Jul

26

Definition of a Requirement

July 26, 2007 | 3 Comments

I got asked the following question about the official definition of a requirement used by the IIBA (which is itself only a slight modification of the IEEE’s):
 A requirement is1:

A condition or capability needed by a stakeholder2 to solve a problem or achieve an objective.
A condition or capability that must be met or possessed by a [...]

Jul

24

Version 2: A Brief Overview

July 24, 2007 | Leave a Comment

We know people have been waiting eagerly for the release of version 2.0 of the BABOK.
Last month, a few of us gathered in Hartford, CT to integrate the BABOK. The team took all of the information we’ve gathered, including the feedback from our expert and practitioner reviewers, and evaluated the structure of each of the [...]

Jul

18

Some Wiki-Related Frustration

July 18, 2007 | 7 Comments

I’ve been trying to identify a good wiki-style platform for collaborative authoring. As usual none of the contenders seem ideal. I’m looking for:

Low-cost or open source
Easy to install (or hosted)
WYSIWYG editing of pages
Ability to limit access to specified authors (only; I want only the authors to be able to read or modify entries–page locking would [...]

Jul

13

Nick Malik Gets It

July 13, 2007 | 1 Comment

Agile proponents are fond of arguing that the code should be all the documentation you need. There are a lot of reasons I’m uncomfortable with this idea, but Nick Malik has explained the problem well enough that I don’t need to anymore.  The post is good enough (and relevant enough to BAs) that I’m not [...]

Jul

12

Consultants and BAs

July 12, 2007 | Leave a Comment

Services Safari has a post up on what makes a good consultant. The first three points apply to good business analysts as well.
My ‘consultant’:

challenges me as to the appropriateness of certain business decisions. He/She has even questioned the need to pursue the project that he/she would be staffed. You need consultants who put your firm’s [...]

Jul

4

Sound Familiar?

July 4, 2007 | 2 Comments

I’m reading Don’t Make Me Think: A Common Sense Approach to Web Usability and came across the following passage:
…I read Gary Klein’s book Sources of Power: How People Make Decisions. Klein has spent many years studying naturalistic decision making: how people like firefighters, pilots, chessmasters, and nuclear power plant operators make high-stakes decisions in real [...]

Jul

3

IIBA Social Networking

July 3, 2007 | 3 Comments

We’ve set up a couple of groups for networking with IIBA members. Right now there’s one on LinkedIn and one on Facebook. If you can think of others we should be setting up let me know.

Jul

2

Housekeeping 2

July 2, 2007 | Leave a Comment

OK, some minor updates to the site look and feel (to make it a bit more distinctive) as well as updates to the About/Contact page. The blogroll still needs updating–I’m seriously considering adding a roll specifically for practicing BAs who blog (I actually keep most of those blogs in my reader and so have a [...]

Jul

2

On Knowing Your Sources

July 2, 2007 | Leave a Comment

Normally this is the kind of thing I’d do by email or comments, but unfortunately service oriented enterprise supports neither.
In a post there, Jeff Schneider blasts this article for pretension, based on a mistaken assumption that the author, Bill Zachmann, is the creator of the Zachman Framework.  In fact, it was created by John Zachman–the [...]

Jul

2

Housekeeping

July 2, 2007 | Leave a Comment

As you can see, I’ve cleaned off a lot of the blogroll links that went to “dead” blogs. I will probably be adding some over the next few weeks to replace them.
As you can imagine, the last few weeks have been a little crazy, with starting work full-time at the IIBA, BABOK integration, the IIBA [...]

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