Is Business Analysis Low Tech?

IRM Training — Sat, 13 Jul 2013 03:14:06 +0000

Many course attendees ask us – what are the best business analysis tools, what software should I use, can we have computers in the training room?

The reality is, the more sophisticated the software you’re using, the greater the chance it will hinder, rather than help, the business analysis process.

Almost 10 years ago, an article by Scott Ambler, Software Modeling on Whiteboards, argued that the modelling tool with the greatest installed base in the world was the whiteboard. Scott is the agile practice leader at IBM and author of several books on agile and UML.

Similarly, Alistair Cockburn (of Agile Manifesto fame) put forward in his 2001 book Agile Software Development that face to face is the most effective form of communication – particularly when enhanced with whiteboards, flip charts, paper or index cards. See Scott Ambler’s article on Communication on Software Projects which uses data from Alistair’s book.

Ok you might argue, but the world has moved on, smart phones, tablets, cloud computing are not only part of our everyday life but essential to it. We now have a huge range of modelling and requirements management tools at our disposal.

So why have recent business analysis articles trumpeted the benefits of such leading edge business analysis tools as Etch a Sketch and drawing paper? And we all know that agile was really invented by 3M as a means of boosting post-it note sales!

In the words of Brian Cooney, author of Separating Analysis from Design, would Shakespeare have been a better writer if he had a word processor? If you think so, grab your favourite word processor and write a sonnet which people will be delighted to quote 400 years from now.

What’s clear from all this is that the best business analyst tool in the world is the one you’re born with – your brain. Mastering it and applying its enormous capabilities to your business analysis problems is a far better ROI than learning the latest software toolset.

Download our free Requirements Specification Template.

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Separating Analysis from Design

IRM Training — Mon, 12 Apr 2004 04:31:13 +0000

Looking at what business objectives you are trying to satisfy before leaping into the technology enables you to use the technology wisely, manage scope and cut costs, producing systems which work for your clients.

It’s easy to concentrate on the technical features of any project and lose sight of the reason for its existence. Every project exists to solve a problem. Either what you have doesn’t work well enough and needs improving, or you need to invent something totally new. After all, “If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.”

Too often the pressures of deadlines and budgets lead us to bypass the important process of analysing business needs, and we leap straight into the technology. But how often do we find that the system doesn’t do exactly what’s required. Users are obliged to use workarounds, reducing some of the benefits we were supposed to provide which also affects our credibility. How often do we need to invest extra time and expense in providing Version 2 (and 3 and 4 and …), when some careful work might have exposed the real needs earlier?