The first step is to align a strategy worth making, with tactics worth taking, and a contribution worth communicating. The ...
Political: Responsibility for the water supply is shared by the local, provincial and national governmentThe City of Cape Town criticised ...
A quick scour of the web will surface many definitions of what business analysis is. All technically correct, but all ...
A couple of years ago I experimented with a new personal assistant. Amy Ingram helped me to schedule meetings. Amy ...
Yesterday I was helping out at the University of Cape Town with a business case lecture for their 2nd year ...
As humans, we put things into boxes. We draw boundaries and define jobs to house the roles inside our organisation ...
The apprentice team were given restaurant space in Manhattan, New York, and a single day to get it ready: cuisine ...
What do farmers, barbers, engineers, horticulturalists, gardeners, prostitutes, tailors, doctors, nurses, teachers, priests, preachers, and even lawyers all have in ...
Interviews are a wonderful technique through which to have a detailed one-on-one discussion, build rapport as well as gaining buy-in ...
Business analysis is the generous act of helping someone solve a problem—their problem. It's the chance to change the organisation ...
The T-shaped metaphor has been about for some time - being a strong person with specialist depth and generalist breadth ...
Harvard marketing professor Theodore Levitt famously said, “People don’t want to buy a quarter-inch drill. They want a quarter-inch hole!” ...
I've enjoyed working with many wonderful people during my career, people that I'd love to work with again. I resolve ...
A short-term, effort-minimising charlatan can easily adopt a bridging mind-set. Clutching, capturing, shipping. Is there any other profession that confidently ...
A few more than ten, actually. Over two billion blog posts will be published this year. Curating the best of ...
Here's the truth about stakeholder mobilisation: crossing your fingers isn't going to simply make it happen. The old-school business analyst's ...
The obvious answer is one. Because when we ask the expert we're advised 'the way it's done'. Yet when we ...
What's the difference between a three-week spec and a six-week one? What would make a ninety-minute interview worthwhile? Or an ...
There are three choices when it comes to participating with content. (Whether it's a book, an article, a blog, a ...
In 76 years, the British cycling team had only won one gold medal at the Olympic Games. No British cyclist ...
Pre-orders for Microsoft's X-Box Series X were basically sold out. This is not surprising. The performance is faster, the graphics ...
During World War II, the Allies reviewed bullet holes of damaged aircraft returning from Germany during the Second World War ...
Debra Paul has written half a dozen wonderful books that humanise the too-often industrialised craft of business analysis. In Business ...
Every very happy stakeholder encourages another one. Uninterested stakeholders aren't worth the trouble. Neutral stakeholders, critical stakeholders, stakeholders you think ...
Data Scientist Robby Ketchell created the perfect conditions. Vienna was chosen because of its location, elevation and climate. It's time ...
First is the mission and objectives. The second is people, with a focus on the environmental factors needed for optimum ...
The Ford Taurus is one of the best selling cars in Ford’s history. It was loved by customers and over ...
It doesn't take much to be yourself. You just need to have enough confidence to disclose your true feelings, with ...
The alternative is to choose an approach, not crossing your fingers. And that path begins with stakeholder mobilisation. Here's what ...
Business is the result of organisation, people, process, information and technology. It's the culmination of the configuration and execution around ...
Decision-making is based on an assumption: We assume the decision-maker will take into consideration all of the available information, the probability ...
Instant messaging was transformative. It was adopted not because of a bright, shiny project roadshow, but because users chose to ...
Six years after developing more than fifty mobile games that failed to make an impact, Rovio's 52nd game showed up ...
They're not. Despite what the analyst wishes, this isn't often a sought-after interaction. They're anxious. A little bit fearful. Yet ...
Every stakeholder you facilitate is unique. Each has a different combination of wants, needs, problems, and desires. Though in many ...
As soon as you understand the change you seek to make, it becomes quite clear that you're not going to ...
Planes painted white are more efficient than planes painted in a dark colour. Because light paint is literally lighter and ...
There are three popular misunderstandings that many of us get knotted. The first is that stakeholders are implicitly aware of ...
In 1935, Alan Turing came up with a theory for software which led to the study of its creation. Growth ...
You know this persona: the business analyst who speaks up in the room, with the simple truths, ready to withstand ...
Let me take a stab ... You'd like to be respected, successful, rewarded, suitably challenged, and maybe a little renowned ...
Utility doesn't begin or end with IT. The goal of the minimum viable market is to serve people who understand ...
Business analysis projects (intentional choice of the homonym, projects) are the generous works of people who want to facilitate. Adrian ...
A river changes its course naturally over time, altering its flow in a specific direction. It responds to the outside ...
"System" is a special word. Probably the most overused and abused word in our business lexicon. Bandied about, in multiple ...
As a business analyst, we want to understand what makes someone take a position. In particular, we want to understand ...
A Whole New Mind, fifteen years old, by Daniel H. Pink. It's about how everything is switching (yes, the next ...
The public presentations that I've given over the last 10+ years can (mostly) be found here. One that you can't ...
And you're in it. Once you take the posture, once you commit to helping people change, to take them on ...
