly to that channel.   Face-To-Face: Meet face to face to build relationships, discuss complex issues, and come together to collaborate and solve problems. Face-to-face communication allows you to pick up on more non-verbal cues and it’s often easier to hear people speaking than over video. It can be difficult to schedule face-to-face meetings if people are geographically disbursed or if you’re meeting with large groups.   Face-To-Face with Whiteboard: This allows for some of the richest communication. The combination of face-to-face communication with the ability to engage the listeners through movement and visuals is extremely powerful. Discussing topics face to face with a whiteboard leads to rich conversations and ensures everyone is on the same page. You can engage others by handing them a marker and asking them to draw their ideas or concerns. This is a great approach for collaboration and problem solving.   Choosing the right medium for your message will allow you ensure that your message is received as you intended. Listen to the full episode to understand how to choose the right communication medium for your message. http://traffic.libsyn.com/masteringbusinessanalysis/MBALC016.mp3   Thank you for listening to the program To get more valuable content to enhance your skills and advance your career, you can subscribe on iTunes and other podcatchers. Also, reviews on iTunes are highly appreciated! I read each review and it helps keep me motivated to continue to bring you valuable content each week. . The post Lightning Cast: Which Communications Channel Should You Use? appeared first on Mastering Business Analysis.

In this episode, Tomette Kirk shares what she calls the high five; five essential tasks that we need to focus on as Business Analysts to be successful.  After listening to this episode, you'll understand: What essential tasks are needed for success as a business analyst The right way to do stakeholder analysis Why current state analysis is critical How to find gaps in a process or change  Show Notes What are the essential tasks that can make or break a Business Analyst? To be successful as a Business Analyst, we need to perform five critical tasks. They’re what Tomette Kirk refers to as the ‘High Five”. Those tasks are: Stakeholder analysis Current state analysis Future state analysis Gap analysis Requirements management These five tasks help us to involve the right people, understand where we are starting from, understand where we want to go, what needs to change, and provides clarity to the team. When you combine the High Five with Tomette’s 5 part requirement (who does what, why, and done when), you have all of the elements for completing critical analysis work and creating a shared understanding.   Listen to this episode to understand how to apply Tomette’s high five approach to master the essentials of Business Analysis. http://traffic.libsyn.com/masteringbusinessanalysis/MBA150.mp3   Z Your Homework Use current state analysis on your next project. You need to know where you are now before you can discover where to go next.   Tomette Kirk Tomette Kirk is a Certified Business Analysis Professional (CBAP), Business Analysis Resource Manager, former president of the Southeast WI IIBA Chapter, and a frequent industry speaker. LinkedIn Thank you for listening to the program To get more valuable content to enhance your skills and advance your career, you can subscribe on iTunes and other podcatchers. Also, reviews on iTunes are highly appreciated! I read each review and it helps keep me motivated to continue to bring you valuable content each week. . The post MBA150: A High Five for Business Analysts appeared first on Mastering Business Analysis.

In this Lightning Cast, I share common problems Business Analysts face and what you can do about them.   A Lightning Cast is a shorter form episode modeled after lightning talks. You’ll get valuable content in 8 minutes or less. I’ve seen a lot of posts on social media lately about the problems that we face as Business Analysts in today’s environment. In this episode, I’ll summarize the main issues and help you understand what to do about them. A vast majority of the issues we face can be broken down into five categories: Stakeholder issues Requirements challenges Solution related problems Challenges with implementing change Role related difficulties   Stakeholders The most common problems related to stakeholders are: they don’t know what they want, we can’t get time from subject matter experts, people have hidden agendas, and we often don’t have the level of support from sponsors that we’d like. When we face these issues, it’s difficult to elicit and discover appropriate requirements and potential solutions.   Requirements The biggest challenges with requirements are frequently changing requirements and scope creep. We also often have organizational barriers that prevent us from talking with the end users of the solution. With some of the stakeholder problems mentioned above, it’s no wonder that requirements constantly change and there’s scope creep. When stakeholders don’t have clarity into the underlying problem or they aren’t available to collaborate, we make assumptions that are often invalid.   Solutions Projects are often plagued by the problem of premature solutioning. We’re handed a solution to implement instead of a problem to solve. How do we know if the solution is the right solution or if it’s addressing the right problem? We may not even know if the solution has a good market fit. Without clear linking of projects and initiatives to organizational goals, it’s difficult to ensure that there’s alignment between the solution and organizational strategy. Some of this uncertainty leads us to make assumptions about the solution, our customers, and how we will develop and maintain the solution. Without validation, those assumptions can cause your efforts to fail.   Implementing Change Even if we have great stakeholder engagement, the right requirements, and a solution with good problem/solution fit and product/market fit, we can still fail if we forget to consider how to implement the change. Over coming resistance to change and the transition requirements to take us from the “as is” state to the “to be” state are critical.   Roles With the adoption of Agile practices, many organizations are under the impression that they don’t need Business Analysts or Project Managers. Trying to find your place where you can bring value to an Agile organization can be difficult if you’re facing this perception. Even in traditional organizations, there’s often a misunderstanding about the role of the Business Analyst. We’re sometimes perceived as note takers, scribes, or simple liaisons between business and technology.   Overcoming these challenges is essential to your success. Listen to the full episode to discover how to address these problems and more. http://traffic.libsyn.com/masteringbusinessanalysis/MBALC015.mp3   Thank you for listening to the program To get more valuable content to enhance your skills and advance your career, you can subscribe on iTunes and other podcatchers. Also, reviews on iTunes are highly appreciated! I read each review and it helps keep me motivated to continue to bring you valuable content each week. . The post Lightning Cast: Common Issues Facing Business Analysts Today appeared first on Mastering Business Analysis.

In this episode, author and speaker Jen Shirkani helps us to understand the importance of Emotional Intelligence and shares techniques to boost your EQ.  After listening to this episode, you'll understand: What emotional intelligence (EQ) is and how it differs from IQ Why emotional intelligence is so important What happens when you have low EQ How to grow your emotional intelligence  Show Notes Unlike IQ, Emotional Intelligence (your Intelligence Quotient or EQ) is something you can learn and develop. Studies show that emotional intelligence is a much better predictor of success than IQ. There are three elements to emotional intelligence. The ability to recognize yourself: You know how you’re wired and you have an awareness of your emotions and how they affect your behavior. This allows you to put yourself in situations that bring out your best and better control your responses in difficult situations. The ability to read others: You have situational awareness and can sense the mood of others without them saying anything. Being able to read people can help you better understand the context and adjust your approach. Respond appropriately: Being able to recognize your own feelings and having the situational awareness to be able to read others gives you the ability to adapt your approach and respond appropriately in the context of the situation.   The Impact of Low EQ Teams with individuals that lack EQ tend to have more unhealthy conflict. People can become isolated and there is less collaboration. Developing the adaptability and consistency that comes with emotional intelligence also leads to building trust. When leaders lack EQ, we often see issues with low engagement levels and employee retention, which leads to high turnover and lower productivity. There needs to be a balance between the three components of emotional intelligence. Without self-awareness, you tend to self-sacrifice and can’t say no tactfully. Without situational awareness, it will be difficult to build and maintain relationships. Even if you have these two levels of awareness, you need to be able to use that information to adapt and respond appropriately.   How to Build Self-Awareness You can develop your emotional intelligence in several ways. After taking a test to gauge your EQ, start with your self-awareness. We start there because it’s difficult to change your behavior if you’re not aware of what you’re doing or why. It helps to take a personality assessment and communication assessment to understand your preferences and how you’re wired. From there, self-reflection helps you to better understand your behaviors and reactions. Take time out to reflect on past situations and your responses to discover the ‘why’ behind your behavior. Having some downtime between meetings can help you reflect and refresh so that you’re ready for the next interaction.   How to Build Situational Awareness To improve your situational awareness, it helps to slow down and listen to understand. We often get so caught up in our own agendas and what we’re going to say next that we forget to listen. Developing a natural curiosity and asking questions to understand helps you to slow down and truly understand others. It also allows you to understand and appreciate their perspective even if you don’t agree with it. Active listening skills such as paraphrasing also helps ensure you correctly understand the other person. You can also develop your awareness of body language by observing crowds or watching television with the sound off and trying to understand what others are feeling.   Higher stress levels may reduce our self-control, so finding ways to reduce stress will also help us to control our response, tune in to the situation, and select an appropriate response. By raising your emotional intelligence, you’ll be able to develop stronger relationships, better collaborate, and be seen as someone others want to work with.   Listen to the full episode to discover more approaches to improving your EQ and how the need for emotional intelligence changes as you move to higher levels of leadership. http://traffic.libsyn.com/masteringbusinessanalysis/MBA149.mp3 Z Your Homework Take a self-assessment to get a baseline for your emotional intelligence. That will help you understand which areas to develop first. Also, at the end of the day, reflect back on your interactions with others and ask yourself how they would rate your behavior today.   Links mentioned in this episode: Jen’s website JenShirkani.com Get Jen’s books on Amazon Jen Shirkani Jen Shirkani is a leading expert on emotional intelligence and has been a featured speaker at several conferences. She’s also the author of two books on emotional intelligence and frequently speaks and writes about workplace challenges including: interviewing, employee engagement and motivation, generational differences, and coaching. TwitterLinkedIn Thank you for list

In this Lightning Cast, you’ll discover a different way of thinking about your role and go from Analyst to Alchemist. A Lightning Cast is a shorter form episode modeled after lightning talks. You’ll get valuable content in 8 minutes or less. What’s in a name? If you’re a BA, what does that mean to you? More importantly, what does ‘BA’ stand for in the minds of your stakeholders? BA often stands for Business Analyst. If we take that name at face value, a Business Analyst is someone who analyzed the business; presumably to identify problems and opportunities. BA can also stand for Business Architect. Someone who practices business architecture, which involves understanding and developing the capabilities of the organization and building the business strategy and the initiatives to execute that strategy. This title brings up images of someone sketching plans to build the business. I often like to say that BA stands for Business Advisor. Someone who uses their skill, knowledge, and experience to guide decision makers to the right outcomes for the business. A Business Advisor is someone who is trusted, understands the business, its products, and the environment in which the organization operates. They look at facts and data, identify options, and make valuable recommendations to their organizations. Nothing in any of those titles conjures images of a note taker or requirements author. Instead, BAs work to understand the strengths and opportunities of the business, needs of its customers, and uses knowledge and data to guide stakeholders to the right decision. However, being a BA goes beyond that. We can write beautiful, elegant requirements, identify amazing opportunities that will surprise and delight customers, and influence stakeholders to make great decisions. If there’s no action resulting from our efforts, there are no outcomes.   The Business Alchemist What if instead of an expert and advisor, we think of a BA as a Business Alchemist? You may know alchemy as the precursor to modern chemistry. Practitioners of alchemy were often known for their attempts to discover an elixir for eternal youth and to turn lead into gold. But there’s another definition for alchemy; “a seemingly magical process of transformation, creation, or combination.” In their time, an alchemist was a highly regarded scientist; an expert in their field that can accomplish seemingly magical feats. I remember seeing a cartoon drawing of the business analysis process and it showed first the Business Analyst talks to stakeholders and at the end was ‘deliver requirements’. In the middle was ‘perform magic’. Truly great Business Analysis seem to be able to perform magic. They gather and analyze data to form insights through the transformation, creation, and combination of data and knowledge. Going along with the concept of being a Business Alchemist, we are change agents. We try to transform lead into gold. We turn insights into action. From a transformation perspective, we turn Data into decisions Unclear opportunities into strategically aligned goals Problems into solutions Ideas into a compelling vision Words into action Big, complex initiatives into small, valuable chunks that teams can deliver   Our Philosopher’s Stone In ancient times, Alchemists referred to the imagined substance that would allow them to turn lead and other base metals into gold as the Philosopher’s Stone (not to be confused with a similarly named object in the Harry Potter movie). What is our Philosopher’s Stone? What’s that certain something that gives great BAs the seemingly magical power of transformation? Perhaps it’s your ability to sift through piles of complex data, see connections, and derive an innovative solution. It could be facilitation; bringing people together to work toward something meaningful and developing a shared understanding that leads to action. It may be influence; that ability to find the right people and develop the trust needed to guide them to a desired outcome. Influence certainly plays a part in helping stakeholders make the right decisions. For me, the Philosopher’s Stone is communication. Strong communication skills are critical for effective facilitation, for influence, and for inspiring people to take action. You can have the best ideas in the world. Ideas that can transform your organization in ways never imagined. But if you can’t communicate those ideas effectively and inspire action, those ideas are worthless. We can’t be effective change agents without strong communication skills. We’ll never transform lead into gold, vague ideas into extraordinary outcomes, without this skill. What’s your Philosopher’s Stone?   Listen to the full episode to understand the impact of shifting the way you think about your role. http://traffic.libsyn.com/masteringbusinessanalysis/MBALC014.mp3   Thank you for listening to the program To get more valuable content to enhance your skills and advance your career

