BA Toolbox – A3 Report

Karl Wiegers shares his lessons on requirements, project management, design, quality and more. Karl’s advice can make you significantly better at what you do. Show Notes Karl Wiegers started programming in 1970 and has collected 60 lessons he has learned in several areas of software development including requirements, design, project management, culture, teamwork, quality, and process improvement. Each of these lessons bring insights that can help you to and your organization to become significantly better at creating high quality, valuable solutions to your customers. The Need to Iterate Almost everything we do takes more than a single shot and design is a good example. The first lesson in the design category of Karl’s book is “design demands iteration”.  There’s always more than one design solution for a software problem and seldom a single best solution. The first design approach you come up with is unlikely to be the best option.  A good rule of thumb is that you’re not done with design until you’ve created at least three designs, discard them, and take the best ideas from those three and build something better. The same holds true for requirements.  It will take a few iterations to get it right.  These are cyclical things that you have to plan in your project management approach.  You’re going to have to build in some reviews, get some feedback, prototype, and do some modeling to make sure we’re on the right track. Icebergs are always larger than they first appear; that means that there’s going to be growth in the project. There’s going to be new information and new ideas that come along.  You have to build in that growth and include contingency buffers into your plans.  The bigger the project, the more unknowns and ambiguity and the more likely it is to change. Understanding Stakeholders and Customers Usage-centric development (as opposed to user-centric) is more likely to satisfy customer needs than product or feature-centered development.   We shouldn’t care about features as much as you care about knowing what people need to do with the product.  That’s the difference between the usage-centric approach and the product-centric approach. That begins by understanding your stakeholders.  Stakeholders are individuals, groups, or even systems who can shape or influence the direction of a project or who are affected by the project.  To be successful, you need to identify your various user classes and identify who’s going to be the literal voice of the customer. Keep in mind that the customer isn’t always right, but they always have a point.  Many times, the customer may ask for a solution, which may or may not be the right thing.  To provide valuable solutions, we need to understand the underlying problem.  If the solution they propose is the answer, what is the question? Listen to the full episode for more lessons and advice on stakeholders, quality, applying what you’ve learned, and more. YOUR HOMEWORKPick two areas you want to get better at and vow to spend some of your time on the project learning about those areas. Look for opportunities to apply that new learning on your project and perform in those areas better than you would have before your commitment to learn and develop your skill in that focus area. Links Mentioned in this Episode Karl’s Personal Website – KarlWiegers.comProcessImpact.com – Karl’s business and book informationInformation on Karl’s book, Software Development Pearls Karl Wiegers Karl Wiegers is an independent consultant, author, speaker, and thought leader in the project community. His books on software requirements are considered required reading for Business Analysts and Project Managers. As a consultant and trainer, Karl has worked with more than 100 companies and government organizations of all types, helping them improve the effectiveness and efficiency of their software development activities. Thank you for listening to the program To get more valuable content to enhance your skills and advance your career, you can subscribe on iTunes. Also, reviews on iTunes are highly appreciated! I read each review and it helps keep me motivated to continue to bring you valuable content each week. TrendingMBA063: Starting a Career in Business Analysis Popular EpisodesMBA041: What’s the Second Best User Story?Lightning Cast: Moving to a BA RoleMBA125: Become the Conscience of the BusinessMBA105: The Best Advice I Ever ReceivedMBA073: Agile Requirements – What’s DifferentMBA066: Starting a BA Community of PracticeThe post MBA228: Software Development Pearls appeared first on Mastering Business Analysis.

