It’s crazy how getting a recognized certification can change how people see you. Since I got my CBAP last month, I feel that many people realized how serious I was about Business Analysis. I also realized that “CBAP” is an interesting keyword to add to your LinkedIn profile 🙂
I also reached more than 100 subscribers to my newsletter last month (115 actually)! Don’t forget to sign-up for Eric the BA.com newsletter so that you don’t miss any of them (you might also be the 200th subscriber!).
Many of my 2016 projects for this blog are now on their way, so stay tuned to learn more about them. In the meantime, you’ll find my latest reading list below. Enjoy the ride!
Too busy to crawl the web for interesting Business Analysis content? Not interested by social networks noise? Once a month, Eric’s Business Analysis Reading List brings you a review of some of the best Business Analysis articles and websites.
From Eric the BA.com
In case you missed them, here are the most recent and most popular posts since the last edition of Eric’s Business Analysis Reading List:
- Taking Business Analysis deliverables to the next level series: part 3 (supporting your team
- Essential checklists for your CBAP certification journey
- The Junior Business Analyst Manifesto
- 10 checklists for the Business Analyst
From the Web
1Visio diagrams are a wonderful tool to structure and communicate information about business processes, but they have one big problem: they are really boring! Kim Quirke gives another example where Visio diagrams were made useful for stakeholders by democratizing them. BAs of the world, put your artistic hat on!
2Asking the right question to get the right answer is Business Analysis 101; otherwise, you would not be able to go anywhere with the information you gathered. However, asking the right question is often not enough; you need to focus on your responder in every aspect in order to get the information you need. Steve Blais does a really interesting job at highlighting the various aspects surrounding the act of asking a question.
3The BABoK might seem far away from the reality of the Business Analyst, but it all depends on your expectations about it. The BABoK should be considered as a high-level framework, not a detailed methodology on which you can rely to define what you should do next in your current project. Mark Owen share his thoughts on this on his blog.
4I often compare Business Analysts to physicians, as we are there to find solutions based on symptoms of problems found in organizations (like the physician does with his patient’s symptoms). Another nice way to compare us is to see Business Analysts as professional thinkers, since most of our job is to think about problems and solutions. Laura Brandenburg explores the subject in one of her blog post.
5Communication skills are essential to Business Analysts. However, good communication is not as easy as it might seems and yet, I often see BAs that don’t know how to effectively communicate their ideas. In order to captivate your audience and share your message as intended, Jonathan Babcock and Rebecca Parker propose 4 principles for effective communication. If you need to improve your communication skills, this is a must-read.
Do you like what you’re reading?
Did you come across other interesting business analysis content recently? Share it with us in the comments below!