In this episode, Paula Maychruk helps us uncover the key concepts that allow us to be successful with Agile approaches.  After listening to this episode, you'll understand: Why Agile transformations often fail How you can best partner with Product Owners What needs to be true for you to succeed as a Product Owner The role you can play to help your organization succeed with Agile  Show Notes A lot of organizations have adopted Agile practices but haven’t seen some of the expected results. There are a few key concepts that organizations miss when transitioning to Agile that limits the effectiveness of the practices.   Key Concept 1: Sponsorship Any Agile transformation or other large initiative will only be as successful as the most senior person that supports you. Top down sponsorship and leadership buy-in is key. Otherwise, teams will struggle seeing the connection between what they’re doing and the organization’s strategy.   Key Concept 2: Vision Vision is key for creating the mindset shift needed to succeed with Agile. Whether it’s a vision for the organization or for the project/product, a compelling helps align people to a goal. Vision is important for helping everyone to understand where we’re going and why. This contributes to getting buy-in and commitment from the team.   Key Concept 3: Product Ownership Strong product ownership is an integral piece that allows teams and organizations to adapt to Agile practices and mindset. It helps you to better understand your customers and connects the team to the value they’re trying to deliver. This requires seeking out feedback from customers and different parts of the organization so that we can adapt our approach. Product owners must be able to make decisions and empowered to talk to stakeholders to act on their feedback. When Business Analysts and Product Owners partner together, the result is often stronger product ownership. Business Analysts can use their questioning and analysis skills to fill in some of the gaps common to newer Product Owners.   Key Concept 4: Success Criteria To succeed in Agile, everyone needs a clear understanding of the ‘why’ behind what we’re doing. Establishing success criteria in a User Story helps the team to understand the value they’re trying to deliver. The “so that” portion of a story explains the value we expect to deliver. Strong success criteria also helps us to discover how we will create the expected outcome.   Key Concept 5: Planning It’s a common misconception that you don’t need to plan in Agile. In reality, there’s more planning in Agile than in traditional methods. Agile approaches include frequent opportunities to inspect what we’re doing and adapt our approach. This means that we are continually planning and making small adjustments.   Key Concept 6: Change Management To adapt to any change, people need to understand who’s involved in the change effort. We need to communicate and involve others for a change to be successful. Everyone on the team has a responsibility to act with transparency and communicate risks and impacts of the change.   Key Concept 7: Culture Agile requires a mindset shift. To be successful with an Agile transformation, you need to capture people’s hearts and minds. You need to create a desire for new ways of thinking and operating. Processes and tools won’t save an Agile transformation. In fact, they can hinder this type of change. Agile requires trust, respect, and collaboration. We need to create that culture and capabilities within our teams and across the organization. We want to create a learning culture in which we’re continuously improving and actively seeking feedback.   Listen to the full episode to understand how you can influence these key concepts and be successful in an Agile environment. http://traffic.libsyn.com/masteringbusinessanalysis/MBA148.mp3   Z Your Homework Are you more focused on doing Agile or being Agile? To be successful, we need to connect more with the principles and mindset behind Agile. Think about the mindset and principles of Agile and identify ways of working under those principles. Find small changes that you can make to move in the right direction.   Links mentioned in this episode: Get a free audiobook of your choice from Audible Paula Maychruk Paula Maychruk has worked in the IT industry for the past 20+ years, ultimately landing in the role of Senior Manager, Project Practices with Sovereign General Insurance where she has been helping to formulate and champion better processes related to the delivery of projects and releases. Paula has also been actively involved with IIBA and has held Board of Director positions and served as a member of IIBA’s Senior Leadership Team. LinkedIn Thank you for listening to the program To get more valuable content to enhance your skills and advance your career, you can subscribe on iTunes and other podcatchers. Also, reviews on iTunes are highly appr

In this Lightning Cast, we’ll discuss the key element to great teams: trust. Trust increases the speed to deliver projects and reduces cost. Here’s how to develop and maintain trust on your team. A Lightning Cast is a shorter form episode modeled after lightning talks. You’ll get valuable content in 8 minutes or less. Trust – It’s what Steven M. R. Covey calls “The one thing that changes everything.” It can take a long time to build trust and only seconds to lose it. As trust goes up, speed increases and cost goes down. That’s because with high trust, people communicate openly, act with transparency, and meet their commitments. Without spin, meetings are fewer, faster, and to the point. There are less processes and less overhead needed to get things done. Where there’s a lack of trust, people operate with hidden agendas. There’s more documentation and heavy processes to prove what people said and did. There’s more bureaucracy and rules, which makes it difficult to get things done. In organizations where there’s low engagement, it’s usually due to a lack of trust. All of this bureaucracy, red tape, disengagement, churn, and unnecessary processes is the tax low trust teams and organizations must pay. It makes it harder to get things done.   Credibility is Key To develop trust and be seen as a trusted advisor, we need to be trustworthy (worthy of someone’s trust). Dale Carnegie outlined four ways that people evaluate us: what we say, how we say it, what we do, and how we do it. It’s all about building credibility. Credibility has four components: Integrity: This is more than just being honest. Do you do what you say and say what you mean? Are you really living by your values? Do you act with humility? Do you act with courage and stand up for what you believe is right? Intent: What are your motives? Do you have a hidden agenda or are you being open and transparent? If people don’t believe that your intentions are true and honorable, they’ll never extend trust to you. Capabilities: Your capabilities are your skills, knowledge, talents, and abilities. We can increase our capabilities by constantly learning and improving. Results: We need to be able to deliver the right outcomes. Even if you have good intentions, if the results aren’t there, neither is credibility. When people judge your credibility, they look at what results you’ve delivered in the past, what results you’re currently delivering, and what results you have the potential to deliver in the future. To improve results, we need to be accountable, take action, and deliver on expectations. Extending and Rebuilding Trust To create trust within our teams and with stakeholders, we need to build trust and extend trust to others. There’s a difference between extending trust and having blind trust in others. We need to use good judgment when extending trust and do a little analysis. Does the person to whom you’re extending trust have credibility and are they able to meet your expectations? Are the expectations clear? As the Russian proverb says, “Trust, but verify.” When trust is lost, restoring it is difficult, but not impossible. Think about the root cause of why trust was lost. Did you overpromise and under deliver? Were your intentions unclear? Often, it’s caused by unclear expectations. To rebuild trust, you’ll likely need to apologize or make restitution for what happened. Be sure to speak with honesty and sincerity while discussing what happened and the current situation. Don’t blame others and take responsibility for your actions (or inaction as the case may be). Be sure to hear their side and act with respect for the value that others bring. Going forward, you’ll need to be clear about expectations, keep your commitments, and deliver results.   When you have trust, people feel like you are truly listening to them, you have their best interests in mind, and your interactions will be truthful and transparent. This leads to more engagement and it makes it easier to get things done. Trust makes change easier, people don’t withhold information, we collaborate more, share helpful feedback, work together to improve, and innovate more.   Here are a few quick tips to help you build and maintain trust: Make your motives clear by sharing the ‘why’ and intended outcomes of what you’re doing. Be transparent and speak with candor. Make your work visible and speak directly without spinning the truth. Be accountable and don’t use no excuses or blame. Hold others accountable for their actions and deliverables as well. Clarify and manage expectations by creating a shared understanding. Rephrasing expectations helps with this. Fulfill your commitments and keep your promises. If for some reason you’ll miss a commitment, let the other person know as early as possible. Letting them know that you weren’t able to meet a commitment you made after its due is too late.   Listen to the full episode to understand why trust is critical to succe

In this episode, Ron Ross explains the Business Agility Manifesto and helps us to understand the role business knowledge plays in enhancing business agility.  After listening to this episode, you'll understand: Why the Business Agility Manifesto is and why it was created How business knowledge can enhance an organization’s agility What you can do to help your organization reduce time to develop solutions  Show Notes Agile has had a huge impact on the way we work. Agile thinking and Agile software development is evolving rapidly and is moving beyond the confines of IT. It’s starting to focus on the organizational or social dimension of agility, energizing the work of teams, organizations, and leadership. But Agile itself does not guarantee business agility. Today there are deep structural problems in the way we handle business knowledge that severely limits of any social or organizational remedies such as Agile practices. The Business Agility Manifesto identifies root causes and long term fundamentals that we need to address to achieve business agility. Essentially, the Business Agility Manifesto explains what the business and practitioners need to do to adjust and thrive in the new reality of the knowledge age. Business knowledge is a corporate asset and it needs to be treated as such. We as practitioners need to reshape how business knowledge is handled as much for our own and the project’s benefit as for our organization’s benefit.   The Business Agility Manifesto The Business Agility Manifesto calls for the appropriate infrastructure for retaining business knowledge. This is essential for managing perpetual change. If an Agile approach isn’t addressing that problem, things aren’t going to improve no matter how clever or invigorating your Agile approach might be. The manifesto also mentions the inclusion and delivery of business knowledge into projects and business solutions. This means that we need to apply common business vocabulary and rules to our solutions. It’s critical that everyone has access to the business knowledge and can help evolve that knowledge. This requires us to change the way we retain and manage that knowledge and create a single source of truth. To achieve business agility, projects need to be justified directly on the basis of value creation for end customers and the business strategy, not on the basis of software features. We need to emphasize the importance of getting the right results, not just getting results fast.   Listen to the full episode to understand the role business knowledge plays in business agility and whay you can do to enhance your organizations agility. http://traffic.libsyn.com/masteringbusinessanalysis/MBA147.mp3   Z Your Homework On your next project or initiative, look for existing sources of business rules. If you’re lucky, there are existing projects from which you can identify and reuse the business rules. If that doesn’t work, look at all of the relevant contracts, agreements, memos, and anything else that documents the company’s obligations and commitments that are relevant to the focus of the project. That documentation represents a source of business rules, although it needs to be disambiguated. If no such documentation exists, you’ll need to elicit business rules from subject matter experts.   Links mentioned in this episode: The Business Agility Manifesto Business Rules Community website Ron’s website: Business Rules Solutions Ron Ross Co-Founder of Business Rule Solutions, LLC (BRS) Ron Ross is recognized internationally as the “father of business rules”. He is the author of ten professional books including the groundbreaking first book on business rules The Business Rule Book. Ron is the co-author of the Business Agility Manifesto and was also a contributor to the IIBA’s BABOK v3. TwitterLinkedIn Thank you for listening to the program To get more valuable content to enhance your skills and advance your career, you can subscribe on iTunes. Also, reviews on iTunes are highly appreciated! I read each review and it helps keep me motivated to continue to bring you valuable content each week. The post MBA147: The Business Agility Manifesto appeared first on Mastering Business Analysis.

In this episode, we explore what it takes to become a Full-Stack Business Analyst. Similar to a Full-Stack Developer, a Business Analyst can broaden their skills to reduce waste and contribute more value to their organization.  After listening to this episode, you'll understand: What a Full-Stack Business Analyst is Why developing knowledge across the product delivery stack is valuable What the components of the product stack are How to begin growing your skills  Show Notes Are you a Full-Stack Business Analyst? A Full-Stack Developer is someone who’s able to work on the entire technology stack required to deliver the desired functionality. This includes the front-end user interface as well as the back-end database, logic, and other processing systems for an application. Full-Stack doesn’t necessarily imply that you have mastered all of the technology, but you know enough to understand and work on the technology required to deliver the application. Full-Stack Developers can be a valuable asset to an organization because there are less handoffs, fewer silos, and more awareness of impacts and dependencies from a technical point of view. It also helps with estimation and creating a shared understanding. If Full-Stack Developers are in high demand and can add value to an organization, with about Business Analysts? What’s our version of full stack? A Full-Stack Business Analyst is someone who can take an idea from concept to cash. It’s someone who can help identify opportunities and shape products that satisfy a need. They can also rally support for the initiative and gain alignment within the team. These people may also have a strong technical voice to provide input and guidance related to technical solutions and tradeoffs. Finally, they can see the initiative through to completion and ensure ongoing monitoring of results. Instead of a technology stack, the Full-Stack Business Analyst focuses on the Product Stack, which is comprised of: Ideation: Discovering possible opportunities Validation: Ensuring that this is a good/the right opportunity Visioning: Creating a shared understanding and leading through development of a compelling vision Decomposition: Breaking the vision into smaller achievable chunks and identifying experiments to test and learn Delivery: Building the solution and getting those solutions into the hands of our customers Monitoring: Analyzing metrics to validate success and identify new opportunities Let’s take a closer look at the Product Stack.   Ideation: Discovering Opportunities Ideation is where you use data, your knowledge of the business environment, knowledge of your organization’s capabilities, and your understanding of your customers to discover ideas for potential solutions. This may require industry knowledge or research, data mining techniques, and a genuine empathy and understanding of your customers. Skills and knowledge needed for ideation include problem analysis and identification of opportunities through SWOT, SLEPT, or PESTEL analysis. You may also use approaches such as Design Thinking or Lean Startup and tools like personas, empathy maps, customer journeys, and experiments.   Validation: Confirming it’s the Right Opportunity Validation occurs when you analyze your idea to make sure there’s good problem/solution fit as well as good product/market fit. You want to ensure that the product idea meets an important customer need, customers are willing to pay for it (or willing to use it for an internal product context), and that it’s scalable and marketable. An understanding of marketing, product management, and finance is needed here. You’ll likely develop a business case as part of the validation to ensure that the product idea is worth the investment and to help with prioritization.   Visioning: Gaining Buy-In and Alignment Once you have validated the product idea, you’ll need buy-in from your organization to get the time, money, and other resources you need to make the idea come to life. This involves influencing, using data from your earlier validation, creating a compelling vision, and creating alignment by developing a shared understanding of the problem, proposed solution, metrics, and expected outcomes.   Decomposition: Making Work Manageable Even if you have a great product idea and alignment in your organization, it’s difficult to understand and deliver the solution in one big piece. We need to break the work down into smaller, more manageable pieces. Not only does decomposing work help with creating a shared understanding, it also allows you to experiment and create smaller feedback loops to adapt or pivot as to deliver. This gives you the opportunity to get frequent feedback, revisit and revise your product idea, and create solutions your customers will love. This includes a lot of the typical business analysis work of requirements elicitation and analysis. When you decompose work, you’ll likely identify the Minimum Viable Produ

