{"id":3720,"date":"2012-06-19T16:23:56","date_gmt":"2012-06-19T21:23:56","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.watermarklearning.com\/blog\/?p=3720"},"modified":"2022-08-04T10:10:54","modified_gmt":"2022-08-04T15:10:54","slug":"business-analysis-new-zealand-style-part-1","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.watermarklearning.com\/blog\/business-analysis-new-zealand-style-part-1\/","title":{"rendered":"Business Analysis New Zealand Style \u2013 Part 1"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignright wp-image-3722 size-thumbnail\" title=\"NZ-Wellington Cable Car\" src=\"\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/06\/NZ-Wellington-Cable-Car-150x150.jpg\" alt=\"NZ-Wellington Cable Car\" width=\"150\" height=\"150\">Elizabeth and I had the privilege of visiting New Zealand this past week. We met with our new partner there, Equinox IT;&nbsp;taught classes for them; and made two presentations in Wellington. It was a whirlwind trip that&nbsp;started off with a single day of sight-seeing before we got to work. Wellington is both New Zealand\u2019s capital city and beautiful. It reminded us a bit of San Francisco with its rolling hills and architecture. They even have a cable car that locals&nbsp;say American tourists love to ride on. We were no exception! (Picture on right &#8211; view from the Wellington Botanical Garden.)<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignleft wp-image-3727 size-thumbnail\" title=\"NZ-Parliament Building\" src=\"\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/06\/NZ-Parliament-Building-150x150.jpg\" alt=\"NZ-Parliament Building\" width=\"150\" height=\"150\">Left: part of the Parliament Building in Wellington known as the &#8220;beehive.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>We are told that Wellington probably has more business analysts per capita than&nbsp;any other New Zealand city;&nbsp;based on the interest level in the two events we participated in, it showed.&nbsp; First was&nbsp;a \u201cBA Think Tank\u201d sponsored by our partner, Equinox. A dedicated group of BAs came out on a Monday evening to hear Elizabeth present \u201cThe Top Seven Trends in Business Analysis.\u201d There was a lively discussion after the presentation.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignright wp-image-3732 size-thumbnail\" title=\"NZ-BA Think Tank\" src=\"\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/06\/NZ-BA-Think-Tank-150x150.jpg\" alt=\"NZ-BA Think Tank\" width=\"150\" height=\"150\">The trends that resonated&nbsp;most with the audience were: BA as Change Agent, the BA role separating from the PM role, and the BA role on Agile projects. Most agreed that business analysts were in the best position to act as change agents in organizations. The IIBA\u2019s new emphasis on this role was also a welcome message.<\/p>\n<p>Everyone was also happy to support the separation of the BA role from project management. There was general agreement that the two roles are good \u201cchecks and balances\u201d and it is difficult to effectively play the two roles simultaneously. There are also different skill sets and aptitudes involved.<\/p>\n<p>Most BAs in attendance did not currently work on Agile projects, but understood the concepts and context. The consensus was that the best BA role was to help the Product Owner groom the product backlog. We are happy to report that no one thought the BA should be the Product Owner or the Scrum Master.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignleft wp-image-3739 size-thumbnail\" title=\"NZ-IIBA Pres\" src=\"\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/06\/NZ-IIBA-Pres-150x150.jpg\" alt=\"NZ-IIBA\" pres\"=\"\" width=\"150\" height=\"150\">Next up was Rich\u2019s presentation for a Wellington IIBA meeting. Rich took the audience through \u201cFantastic Voyage or Impossible Dream: The BA as Management Consultant.\u201d People in the audience liked the concept, and it tied nicely into the Think Tank discussion about change agents by emphasizing the consulting nature of the BA role. Most people considered themselves in the \u201cOrder Taker\u201d or \u201cInfluencer\u201d role, with a few \u201cExperts\u201d in the crowd.<\/p>\n<p>Many people mentioned how helpful the topic was to them. It reminds us that BA issues are much the same around the world! For a further look at the topic, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.equinox.co.nz\/blog\/business-analysis-interview-with-rich-and-elizabeth-larson-of-watermark-learning\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">see the blog post from our partner, Equinox<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>In Part 2, look for our thoughts about training in New Zealand.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Elizabeth and I had the privilege of visiting New Zealand this past week. We met with our new partner there, Equinox IT;&nbsp;taught classes for them; and made two presentations in Wellington. It was a whirlwind trip that&nbsp;started off with a single day of sight-seeing before we got to work. Wellington is both New Zealand\u2019s capital [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":10690,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"content-type":"","site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"footnotes":""},"categories":[4,74,1],"tags":[95,72,218],"coauthors":[138],"class_list":["post-3720","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-agile","category-ba-training","category-watermark-learning","tag-change-agent","tag-consulting-skills-2","tag-iiba"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.watermarklearning.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3720","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.watermarklearning.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.watermarklearning.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.watermarklearning.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.watermarklearning.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3720"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/www.watermarklearning.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3720\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":10691,"href":"https:\/\/www.watermarklearning.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3720\/revisions\/10691"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.watermarklearning.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/10690"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.watermarklearning.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3720"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.watermarklearning.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3720"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.watermarklearning.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3720"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.watermarklearning.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=3720"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}