Elizabeth and I arrived in Cape Town on Monday, and basically crashed due to the long, 18-hour flight. The trip over the Atlantic seems short compared to the Amsterdam to Cape Town flight.
We were literally at the bottom of Africa, at the point where two oceans meet: Atlantic, meet Indian. We started our trip by flying straight to Johannesburg on Tuesday. After getting settled, we visited the Joburg office of our South African partner, Faculty Training Institute. The head of FTI, Steve Erlank, showed us around and we got to see their preparation. Very impressive with three training rooms, offices, a kitchen, and huge cafeteria for students.
Business Analysis Posts
Arrived in South Africa – Aug 1-2, 2011
Posted: August 4th, 2011 by RichLarson. Comments »
Turning Requirements Trash into Stakeholder Treasure – Part 1
Posted: July 12th, 2011 by Bob Prentiss. Comments »
Hello all – BobtheBA here. So have you been assigned to a project where you immediately felt like someone handed you a T-shirt that said “I just started a project and all I got was this lousy business case!” You are not alone. Many of us struggle at the beginning of our projects to wrap our brains around what little we have been given. It becomes worse when we end up several weeks into the project and we still feel like we have nothing to go on. What do you do? I turn to age-old proverbs as both a reminder and motivator. Making something from nothing. When life gives you lemons, make lemonade. Turning trash into treasure. I could go on and on with these much stated proverbs – I really, really could because I love them. They are constant reminders of what I, as a Business Analyst need to be doing on a daily basis to bring order from chaos. The chaos that I was given. So how does one bring this order and turn requirements trash into stakeholder treasure?
Secrets from a Corporate Training Monster: How to get your Training Request Approved – Part 2
Posted: June 21st, 2011 by Bob Prentiss. Comments »
Hello all – BobtheBA here and ready to share some more corporate training secrets to help get your training requests approved. Last time we discussed that you needed to keep your audience in mind. WIIFT (what’s in it for them – the people that need to approve your training request) vs. what’s in it for you. If you have been doing your research, stakeholder analysis and all-around prep work you should have a good idea about what they want now so it is time to focus on what you want!
Relationships Span the Chasm
Posted: June 7th, 2011 by RichLarson. Comments »I recently heard on NPR a doctor named David Loxtercamp, author of “A Measure of Days: The Journal of a Country Doctor.” He described his views of the medical profession, and sounded like a wise and thoughtful physician.
During his interview, he read some of his pearls of wisdom, one of which really resonated with me. He was talking about patients and their doctors, but I think it could be applied to any profession in which practitioners must understand the needs or “pain” of its patients, clients, customers, etc.
Secrets from a Corporate Training Monster: How to get your Training Request Approved – Part 1
Posted: May 31st, 2011 by Bob Prentiss. Comments »
Hello all – BobtheBA here. Have you ever wondered why some people get to go to training and others don’t? In the early stages of my corporate business analysis career I certainly did! I would ask and ask and it seemed that I never got to go and others did. It was confusing and it felt like I was not valued. Over time I realized that I was valued and that there were many, many factors being considered when training requests were granted. So over time I made every effort to figure out what those factors were so that I could not only get training for myself but for my colleagues and team too. I have been quite obsessed with training and education over the years, so much so Watermark Learning became my new home and the next part of my business analysis journey. So now it is time to share my secrets as a corporate training monster. So how does one get training requests approved?
Top Five Reasons to Get your CBAP (or CCBA)
Posted: May 19th, 2011 by RichLarson. Comments »
There are many reasons to obtain your CBAP or CCBA credential. I’ve given this considerable thought and talked to numerous people about it over the years. There is considerable work in the preparation for it and more than a bit of stress in achieving it. Here are the top five reasons in my opinion for getting your certification, in reverse order.
5. Obtain Better Assignments. I hear more and more stories from CBAPs who tell me about getting more satisfying and higher-profile assignments once they have obtained their CBAP. The numbers this has happened to are split fairly evenly between internal employees and external consultants. For an interesting perspective of one consultant, Brian Hunt, and what the CBAP has meant to him, see his article How CBAP® Helps You Become a Better Consultant.
The Template Annihilation Paradox
Posted: May 10th, 2011 by Bob Prentiss. 4 Comments »
Hello all – BobtheBA here. I have recently read some blogs, tweets, had several conversations and listened to various viewpoints on the subject of “Template Zombies” and use of templates in general. The concept of “Template Zombies” was first addressed (as far as I am aware of) in a book entitled “Adrenaline Junkies and Template Zombies” by Tom Demarco (and team) which focused on patterns of project behavior. There is a recent blog out on BA Times (kudos to Robin Grace for addressing this). However, I was in a heated discussion just last night on this topic so I felt the need to blog (my therapy) because there is a lot to say. The general thought in the latest arguments (I mean discussions) that I have had is that templates are to blame when it comes to poor requirements because bad templates encourage bad behavior. If we simply annihilate templates we would suddenly be free to elicit, document and communicate requirements untethered right? I tend to disagree – hence the title of Template Annihilation Paradox. It is not the template, but rather people that are at the root cause (track the behavior). We cannot annihilate people (who would do the work?) nor should we annihilate the template (it provides a structure to communicate – it is a starting point). What we can do is educate the people who can fix the template and then educate the people using the template.
The Art of Business Analysis War
Posted: March 8th, 2011 by Bob Prentiss. Comments »
Hello all – BobtheBA here to briefly talk about strategy. Business Analysis? War strategy? What do these two things have in common? Surprisingly a lot. It is very important to plan and manage your requirements effort but more importantly it is how we deal with the moments in-between the tasks and deliverables that truly show the art of business analysis. Planning and Managing your requirements may be new for you and if it is not, you will know how difficult this can be. Training may be in your future to help out in this area. In the meantime, why don’t we get some inspiration from one of the definitive works on military strategy of all time?
Task-Specific BABOK® Techniques to Know for the CBAP Exam: Part 6
Posted: February 22nd, 2011 by RichLarson. Comments »
Prioritization Techniques
One of the most difficult things for many decision-makers is to prioritize their needs. It is far easier to say “everything is an A priority” than to rationally sort through the many features of a project and make tough decisions. It is frustrating to project teams to deal with this type of stakeholder, and fortunately there are techniques that can help.
There are three techniques mentioned in the BABOK® specifically to support prioritizing requirements. Some of the techniques are in wide use, and one of them is more a guideline than a technique. If you are studying for the CBAP® or CCBA™ exams, there is a good chance of being tested on one of these because of their importance.
Assumptions are Project Killers!
Posted: February 8th, 2011 by Bob Prentiss. Comments »
Let me be candid and up front – I do not like assumptions. Never have, never will. I truly believe that they can be one of the most destructive forces in business analysis. I do not like them here or there. I would not like them anywhere. I do not like them I believe, so make them go away and leave! (Thank you Dr. Seuss, you always inspire me). So why is BobtheBA all jacked up about assumptions? Well… let’s just say he has first-hand experience with the pain they can bring. Now even though I do not like them I will also recognize up front that they are a necessary evil. Notice I said evil.