In this episode, six thought leaders and I share predictions for 2018 and help you understand what it means for you. Kupe Kupersmith | KupeTalks Prediction: There will be progress in the #NoRequirements movement. Focus your attention in areas other than requirements. Instead, focus on outcomes. There are multiple options that can lead to the intended outcome. We need to review those options and make decisions about which option to use to achieve the desired outcome. Lora McCoy | LMc3 Consulting Prediction: There will be a maturity of the Business Analyst role. We will continue to see a growing maturity of the BA role in Agile and the development of a better understanding of the role. There will be a recognition on the IIBA certifications as the de facto standard for business analysis. Lora also hopes to see differentiation in the BA role as some people shift to more strategic, pre-project activities. Paula Bell | Paula A. Bell Consulting, LLC Prediction: It will be less about the title of Business Analyst We will hear more about the need for the business analysis skill set and less about Business Analyst role. Adrian Reed | Blackmetric Business Solutions Prediction: We will see more value in the business analysis discipline versus the Business Analyst title. As Business Analysts shift left and get more involved in strategic pre-project aspects, organizations will understand the value of business analysis but with less focus on the role title. There will also be a divergence of duties and titles at the fringe of the BA role. Bob Prentiss | Bob the BA Prediction: Organizations will start looking at business analysis as a life skill. We will begin to realize that we all need fundamental skills in business analysis regardless of our title. Kevin Brennan | Straiteis Consulting Inc. Prediction: We will see the end of Project Management (in the next 5-10 years). The adoption of automation technologies will lead to the end of Project Management as a profession in the next 5-10 years. Project Management is becoming a team skill and machine learning is well suited to take over the processes of estimation, scheduling, and forecasting.   Here are my predictions for 2018: There will be less Business Analyst and Project Manager job titles as measured by job postings. I expect to see a 3-4% decrease in Business Analyst titles and a 5-7% decrease in Project Manager titles. The skill set of each of these roles will still be in high demand, but the titles will be different. There will also likely be a divergence in the BA role as some people move from tactical to strategic. With the role shift, there will be more focus on Product Manager and Product Owner roles and skills. I expect to see a 3-5% increase in job postings with these titles/skills and an increase in conference topics in this area. There will be more of a focus on solving the right problem with the right solution. I expect to see more organizations using Lean Startup and Design Thinking. We should see more training and conference topics in this area. There will be a continued focus on AI, machine learning, and big data. With it, there will be an increased need for data security. Soft skills such as facilitation, collaboration, and emotional intelligence will be more important than ever and we should see more demand for training in these areas. There are some common themes in many of these predictions; both my own the the six thought leaders who shared their thoughts. The world is rapidly changing and we need to change with it Business analysis and project management are valuable skills, but the title of Business Analyst and Project Manager will get less focus To be successful, we need to focus on developing our skills and applying them to create the right outcomes of our organization without getting hung up on titles   Listen to the full episode to hear how close I was with my 2017 predictions, learn more about our 2018 predictions, what you can do to be successful in the future. http://traffic.libsyn.com/masteringbusinessanalysis/MBA145.mp3   Thank you for listening to the program To get more valuable content to enhance your skills and advance your career, you can subscribe on iTunes and other podcatchers. Also, reviews on iTunes are highly appreciated! I read each review and it helps keep me motivated to continue to bring you valuable content each week. . The post MBA145: Predictions for 2018 appeared first on Mastering Business Analysis.

In this Lightning Cast, you’ll discover how perfectionism leads to procrastination and holds you back. You’ll also find out how to overcome perfectionism.   A Lightning Cast is a shorter form episode modeled after lightning talks. You’ll get valuable content in 8 minutes or less.   Perfectionists strive to be flawless and set high performance standards. The problem is that it’s often accompanied by critical self-evaluations and concerns about how you’ll be perceived by others. While trying to do great work is important, there’s a difference between striving for excellence and demanding perfection.   The problem Having high standards becomes a problem when we believe something should be a lot easier than it is in reality. It’s also an issue when people have excessively high personal standards. In some cases, perfectionism can lead to anxiety, unhealthy levels of stress, and depression. Even is less severe cases, perfectionism can cause procrastination, missing deadlines, missing opportunities, and inaction. Instead of ready, aim, fire, perfectionists often get stuck in ready, aim, aim, aim. We need to shift to fire and adjust. Take action and then adjust your approach.   Causes Most perfectionism stems from fear; the fear of what others may think. It’s related to your inner critic and imposter syndrome that Denise Jacobs discussed in episode 143. This fear of failure keeps you stuck in your comfort zone. A lot of it also comes down to perception. You may think it’s easy for others to accomplish things that you can’t. Don’t fall into the trap of comparing your blooper reel to someone else’s highlight reel. You often don’t see the hard work and failures of others. There’s almost always a gap between hopes and images conjured in your mind versus what you actually produce. This causes frustration and sometimes makes you believe that you’re a failure. When you focus on avoiding failure, you limit your creativity and miss out on great opportunities. People often forget that there’s a necessary role of failure – to help us learn and grow. Think of a baby learning to walk or learning to ride a bike.   What to do about perfectionism Remember that progress beats perfection. There will never be a perfect time. Take action instead of waiting for things to be perfect. The longer you delay, the more others lose the benefit of what you may create. Focus on taking the next action to move closer to the result you want. Agile and lean startup approaches and mindset helps. Think of work as experiments or prototypes. Your rough draft is something to iterate on. Get feedback and continue to improve it. Use a time box to give yourself a limited amount of time to focus. A time box forces you to create and move on. Ask yourself a few questions: Will it really matter or is good enough . . . good enough? Will the time you’re spending be worth the investment? Don’t forget that there’s an opportunity cost to everything you do. Am I working on the most valuable thing right now?   Listen to the full episode to discover techniques that will help you overcome perfectionism and deliver. http://traffic.libsyn.com/masteringbusinessanalysis/MBALC012.mp3   Thank you for listening to the program To get more valuable content to enhance your skills and advance your career, you can subscribe on iTunes and other podcatchers. Also, reviews on iTunes are highly appreciated! I read each review and it helps keep me motivated to continue to bring you valuable content each week. . The post Lightning Cast: Confessions of a Recovering Perfectionist appeared first on Mastering Business Analysis.

In this episode, you’ll discover 12 approaches that lead to shorter time to market, increased customer value, and innovation.  After listening to this episode, you'll understand: Why short feedback cycles are critical How to increase innovation Why metrics matter more than ever Approaches you can use to build the right solution  Show Notes On the 12th day of the project, we delivered as a team . . . 12 User Stories. User Stories move us from writing about requirements to talking about them. Their small size and focus on the customer allows us to minimize outputs and maximize outcomes. 11 Pipelines Deploying. Through DevOps practices and Continuous Integration/Continuous Deployment (CI/CD) pipelines, we can put solutions into production quickly so that customers can receive value and our organization can see the benefits sooner. This implies that you have automated testing in place and confidence in the quality of your code. 10 Customers Cheering. By delivering valuable features and functionality to customers sooner, we get happy customers who will use our product and recommend it to others. The key is to identify what is valuable to customers (see 7, 6, and 5 below) and deliver it quickly. 9 Models Describing. Through the use of models and other techniques such as story maps, we’re able to communicate clearly and create a shared understanding. Be sure to involve your team in model development and keep them light weight. A whiteboard or pen and paper are usually sufficient to create a shared understanding. It also allows others to easily contribute to the model. 8 Metrics Informing. How will you measure the impact of what you produce? You should fine metrics that will allow you to gauge success. Ideally, those would be leading metrics instead of lagging metrics. For ideas about leading metrics, check out Dave McClure’s Pirate Metrics. 7 Experiments Running. We don’t always know what customers really want. Sometimes our customers don’t know what they want. To discover what customers will find valuable, we need to run experiments. Form a hypothesis and run simple experiments to either validate or invalidate your hypothesis. 6 Feedback Loops. Creating fast feedback loops to ensure you’re on the right track is critical. The longer the time between feedback loops, the more risk there is in spending time and money on the wrong thing. Feedback loops allow you to get information to pivot (adjust your course) or persevere (continue your current course of action). 5 Prototypes. Creating prototypes is a great way to experiment and get user feedback. Start with low fidelity prototypes such as paper prototypes and drawings. Think in terms of hours or days instead of weeks. You can then work up to higher fidelity prototypes such as mockups and interactive prototypes as needed. 4 Requirements Changes. Based on our experiments and feedback loops, we may discover that our direction and requirements change. One of the principles of the Agile Manifesto is “Welcome changing requirements, even late in development. Agile processes harness change for the customer’s competitive advantage.” Welcome change when it means that we’ll deliver solutions that customers will find valuable. 3 Features Delivered. In the end, the only thing that matters is working solutions delivered to our customers. By providing features and capabilities that benefit customers quickly, we help both customers and the organization. 2 Canvases. There are several canvases that you can use at the beginning of an initiative to create clarity and a shared understanding. A Lean Canvas is a great way to understand the problems customers face, identify potential solutions, and understand if our solution has a good market fit. . . . And a product delivered with Agility.   Listen to the full episode to understand how to apply these approaches for greater business agility. http://traffic.libsyn.com/masteringbusinessanalysis/MBA144.mp3   Thank you for listening to the program To get more valuable content to enhance your skills and advance your career, you can subscribe on iTunes and other podcatchers. Also, reviews on iTunes are highly appreciated! I read each review and it helps keep me motivated to continue to bring you valuable content each week. . The post MBA144: The 12 Days of the Project appeared first on Mastering Business Analysis.

In this Lightning Cast, you’ll discover what it takes to transition to a Product Owner role and be successful.   A Lightning Cast is a shorter form episode modeled after lightning talks. You’ll get valuable content in 8 minutes or less.   Being a product owner is more than writing user stories, creating roadmaps, and managing the backlog. It’s really about creating value for the customer. We discover things that the customer will truly value which in turn will create value for our organization. I think this is a great role for business analysts because to be successful, you need a lot of those business analysis skills. But to be successful, you need to shift your mindset.   You Need a Mindset Shift To successfully transition to a Product Owner role, we need to shift from focusing on outputs to creating great outcomes for our customers and our organization. We must shift from the tactical to the strategic. Instead of focusing on requirements, we must focus on experiments to understand what’s truly valuable to our customers. We need to shift our focus outward to understand customer problems and opportunities in the business environment. Instead of analyzing data and making recommendations to decision makers, we are the decision makers. The responsibility of the decisions and the resulting outcomes is on the Product Owner. Finally, we want to focus on organizational agility. Organizational agility is comprised of three factors: time-to-market, customer value, and innovation.   Focus on Organizational Agility We need to be able to deliver quickly to the market or our competition will have a first mover advantage. We need to build things that are truly valuable to the customer that they need and want. Without innovation and experimentation, will be left behind as the market progresses. We’ll be the next Blockbuster video or Kodak and lose market share.   The Three Lenses As a Product Owner, we need to look at products through three lenses. Is it valuable? Does it provide value to the organization and to our customers? Is it feasible? Can we build and maintain it? Is it usable? What’s the customer experience like?   If the product is valuable and feasible but not a great customer experience, we’ll lose customers. If the product is valuable and great customer experience but it’s not feasible, we can’t do it or maybe we shouldn’t do it. Products that are feasible and create a great customer experience but are not valuable to the organization are a waste of resources.   The Four Quadrants of Product Ownership When we look at the Product Owner role, I like to think of four quadrants. The product owner is product manager. They work to understand what the customer wants and needs. A product owner is a leader. They are able to create a compelling vision of where we want to go and how to get there and are able to use their vision and influence to lead others to achieve that goal. A product owner is also project manager. They have the ability to understand how long it will take to get there. They can apply metrics like cycle time, velocity, and throughput to forecast how long it will take to achieve the desired outcomes and plan appropriately. The product owner is a Business Analyst. They are able to see the big picture and the break things down into smaller chunks. They also consider the upstream and downstream impacts and are able to facilitate better collaboration with the team, understand what the business case looks like, and keep things moving forward by creating a shared understanding.     If you’re considering stepping up to product ownership, I have a special resource for you. Go to www.MasteringBusinessAnalysis.com/PO There you’ll find a set of podcasts, blogs, book recommendations, and some videos help you better understand the Product Owner role and how to be successful.   Listen to the full episode to see what it takes to be successful as a Product Owner. http://traffic.libsyn.com/masteringbusinessanalysis/MBALC011.mp3   Thank you for listening to the program To get more valuable content to enhance your skills and advance your career, you can subscribe on iTunes and other podcatchers. Also, reviews on iTunes are highly appreciated! I read each review and it helps keep me motivated to continue to bring you valuable content each week. . The post Lightning Cast: Stepping Up to Product Ownership appeared first on Mastering Business Analysis.

In this episode, author and renown speaker Denise Jacobs helps you to overcome Imposter Syndrome and silence your inner critic to unleash your creativity.  After listening to this episode, you'll understand: Why your inner voice may be holding you back The difference between imposter syndrome and your inner critic How to silence your inner critic to boost creative thinking  Show Notes Your inner critic is that fearful voice inside you that holds you back and destroys your creativity. It says you’re not good enough, it compares you to others, and it prevents creative thinking. Creativity isn’t just for artists. Denise describes creativity as “a spark, a stirring, an impetus: a powerful force that compels us to create and bring an idea to life”. We use creativity for problem solving, for identifying potential solutions, creating proposals, and throughout our daily lives. The inner critic blocks creativity and prevents you from establishing a state of flow. While the inner critic is part of your brain’s internal mechanism, silencing your inner critic can be achieved through awareness and intentional practice. Swipe Left One approach to banishing your inner critic is to remain present and aware of your thoughts. Whenever a negative or unwanted thought comes into your mind, use a hand gesture to ‘swipe left’ as if you’re deleting something from your phone. Studies have shown a strong connection between physical gestures and our thoughts. By recognizing negative thoughts and using a hand gesture to delete that thought, you’ll make a connection over time between the gesture and removing an unwanted thought.   Think Like a Scientist Another approach to silencing your inner critic and overcoming imposter syndrome is to apply scientific reasoning. This is also known as cognitive reappraisal. Remember that just because you have a thought doesn’t make that thought true. The next time your inner voice tells you that you’re not good enough, challenge the thought the same way a scientist would. Ask “Is it true that I’m not good enough?” and then look for evidence to disprove or support that theory. Gather evidence of past successes and you’ll find that you can reason away those negative thoughts.   Comparison Syndrome To deal with your inner critic when it says that you’re ‘less than’ someone else, create a brag file (or kudos file). A brag file is a repository of all of the positive feedback and appreciation you have received. Reviewing your brag file will help you create a personal inventory and discover all that you have to offer.   Banishing your inner critic frees your creativity and gives you the courage to take the next steps in your career and in life. Listen to the full episode to understand the brain science behind the limiting beliefs and discover more techniques to silence your inner critic . http://traffic.libsyn.com/masteringbusinessanalysis/MBA143.mp3   Z Your Homework Make a commitment to tune in to your inner critic. Then, exercise your capacity for attention and focus and when you have an inner critical thought, choose a thought that’s different. Make a decision to think that thought instead.   Links mentioned in this episode: Denise’s Website DeniseJacobs.com Denise’s books Banish Your Inner Critic (Book Website) Denise’s Consulting site – The Creative Dose Denise Jacobs CEO - The Creative Dose Denise R. Jacobs is a Speaker + Author + Creativity Evangelist who speaks at conferences and consults with companies worldwide. As the Founder + CEO of The Creative Dose, she promotes techniques to unlock creativity and help people become engaged contributors, synergistic collaborators, and authentic leaders. Denise is the author of Banish Your Inner Critic, the premier handbook on silencing fears to unleash creativity.. TwitterLinkedIn Thank you for listening to the program To get more valuable content to enhance your skills and advance your career, you can subscribe on iTunes and other podcatchers. Also, reviews on iTunes are highly appreciated! I read each review and it helps keep me motivated to continue to bring you valuable content each week. . The post MBA143: Imposter Syndrome – Banishing Your Inner Critic appeared first on Mastering Business Analysis.

