Do you ever wonder why some people absolutely love their work, get all the interesting projects, and are consistently being rewarded for their efforts, while others seem stuck and never get a break? Which side of the pendulum would you like to be on?There is a success path for business analysts. And getting on it is easier than you think. It’s not about working harder or spending countless hours perfecting documentation. It is about applying tried and true laws of success, to show up with...

In this podcast, I sit down with Business Analyst Specialist Sohail Chatha to talk about the very timely topic of digital transformations. Often these transformations have meager success rates, but Sohail explains how to achieve success and explains why the business analyst role is significant on these journeys.Sohail shares how the rapid transformation of products and services is actually transforming us into the fourth industrial revolution. The speed, breadth and depth of the revolution is...

In this episode – we speak with Product Management professional Susan Moore to explore how to address the business analysis activities on a Commercial Off-The-Shelf (COTS) project. Many business analysts make the BIG mistake of applying the same approach, practices and analysis techniques from custom built solutions to COTS solutions – but there are many differences to understand. Join us as we address these differences by walking through each of the 6 business analysis knowledge areas while...

In this episode – Tianua Ross discusses the power of business analysis – regardless of job title or discipline.  We explore why it’s a hidden gem of competencies – yet so many still fail to recognize its value.Tiauna Ross is a Michigan-based project leader, career and empowerment coach, author, speaker and trainer who actively works with individuals and groups to improve personal effectiveness through career coaching, mentoring, seminars, training and personal development.Tiauna has achieved...

Product focused roles are in high-demand – but can a traditional business analyst successfully transition into one of these sought after positions? What skills are needed to make this transition? Should a business analyst target a position as a product owner or a product manager and what is the difference between these two roles any way? Are these positions part of the business analyst career path?In this podcast, I sit down with Product Management Consultant - Kevin Brennan to answer these...

John A. Zachman is the originator of the “Framework for Enterprise Architecture” (The Zachman Framework™) which has received broad acceptance around the world as an integrative framework, an ontology for descriptive representations of Enterprises. Mr. Zachman is not only known for his work on Enterprise Architecture, but is also known for his early contributions to IBM’s Information Strategy methodology (Business Systems Planning) as well as to their Executive team planning techniques...

Gladys S.W. Lam is a world-renowned authority on business design. She is Principal and Co-Founder of Business Rule Solutions, LLC (www.BRSolutions.com), the most recognized company world-wide in developing business capabilities based on business architecture and business rules. Based upon her experiences consulting to over two hundred organizations, Ms. Lam developed the landmark BRS methodology with Ronald G. Ross featuring numerous innovative techniques including the popular ConceptSpeak™...

Relationship building is critical for all members of a product development team – but it’s especially important for project managers and business analysts because their work requires the ability to lead resources without necessarily having the positional authority over those they lead. In this podcast, I sit down with Dave Mantica VP and General Manager for Soft Ed US to talk about the intriguing concept of ‘likenomics’.Dave teaches us about the importance of being likeable and its direct...

Listen in on my conversation with Camille Spruill as she educates us about the business analysis skills Agile teams desperately need. Camille helps us understand how the role of the traditional waterfall analyst is changing. She highlights how traditional analysts need to ‘step up their game’ in order to compete in this more-fast paced evolving project space. If you are working in waterfall and desire the opportunity to advance your skills – Camille shares her experience on how you must own...

Modeling is a very important activity for any product development team – yet this important work is often overlooked. Even the teams who embrace modeling don’t always understand how best to leverage its value, choose which models are appropriate, or pair models for obtaining the greatest impacts. Join me as I have the opportunity to interview Greta Blash – a longtime community contributor in the project/program management space - as we discuss using models to create group memory.Greta shares...

Many service members have challenges associated with transitioning from the service for a variety of reasons.  Finding good jobs after the service continues to be a challenge.  Post 911 service members continue to have a higher unemployment rate than the rest of the country.  Gr8Transitions4U has developed the “Transitioning Military Book Series” that enables military personnel to map their military skills and values from the service into lucrative commercial positions through education and...

Join us for an in-depth discussion with technologist and industry thought leader Steve Blais PMP, PMI-PBA. Steve takes us on a very insightful journey of the business analysis profession – discussing where it all started, how the profession has evolved, what is happening today and what we can expect for our future. If you are a current business analyst – concerned about the changes occurring with agile, digital, and analytics, you’ll want to tune in! Your future is bright and Steve shares his...

In this episode Yulia Kosarenko shares with us the importance of possessing a business analyst 'mindset'? This mindset is critical to move a business analyst from the position of scribe to operating as a valued member of a product team. Join us to learn about the key characteristics that define this mindset.Do you...Possess the drive to see what is missing from a given scenario?Think differently than the other team members working on your project?Have the willingness to speak up when the...