business analysis training – The Meta Business Analyst

4 Must Read Non-BA Books That Will Make You Better Business Analyst

Angelo the BA — Sun, 30 Oct 2022 21:18:47 +0000

Growth begins when we start to accept our own weakness -Jean Vanier

Being a great business analyst is more than just jotting down everything your stakeholders may want. It takes skills that many people just fail to take the time to learn. A lot of people think these skills only come with years of experience, but you’d be surprised how quickly you can gain some skills with a simple shift in the way you think about things.

Below is a reading list that opened my eyes to new ways of seeing the same problems. Not only did they make me a better business analyst, but they also just made me an all-around better person. I know for sure that this material has given me a head start on many aspects of my BA career and just life in general. I’ve already read everything that’s listed here, so good luck catching up with me! Also, if you have any other great reads, let me know in the comments section!

1. How to Win Friends & Influence People

This book is gold! It is about understanding how people work, so you can work better with them. The most powerful sections, from a BA standpoint, are learning how to tell people they are wrong, without making them hate you, as well as how to inspire people to welcome making changes for the better. If you are going to read only 1 book from this list, it should be this one.

2. Decisive: How to Make Better Choices in Life and Work

You make decisions every day, and you would be amazed at how easy it is to quickly make good ones on a regular basis. Unfortunately, everything you have experienced in life makes you blind to your own biases in making those decisions. Decisive helps you break out of those biases and to make you a more efficient decision-maker.

3. The Creative Habit: Learn It and Use It for Life

Creativity is not genetic. It is a trainable skill. This book essentially breaks down the creative process that comes naturally to some, so it can be accessible to anybody. So if you want to take on the challenge of being a more creative thinker and problem solver, then this is a must-read.

4. Drive: The Surprising Truth About What Motivates Us

Most people believe the best way to motivate is with rewards. That’s a mistake! A Huge One. If you can understand why people do things, then you can more easily understand how to help them do things better!

IIBA BABOK vs PMI PBA Guide, What’s the Difference?

Angelo the BA — Sun, 30 Oct 2022 21:18:46 +0000

After getting my certification (CCBA) from the IIBA, I had no intention of jumping ship and doing the BA certification from the PMI group, PMI Professional in Business Analysis. I didn’t want to have to learn a new structure of information if I ever decided to go and get the next level of certification for myself (CBAP). However, I decided to check it out to see how different it really is. Here is my at-a-glance analysis comparison of the two.

1. The big picture structure is generally the same

The IIBA sections business analysis into 6 knowledge areas and the PMI folks basically use the exact same concepts, only they just call them sections and they (rightfully) group some together. Below is the high-level categorization, in the order that they are given the relevant texts.

IIBA Knowledge Areas

Business Analysis Planning and Monitoring
Elicitation
Requirements Management and Communication
Enterprise Analysis
Requirements Analysis
Solutions Assessment and Validation

PMI Sections

Needs Assessment
Business Analysis Planning
Requirements Elicitation and Analysis
Traceability and Monitoring
Solution Evaluation

You can see pretty immediately that they are extremely similar, which is good because that means basically everybody agrees on what business analysis is, and the certifications from the two will include similar data.

2. The Flow of information is completely different

I have a much more intimate understanding of the BABOK because I studied it for my certification exam, and in skimming through the PMI guide I found the flow of information very different. As I think about it, the structure and flow of the information are in accordance with what they have titled their relevant works of literature.

BABOK Flow

The BABOK stands for Business Analysis Body of Knowledge, so the information is very thoroughly sectioned and categorized. For example, each knowledge area is sectioned into Tasks (PMI has roughly the same tasks as well), and each task is sectioned into 4 categories: Inputs, Elements, Outputs, and Techniques. An input for a task might come from an output that actually falls into a later section, therefore you have to jump there to fully understand the input. Techniques are all held in the back of the book, so they just touch on them within the section, you’d have to go back and read more about it. As a result, trying to read it once through will leave a lot of gaps in your understanding. There is a lot of back and forth that has to happen before you can understand everything fully. The order of Knowledge Areas also doesn’t quite follow real life, so it’s a little confusing for a brand-new business analyst. However, the organization and categorization of like information makes it very easy to study for a test.

BA Practitioners Guide Flow

The PMI’s book is called Business Analysis for Practitioners: A Practice Guide. It’s a guide, so instead of trying to categorize bits of information and section them together, it’s more like a walkthrough from the beginning to the end of an engagement. Meaning, if you are a brand new business analyst, you can start from page one, and use it as a walk-through guide as you progress through your project. The techniques are fully explained as you read along. They even throw in common roadblocks and techniques to handle them. It makes it much easier to visualize the typical business analysis process and how specific outputs are reached. BABOK on the other hand might say here are 5 elements of this task, also here are 6 potential outputs of the tasks leaving you a little confused as to how 3 of the 6 outputs exist because they don’t quite match the 5 tasks. I can’t speak to how to study friendly the PMI guide is, because I haven’t had to study from it, but it definitely seems like an easier reading end-to-end.

Conclusion

The information is roughly the same, the major difference is how the information is organized. In my opinion, the BABOK structure would work so much better as a wiki type of site, where jumping around and digging in where you need to is much more common. The PMI guide would benefit a more green BA who needs guidance and doesn’t have a lot of opportunity to nag other more experienced BA’s for clarifications.

How Can A Business Analyst Can Get Industry Knowledge Without Industry Experience?

Angelo the BA — Sun, 30 Oct 2022 21:18:44 +0000

How do you get industry experience without industry knowledge? This question troubled me a lot when I was first starting out as a business analyst mainly because I was afraid of getting siloed into a particular business analyst track before knowing what really interested me and NEVER being able to get out. If you’ve ever done a job search for a business analyst on Indeed.com or a similar site, then you’ll see that a lot of them ask for relevant experience in the industry or software for the immediate project you will be on. This was probably more scary to me because a lot of the time, I didn’t see what I was up to as a business analyst coming up in the search results.

In truth, industry knowledge can be important if you are on a very tight schedule with very tight needs. However, a good business analyst should be able to perform the job well, even without any relevant industry experience, some might even argue, lack of industry experience gives a fresh perspective and forces the fresh business analyst to ask questions that an industry expert might take for granted.

Still though, even for a fresh-to-the-industry business analyst, it would help a lot to have some kind of a solid base to start with, so you can start creating the right picture for the domain you will be working with. With that in mind here are some smart ways to fill the gaps in your BA toolbox.

#3. Wikipedia.org

Wikipedia is a wealth of knowledge and because of its structure, it’s easy for you to dig deep into the areas where you are less knowledgeable as well as learn industry-standard terms and definitions. This will make it easier to have conversations with your stakeholders and be on the same page. Most importantly though, it’s free.

#2. Gartner.com

Gartner’s true value come in the form of industry research especially related to software applications. While it’s great to get a cheat sheet for what applications are out there, another huge bonus is that it explains industry/domain best practices, since the tools are going to be rated on how well they meet those best practices. If you have an account, or your company does, USE IT. It will save you time and you will learn a lot about your domain quickly.

#1. APQC.org

Another great research company, APQC focuses on process standards as opposed to tool comparisons. APQC has a brilliant taxonomic diagram of basically every part of a business with every section broken down by its relevant parts (I like to reference it when I don’t understand something). It includes product development, supply chain management, IT, HR, Accounting, and the lot. If there was one guide to help you get started in a new area of the business and start asking the right questions, this would be it! Unfortunately, I’m not entirely sure it’s open to individual users. My current company has an account with them, therefore I have access, but I have not been able to figure out how to get an individual user account.