In this Lightning Cast, we explore two common root cause analysis approaches, Fishbone Diagrams and 5 Whys, to help you understand when to use each technique.   A Lightning Cast is a shorter form episode modeled after lightning talks. You’ll get valuable content in 8 minutes or less.   Are you merely treating the symptoms of a problem or you correcting the underlying cause? Understanding the difference between the root cause and other causal factors is key in solving the right problem. Removing or otherwise addressing the root cause will prevent the problem from happening. If we only address other causal factors, the problem may recur. That’s why we need to apply root cause analysis. Through cause analysis, we typically start by defining the problem. Then we collect data and work to identify possible causes. We then define the root cause and implement a solution to address that root cause. There many different approaches to identifying the root cause. Let’s focus on two frequently use approaches: Fishbone Diagrams and the Five Whys. A Fishbone or Ishikawa diagram is a tool used for addressing common cause variation. Common causes are the inputs and conditions that contribute to regular everyday variation of a process. Five Whys is the most commonly recommended tool for finding the root cause of a special cause variation. Special causes are factors that aren’t always present in a process and can appear because of some particular circumstance.   Fishbone Diagram When investigating a common cause using a Fishbone diagram, you’ll explore several cause categories leading to the effect. To use a Fishbone approach, first gather the right people in the room. With varying levels of expertise and ownership, you’ll have a well-rounded conversation. Start by drawing a horizontal line which represents a problem to be solved. From there, draw branch categories coming out from that horizontal line. Use those potential cause categories to brainstorm and then identify main opportunities and underlying root causes. From the horizontal main problem line, draw six branches: process, people, measurement, environment, machinery, and material. From there, brainstorm different issues that affect each of these branch categories. Record the ideas on the Fishbone diagram and then prioritize the causes to define opportunities. If you’d like, you can use a Pareto Chart to help prioritize among the common causes. Just remember that because something is frequent doesn’t mean that fixing it is a good investment. The cost needed to fix the issue and the potential benefit needs to be considered.   Five Whys Now let’s turn our attention to the Five Whys technique. You can use a Five Whys problem-solving approach in conjunction with the Fishbone diagram. After identifying a few of the critical factors you want to address using a Fishbone Diagram, you can apply the Five Whys technique on those causes. You can use this technique to explore the cause-and-effect relationship in the problem space. The theory is that by asking why five times, you get to the real root cause of the problem. By understanding and addressing the root cause, we’re able to prevent the problem from reoccurring. When applying the Five Whys technique, don’t simply ask why five times. Use other probing questions such as: What actually occurred? When did it occur? Who was involved? Who else needs to be involved? Did we use standard practices? Are there any inconsistencies between what the systems are supposed to do what it’s actually doing? What assumptions do we need to test? What unintended consequences can result from implementing effects? Here’s a tip for using the Five Whys technique. Never leave human error or personal factors as the root cause. Remember that it’s the process and not the people that fail. Don’t forget that you can address common cause or special cause variation through controls. Once you determine the root cause, identify whether you can prevent their root cause or work to detect it early. If prevention steps are too costly, you can implement monitoring to detect the issue at far less cost. Don’t waste time fixing the problem when you could prevent it happening in the first place by focusing on quality upfront.   Listen to this lightning cast t understand when to use each root cause analysis technique. http://traffic.libsyn.com/masteringbusinessanalysis/MBALC010.mp3   Thank you for listening to the program To get more valuable content to enhance your skills and advance your career, you can subscribe on iTunes and other podcatchers. Also, reviews on iTunes are highly appreciated! I read each review and it helps keep me motivated to continue to bring you valuable content each week. . The post Lightning Cast: Root Cause Analysis appeared first on Mastering Business Analysis.

In this Lightning Cast, you’ll discover the value of competency models and how they can help you grow in your career.   A Lightning Cast is a shorter form episode modeled after lightning talks. You’ll get valuable content in 8 minutes or less.   Competency Models can help define job level roles and expectations as well as help you determine development goals and career growth opportunities. A competency model is a way of defining the knowledge, skills, abilities, and behaviors that define successful performance expectations. Competency models can be used in several ways, including defining role levels within an organization and expectations of people at each level. You can also use a competency model to understand your current skill and knowledge level to define future goals and growth opportunities. Its usage spans from Human Resources to People Managers and performance reviews to personal growth and career development. The International Institute of Business Analysis recently updated their Competency Model and it helps Business Analysts understand the techniques and skills that apply in each of the BA knowledge areas that are expected based on your level of experience. The IIBA Competency Model can be used by BA managers to set expectations and help develop other Business Analysts. BAs can use the model to understand where they fit as far as expectations for their experience level and create a development plan for career growth. Using their Competency Model, Self-Assessment Tool, and Career Action Guide together can lead to personal development and career growth.   Listen to the full episode to understand how to use the IIBA Competency Model to grow in your career. http://traffic.libsyn.com/masteringbusinessanalysis/MBALC009.mp3   Thank you for listening to the program To get more valuable content to enhance your skills and advance your career, you can subscribe on iTunes and other podcatchers. Also, reviews on iTunes are highly appreciated! I read each review and it helps keep me motivated to continue to bring you valuable content each week. . The post Lightning Cast: Using Competency Models appeared first on Mastering Business Analysis.

In this episode, you’ll find out how to apply Lean Startup approaches so that you can build solutions customers will love.  After listening to this episode, you'll understand: Why the Lean Startup approaches aren’t just for small organizations How to experiment your way to success What techniques you can use to ensure you build the right solution  Show Notes Using Lean Startup approaches really helps us to find out what customers truly need and build solutions that meet those needs. The problem is that we often don’t know what customers need. Lean Startup takes us from identifying needs by understanding our customers to developing hypotheses and experimenting to ensure the right problem-solution fit and product-market fit. Eric Reis, author of The Lean Startup, describes a startup as a “human institution designed to deliver new product or service under conditions of extreme uncertainty.” With today’s volatile and rapidly changing environment, things are often under conditions of extreme uncertainty; not just in startups. These approaches aren’t just for small companies starting out. They apply to large enterprises as well. Lean Startup approaches provide a scientific approach for getting a desired product to customers faster.   Listen to the full episode to understand how to apply Lean Startup approaches to find the right solution to the right problem. http://traffic.libsyn.com/masteringbusinessanalysis/MBA142.mp3   Z Your Homework I recommend trying Lean Startup approaches on your next project or within your organization. Start with tools to help you identify who your customers really are. Great tools for that are empathy maps and journey maps. Using a lean canvas is a great way for the team to come together and get on the same page as far as your approach and potential solutions. From there, create hypotheses and experiments to validate assumptions. You can use assumptions mapping to prioritize your experiments and then learn as you go.   Links mentioned in this episode: Episode 99 with David Bland on Assumptions Mapping Lean Canvas Thank you for listening to the program To get more valuable content to enhance your skills and advance your career, you can subscribe on iTunes and other podcatchers. Also, reviews on iTunes are highly appreciated! I read each review and it helps keep me motivated to continue to bring you valuable content each week. . The post MBA142: Lean Startup for the Enterprise appeared first on Mastering Business Analysis.

In this episode, Kevin Brennan helps us to understand the impact of digital transformations and what you need to do to adapt to this shift.    After listening to this episode, you'll understand: How the digital revolution and digital transformations change the way organizations work What digital transformation means for your role as a business analyst How to adapt your approach in a digital environment  Show Notes Digital transformation is more than just a buzzword. It’s building the capability to respond and adapt to today’s rapidly changing environment. It requires a new way of working while delivering and innovating along the way. A digital transformation is something that fundamentally changes the way a company does business. It involves using software to change the way you interact with customers or the way you develop solutions. Business Analysts need to look at how software is developed and used across the enterprise in a whole new light. We’re no longer simply automating existing processes. In a digital transformation, we’re creating something entirely new that hasn’t existed before. This means that stakeholders may not know exactly what we want. We need to move forward with more Agile forms of analysis and help teams iterate on solutions that integrate with all parts of the business.   Listen to the full episode to hear Kevin’s advice on how Business Analysts can adapt and provide move value in a digital world. http://traffic.libsyn.com/masteringbusinessanalysis/MBA141.mp3   Z Your Homework Start learning about one or two technologies that may be relevant in your business. Then, think about how your organization might apply these new technologies and benefit from your knowledge. Try to move away from the mindset of simply giving stakeholders what they ask for. Shift your role to an advisor and discover what they truly need. Think in terms of creating more value for your customers. Look at software requirements as secondary to that objective.   Links mentioned in this episode: Kevin’s website Straiteis.com Video about Wardley mapping Kevin Brennan Kevin Brennan is an association executive and business transformation architect, and works as an independent consultant based in Toronto, Canada. He has been a leader in the business analysis community for over a decade, as a member of IIBA’s board and executive team and shepherding the BABOK Guide through three major releases. Kevin has led organizations through strategic and business unit planning and execution, played a leadership role in enterprise change, developed and launched multiple products for a global audience, and managed a product portfolio through the entire product lifecycle. TwitterLinkedIn Thank you for listening to the program To get more valuable content to enhance your skills and advance your career, you can subscribe on iTunes and other podcatchers. Also, reviews on iTunes are highly appreciated! I read each review and it helps keep me motivated to continue to bring you valuable content each week. . The post MBA141: Digital Transformation – What is Means for BAs appeared first on Mastering Business Analysis.

In this episode, Corrine Thomas shares techniques from Neuro-linguistic Programming (NLP) that can help you build relationships and influence better.  After listening to this episode, you'll understand: Why building rapport with stakeholders is so important How to use techniques from NLP to develop relationships Why self-awareness is the key to successful relationships  Show Notes Building rapport with stakeholders and coworkers is the first step in developing relationships. It also allows you to grow your network and increases your ability to influence. But where do you start? How can you build rapport with someone with whom you have nothing in common? Neuro-linguistic programming (NLP) is an approach to communication that can help you to better connect with others. NLP techniques can help you adapt your communication to suit the way others think and develop close and harmonious relationships. Listen to the full episode to find out how to apply NLP techniques to build rapport and develop relationships. http://traffic.libsyn.com/masteringbusinessanalysis/MBA140.mp3     Z Your Homework Notice your own patterns of behavior and how you use your senses. Choose a different sense every day for the next week and notice how you’re using your senses and your preferences and patterns. From there, start to notice how others use their senses differently.   Links mentioned in this episode: Corrine’s website Choices-coaching.co.uk Corrine Thomas Choices Coaching Ltd. Corrine Thomas is an experienced Business Analysis manager, coach, and mentor. Her mission is to help Business Analysts to become leaders and role models within their organizations and the wider profession. She offers workshops, programs, coaching, and consulting to establish and improve your Business Analysis capability. Corrine is also a Neuro-linguistic Programming (NLP) practitioner. LinkedIn Thank you for listening to the program To get more valuable content to enhance your skills and advance your career, you can subscribe on iTunes and other podcatchers. Also, reviews on iTunes are highly appreciated! I read each review and it helps keep me motivated to continue to bring you valuable content each week. . The post MBA140: Improve Influence with NLP appeared first on Mastering Business Analysis.

