BA Digest: A round-up of useful BA articles from the web
Dear <<First Name>>,
Welcome to the March/April Blackmetric BA Digest, a useful round-up of BA articles and news from around the web. There is so much happening in the BA community at the moment, and so many links to share, I will keep this intro uncharacteristically brief----which, as those of you that know me can attest to, is rather unlike me! :)
Free Professional Development: New Videos
I'm really pleased to say that we've expanded the Blackmetric YouTube channel with a wide range of new content. This includes interviews with a wide range of experts, and also webinar recordings. Since the last edition of BA Digest we've released seven new videos:
All of these can be found on the Blackmetric YouTube channel, so be sure to check it out. We aim to post a new video every two weeks, so be sure to subscribe so you don't miss anything. You can also access a whole range of previous webinars too, all for free, 24/7.
Upcoming #BACommunity Webinar
The next #BACommunity Webinar has been announced. On March 20th we'll be joined by Vince Mirabelli to discuss the thorny issue of Enterprise Analysis. It's completely free to attend, but places are filling fast so please do register early to avoid missing out!
Upcoming BA Events and Conferences
There are a whole range of BA events and conferences coming up. Conferences are such great places to learn and meet with others, if you've not had a chance to attend one, I'd highly recommend making 2020 the year that you do. If you are aware of any other conferences, please drop me a line and I'll include them in the next edition of the newsletter:
- Business Change & Transformation Conference, Europe, London, UK 16-18 Mar
- BA & Beyond, Amsterdam & Brussels, 24-26 Mar
- Minneapolis & St Paul Professional Development Day, Minneapolis, MN, USA, 9 Apr
- Ukrainian BA Conference, Kyiv, Ukraine 24-26 Apr
- WI BADD: Wisconsin Business Analyst Development Day, WI, USA, 6-7 May
- European BA Day, Frankfurt-on-the-main, Germany, 14-15 May
- BA World, Toronto, Canada, 25-28 May
- BA Conference Europe, London, 21-23 Sep
- Building Business Capability, Las Vegas, NV, USA 19-23 Oct
Additionally, be sure to connect with your local IIBA chapter, as there are regular chapter events around the world too. For those of you in the UK, be sure to check out the IIBA UK chapter.
Upcoming Blackmetric Courses
Our next public courses are:
We are also booking on-site courses for late Q3 - Q4 2020. We specialise in hands-on, practical, training for BA teams, so please do get in touch if we can be of assistance. You'll find more information on our website.
Links, Articles and Resources
As usual, we have carefully curated a selection of links from around the web--these are included below--we hope that you enjoy reading/watching them! Please drop me a line if there is a topic that you'd like to see included in a future newsletter, or if you find an article that you'd like to share. And if you do find this newsletter valuable, please feel free to forward it to your colleagues and connections. They can sign up here to receive the newsletter directly.
Your BA Digest List: A Round-Up Of Useful Business Analysis Resources
Links to useful resources from around the web:
1. Be A Better BA Through Reflective Practice by Christina Lovelock: In this BA Times article, Christina Lovelock provides a practical framework for reflection, with a view on using this to improve our practice.
2. Cost-Benefit Analysis as a Way to Assist in Decision Making by Eleanor Stowe: A fantastic article on the OVO Tech Blog which outlines what a Cost-Benefit Analysis is and how we might approach creating one.
3. Decision Making: Context Is Crucial: What could be considered as a 'good' decision depends a lot on stakeholders, perspectives and context. This article explores the importance of context in decision making, providing a set of 'decision making dimensions' for consideration.
4. Requirements Architecture By Sam Merrick: This excellent and informative article by Sam Merrick de-mystifies the important (but often overlooked) topic of 'requirements architecture'.
5. The Danger Of Jumping To A “Solution” And The Importance Of Pre-Project Problem Analysis: Stakeholders often fall in love with 'solutions', long before the problem situation is fully understood. Sadly, these organisational 'silver bullets' lead to failure too often. This article explores the importance of pre-project problem analysis in combatting these patterns.
6. Do You Have Time For Diversity? By Steve Whitla: In this thought provoking article, Steve Whitla reflects on the benefit of having cognitive diversity in organisations, and discusses some of the challenges of creating shared meaning. When stakeholders use the same words to mean different things, shared meaning is lost....
7. Four Reasons To Graphically Illustrate Your Research by Dr. Gemma Sou: Published on the LSE website, this article raises useful points on the power of graphics and illustrations. Whilst it was written from the perspective of research, this (arguably) applies just as much in our role as BAs and practitioners of organisational change.
8. Defining Acceptance Criteria for Agile Requirements by Alan Kelley: This 2015 article on the 'Agile Connection' website is as relevant (and possibly contentious in places) today as it was when it was written. Well worth reading.
9. Critical Thinking For Business Analysts by David J. Beckham: Business analysis is a 'thinking' profession, and in this article, David Beckham argues that we should ensure we know about how to think critically. He discusses the difference between facts, opinion, conjecture, assumption, supposition and speculation.
10. Beware “Efficiency” Myths: Are You Just Shifting The Burden?: As BAs, we often work on improving processes and services. However, it's important that we stop to think what we mean by improvement, else we might end up 'shifting the burden' to someone else. This article explores this tricky topic.
BA Books
I've started to put together a list of my favourite BA related books.
I'll be adding to this over the coming months, so be sure to bookmark it :)
Twitter #BACommunityChat
If you're on Twitter and haven't heard about the regular BA get-together known as '#BACommunityCha'# be sure to check out the website at bacommunity.chat. It's a great place to learn from other practitioners!
Kind regards & I hope to catch up with you soon,
Adrian Reed
Principal Consultant
Blackmetric Business Solutions Ltd
Business analysis consulting & training
T: +44 (0) 23 9298 4546
E: adrian.reed@blackmetric.co.uk
Thanks for reading, we hope you enjoyed this edition!
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