What type of Buysiness Analyst are you?

Ranging from the Business side to the Technology side, Eric Provost defines 4 types of Business Analysts.

Here's the four profiles, from Business Oriented to Technology oriented:

- The Strategic Analyst

...focuses on the organization as a whole...

- The Business Process Analyst

... works to understand current business processes in the organization in detail...

- The System Analyst

...also known as the Functional Analyst, uses the high level, business process-based requirements elicited by the Business Process Analyst as his main input...

- The Technical Analyst


...the one linking the business and system requirements to the bits & bytes of the system...

I would add that sometimes the Business Analyst must be a bit of all the four profiles above, specially if it's nearer to the Technology side.
Sometimes you have to wear the four hats, on at a time :)

Here's the link to the full post: https://www.ericthebusinessanalyst.com/quiz-types-of-business-analyst/

Have fun! :)

"The Junior Business Analyst Manifesto", by Eric Provost

Hi!

Came across this post on Eric Provost's blog.
Rather interesting, either if you're new to the job, or even if you need to be reminded of some of these things

Here's the summed up topics & some brief take-aways:

1. You shall ask questions (always)
...you have to know how users work to elicit good requirements...

2. You shall master the art of data analysis (embrace the spreadsheets)
...Data is power... Data is hard... Take time to play with data...

3. You shall challenge the status quo (change is stability)
...Ask questions (rule 1). Look for the truth in data (rule 2). Ask questions again. Never accept “because it always been like this” as an answer...

4. You shall aim for the best solution (yet keeping it simple, stupid)
...you’re tempted to suggest the crème de la crème... And you shall not... first look at how you could optimize the processes...
[KISS = Keep it simple, stupid or the nicer version, Keep it simple and smart]

5. You shall communicate (again. and again. and again.)
...Business analysis is all about communication...

6. You shall track your work (every. single. day.)
...you still have to project yourself 5, 10 years from now... Will you be able to track everything you did in the last few years?...

7. You shall widen your horizons (be a multidimensional BA)
...Don’t hesitate to do more than what is expected from you... Business Analysis is a multidimensional discipline...

Full post in here: https://www.ericthebusinessanalyst.com/junior-business-analyst-manifesto/

Have fun! :)

"User stories are not requirements", by Emal Bariali

Interesting article that deepens the role of the Business Analysts, and makes it go the extra mile!

The takeaways from the article:

1. Recognize that your output as a BA has huge downstream impacts.
2. Understand that meeting the needs of your downstream stakeholders (the dev team) are as important as meeting the needs of your upstream stakeholders (the business side).
3. Learn what it takes to make sure your downstream stakeholders have what they need to build a solid solution.  A little bit of "systems thinking" will take you a long way to help meet the developer needs.

I would sum it up in something like this:

1. BA work is crucial for downstream 'stakeholders' *
2. The BA works for up and downstream 'stakeholders'
3. Do some System Thinking to be sure the requirements are fully understood by downstream 'stakeholders'

* not sure I agree with this term but it works for now...

It's worth to take a look :)

Here's the full article: https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/user-stories-requirements-emal-bariali-mis-csc?trk=mp-reader-card

Have fun! :)