In this Lightning Cast, you’ll find out how to improve your communication and collaboration by adapting your approach using the DiSC model. A Lightning Cast is a shorter form episode modeled after lightning talks. You’ll get valuable content in 8 minutes or less.   It may sometimes seem like people act irrationally and are completely unpredictable. But in reality, these people are doing what’s rational to them. They may even think you’re the irrational one. People think differently and these differences can lead to conflict, misunderstandings, and inhibit collaboration. If you learn about personally types, you’ll find that there are patterns of behavior that people tend to follow. Understanding these patterns will help you to see that people aren’t crazy; they just see the world and interact with others in different but mostly predictable patterns of behavior. The DiSC model is a tool to help you understand some of these differences so that you can adapt your approach to communicate more effectively. DiSC is based on the work of Harvard psychologist Dr. William Marston in who theorized that people tend to develop a self-concept based on one of four factors — Dominance, Inducement, Steadiness, or Compliance. There are tests you can take to determine your DiSC type, but a quick way is to note if you are more outgoing and fast-paced or more reserved. Then, consider whether you are task oriented or people oriented.   Summary of DiSC Profiles People who are more outgoing and task oriented fall into the D type (Dominance or Decisive). They often big picture thinkers focusing on results. If you’re outgoing and people oriented, you’re an I type (Influencing or Inspiring). They work through relationships and by persuading others. Those who are more reserved and people oriented are S types (Supportive and Steady), focusing on cooperation and dependability. People who are reserved and task oriented are C types (Cautious and Conscientious), focusing on facts and data. Why these DiSC profiles are important is because since you know someone’s primary type, you can change your communication style to fit their preferences. It’s important to note that some people may be on the border between two types or exhibit behaviors from other types. Recognizing their default type and how they’re behaving in the current situation will inform your approach. You can guess a person’s main DiSC type through simple observations about their behavioral tendencies, interactions with others, and preferred environments.   D Style – Dominance or Decisive People with the “D” style place an emphasis action and achievement and tend to be fast-paced and task-focused. D types are motivated by winning, competition and success. They want to take action and get immediate results. They value personal freedom and may be perceived as described as being forceful, driven, and impatient. When communicating with the D style individuals, give them the bottom line, be brief, focus your discussion narrowly, avoid making generalizations, refrain from repeating yourself, and focus on solutions rather than problems. Examples of D types include Arnold Schwarzenegger, Margaret Thatcher, and Robert De Niro.   I Style – Influencing or Inspiring People with the “I” style place an emphasis on shaping the environment by influencing or persuading others. A person with an I style is often described as convincing, trusting, and optimistic. They prioritize taking action and collaboration. They’re motivated by social recognition, group activities, and relationships and they fear loss of influence and being ignored. When communicating with the I style individual, share your experiences, allow them time to ask questions, focus on the positives, avoid too many details, and don’t interrupt them. Examples of I style individuals include Bill Clinton, Oprah Winfrey, and Jim Carrey.   S Style – Supportive and Steady People with the “S” style place an emphasis on cooperating with others to complete tasks. A person with an S style is motivated by cooperation and sincere appreciation. They are often described as calm, patient, and consistent. Many are seen as less indecisive and fearful of change. When communicating with the S style individuals, express your interest in them, be clear about expectations, and avoid being confrontational or overly aggressive. Examples of S type individuals include Mahatma Gandhi, Michael J. Fox, and Mother Teresa.   C Style – Cautious and Conscientious People with the “C” style focus on working conscientiously to ensure quality and accuracy. A person with this style is motivated by opportunities to gain knowledge, showing their expertise, and quality work. They work to ensure accuracy and they challenge assumptions. They’re often described as cautious, accurate, and tactful and fear criticism and being wrong. When communicating with

In this episode, Adrian helps us stay out of rabbit holes and avoid developing solutions that don’t address the real opportunity through thin slicing problem analysis.  After listening to this episode, you'll understand: How to avoid rabbit holes and stay focused on solving the real problem What it means to thin slice problems and why it’s helpful How to use the ‘Who, What, Why” approach to avoid implementing the wrong solution  Show Notes Rabbit holes . . . we’ve all been there. We go down the wrong path with a solution that won’t meet our customers’ needs. When stakeholders fall in love with a solution, they get trapped by the Solution Illusion. They push forward with something that users don’t want. We need to answer the ‘why’ question to understand the problem we’re trying to solve.   Thin Slicing Problem Analysis By taking a thin slice through the ‘why, what, and how’ leads you to discover answers without going down rabbit holes. The ‘why’ is the problem we’re trying to solve. It may include a problem statement and success metrics. The ‘what’ is what needs to change in order to solve the problem. This may include use cases or a context diagram. It’s a slice of the high level requirements. The ‘how’ is the high level solution approach. This isn’t specific solutions, just the solution approach. By thin slicing, we start with just enough of the ‘why, what, and how’ to validate that we’re going after the right problem. We then iterate as the project progresses and you get closer to the details. This slicing encourage divergent thinking before narrowing options with convergent thinking. By shifting left and getting involved earlier in the project process, we can help ensure the organization is going after the right opportunities. Even if we’re dropped in the middle of a project, we should validate the problem space and solution space.   Listen to the full episode to understand why you need to get involved earlier in the project and how to iterate on your problem discovery. http://traffic.libsyn.com/masteringbusinessanalysis/MBA139.mp3   Z Your Homework We need to work to left shift and get involved earlier in projects. When a BA is involved early in projects, we not only smooth the way forward for the project, we may discover that there’s not even a viable project at all and we can focus our effort elsewhere.   Links mentioned in this episode: Adrian’s blog Adrian’s book, Be a Great Problem Solver Adrian Reed Principal Consultant at Blackmetric Business Solutions Adrian is Principal Consultant at Blackmetric Business Solutions, providing business analysis consultancy and training solutions to a range of clients in varying industries. He is the former President of the UK chapter of the IIBA and speaks internationally on topics related to business analysis and business change. TwitterLinkedIn Thank you for listening to the program To get more valuable content to enhance your skills and advance your career, you can subscribe on iTunes and other podcatchers. Also, reviews on iTunes are highly appreciated! I read each review and it helps keep me motivated to continue to bring you valuable content each week. . The post MBA139: Thin Slicing Problem Analysis appeared first on Mastering Business Analysis.

In this Lightning Cast, we explore the many applications of a SIPOC and how it can help you on your next project.   A Lightning Cast is a shorter form episode modeled after lightning talks. You’ll get valuable content in 8 minutes or less.   One of the most valuable but underused tools is a SIPOC. The acronym SIPOC stands for Suppliers, Inputs, Process, Outputs, and Customers. The SIPOC diagram is a tool for creating a visual representation of a business process. However, it’s different from process flow diagram and has several uses beyond a simple process diagram. The SIPOC is usually associated with Six Sigma as a tool you can use as part of a process improvement project, but it’s so much more. Let’s look at the components of the SIPOC . . . Imagine a document with five columns; one for suppliers, one for inputs, process, outputs, and one for customers. Let’s start in the middle with the process. In the process column, we’re looking for the high-level business process. We want to describe that process in seven steps or less. It should be very high level with no decisions. With an understanding of the high level process, we can identify what inputs are necessary for the process to be successful. From there, you can identify the suppliers are required to get those inputs. Now that we have the suppliers, inputs, and high level process, we can turn our attention to the other side and identify the outputs of that process. From there, we identify which customers will use those outputs. When you create a SIPOC in this way, it’s a great tool to understand the upstream and downstream impacts of a process change or process improvement initiative. In addition to process improvement initiatives, a SIPOC is a great scoping tool and can be used to identify requirements. While people often start with the process, you can also use a SIPOC to define a new process starting with the customer. Start by identifying your target customers and determine what outputs or outcomes would be valuable. Next, determine what process is needed to deliver those outputs or outcomes. Finally, identify the inputs needed and the suppliers of those inputs. Listen to the full episode for examples of how to use a SIPOC, why it makes a great scoping tool, and how you can use it to find small slices upon which you can iterate to develop great products. http://traffic.libsyn.com/masteringbusinessanalysis/MBALC007.mp3   Thank you for listening to the program To get more valuable content to enhance your skills and advance your career, you can subscribe on iTunes and other podcatchers. Also, reviews on iTunes are highly appreciated! I read each review and it helps keep me motivated to continue to bring you valuable content each week. . The post Lightning Cast: The Many Uses of a SIPOC appeared first on Mastering Business Analysis.

In this episode, Randy Radic shares his process and tips for building a realistic business case to make sure your organization is moving forward with the right initiatives.  After listening to this episode, you'll understand: The key components to a meaningful business case How to make your business case more believable What’s different about business cases in Agile How to find often overlooked costs to make your business case more reliable  Show Notes In simple terms, a business case is the justification to undertake a project, program, or initiative. It clearly spells out the benefits, what it’s going to cost, and what the return on the investment is. A business case provides insight as to whether or not your organization should undertake an initiative.   Steps in Building a Believable Business Case To create a business case with appropriate stakeholder and sponsor buy-in, start with the benefits. From there, you can determine the cost and calculate return on investment. Start discussions with stakeholders to build a consensus around benefits. Get clarity around the problem or opportunity and expected benefits of the solution. Do this before discussion the system functions needed to achieve those benefits. Once you have consensus about the benefits, look at the technology, process, and people changes needed. This leads you to the cost component of the business case.   The Benefits Often, sponsors don’t believe business cases because the benefits are unrealistic. There are three categories of benefits. With for-profit organizations, either the organization will increase revenue, reduce cost, or meet some regulation that they’re not currently fulfilling. There are also other nontangible factors to consider such as brand and reputational risk. Often, those soft benefits can be quantified through discussions with stakeholders. If you are unable to quantify soft benefits, you should still note them in your business case. One important thing to do is to be realistic about when the benefits will be realized.   The Costs Once the benefits are understood and agreed upon, you need to identify the associated costs. One way to define the cost associated with the initiative is to hold a workshop to identify potential solutions and understand the cost with each proposed solution. That includes developing an understanding of the features that will enable the desired benefits and the technology, people, and process changes needed. For technology, you may need to consider options such as build versus buy and include licensing cost, hardware, labor to build or modify the software, facility cost, ongoing maintenance, etc.   Listen to the full episode to discover often overlooked costs you should consider, how to get the most accurate effort estimates, what kind or return calculations to use, and how business cases differ in Agile environments. http://traffic.libsyn.com/masteringbusinessanalysis/MBA138.mp3   Z Your Homework If you’re working on a technology project, think about what needs to change in terms of people and process, not just technology.   Links mentioned in this episode: Online Business Systems website: OBSglobal.com Win tickets to BA World Chicago 2017 Randy Radic Sr. Consultant at Online Business Systems Randy is a Senior IT / Business practitioner with over 20 years of IT project portfolio management, enterprise business analysis, and business transformation experience with major corporations in private and the public sectors in Canada and US. His industry experience includes consulting, oil and gas, telecommunications, insurance, and government. LinkedIn Thank you for listening to the program To get more valuable content to enhance your skills and advance your career, you can subscribe on iTunes and other podcatchers. Also, reviews on iTunes are highly appreciated! I read each review and it helps keep me motivated to continue to bring you valuable content each week. . The post MBA138: Building a Believable Business Case appeared first on Mastering Business Analysis.

In this Lightning Cast, we explore whether or not business stakeholders and technology teams should stay on their own lanes and not cross over to other areas.   A Lightning Cast is a shorter form episode modeled after lightning talks. You’ll get valuable content in 8 minutes or less. I recently attended a dinner for conference advisory board meeting and a colleague of mine mentioned that people should stay in their lanes. What exactly does that mean? It means that stakeholders should stay out of the technology solution space and stick with defining the business problem. Technology teams should also stay out of the business spaces and do what they do best; creating valuable technology solutions that meet the business needs. That concept has some merit. When stakeholders stay in their lane, they won’t dictate technology solutions. That allows the technology teams and engineers to use their creativity, so the solution is technically feasible and we can explore multiple options. If technology stays in their lane and out of the business lane, they stay focused on the scope of the problem or opportunity and avoid gold plating and unnecessary features that customers won’t use. This also means that other teams such as Information Security should stick to what they do best; ensure that data is safe. Legal should stick to what they do best; reviewing information to ensure compliance with the laws and provide input. If everyone stays in their lanes, there is no crossover and in no accidents. But I think there’s another way. What if instead of everyone staying in their lane, we get the right people in the right seats on the same bus. That way we are all headed to the same destination together. There will be no finger-pointing that this person did not give me what I need or we’re waiting on that person. We would work together as one cohesive unit. We would have the alignment we need to get to the same destination together and the autonomy within our own seats to do what we do best. Having alignment means that we’re all headed in the same direction will the same vision of the goal. Autonomy means that we have the freedom and flexibility to be able to perform our jobs however we choose to perform them as long as we’re all reaching the same goal. We need high alignment and high autonomy. That allows us to create great solutions to the right problems while using our creativity to get things done our own way. Instead of everyone staying in their lane, let’s get in the same lane . . . as long as we’re in the same vehicle heading towards the right destination together. How can you create that sense of alignment, autonomy, and collaboration within the team so that everyone is open to sharing knowledge and working toward that same destination together?   Listen to the full episode to explore this tricky question. http://traffic.libsyn.com/masteringbusinessanalysis/MBALC006.mp3   Win Tickets to Business Analyst World ChicagoEnter to win one of two 2-day symposium tickets to Business Analyst World in Chicago on November 13 and 14. Join me and past guests Kupe Kupersmith, “Bob the BA” Prentiss, Lora McCoy, and others. Be prepared to learn new skills and grow in your career. Enter to Win Thank you for listening to the program To get more valuable content to enhance your skills and advance your career, you can subscribe on iTunes and other podcatchers. Also, reviews on iTunes are highly appreciated! I read each review and it helps keep me motivated to continue to bring you valuable content each week. . The post Lightning Cast: Stay in Your Lane appeared first on Mastering Business Analysis.

In this episode, author, trainer, and Agile thought leader Mike Cohn joins us to help you overcome the challenges with User Stories.  After listening to this episode, you'll understand: Why a simple concept like User Stories is so difficult to get right The types of challenges teams face when applying User Stories How to overcome User Story challenges What’s better than #NoEstimates  Show Notes Successfully applying User Stories and getting value from their use is a big challenge for many teams. It’s a simple concept, yet difficult to master. Perhaps it’s because of our prior training that User Stories are hard to get right. We’ve been taught all along that we need to know all of the details before we can move forward. This is one of the biggest challenges with User Stories. To be successful, we need to make a mindset shift. A shift from documentation to conversations and from big design upfront to small increments.   Listen to the full episode to hear all of Mike’s advice on succeeding with User Stories, how to overcome some of the challenges, what he thinks of technical and job stories, and how he feels about #NoEstimates http://traffic.libsyn.com/masteringbusinessanalysis/MBA137.mp3   Z Your Homework Get started with User Stories. The only way to get better at it after training is through practice. If you’re already using User Stories, seek out feedback as to the size and clarity of your stories. Then adjust based on that feedback.   Links mentioned in this episode: Mike’s website Mountain Goat Software BetterUserStories.com – Mike’s User Story training Mike Cohn Mike Cohn is the author of User Stories Applied for Agile Software Development, Agile Estimating and Planning, and Succeeding with Agile. Mike is a co-founder of the Agile Alliance and Scrum Alliance. Through his company, Mountain Goat Software, Mike Cohn specializes in helping companies adopt and improve their use of agile processes and techniques to build extremely high-performance teams. Mike is also the author of the popular and well-regarded course, www.BetterUserStories.com. Twitter Thank you for listening to the program To get more valuable content to enhance your skills and advance your career, you can subscribe on iTunes and other podcatchers. Also, reviews on iTunes are highly appreciated! I read each review and it helps keep me motivated to continue to bring you valuable content each week. . The post MBA137: Challenges with User Stories – with Mike Cohn appeared first on Mastering Business Analysis.

