Analyst’s corner digest #14

Top stories published in May?2023

Hi there!

Welcome to the May edition of Analyst’s corner digest.?

This time we’ve got a collection of articles on BA skills and processes including a discussion on different techniques a BA should have, a role of BA in Agile, tools to focus on as a newstarter. Starting a career as a business analyst may be overwhelming, and resources like this help to gain focus.

A separate interesting essay covers the importance of understanding data objects and their relationships. We deal with information technology, and not spending enough time on the core of it — information — may result in issues.

For those striving for personal productivity, we’ve got articles on time management and overcoming “analysis paralysis” — spending too much time analysing something instead of making a decision or taking an action.

Finally, for more technical minded readers we’ve got a collection of data analytics recipes and an architecture essay on how to make IT systems more resilient.

Enjoy reading.

— yours, Igor

https://www.analystscorner.org/

BA Skills & Processes

1) A guide to becoming an expert facilitator, by Obi Nwokedi

As a business analyst, I’m generally responsible for leading requirements workshops to understand processes and problems, and to analyze the requirements needed to develop new systems, products, or processes within an organization. These sessions are normally with everyone from users to SMEs and project sponsors to leadership, etc. When I first got into business analysis, it was pretty daunting, but like everything out there, it got better with practice.

This write up isn’t just for BA’s though. It’s for product managers, user researchers, design thinkers, and everyone who facilitates as a part of their job. I hope this article will help make that journey easier and faster for many of you.

> Keep reading…

2) Roles and responsibilities of a business analyst in a typical agile?project, by Bhavini Sapra???

When I was trained in Business Analysis, I always tried to join the pieces I had learnt.

I also watched a lot of videos on Youtube about “what a day looks like in the life of a BA” or “how a BA handles every stage of a project”.

But I got the fundamental idea when I actually experienced it in my job role.

Self experiments are a better teacher than anyone else’s tried and tested formulas.

I am talking about this today as I know for a lot of aspiring BAs, it’s always a question as to what roles they have to perform and how.

Hence, this article will walk you through a typical workflow for a BA in an Agile/Scrum project.

> Keep reading…

3) These Are the BA Techniques You Should Be Aware?Of, by Bhavini Sapra???

How can you prepare for a Business Analyst role?

The first answer to this question is to start reading BABOK (Business Analysis Body of Knowledge).

This is a very famous name you’ll hear in the BA market, a book with more than 500 pages to cover each and every BA concept.

I also started my preparation by reading this book independently, a sort of self-study approach. But after 1 week, looking at the length of the book, my consistency failed.

> Keep reading…?

4) Has anyone seen my?data? by Karl Wiegers

The computing business used to be called “data processing” for a reason: all software applications create, consume, manipulate, or delete data. We can think of data as the glue that connects all the other requirement types; alternatively, functionality exists to process data.?

Both perspectives underscore the importance of exploring data considerations during requirements elicitation. Practice #8 in the book Software Requirements Essentials is to assess data concepts and relationships.

> Keep reading…

5) What are the important tools that you should be focusing on as a new?BA, by Bhavini Sapra???

When I completed my training, I was quite confident with the theoretical knowledge that I got, but what I left with was this huge list of tools that a business analyst can use.

I had no clue what to learn first and what companies usually ask for. I didn’t want to waste my time and effort.

Today, I chose this topic to speak about because once you’re done with learning BA concepts and skills, you’ll be required to have hands-on experience with software that BAs use for managing their stuff.

> Keep reading…

6) API designing and testing for business?analysts, by Pushkar Anand

APIs have become mainstream and business analysts are called upon to design them and make sure that they satisfy business and functional needs. It is absolutely critical to understand the intricacies of designing them — both functional and technical.

The first thing to understand is the need for the API and the kind of problem it is going to solve.

> Keep reading…

Productivity & Collaboration

1) Time Management Simplified, by Swati Pitre, CBAP? CPRE?

Recently, a friend of mine called me saying her son, who is studying in college, needed help on a very urgent basis. I agreed to help. He and his student group wanted to discuss answers to specific time management questions. They also wanted to know some industry tools or personal productivity tools one may use. Later they said that my answers were helpful to them.

So let me share with you those questions and answers.

> Keep reading…

2) Breaking the paralysis: Tips for overcoming analysis paralysis in business analysis, by Mishal Chowdhury

I’ve seen firsthand how analysis paralysis can derail even the most well-intentioned agile projects. It’s a common problem that can be caused by a number of factors.

If you’re struggling with analysis paralysis, this article will give you a few tips that can help.

> Keep reading…

Enterprise architecture & Agile

1) How to Make IT Systems Resilient, by Shashi Sastry

No humanmade system is immune to failure. However robust we make a service, it will go down sometime. What we architects need to do is deliberately design services to recover quickly.

Here’s how, from my experience in architecting and improving resilience in IT systems.

> Keep reading…

Data analytics

• Do you need to excel in data analytics before moving into a BA role??I was told that moving to a business analyst role without having prior experience in it would be impossible. But this time I got something new. “Move into a data analyst role and from there catch the train of BA”. I knew that internal switch was the option I’d heard a lot about but this one made more sense to me at that time, although it sounded like quite a long process. By Bhavini Sapra???
• Linear regression: The bedrock of predictive analytics:?Predictive analytics stands as a cornerstone of modern data science, influencing decisions across industries — from finance to healthcare, from marketing to operations research. At the heart of predictive analytics lies linear regression. By Dr Nilimesh Halder
• Unraveling logistic regression: An essential guide to predictive analysis: Logistic regression, much like linear regression, stands as a fundamental method in predictive analytics. However, while linear regression is typically employed for predicting quantitative outputs, logistic regression shines in the realm of categorical predictions, primarily binary. By Dr Nilimesh Halder
• Harnessing the power of Grid Search for optimized machine learning models: Machine learning is a fast-evolving field, and choosing the optimal parameters for a machine learning algorithm is often a challenging task. This is where hyperparameter tuning methods like Grid Search come into play, proving to be valuable tools for enhancing model performance. By Dr Nilimesh Halder
• Mastering categorical variables: Techniques and best practices for predictive modeling: Categorical variables play a crucial role in many real-world datasets, as they represent non-numeric information such as categories, labels, or groups. However, most predictive modeling algorithms require numerical inputs, making it essential to pre-process categorical variables effectively. By Dr Nilimesh Halder
• Mastering time series analysis: A comprehensive guide to understanding and modeling time-dependent data: Time series analysis is a specialized branch of statistics that deals with the analysis of ordered, often temporal data. It is used across a broad range of disciplines, including economics, weather forecasting, finance, and more, to predict future values based on previously observed values. By Dr Nilimesh Halder

Sponsored content

Advanced Business Analysis (CBAP(r) Exam preparation)?is an online self-paced course for adventurous BAs who want to prepare for the CBAP exam.

• all BABOK knowledge areas
• all BABOK techniques
• sample CBAP exam
• 35 PDU/CDUs
• surprisingly low prices for this type of training

>>> Pricing and enrolments

Get in touch with Igor Arkhipov if you want your content featured. This keeps our newsletter going ;)

Thanks folks!

#analystscorner #businessanalysis #agile #enterprisearchitecture #dataanalytics