Tag Archives: Business Analysis

Skills for Success: Professional Development Day @ IIBA Minn / St. Paul

I will be giving a new version of my talk about Behavior Based Requirements at this year’s Professional Development Day in Minneapolis / St. Paul. I am excited because I have reworked the entire presentation to both show my passion and give attendees a chance to practice using the Given-When-Then requirements format. The conference title …

April 9, 2013 – 9:00 am | By Jeffrey | Posted in business analysis, presentations | Tagged , , , | Comments (1)

Measuring the Analysis Process

I’ve previously written about measuring requirements and business analysts. I am concluding the series with my current thoughts on measuring the analysis process. This quote is a truism is because it’s how we work. Measurements help us identify areas we should focus on or improve. Measurements let us know when we succeeded, or not. I love the …

January 2, 2013 – 8:00 am | By Jeffrey | Posted in building teams, business analysis | Tagged , | Comments (2)

Measuring Business Analysts; Don’t KPI Me

Good managers often ask, “How do I know my team is performing well? How can I spot which folks need help? Who should I reward for a job well done?” In today’s busy world, where managers have significant responsibilities in addition to nurturing their team, measurements and metrics can be a a help. Unfortunately, it …

December 19, 2012 – 7:26 pm | By Jeffrey | Posted in business analysis | Tagged , | Comments (1)

Read “Discover to Deliver”

In Discover to Deliver: Agile Product Planning & Analysis, Ellen Gottesdiener (author of The Software Requirements Memory Jogger and Requirements by Collaboration) and Mary Gorman tackle one of the largest problems facing Agile and Scrum software projects, how to successfully integrate the ideas and tools made so popular over the last decade into working, valuable solutions.

November 27, 2012 – 8:20 pm | By Jeffrey | Posted in book review, business analysis | Tagged , , | Comments Off

Your stories are too big

TL;DR: Many teams ask for larger stories because they do not see how to slice the work into smaller chunks. When you give into this anti-pattern you are making developers work harder, and possibly decreasing the value of what you deliver. Write smaller stories and your team will be both happier and more productive. 

November 12, 2012 – 6:00 am | By Jeffrey | Posted in business analysis | Tagged , , , | Comments (8)

Greatness Comes from Showing Pictures

As far as I’m concerned there are three skills a BA must learn to be great. How to ask questions How to explain concepts graphically How to tell stories Everything else, and there is a lot to the everything else, takes second place to these three things. The first item is vital because it’s how …

August 2, 2012 – 5:07 pm | By Jeffrey | Posted in business analysis, stories & communication | Tagged | Comments (2)

Is Agile Just for Developers?

Are you a scrum master, coordinating with another team? You might be told, “Why isn’t that done? It should be ready by now.”  Are you a business analyst, talking about a change that doesn’t impact today’s stories? You might be told, “Don’t mention it during the stand-up meeting.”  Are you QA, trying to determine if this is …

May 23, 2012 – 5:52 pm | By Jeffrey | Posted in building teams, business analysis | Tagged , , | Comments (10)