In part 2 of this episode, Ken Fulmer, CEO and President of the International Institute for Business Analysis (IIBA), joins us to discuss some new initiatives at the IIBA and how the IIBA can help you advance your skills and grow in your career.  After listening to this episode, you'll understand: What the Global Thought Leadership Program is all about and how you can participate What the latest BA Salary Survey reveals How your local IIBA chapter can help you  Show Notes Professional associations are a great resource for developing your skills and growing in your career. For Business Analysts, there’s no better association than the International Institute for Business Analysis (IIBA). The IIBA has several initiatives available to better support people in the analysis field. Global Thought Leadership Program The Guide to the Business Analysis Body of Knowledge (BABOK) is the gold standard for business analysis and the IIBA continues to improve and extend the knowledge areas. Through the Global Thought Leadership Program, the IIBA dives deeper into areas such as strategic business analysis, design thinking, digital, artificial intelligence, data analysics, and more. By bringing together teams of experts in each area, the IIBA goes further into each knowledge area to develop a deeper understanding and bring that knowledge to members to help them achieve better business outcomes. This program expands the role and the reach of the Business Analyst and prepares us for the future. It also allows interested members of the community to contribute, learn, and grow.   The Competency Model version 3.0 While version 3.0 of the Core Competency Model is part of the BABOK, the IIBA is developing a self-assessment based on that model to help you understand your strengths and development areas. The assessment will show you not only your skill in each competency area, but also the depth of understanding. Additionally, the IIBA is developing a competency model that goes beyond the individual and identifies the capabilities of the enterprise.   Salary Survey The latest version of the annual salary survey is now available and it shows some interesting facts. The survey is based on responses from approximately 5,300 people within the global business analysis community. For the first time, we see evidence that certifications result in a higher pay level. People with certifications earn about 11% more than those without certifications. The survey also shows an increase in hybrid roles. Business Analysts are frequently involved in project management, testing, business architecture, change management, and more. While the gender pay gap is an issue in most industries, this year’s salary survey shows that on average, females in Business Analysis roles earn more than men. The survey also details expected future salary increases for the role.   Listen to the full episode to hear how to get involved in the Global Thought Leadership Program, how the IIBA is partnering with other professional associations to share knowledge and deal with hybridization of roles, and the new salary survey. http://traffic.libsyn.com/masteringbusinessanalysis/MBA136.mp3   Z Your Homework Get a copy of the Agile Extension from the IIBA’s websiteand read it. It contains a lot of useful information to help you to be effective in an Agile environment. Get involved in the Global Thought Leadership Program. To express your interest in participating, send an email to [email protected] or [email protected].   Links mentioned in this episode: IIBA Website – IIBA.org Webinars from the IIBA IIBA®, BABOK® Guide and Business Analysis Body of Knowledge® are registered trademarks owned by International Institute of Business Analysis. Ken Fulmer CEO and President of IIBA International Ken is the President and CEO of the International Institute for Business Analysis. The IIBA is a global professional association for business analysis that’s expanding its expertise to new digital and leading edge practices to continue to apply analysis to both individual practitioner capability and to assist organizations in achieving better business outcomes. TwitterLinkedIn Thank you for listening to the program To get more valuable content to enhance your skills and advance your career, you can subscribe on iTunes and other podcatchers. Also, reviews on iTunes are highly appreciated! I read each review and it helps keep me motivated to continue to bring you valuable content each week. . The post MBA136: What the IIBA Can Do for You – Part2 appeared first on Mastering Business Analysis.

In this episode, Ken Fulmer, CEO and President of the International Institute for Business Analysis (IIBA), joins us to discuss some new initiatives at the IIBA and how the IIBA can help you advance your skills and grow in your career.  After listening to this episode, you'll understand: How the new version of the Agile Extension to the BABOK is more useful than ever What the new Competency Model is all about and how to use it How the IIBA’s Mentoring Program can help you and your career What the Global Thought Leadership Program is all about  Show Notes Professional associations are a great resource for developing your skills and growing in your career. For Business Analysts, there’s no better association than the International Institute for Business Analysis (IIBA). The IIBA has several initiatives available to better support people in the analysis field.   New Version of the Agile Extension to the BABOK Version 2.0 of the Agile Extension was developed in conjunction with the Agile Alliance. The new version of the Agile Extension looks beyond the project level and includes broader planning horizons. The planning horizons include the strategic level and shows you how to do analysis and remain agile as situations and organizational priorities change. Of course, it also includes the delivery horizon at the project level. At each planning horizon, the IIBA’s Agile Extension shows you the tools and methods to use in that context. The main purpose of the Agile Extension to the BABOK is to show you how analysis fits across all of the planning horizons and ensure the fundamentals are included to ensure delivery of the right things and achieve the desired business outcomes.   Mentoring Program Earlier this year, the IIBA launched a pilot version of their mentoring program. The program is focused on two audiences: individuals seeking mentoring to grow in their careers, and mentoring into chapter role positions to strengthen the leadership capabilities of each chapter. The mentoring program helps improve the way we are perceived as a profession and how we interact in our community to be more influential. We want Business Analysts to be seen as leaders.   BA as a Leader To help Business Analysts to be perceived as leaders, the IIBA has recently held a series of webinars to develop leadership skills. This will also be part of a one-day seminar at the Building Business Capabilities (BBC) Conference in November 2017. The intention is to roll this program out to local chapters for their members in order to lift the image of the profession. Based on analysis of surveys, the IIBA developed their Global Thought Leadership program. This program helps explore areas outside of traditional analysis work. Based on today’s evolving business environment, the Global Thought Leadership program explores areas such as strategic business analysis, design thinking, and big data. This allows practitioners to develop a deeper understand these emerging areas and make recommendations and lead transformational change to achieve better business results.   Listen to the full episode to hear more about the IIBA’s new vesion of the Agile Extension to the BABOK, the mentoring program, the Global Thought Leadership program, and other benefits (even if you’re not a member). http://traffic.libsyn.com/masteringbusinessanalysis/MBA135.mp3   Links mentioned in this episode: IIBA Website – IIBA.org Webinars from the IIBA IIBA®, BABOK® Guide and Business Analysis Body of Knowledge® are registered trademarks owned by International Institute of Business Analysis. Ken Fulmer CEO and President of IIBA International Ken is the President and CEO of the International Institute for Business Analysis. The IIBA is a global professional association for business analysis that’s expanding its expertise to new digital and leading edge practices to continue to apply analysis to both individual practitioner capability and to assist organizations in achieving better business outcomes. TwitterLinkedIn Thank you for listening to the program To get more valuable content to enhance your skills and advance your career, you can subscribe on iTunes and other podcatchers. Also, reviews on iTunes are highly appreciated! I read each review and it helps keep me motivated to continue to bring you valuable content each week. . The post MBA135: What the IIBA Can Do for You appeared first on Mastering Business Analysis.

In this Lightning Cast, Ryland Leyton helps us to flip the script during a job search to find the right opportunity.   A Lightning Cast is a shorter form episode modeled after lightning talks. You’ll get valuable content in 8 minutes or less.   Flip the script on your employment search and how you approach looking for work. We typically have a script in our head that says “I hope I get this job” or “I’m really qualified for this job”. It’s always about hoping that they offer a job to us. Stop being someone you hope they will give a job to. Instead, think of yourself as a consumer of employment services. You are considering the package of goods and services that the employer is giving you in exchange for your time and your work. In your original script, you believe that you will do work and in exchange, you will receive a paycheck. The payment and benefits being offered are commodities that you can likely get at many places. What else distinguishes this employer for you? Do they have high quality management? What are the management services you will receive as part of the basket of opportunity in front of you? Is the supervisor someone you will be able to learn from? Consider the position, organization size, and culture, and how they match with your personal goals. What does the job offer you? If you’re exchanging your time, you want to make sure you’re exchanging it for the right things. Flip the script and stop coming from a place of scarcity. Come from a place of abundance.   Listen to the full episode to hear Ryland’s job search advice and how to find the right opportunity for you. http://traffic.libsyn.com/masteringbusinessanalysis/MBALC005.mp3   Thank you for listening to the program To get more valuable content to enhance your skills and advance your career, you can subscribe on iTunes and other podcatchers. Also, reviews on iTunes are highly appreciated! I read each review and it helps keep me motivated to continue to bring you valuable content each week. . The post Lightning Cast: Flip the Script in Your Job Search appeared first on Mastering Business Analysis.

In this episode, Ryland Leyton shows us how to distinguish ourselves in interviews and in our career.  After listening to this episode, you'll understand: How to answer interview questions to demonstrate your skills and knowledge What answers interviewers are really looking for How using archetypes can distinguish you in interviews and in your career  Show Notes How do you differentiate yourself from other candidates interviewing for the same position? Ryland will help you to not only ace your interview for a Business Analyst position, he’ll show you how to use the same approach to be recognized as a high performer throughout your career.   Listen to the full episode to understand how to distinguish yourself both in interviews and as your career progresses. http://traffic.libsyn.com/masteringbusinessanalysis/MBA134.mp3   Z Your Homework Take some time to think about what your value proposition is. Try to find a way to describe the reason someone should hire you in just a few sentences. If you can do that, you’re in a good position to build the rest of the conversation you’ll have with an interviewer.   Links mentioned in this episode: Ryland’s website RylandLeyton.com Ryland’s book, The Agile Business Analyst: Moving from Waterfall to Agile Previous episode with Ryland, The Agile Business Analyst Chicago Business Analysis Development Day (ChiBADD)       Ryland Leyton Lead Business Analyst Ryland Leyton is a Certified Business Analysis Professional and Lead Business Analyst at Aptos Retail. He’s also an agile coach for the Atlanta IIBA nonprofit volunteer program and a frequent presenter at industry conferences. Ryland is the author of The Agile Business Analyst: Moving from Waterfall to Agile. FacebookTwitterLinkedIn Thank you for listening to the program To get more valuable content to enhance your skills and advance your career, you can subscribe on iTunes and other podcatchers. Also, reviews on iTunes are highly appreciated! I read each review and it helps keep me motivated to continue to bring you valuable content each week. . The post MBA134: Distinguishing Yourself in Your Career appeared first on Mastering Business Analysis.

In this Lightning Cast, we discuss brainstorming. You’ll realize that brainstorming doesn’t work – at least not the way you’re doing it. There’s a better way.   A Lightning Cast is a shorter form episode modeled after lightning talks. You’ll get valuable content in 8 minutes or less.     Critical to the success of any organization is the ability to creatively problem-solve and innovate. To do this, many people turn to brainstorming. The problem is most people do it wrong. Even worse, there have been many studies that show that brainstorming doesn’t even work. Let’s start with what we mean by brainstorming. The technique of brainstorming was introduced by advertising executive Alex Osborn in the 1950s. Osborn’s version of brainstorming has four rules: Focus on quantity by generating as many ideas as possible; Defer judgment by not criticizing or filtering ideas; Welcome unusual or innovative ideas; and Combine ideas and improve them To start brainstorming, you identify the problem or situation that requires an innovative solution. You then get a group of people together to focus on the problem and shout out potential solutions. The facilitator records what people say so that the information is visible to everyone. Upon hearing or seeing other people’s ideas, you generate new ideas. After the ideation portion, the group that thinks critically about the ideas to identify the most feasible solutions. The premise is that together we can share our collective creative abilities and come up with more and better ideas than working alone. The diversity of thought leads to higher-quality solutions and better engagement by participants since they are all involved in coming up with a solution. Unfortunately, Alex Osborne was wrong. There are plenty of studies that show that brainstorming leads to fewer ideas than working alone and that brainstorming can actually make groups less creative.   Why doesn’t brainstorming work? One reason is because of what we call social loafing. That means that individuals in a group tend to put forth less effort than working alone. There’s a tendency to be more of a bystander than a strong contributor. Social anxiety is another reason that brainstorming fails. It’s the fear of what others will think of your idea. This is especially true for introverted or less confident individuals. Another issue is what we refer to as regression to the mean. This means that the diversity levels and creativity, skill, and knowledge in the group leads to just average thinking. The solutions from the most creative members will end up being at the same level as less creative members of the group. You’ve probably seen this in sports or other challenging competitions where if you practice with someone less skilled than you are, your competence level decreases/ Another problem with brainstorming is what we call ‘production blocking’. Because you shout out ideas one at a time and a facilitator needs to record those ideas, there is a delay in the free flow of ideas. Often when that happens, ideas that come in your head in a fleeting moment disappear and the number of creative ideas is limited, Additionally, people often do brainstorming incorrectly when they fail to share the goal early. Often when you go into a brainstorming session, people are invited to the meeting without a clear idea what the goal or the problem they’re trying to solve is. This is really problematic for introverts because we like to think of ideas beforehand. Give people some time to think about the problem and let their subconscious mind work on the idea. Other failures of brainstorming are the result of poor facilitation. Inexperienced facilitators may let the more outspoken people dominate the conversation. You need to make sure everyone has a voice and is free to express their opinions. Also, the group may begin judging and filtering ideas which restricts the free flow of information. This is especially true if managers or other leaders are in the room. Finally, there’s often bias in selecting ideas. As you conclude your divergent idea generation and begin to select the ideas that are most feasible, there’s often a bias. I want my solution to be one that’s selected.   If brainstorming doesn’t work, what does work? There two approaches that I like to use: Brain Swarming and Brain Writing. Brain Swarming was created by Dr. Tony McCaffrey and the approach is to start with the goal or problem statement which is made visible at the top of a whiteboard. You then list any resources that are available to address a problem at the bottom of the whiteboard. After the group understands the resources and the problem statement, they work independently by writing down their own ideas on Post-It notes. Some people in the group will be big picture thinkers and start top-down by looking at the problem statement, helping to break that down further. The analytical, bot

