As a Business Analyst, effectively managing conflicting stakeholder interests is crucial for the success of IT projects. Here’s a deeper dive into each strategy: 1. Active Listening: Take time to listen to what each stakeholder has to say. By actively engaging with their concerns and ideas, you can better understand their motivations and the reasons […]
Making decisions can be challenging, but a structured approach can enhance effectiveness and clarity. A couple of years ago I wrote about a simple GROW model for making informed decisions. This approach expands and develops on those ideas: 🔍 Preliminary Analysis: Assess Timeliness of the Decision: Is now the right time? Some decisions need urgency, […]
The Cynefin framework, introduced by Dave Snowden in 2003, is a powerful tool for decision-making and organizational development, especially when navigating complex and nonlinear scenarios. It helps leaders categorize problems into five distinct domains, each requiring a unique approach: ☝️ Simple Here, cause and effect are clear and predictable. Use established best practices and standard […]
Perceptual Mapping is a powerful graphical tool that helps businesses visualize consumer perceptions of products, brands, or services. By plotting these perceptions in a 2D or 3D space, marketers can see how their offerings stack up against competitors and gain valuable insights into customer preferences. 🎯 Purpose of Perceptual Mapping: Understand Market Positioning: Visualize consumer […]
When it comes to managing projects effectively, having the right documentation is crucial. In my opinion the documents that are important on almost any project are: 1. Document Router Create a single point of access for all project artifacts. This could be a Confluence page, shared Folder, a Notion space, or a simple Google Doc. […]
In today’s competitive market, leveraging customer feedback is crucial for both product managers and marketers. This collaborative approach ensures that product features and marketing strategies are aligned with market needs, ultimately enhancing customer satisfaction and business success. Customer Feedback Definition Customer feedback encompasses the assessments, responses, reactions, and comments that customers provide about their product […]
Fishbone diagrams, also known as Ishikawa or cause-and-effect diagrams, are powerful tools used in root-cause analysis to visually decompose problems into their components. This technique helps teams identify, analyze, and represent the underlying causes of a problem, making it easier to find effective solutions. The head of the fish represents the problem being addressed. The […]
Based on the works of Rory Sutherland, Vice-Chairman & Executive Creative Director at Ogilvy Group. Ogilvy Group, headquartered in New York City, is a major player in the global advertising and marketing landscape, operating across 131 offices in 93 countries. TL;DR Preoccupation with Metrics can mislead decision-makers, as seen in the Vietnam War example where focusing […]
Analyzing the internal capability of an organization provides insights into its areas of strength and inherent weaknesses. This understanding is crucial for identifying relevant courses of action and ensuring that any changes made have a good chance of success. Business commentators often recommend ‘sticking to the knitting’ when considering business changes, emphasizing the importance of […]
Ansoff’s Matrix, also known as the Product/Market Expansion Grid or Ansoff’s Box, is a strategic planning tool that provides a set of strategic alternatives that organisations may consider when defining their business strategy. Developed by Igor Ansoff and first published in the Harvard Business Review in 1957, the matrix provides a framework for executives, senior […]
“The charm as well as the challenge of requirements engineering is that it straddles geek and non-geek territory. Requirements describe how a software project and the system it produces interact with their physical and business environment (non-geek), but must do so with enough rigor and precision to serve as a blueprint for development, verification and […]
Per BABOK Guide 3rd edition, security is one of the categories of Non-Functional Requirements that, per definition, “augment the functional requirements of a solution, identify constraints on those requirements, or describe quality attributes a solution must exhibit when based on those requirements.” As such, security requirements describe “aspects of a solution that protect solution content […]
As an IT business analyst, one of the core responsibilities is to bridge the gap between business needs and technological solutions. When faced with a problem or an opportunity for improvement, it’s crucial to present alternative solutions to management clearly and compellingly, highlighting the one you see best. A well-structured framework can make this communication […]
In Agile development, the quality of user stories is paramount to the success of a project. Requirements size also plays a key role: to consider requirements ready for development they should be small enough to be implemented by the team within a single iteration. The INVEST criteria provide a comprehensive framework to ensure that user […]
The HADI cycle is a framework used in business and problem-solving to generate and test hypotheses. The acronym HADI stands for Hypothesis, Action, Data, and Insight. This cycle helps organizations organize their test results and gain insights about their business activity. In this article, you’ll learn the steps of HADI cycle, its benefits and considerations […]
ITIL is a world-renowned IT framework dedicated mainly to IT Service Management (ITSM) and other management systems delivering business value to their customers. ITIL has provided thorough, practical, and proven guidelines for developing an IT service management system for the last 30 years. It has also promoted continuous development for enterprises using and providing IT-enabled […]
A Force Field Analysis is a decision-making tool used to assess the importance, impact, and influence of various factors on proposed changes in business processes. It helps identify and evaluate the driving forces and restraining forces associated with a solution. Force Field Analysis allows BAs to make structured recommendations on how to strengthen the forces […]
A Business Activity Model (BAM) is a conceptual model that depicts the activities and logical dependencies within an organization from a stakeholder’s perspective. It provides a high-level view of what the organization does and captures the world view of a particular stakeholder. BAMs are used to explore, understand, and develop business requirements. Initially, there will […]
Recently, I read an interview with Jeff Bezos by Lex Friedman where the famous entrepreneur explains why Amazon doesn’t use PowerPoint for meetings. He lists 3 reasons for that: PowerPoint is designed to persuade. Slides are a sales tool. And inside the company, you shouldn’t sell. You all are truth-seeking. Slides are easy for the […]
Large projects often face the challenge of managing numerous people working over extended periods of time. This can lead to various issues, including the mistake of “everyone does everything” or overwhelming amount of internal communications. This approach can result in serious risks, including planners leaving gaps in the project plan by failing to anticipate all […]
