Category Archives: Process

All things related to the project process.

5 Tips For Making it Past the Phone Screen

Over the course of my career, I have had the opportunity to be part of the recruiting process for hiring Business Analysts for a few companies I’ve worked for. Most recently, I have spent the last 3-4 weeks up to my eyebrows trying to find senior BAs to join our quickly growing team. Having screened…

Sometimes the 28th Time’s a Charm

Remember, requirements are the what but not the how. And it’s our job as business analysts to help our clients remember that what we really need to understand is their what, and that it’s our job to find the how.

But sometimes you have to remind them of that.

And sometimes it takes 28 times.

Knowledge Transfer Tips – From The Departing Employee’s Side

Don’t waste a single day of your knowledge transfer time! Here are some tips when you are the departing employee.

Q&A: Modifying an Existing System

Three things to consider when preparing for modifications to an existing system.

5 Reminders For Kicking Off a New Project

Whew! This year has started off with a bang! Kicking off a large, strategic project has been refreshing – and has reminded me of some important lessons. So I thought I’d share 5 things I was reminded of over the past couple weeks and to get your thoughts on what I have coming up next.

Stakeholder or Steakholder?

This week I wrapped up my 7-part series on Engaging Project Stakeholders. In the course of writing that series, I consistently spelled “stakeholders” incorrectly (thank goodness for spell check) and shared a tweet about it:

Engaging Project Stakeholders (Part 7) – Keeping the Engagement Going

Throughout this series I’ve talked about why it matters to engage your stakeholders, how to identify your stakeholders, kicking off the project and requirements phase effectively, and developing a requirements work plan (including addressing change management). In this final post of the series, I share a few tips for keeping this engagement going throughout the rest of your project.

Engaging Project Stakeholders (Part 6) – Change Management

Change Management is the process of identifying, analyzing, and deciding on modifications to your clients’ needs as they have been documented in your Requirements and/or Specification documents. Clearly defining the change management process in advance will help to keep your stakeholders engaged.

Weekly Wrap Up: Incident Tickets, Stepping Up, FAQs, Compliments, Kids & Clouds

Weekly Wrap Up: Incident Tickets, Stepping Up, FAQs, Compliments, Kids & Clouds

Engaging Project Stakeholders (Part 5) – Requirements Work Plan

Preparing the Requirements Work Plan gives you a chance to take a step back, analyze the scope of work, and determine the best techniques and approach to facilitating the requirements work.