10 checklists for the Business Analyst

I’ll admit it: I love checklists. They allow me to stay productive and organized in my professional life as well as in my personal life. I’m organizing my work following the Getting Things Done principles for a few years now, and lists are now a way for me to perform a continuous brain dump so that I can focus on things that really matter, without losing any important ideas (a special thanks to the Evernote application for that).

Business Analysts can use checklists in their day-to-day work too (just added to my to-do list: write a post about checklists and BAs). In this context, I’ve decided to bring you 10 of the most interesting checklists about Business Analysis I’m keeping in my reference material. I already shared many of them with my students in the last years, and they were useful for many of them.

This list will probably be updated from time to time, but in the meantime, let’s go with the checklist to rule them all!

Are you made for Business Analysis?

Many good BAs are still hidden in organizations because they don’t know they have the skills to become good ones. I usually share these lists with my students at the beginning of the semester, so that they have a better idea whether or not they are ready for Business Analysis.

14 reasons to love Business Analysis (link unavailable anymore) | Kerryn Hewson at RedVespa proposes a great list of reasons why she loves Business Analysis. Perfect for wannabe BAs and for senior BAs who are looking for a pep talk.

42 reasons to consider a Business Analyst career | Laura Brandenburg at Bridging the Gap is providing a good summary of what’s the everyday life of a Business Analyst, from do’s and dont’s to your passions and expectations about work.

4 Business Analysis myths debunked | Adrian Reed at Bridging the Gap will reassure everyone who still thinks that they need a technical background to be a good BA, or that Business Analysis is simply a mandatory step to a project management role.

The Junior Business Analyst Manifesto | One of the most popular posts on Eric the BA blog; learn about the steps you need to follow to start your Business Analysis career.

Being efficient as a Business Analyst

Whether you’re starting a career in Business Analyst or you’re an experienced BA, these checklists will help you to perform a good Business Analysis job. Laura Brandenburg from Bridging the Gap is the author of all these wonderful lists (she has a very interesting website about Business Analysis that is worth adding to your favorites), except for the last one.

53 tips to discover all the requirements | Getting the feeling that we’ve reached the end of requirements elicitation is not easy, but these tips will help you to be more confortable with your elicitation techniques and their results.

7 questions to get the most of your stakeholders | Getting relevant information soon in the business analysis process is critical to success; here are 7 questions that will help you look in control of the situation when you are starting requirements elicitation.

8 steps to mastering the Business Analysis process | Being a relatively young professional path, Business Analysis is often misunderstood. By following a “standard” process, you will make your stakeholders more confortable with what you’re doing, and why you’re doing it. Excellent for new BAs as well as experienced ones as a refresher.

20 quick tips to conduct effective interviews | Stephanie Famuyide at BA Learnings provides us a list of tips about how to conduct effective interviews, both for you and the interviewees. This is useful for requirements elicitation, but can used for any type of interview.

37 habits of a great Business Analyst | Matt Adams (aka the BA Guru) brings a list of 37 habits that a great BA should have. Take a look at his list to see how well you score!

Becoming a senior Business Analyst

What is a senior Business Analyst? This question can be hard and tricky to answer, but by combining different opinions, it’s easier to frame. Are you ready to become a senior BA?

16 Business Analyst commandments | Tim Ward at The BA Times gives us a great list of commandments in order to deliver a great Business Analysis experience to our stakeholders.

6 traits to look out for when hiring a Business Analyst | Jarett Hailes at the Modern Analyst gives us some tips about what to look for to hire great Business Analysts, and what to do in hiring interviews to reveal these characteristics. If you’re looking for a BA job, this is a must-read.

6 key characteristics of a senior Business Analyst | Kupe Kupersmith at The BA Times shares his thoughts about the characteristics that help discriminate between Business Analysis seniority levels. Aim for these characteristics in your professional development to become a senior BA.

Do you like what you’re reading?

Let’s keep in touch! Subscribe to my newsletter and be notified when I publish something new (about once a month). You can unsubscribe at anytime!
By submitting this form, your information will be shared with MailChimp, which I use to manage my newsletter.

Because you’re a good Business Analyst, you already realized that there were 11 checklists; where’s the 11th one?  You just completed your review of it 🙂  Since I started updating this list, this line is not relevant anymore 🙂

Do you have other great checklists about Business Analysis? Please share them with us in the comments below, or in the social medias (FacebookTwitter, or Google+)!

Image credits: gerbrak @ freeimages.com

3 comments

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

By Eric Provost

Your host

Eric Provost

Making sense out of chaos as a BA & UX specialist

Recent Posts

Recent Comments

Archives

Categories

Meta