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Latest from the Business Alchemist
What’s in a name?
9th February 2012
Your humble Alchemist has been overseas quite a bit lately, working in the United States. Many of the people I’ve been working
with have the job title ‘Business Information Manager’ (BIM) which seems to be a sort of business analyst ..
The failure question
23rd January 2012
Here at Alchemist HQ we have been researching the nature of business change projects and the incidence of failure..
New Year Resolutions for 2012
9th January 2012
At this time of year, it is customary for people to make some resolutions for the coming year and your Alchemist is no exception..
The Business Alchemist goes domestic
20th December 2011
A few days ago, the Alchemist came across the most wonderful melt-in-the-mouth chocolate brownies..
SFIA moves forwards to version 5
7th December 2011
The Business Alchemist watched with great interest this week when the latest version of the skills management framework SFIA was released..
Outsourcing with an atmosphere of trust
21st November 2011
The Business Alchemist recognises that outsourcing makes sense for many organisations. Either the skills are lacking in-house, or the infrequency and nature of certain types of work makes maintaining a full time capability financially unviable..
The benefits of following a “process of repeated failure”
8th November 2011
In the November 2011 edition of Wired (UK edition) there is an excellent article and interview with James Dyson. What fascinates me about James Dyson is his ability to approach established product areas and make significant shifts in the technology through innovation which then impacts a whole industry..
Why Recognise the Expert BA?
24th October 2011
“What next?” for the aspirational Business Analyst requiring recognition, is a question long asked but not yet answered. Does the individual analyst, or organisation as a whole, need some form of higher level recognition of BA expertise?..
The recipe for success – don’t follow the cookbook!
13th October 2011
Every few years (or so it seems) a new approach turns up in BA world. Typically the approach is adopted by some early innovators until eventually the message spreads across internal BA practices and, ultimately, entire organisations. .. Cue mass hysteria ..
Portfolio management – another role for the business analyst?
8th September 2011
Amazingly, the Business Alchemist isn’t the only person blogging out there in cyberspace and I recently came across an interesting piece on the APM website about portfolio management. As is the case with these things, it got me thinking…
The magic formula for Business Alchemy
1st September 2011
The term Alchemist, historically, refers to a person who found a way to turn base metal into gold; in other words, take something of poor or lesser worth and transform it into something of greater value. Another way of saying this could be transforming something problematic into something efficient...
Start with the requirements!
4th August 2011
I’ve just listened to a report from the Public Accounts Committee into the failure of the UK government’s £11.4bn project to computerise NHS records. The report said that .. £7bn had been spent thus far with very little result...
The BA as a Babel Fish?
25th July 2011
I often find myself discussing the role of the Business Analyst with colleagues and contemporaries. One of the most common viewpoints to arise is that the BA is a bridge between the business and IT. Now – I can’t help but relate this to the Babel Fish in Douglas Adams’ Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy...
Give it a try, you might be surprised....
14th July 2011
Encountering new ideas, concepts and techniques can be an energising experience. But increasingly I hear people say that they didn’t find anything useful in that book/article/forum/presentation/course – you name it – and this always surprises me...
Understanding business analysis
30th June 2011
Type “Business Analysis” into any search engine and you get similar results. Aside from the obligatory Wikipedia definition, the results are dominated by adverts ... Oh, and a lot about how to define and manage requirements. But there’s very little on why Business Analysis is an invaluable tool for organisations across the world..
Agile: Fad, Fashion or Fetish?
13th June 2011
Every few years in IS, a new messiah appears proclaiming the benefits of some idea that is going to revolutionise the field. We’ve had, for instance, structured methods (as opposed to what, precisely? Anarchic methods?), relational databases, UML and, now Agile..
Project Managers versus Business Analysts – mutual incomprehension
24th May 2011
Having been both a business analyst (BA) and a project manager (PM) at various times, including sometimes at the same time (with not completely successful results), it had not occurred to me until recently that there could be mutual incomprehension between the two roles..
What value your BA toolkit?
5th May 2011
Markedly different views are often expressed regarding the relative value of subject matter expertise when compared to the technical toolkit or personal skills a BA offers...
The devil’s in the detail (and the data)
14th April 2011
For as long as I can remember (which is quite a long time now!), politicians of all persuasions seem to have been banging on about efficiency in the public services...
UML Fever spreads
4th April 2011
…and I don’t mean fever in a positive way. UML has been around for well over a decade now and has been broadly adopted by many people and organisations as the de-facto standard for modelling modern systems. I say adopted, maybe I mean 'caught'; let me explain:..
The ‘Agile’ word
24th March 2011
I was thinking the other day about how much the word Agile is appearing everywhere at the moment ..
Pushing beyond requirements
15th March 2011
One of the major issues for less experienced business analysts is that they often have trouble relating ideas and theories to their practical working lives. An example of when this problem arises..
Process improvement - focus on the customer to deliver real value
8th March 2011
In the early 1990s, Business Process Engineering took the business improvement world by storm. Consultancies were queuing up to promote their ability to re-engineer businesses and increase efficiency. What has gone wrong?
The Challenge of E-Learning
24 February 2011
I was recently asked to review an e-learning product produced by a major organisation. It used video, graphics and animation and cost tens of thousands of pounds...