In this episode, Kent McDonald helps us to dispel some myths and helps you discover what you need to know about working in an Agile environment.  After listening to this episode, you'll understand: Why Agile alone won’t get you better, faster, and cheaper How a Business Analyst can play a valuable role in Agile Why you shouldn’t focus on writing User Stories (and where you should focus)  Show Notes There are a lot of myths and misconceptions when it comes to Agile. In this episode, Kent McDonald helps dispel some of those myths by sharing seven key things you need to know about agile. Agile is not a methodology. It is a mindset. There’s more to agile than just Scrum Analysis is still relevant Agile alone will not get you better, faster, cheaper Writing and slicing user stories is not the whole story Business analysts can be product owners Business analysts do not have to be product owners   Listen to the full episode to hear all of Kent’s insights about Agile. http://traffic.libsyn.com/masteringbusinessanalysis/MBA133.mp3   Z Your Homework In your current role, look for ways to do your work iteratively and incrementally. Ideally, get feedback after ever iteration and use that feedback to adjust not only the product, but also your approach.   Links mentioned in this episode: Kent’s Book, Beyond Requirements Kent’s website KBP.media Article – 7 Things Business Analysts Need to Know About Agile Kent’s Blog BeyondRequirements.com Live lessons on Analysis Techniques for Product Owners           Kent McDonald Founder, Knowledge Bridge Partners Kent McDonald uncovers better ways of delivering value by doing it and helping others do it. His more than 20 years of experience includes work in business analysis, strategic planning, project management, and product development in a variety of industries. As the founder of Knowledge Bridge Partners, he helps organizations figure out the right things to do in their IT and product development work. He currently practices those ideas as Product Owner for the Agile Alliance. Kent is also the author of the book, Beyond Requirements. TwitterLinkedIn Thank you for listening to the program To get more valuable content to enhance your skills and advance your career, you can subscribe on iTunes and other podcatchers. Also, reviews on iTunes are highly appreciated! I read each review and it helps keep me motivated to continue to bring you valuable content each week. . The post MBA133: What BAs Need to Know About Agile appeared first on Mastering Business Analysis.

In this Lightning Cast, I discuss requirements quality – What is it and how you can increase the quality of your requirements.   A Lightning Cast is a shorter form episode modeled after lightning talks. You’ll get valuable content in 8 minutes or less.   Quality . . . I can’t tell you what it is, but I know when I see it. There’s a lot of talk about producing high-quality requirements but what does it really mean? Quality is a standard against which something is measured. It’s a degree of excellence or the ability to satisfy a need or expectation. When it comes requirements, people often talk about the characteristics of good requirements. The most common characteristics mentioned are: complete, concise, correct, clear, testable, traceable, and prioritized. Are your requirements complete? Do they contain all the necessary information to convey a shared understanding? Are they concise? Do they contain enough information but not too much information or unnecessary information? Are they correct? Can they help us to achieve the right business outcome? Are they clear and unambiguous? If you use terms like fast or user-friendly, those are ambiguous terms and open to interpretation. Are the requirements testable? Instead of saying ‘fast’, you can say ‘the screen refreshes in 10 milliseconds. Are they traceable? Do we know where those requirements came from and can we trace it to a higher need or goal? Are they prioritized? Do we understand the value behind each one and are we able to make trade-off decisions? With user stories, we often talk about INVEST criteria. INVEST stands for independent, negotiable, valuable, estimable, small, and testable. There’s some overlap between regular requirements and user stories. Both are independent. User stories and requirements should be independent in that you should be able to implement each one without dependencies on others. Requirements and user stories are valuable. They generate some kind of desired outcome. They should both be estimable. They are well enough understood and small enough to be estimated. Additionally, both are small. They’re small so as to fit within a single iteration or least be completed quickly. We want to create things in small increments so that we can use feedback loops to adapt and adjust. Finally, both requirements and user stories are testable. Upon reflecting about the characteristics of good requirements, I started thinking about SMART goals. You may remember SMART stands for specific, measurable, achievable, realistic, and time bound. By making a slight change, we get SMART requirements. Specific: They are clear, concise, and help us work towards a specific outcome Measurable: They can be tested (possibly with metrics identified) Achievable: The requirements are feasible and realistic. We have to consider the organization’s current capabilities and resources for this. Results-focused: They are correct, traceable, lead to a higher goal, and help us to achieve a desired outcome Time-bound: The cost of delay is understood. This leads to the ability to order your backlog or break a project into phases. In the end, high-quality requirements create a shared understanding. They help us get clarity on steps toward achieving a goal. You can spend months trying to craft the perfect requirements or you could spend very little time and do a quick and dirty requirement. Think about your goal. We need to focus on the outcomes, not just requirements. Do your requirements lead to the right objectives that help propel your mission and vision forward?   Thank you for listening to the program To get more valuable content to enhance your skills and advance your career, you can subscribe on iTunes and other podcatchers. Also, reviews on iTunes are highly appreciated! I read each review and it helps keep me motivated to continue to bring you valuable content each week. . The post Lightning Cast: Requirements Quality appeared first on Mastering Business Analysis.

In this episode, Kupe Kupersmith shares a new competency framework for the next generation of professionals in the project field.  After listening to this episode, you'll understand: Why the current environment requires new competencies How focusing on four critical areas can lead to success What to do to make your team and your customers awesome  Show Notes The world is more complex and changing faster than ever. The skills and competencies that got you where you are today won’t get you to the next level. The Next Generation Competency Framework helps you to understand the skills and ways of working that will allow you to succeed in today’s environment. The framework combines four focus areas and key competencies within those areas: See Opportunity: Having a customer focus and applying approaches that help identify opportunities and discover real value Decide Smarter Faster: Focusing on approaches that will help you learn quickly, make good decisions, and manage risk Engage for Buy-In: Using improv and other playful inquiry techniques to have fun while developing better engagement Evolve the Culture: Developing relationships and an environment that contributes to success   Listen to the full episode to hear all of the details about this Next Generation Competency Framework. http://traffic.libsyn.com/masteringbusinessanalysis/MBA132.mp3   Z Your Homework Reframe the work you do to center around decisions. With the work that you’re doing, how are you helping someone make a decision? You’re helping people make decisions about priorities and opportunities to go after. Figure out the criteria people need to make that decision. That should drive the work you do.   Links mentioned in this episode: Kupe’s Website KupeTalks.com Kupe Kupersmith As the founder of KupeTalks and Atlanta Engagement Director, Market Rate Consulting, Kupe’s main objective is to help you connect, collaborate, and be ready for the future. For the past 20 years, Kupe has been helping organizations achieve business value with an improvisational advantage. Kupe is an author, keynote speaker, coach and a trained improv actor. Some think Broccoli & Cheetos is an odd combination, but you will be delighted with Kupe’s combination of laughter and learning. Kupe is a connector and has a goal in life to meet everyone! TwitterLinkedIn Thank you for listening to the program To get more valuable content to enhance your skills and advance your career, you can subscribe on iTunes and other podcatchers. Also, reviews on iTunes are highly appreciated! I read each review and it helps keep me motivated to continue to bring you valuable content each week. . The post MBA132: Next Generation Competencies appeared first on Mastering Business Analysis.

In this Lightning Cast, we explore the mindset shift needed to be successful as a Business Analyst in an Agile environment.   A Lightning Cast is a shorter form episode modeled after lightning talks. You’ll get valuable content in 8 minutes or less.   How can a Business Analyst be successful in an Agile environment? We can use a lot of the same tools, techniques, and approaches that we would use in a traditional environment. By adopting a different mindset, we apply those tools in a different way. Using lean and Agile approaches, we’re able to iterate by delivering smaller chunks and get feedback along the way so that we can adapt to changing customer needs.   What is Agile? Agile isn’t quite a methodology, although when the signatories of the Agile Manifesto got together to create it, they called that meeting the Lightweight Methodology Conference. At its root, Agile is a way if working. It’s a set of four values that guide why we act the way we do and 12 principles to guide what we should be doing. Those principles and values are supported by a series of practices and frameworks such as Scrum and Kanban to help us understand how will achieve some of those outcomes. Underlying it all is the mindset. Without the right mindset, we follow the rules but don’t understand why you’re doing it. It’s like learning to dance versus learning martial arts. When you learn dance, you learn the movements but you don’t understand why. In martial arts, every movement has reason. Every movement is to achieve a singular outcome.   The Traditional BA Mindset What is the Agile Business Analyst mindset? First, let’s take a look at the mindset of a traditional waterfall Business Analyst. If we look inside the mind of a traditional Business Analyst, we see that they have a drive towards documentation. They want to make sure everything is very clearly documented to create a common understanding with our customers. We need those documents to help our customers understand what will build for them and ensure that we’ve accurately captured their needs. Traditional BAs also need those documents to share with the software engineers so that they can build an appropriate solution. Good documentation may be made up of models, use cases, and various other forms to convey a shared understanding. Traditional Business Analysts also need to manage change. They want to be able to control change so that the change still remains within the scope of the project and doesn’t get out of control. As a result, we create a lot of processes around managing that change such as change review boards and change requests. Customer needs are always top of mind for traditional Business Analysts. We need to sort out the needs from the wants and make sure that we’re delivering a solution that meets those needs. Because we focus on the needs and manage change, we create a full design up front. We don’t move forward until we have all the information to go to the next stage. We need all the details so that we’re able to see the big picture and to move forward. As a traditional Business Analyst, I do my job and I do well. My job is to discover the user requirements, document them, and ensure an appropriate solution is delivered. In order to deliver that solution, I need to analyze everything. We analyze the current conditions, organizational capabilities, and information that we’ve gleaned from user interviews and other organizational assets. From that analysis, I’m able to synthesize a set of requirements which I deliver to our software engineers to create a solution.   The Problem That mindset and approach works in a traditional waterfall environment. People can be very successful doing that type of work. The problem is something that I call the Success Paradox. Is being successful at something holding you back from being really exceptional something else?   The Agile BA Mindset Let’s make a shift and look at the mindset of an Agile Business Analyst. Instead of focusing on documentation, Agile Business Analysis realize that conversations matter. Written documentation is one of the worst forms for conveying information. It opens to door for different interpretations and misunderstandings. Realizing that conversations are more important than documentation is a key mindset and it’s one of the reasons why we apply user stories. User stories and very small and don’t contain all the information. The details are in the conversation. Remember that user stories are just a placeholder . . . a reminder to have a conversation in the future or a reminder of a conversation that has already occurred. In a traditional environment, you want to manage change. In an Agile environment, you expect change. You know that changes can happen and in Agile we harness change for the customers benefit. We want to be able to adapt based on customer feedback and deliver the right solutions that ar

In this episode, Laura Brandenburg helps us prepare for interviewing for a Business Analyst position.  After listening to this episode, you'll understand: How to prepare for an interview for a BA position What kind of questions to expect How to address some of the tricky questions in an interview  Show Notes One of the first steps in preparing for a business analyst interview is understanding the types of interviews and what your interviewer is seeking from each. With this knowledge, you can come prepared with the right type of focused answers and be confident in your delivery. The initial interview will often be a phone screen with the recruiter. These interviews are often short (30 minutes or less) and are focused on your experience and work history. The goal of the recruiter is to determine if you have the prerequisite skills, knowledge, and experience required for the position. To prepare for this interview, review the job posting and qualifications for the position and think about how your experience demonstrates the necessary qualifications and duties. Be aware that recruiters often may not use the same industry terms you’re used to, so using the language from the posting or explaining how your experience is relevant will be key.   Behavioral Interviews Provided that you make it past the initial phone screen, you will likely interview with someone in the organization who understands business analysis and the specific role more deeply. Questions in this interview usually focus on your experience, culture fit, and behavioral interview questions. Behavioral interview questions and the “Tell me about a time when . . .” questions where the interviewer is looking for a real situation in your past and what you did in that situation. To answer behavioral questions, use the Situation, Action, Result approach. Tell the interviewer about the situation that matches their question, explain what action you took because of that situation, and what the result was. Keep your response to five minutes or less and be prepared for follow-up questions. Examples of behavioral interview questions include: Tell me about a time when you had to deal with a challenging stakeholder Tell me about a time when you had to put the goals of the team above your own Have you experienced a time when there were competing priorities on a project? Tell me about a time when you had to manage unrealistic expectations To prepare for this interview, review the posting and come up with three or four situations that will likely relate to common questions.   Listen to the full episode to understand how to prepare for different types of interviews and how to really impress your interviewer. You’ll also find out what not to do during your interview. http://traffic.libsyn.com/masteringbusinessanalysis/MBA131.mp3   Z Your Homework Prepare for your interview by not only thinking about what you’ll say, but also practicing what you’ll say out loud. You can also role play with a friend or record yourself prior to the interview and adjust what you’ll say in the real interview.   Links mentioned in this episode: Laura’s website, Bridging the Gap How to Start a Business Analyst Career and other books by Laura Brandenburg Laura’s Interview Prep Guide Laura Brandenburg Bridging The Gap Laura Brandenburg is an internationally-recognized leader known for helping mid-career professionals start business analysis careers. Laura brings more than a decade of experience as a full-time business analyst to help you find transferable BA skills, expand your experience, and start your business analyst career with confidence. Laura is also the author of How to Start a Business Analyst Career. TwitterLinkedIn Thank you for listening to the program To get more valuable content to enhance your skills and advance your career, you can subscribe on iTunes and other podcatchers. Also, reviews on iTunes are highly appreciated! I read each review and it helps keep me motivated to continue to bring you valuable content each week. . The post MBA131: Interviewing for a Business Analyst Position appeared first on Mastering Business Analysis.