When you receive a deliverable in a broadcast email, thrown over the organisational wall, someone is avoiding. It's delivered, but ...
It's tempting to create a safe product or service for all your stakeholders. Safe, because safe is beyond reproach. It ...
When you order pizza from the menu: Is it customary to expect extra-toppings to be free? Is it customary to ...
During one particular rainy season, Owen's ceiling started to leak. Upon investigation, he discovered that the source of the leak ...
Here are thirty dimensions for you to pick from. Because you know your space far better than I do, I'm ...
You're not making up your viewpoint, your desires, or your pain points. And neither are your stakeholders. In organisations there's ...
If you ask them, you probably won't get what you're searching for. You're unlikely to find the true answer. It's ...
When a stakeholder doesn't act as you expect them to, find their fear. It's tricky to imagine a better place ...
1951 saw the worlds first commercial business application. J Lyons and Co. automated valuation jobs, then payroll. Then a few ...
London here I come! (Virtually...) As a subscriber you'll know, I enthusiastically believe in the magic that good business analysis ...
It doesn't make sense to say "stakeholders need a digital mobile app," because: Stakeholders don't need an app. They might ...
Growing up, I fondly remember school holidays watching The Littlest Hobo. The TV show was about a stray dog who ...
Even with first to market, a strategy where second place misses out on the initial competitive advantage, the goal of ...
Tripwire 1: It's tempting to trust the stakeholders' pre-conceived notion about their problem: "If you just add this new field ...
Customer service must be getting better. More responsive and, of course, helpful. With a focus on SLA's for waiting time ...
When we consider all of the possible options, it's typical to choose the dimensions that seem to matter to most ...
Making a decision today that leaves you 1% worse off won’t have much impact tomorrow, because failure doesn't happen overnight ...
After the payroll was automated, there wasn't a good reason to continue employing an army of wage clerks. It wasn't ...
Everything you've learnt at work and in training about doing good business analysis is about writing the specification, delivering on ...
If you're an athlete, you've probably used Strava. It's a profitable company with more than 250 employees, dealing with over ...
Sarnoff's Law, named after the American radio and television pioneer, observed that the value of a broadcast network grows in direct proportion to the ...
Business is being interrupted. Influenced by expected and unforeseen digital, health, social, and economic forces, causing everyone to reimagine what ...
Traditional business analysis is built around the sponsor who pays for the project. It's done to the stakeholder, not for ...
The approach: draw a simple X/Y grid. Every available alternative can be plotted on the map. All online retailers on ...
It's said that the best way to complain is to make things better. It's difficult to do that if you ...
Textbook has left the forecourt. Jaffers Motors is the sort of petrol station you'll find in your neighbourhood. You'll have ...
When Michael Joseph was Chairman of Airport Management at Jomo Kenyatta Airport in Nairobi, Kenya, one of his acts was ...
Start with the empathy to listen and see the opportunity. Not a meeting-room imagined one, not "How can we launch ...
Early champions are at the start of the business analyst's journey. And it's important not to hear them as critics ...
Successful business analysts don't start-off by looking for a solution, for the answer that makes them appear smarter than everybody ...
Some businesses focus on revenue and domination. Others on internal costs and efficiencies. Still others on time and emergency fixes ...
Imagine an online travel company. One approach is to find the best destinations with the best prices and sell package ...
The ever-changing world that requires us to constantly be experimenting, to resist creating safety, is driven by the fact that ...
No, it’s not. I'm kidding.
Every organisation—every project and every task—is influenced by a primary driver. Some organisations are cause-driven, others are personality-driven, start-ups are ...
When the business analyst shows up with their specification (via whichever approach), it always takes the shape of a promise: ...
The default of aiming at the mass-market (for growth and share) will make you average, because mass means broad, it ...
There's an echo chamber. It's natural to surround ourselves with people who hold perspectives that fit with our own. And ...
Consider the plight of a business analyst. They're trying to push through a million-pound business case to implement a new ...
A business analyst is curious about their stakeholders. They wonder what they are grappling with, what makes them tick. They're ...
More specifically, what's a retail organisations ERP for? It's not simply a need for an IT system. After all, when ...
You have the permission to change your story. You can live a different one, one that's shaped around the stakeholders ...
Solving the wrong problem is ineffectual. Diving straight into designing the solution doesn't have a high success rate, and it ...
When Jéan Raath asked me to present a workshop at the IIBA-SA Professional Development Day in Cape Town I jumped ...
Standard Bank introduced a focus on the customer by immersing themselves in the market. They visit local-townships, seeking to explore ...
Entrepreneur and Pick 'n Pay Founder Mr. Raymond Ackerman would walk the aisles of the supermarket in Claremont, Cape Town ...
Who are you seeking to change?What do they desire?Why does it matter?Where does utility lie?Which promise are you making?How will ...
You're the superhero swooping in to save the day. You're all about the hustle and the grind—doing more and being ...
In a world of opportunity, where we have precious time, limited space, and plentiful choice, which path do we choose? ...
When you do something that others do, when it's something that we can easily get on Upwork, on Indeed or ...
Another convenient shortcut in this exercise is to identify the different personas we might encounter. There's Worried Wilma, who's been ...