In this Lightning Cast, we discuss the Business Analyst career path. It might not be what you expect.   A Lightning Cast is a shorter form episode modeled after lightning talks. You’ll get valuable content in 8 minutes or less. I’m often asked what the Business Analyst career path looks like. A common misconception is that your career is a straight line where in reality, there are many twists and turns. The question is what does career growth mean to you? Career growth isn’t necessarily just moving up. It can include things like lateral moves. We can move from one position to another at the same level. These moves give you a variety of experienced and allow you to grow and develop new skills. Career growth also includes the traditional path of moving up to higher level roles. That can be from business analyst to senior business analyst to business architect. Each stage will require development of new skills and the ability to expand your influence. You will likely need to move from tactical to strategic to offer greater benefits your organization. Sometimes career growth involves relocation. You may need to move outside your company or to a different facility within your organization to explore different career opportunities. Be careful with this because you don’t want to be seen as a job hopper. You want to stay with the role long enough to develop good skills and foundational practices. This usually takes 18 months to two years. Career growth may also involve exploring your current role. Explore the edges and parameters of your role as well as related roles. If you’re a business analyst, that may include working with and exploring roles such as project manager, product owner, and user experience designer. By working closely with people in these roles, you can pick up some of the techniques, skills, and practices of those roles. That allows you to further develop and enhance your skill set. One thing that people often don’t consider is that true growth also includes realignment. That may mean taking a step down from your current role to explore a different role. For example, if you’re a senior business analyst and want to explore project management, it might not be a lateral move to senior project manager. You may have to start at the bottom of that role. However, if you can apply the skills and techniques you’ve developed is BA, you can likely accelerate your growth and career trajectory. Finally, career growth may include enrichment. That means staying within your role and developing those core skills that make you great. For a Business Analyst, that might mean developing your elicitation techniques, communication skills, facilitation, and influence. You may feel that your career is going through peaks and valleys and even plateau at some point. Those plateaus are enrichment opportunities . . . a way for you to develop your skills in the foundational practices. Think of it as a platform where you can jump to a higher level.   The Train Map I like to think of the BA career path not as a straight line, but as a train map with different stops, stations, and transfers along the way. I consider four different starting points: A traditional business analyst aligned to the business side and works in a traditional environment Business analyst in an agile environment Business systems analyst aligned to the technology group Project management The traditional business analyst may go from BA to senior business analyst, to architect, to senior business architect and so on. Similarly, in an agile environment you may go from business analyst to product owner and possibly branch off to managing a team and then PMO director. From there, you may climb to vice president, senior vice president, and CIO. A Business Systems Analyst may become a senior analysts and then a technology architect or an enterprise architect. From Project Manager, you may go to senior project manager, to program manager, to business owner, and so on. One path isn’t necessarily better than the other. There are a variety of different options you can explore. To continue in the train analogy, to get to each of the stops and transfer between stations, you need to buy a ticket. Each of those tickets will require you to develop different skills. As I mentioned earlier, to get from a senior business analyst to a business architect, you’ll need to switch from tactical to strategic, from inward focused to outward focus, and have a holistic view of the organization. To shift from business analyst to product owner, you need develop different leadership skills, have a customer focus, and decision-making authority. As you move up to higher levels in the organization, you will need to move outside the project box and think more holistically to contribute more value to your organization. What’s your desired destination and what does it take to get there? http://traffic.libsyn.com/masteringbusinessanalysis/M

In this episode, author, consultant, and thought leader Jerry Weinberg shares his thoughts on the challenges with software requirements and why we need to take requirements seriously.  After listening to this episode, you'll understand: Common problems with requirements elicitation How to avoid too much upfront detail in requirements The impact of not taking requirements seriously  Show Notes We need to start taking requirements seriously. The impact of missed requirements can cost organizations millions and damage reputations. The problem is actually a people problem. Communication, collaboration, and the ability to properly use techniques such as observation will help address some issues. Don’t get more detailed than you need to for the situation. Doing so artificially constrains creativity to develop a solution.   Listen to the full episode to hear Jerry’s views on the challenges associated with software requirements and what to do about it. http://traffic.libsyn.com/masteringbusinessanalysis/MBA130.mp3   Z Your Homework Start talking requirements seriously. Explore options and impacts to understand your requirements. Finally, iterate on your requirements. You can’t know everything upfront.   Links mentioned in this episode: Jerry’s Website GeraldMWeinberg.com Author page on Amazon Author page on Leanpub Jerry Weinberg Author, Teacher, Consultant For more than half a century, Jerry Weinberg has worked on transforming software organizations, particularly emphasizing the interaction of technical and human issues. After spending between 1956 and 1969 as software developer, researcher, teacher, and designer of software curricula at IBM, formed the consulting firm of Weinberg & Weinberg to help software engineering organizations manage the change process in a more fully human way. Jerry has published more than 40 books and more than 400 articles including books on quality software management, systems thinking, and requirements. TwitterLinkedIn Thank you for listening to the program To get more valuable content to enhance your skills and advance your career, you can subscribe on iTunes and other podcatchers. Also, reviews on iTunes are highly appreciated! I read each review and it helps keep me motivated to continue to bring you valuable content each week. . The post MBA130: Exploring Requirements with Jerry Weinberg appeared first on Mastering Business Analysis.

In this episode, Brent Severson shares how he has successfully integrated Design Thinking, User Experience Design, and Agile into his BA practice to make himself valuable to teams working in the digital space.  After listening to this episode, you'll understand: How combining Agile, UX, and Design Thinking can increase the value you provide to organizations. Why discovery and feedback approaches from UX and Design Thinking help you build the right solution.  Show Notes   Listen to the full episode to hear how Brent applied all of these disciplines to provide more value to his organization. http://traffic.libsyn.com/masteringbusinessanalysis/MBA129.mp3   Z Your Homework Seek out some UX or design professionals in your organization and ask how you can help them with their project definition work. Also, start building a portfolio of your work to showcase the type of work you can do for organizations (excluding confidential and proprietary information out, of course). Finally, take an online course in UX design and seek out local design associations and meetups to expand your knowledge in this area.   Links mentioned in this episode: Long story short podcast Brent Severson Business Systems and Process Analyst / Business User Consultant Brent places user-centered design needs at the heart of the SDLC story by leveraging over two decades of experience in business analysis, IT operations, and consulting on process management. He leverages business analysis tools to define and create concepts that demonstrate when users feel good about their interactions, the business sees successful conversions and value follows naturally. Brent has successfully integrated Design Thinking, User Experience Design, and Agile to make himself valuable to teams working in the digital space. LinkedIn Thank you for listening to the program To get more valuable content to enhance your skills and advance your career, you can subscribe on iTunes and other podcatchers. Also, reviews on iTunes are highly appreciated! I read each review and it helps keep me motivated to continue to bring you valuable content each week. . The post MBA129: Real Life Agile, UX, and Design Thinking appeared first on Mastering Business Analysis.

In this episode, Lora McCoy shares her views on where business analysts should reside in an organization to enable better collaboration, growth, and prevent solution bias.  After listening to this episode, you'll understand: Why the right organizational placement is important to project success The pros and cons of BAs reporting to IT, the business, or independent from both How a Business Systems Analyst differs from a Business Analyst Why organizational placement leads to biases  Show Notes What’s the right organizational structure that allows business analysts and other project roles have the greatest impact? Some organizations have people assigned to Information Technology (IT), some have a pool of Business Analysts from which to pull for projects, and some have people assigned to specific business areas. Each of these structures have benefits and drawbacks. Business analysis is intended to be a strategic function. As such, what’s the optimal organizational placement for Business Analysts?   Alignment with Technology The most common structure is to align Business Analysts to the IT group. The advantage with this approach is that Business Analysts understand the technical capabilities and feasibility of solutions. They can offer technical solution options and easily relay information to software engineers about the solution requirements. Despite these advantages, there are a number of disadvantages that make alignment with the IT group less than ideal. When you’re aligned with IT, every problem gets solved through technology. This is the case even when the best solution isn’t technology based. Perhaps the real problem can be solved by a simple process change or better communication. This type of bias leads to sub-optimal solutions. When working with business teams, BAs aligned with IT are seen as outsiders. As a result, some business subject matter experts (SMEs) may become defensive and reluctant to share all relevant information with you.   Alignment with the Business For Business Analysts imbedded in the functional areas of the business, they can develop a deep understanding of business processes and functions. With a network of SMEs with whom you’ve developed a relationship, it’s easier to influence change. There are several disadvantages with aligning the BA role with the business. Because you’re so imbedded with the business functions on a daily basis, it’s difficult to think holistically. As a result, upstream and downstream impacts of changes may be missed. Additionally, you may be unable to see innovative or disruptive solutions because you’re too close to the problem. Additionally, BAs aligned to the business are often less familiar with technology. When you work with the technology group to recommend solutions, they may be reluctant to consider your solution recommendations because you’re seen as an outsider.   Bridge the Gap from the Gap Instead of alignment with IT or the Business, being part an objective, strategic group outside of both of those areas brings together the best of both worlds. With alignment outside both IT and the business, you can learn just enough of both areas to avoid bias and see the problem holistically. You can be seen as a partner and an internal consultant. This allows you to be objective and challenge both areas while offering an objective viewpoint. This gives you the potential to be seen as an expert and better influence change. The challenge with this type of strategic alignment is that is can be difficult to manage. It takes an organization at a certain level of maturity and openness to learning.   Listen to the full episode to understand the benefits of this organizational structure, how it impacts your personal development, and the different types of BA roles, http://traffic.libsyn.com/masteringbusinessanalysis/MBA128.mp3   Z Your Homework The first action is to understand your organization’s culture and current level of maturity of business analysis practices. How does the organization see change? Is it ready for shifting its structure for the BA placement approach outside of both IT and the business? You’re working toward a Center of Excellence, so you need to understand your organization’s current state. From there, influence leaders on making the culture shift to create the right placement for your Business Analysts.   Links mentioned in this episode: LMc3 Consulting on Facebook Business Analyst World Chicago Lora McCoy Founder, LMc3 Consulting Lora McCoy is the Founder and Principal Consultant of LMc3 Consulting, an organization focused on assisting organizations and individuals in understanding the “right” change at the “right” time while ensuring the change is enabled for the “right” reasons. Lora is also the president of the IIBA Oklahoma City Chapter of the IIBA and a frequent speaker at industry conferences. FacebookTwitterLinkedIn Thank you for listening to the program To get more valuable content t

In part 2 of this interview, author and consultant Steve Blais shares with us the remainder of his 11 principles of the business analyst, which provides guidance as to what a business analyst should do to achieve success.  After listening to this episode, you'll understand: How to apply Miller’s Law for better elicitation Why transition requirements are as important as solution requirements How to focus on benefits realization Why some Agile leaders believe a BA isn’t needed  Show Notes This is part 2 of a two part episode. To listen to part 1, click here. Part 1 covered the first four principles which are: Principle 1: Focus On the Product Principle 2: First Define the Problem and Then the Solution Principle 3: Users Do Not Have Requirements Principle 4: Focus On Information Not Individuals   Principle 5: Separate Elicitation from Analysis When you elicit information, don’t analyze. When you’re analyzing, don’t add new information. If we analyze information by asking analytical questions as we’re receiving information, the stakeholder will feel judged. In this case, you’ll receive less information and people will be less forthcoming in sharing their knowledge. We don’t want to do anything that would be detrimental to the flow of information. Instead, apply Miller’s law which states “If you truly want to understand what a person is saying, first assume that it’s true and then try to find out what it is true of”. Failing to apply this principle could lead to biases, assumptions, and incorrect or missing information.   Principle 6: Improve the Process First, Then Add Technology Often, the solution to the problem is not a technology solution. It may be a communication or process issue, in which case a technical solution won’t solve the problem. Look for a non-technical solution first. We should also come up with more than one potential solution to a problem. By doing so, we’ll be forced to look at other options (including non-technical solutions) and avoid confirmation bias.   Principle 7: Communicate, Cooperate, Collaborate The Business Analysts primary job is a communicator and collaborator. That’s how you solve problems. Constant communication, collaboration, and betting input is critical to success as a Business Analyst. This also helps in the areas of negotiation, influence, mediation, presentations, and conflict resolution. You’ll be much more successful if you work collaboratively with others. Don’t let documentation substitute for communication and collaboration.   Principle 8: The Business Analyst Owns the Solution Requirements We need to adopt the mindset that we own the requirements. No one can change the requirements except you. Ownership of the requirements includes the responsibility if something is wrong.   Principle 9: Gain Acceptance As Well As Approval Get confirmation of all of the requirements prior to seeking approval. Once you’ve discussed and confirmed the requirements with stakeholders, then you can request approval from those with authority to approve the requirements. Often, requirements approvers will seek input from those stakeholders before submitting their approval. Gaining acceptance of your requirements prior to asking for approval makes the approval process easier.   Principle 10: Make the Business Community Ready For the Product Don’t forget about transition requirements. Consider what is needed to make sure the business or customer is ready to use the solution. Transition requirements may include training, documentation, and creating awareness in addition to a change management process. We need to prepare the user for the solution before we implement it.   Principle 11: Measure Twice, Cut Once As Business Analysts, we want to measure, cut, and then measure again. We need to understand the problem and identify metrics to determine outcomes, implement a solution, and then measure those areas again to see what kind of an impact the solution had. Benefits realization is a key focus for successful Business Analysts. Before we implement a solution, we need to understand how to measure success and track those metrics before and after we implement the solution. There are several categories of measurements you may use to determine the impact of your solution including intrinsic, satisfaction, and value measurements. You’re job isn’t about writing requirements. It’s about making improvements to the business. The way you show the improvement is by measuring it before the solution and them measuring after.   Listen to the full episode to understand how to apply the 11 principles in your role and why some people believe a BA isn’t needed in a Agile environment. http://traffic.libsyn.com/masteringbusinessanalysis/MBA127.mp3   Z Your Homework Focus on critical thinking and apply Miller’s Law. You can do this by asking questions about your own thinking. Doing so not only improves the quality of your thinking,