Ian Reynolds discusses how to discover the right solutions for your customers and then deliver them quickly. Show Notes Many organizations, especially as people are trying to work in more Lean and Agile ways, work towards producing a minimum viable product (MVP) and move on after achieving it.  These organizations aren’t thinking about the value that could be delivered after the MVP. They believe that if they put a minimum viable products in our customer’s hands, they know whether or not it’s a great product.  Instead, people need to be working towards a minimum viable business as opposed to the minimum viable product.  You could put a great product out there, but if you haven’t designed it to solve for the customer’s ultimate needs by testing it and getting early feedback and created a degree of stickiness in a business model that will help you retain and add clients, you have a problem. You don’t necessarily have a business and you haven’t necessarily solved the problem.  Over optimization towards what you believe to be a viable product is not necessarily that MvP. It’s a business model that’s going to have sustainability. What’s Valuable to Customers When you’re developing a product, the easiest person to fool is yourself. You may believe that you have a great product, but you need to test it to validate that belief.  That could be as simple as using a survey to check the validity of your idea. Building a product (even a scaled-down version of a working product) is a very expensive way to test an idea. If you build the product first and then try to go out in the market and then make the adjustments, you’re going to have to build it again. Faster Delivery There are two major inhibitors to speed to market.  One is trying to do everything yourself.  The desire to understand exactly how the product is built and have too much control over the process of building that product is not efficient. When you’re building a product, it’s not reasonable to be so in the weeds that you’re concerned about using a specific technology or growing to an understanding of how everything works.  When starting your business or starting your MVP, don’t try to have one person do everything. Have people that are specialized in their given fields and fractionally use their time. The other big impact to speed to market is if you don’t have a needed skill set in house.  Training that skill and building competency can take a long time.  You don’t necessarily have to hire for it as that could be much more expensive than using an outside party. Listen to the full episode to understand how to test and discover the right solution and how approaches such as DevOps can help accelerate both discovery and delivery. YOUR HOMEWORKFirst Tip: Look at what the biggest players in the market are doing in terms of their engineering culture and then figure out what is it that they’re doing efficiently that you can copy. Don’t try to invent things yourself or come up with a new process; figure out what they’re doing and just copy it.Second Tip: Analyze the opportunity cost of doing something in-house versus using a third party by looking at what an outside party can do for you and what specialization they have. If they could solve the problem for you quickly, maybe they can do it much more cheaply. IAN Reynolds Ian is the Chief Solutions Architect at Zibtek and Head of Venture Partners at Golden Section Studios. In his role as Solutions Architect, Ian matches business needs to technical solutions that solves the customer’s problem. Thank you for listening to the program To get more valuable content to enhance your skills and advance your career, you can subscribe on iTunes and other podcatchers. Also, reviews on iTunes are highly appreciated! I read each review and it helps keep me motivated to continue to bring you valuable content each week. TrendingMBA120: Jobs to be Done Theory More Popular EpisodesMBA132: Next Generation CompetenciesMBA155: Hiring BAs and PMsMBA049: The First Line of Defense Against a Security BreachMBA045: The Agile BA – Myths and MisconceptionsMBA103: How Mr. Finch Stole the ProjectLightning Cast: Order your Backlog The post MBA227: The Minimum Viable Business appeared first on Mastering Business Analysis.

In this lightning cast, we explore the 5-step design process Elon Musk uses for SpaceX to innovate and get better results.

In this episode, we revisit Theory of Constraints, an approach to improving organizational performance by accelerating delivery. Author Clarke Ching shares his FOCCCUS Formula to address the system’s bottleneck. Show Notes In every process or value delivery system, there’s one constraint (bottleneck) that limits the flow of value of the entire system.  If you want to deliver faster, you must identify and address the bottleneck.  To improve the flow of value, we can apply the Theory of Constraints, a process improvement methodology that focuses on addressing the bottleneck. Eli Goldratt’s famous book, The Goal, introduced readers to the Theory of Constraints and how to apply Goldratt’s Five Focusing Steps to address your constraint.  However, many people are unaware of or confused by the Five Focusing Steps. In you’re confused about how to address the bottleneck in your process, you can use Clarke Ching’s FOCCCUS Formula instead.  FOCCCUS is an acronym that stands for the steps you can take to address the constraint and improve the system. FOCCCUS The first step in the FOCCCUS Formula is “F” for find the bottleneck.  You can’t improve the bottleneck if you don’t know where it is.  To find the bottleneck, look for work piling up of long queues in front of a step in the process.  Work typically builds up in front of the constraint. Once you find the bottleneck, the next step is “O” for optimize. You want to optimize the bottleneck so that it can get work done faster.  You can do this by making sure the work that goes to the bottleneck resource is ready (has everything they need) and the bottleneck is focused only on value added work. After you optimize, the next step is collaborate.  Collaboration helps the bottleneck deliver faster because non-bottleneck resources may be able to off-load work that the bottleneck is doing. In addition to collaboration, you can apply the second “C”, which is coordinate.  This step involves finding ways to coordinate activities of both bottleneck and non-bottleneck resources to optimize delivery.  This can include rearranging process steps or changing the timing of certain pieces of work to smooth the flow. The third “C” in the FOCCCUS Formula is curate.  When you curate, you decide what to put in a limited amount of space.  Essentially, you prioritize work to maximize the value that can be delivered. The “U” in the FOCCCUS Formula stands for upgrade.  This can mean buying faster equipment, holding training to improve skills associated with the constrained task, or hiring more people.  Upgrading can be expensive and you should only upgrade after completing the other steps. The final step is “S”, which stands for start again.  The FOCCCUS Formula is a continuous process.  After you complete each step, you should validate that the bottleneck hasn’t moved.  If it has, continuing to the next step with the same bottleneck won’t improve the flow of value through the system. Check each time to ensure that you know where the bottleneck is and start with the simplest, cheapest intervention. Listen to the full episode to understand how to use the FOCCCUS Formula to improve your process and accelerate value delivery. Clarke Ching Clarke has been powered by the Theory of Constraints for over 20 years and Agile since 2003.  He wrote Rolling Rocks Downhill (the Agile business novel that never mentions Agile) and The Bottleneck Rules (which was featured in The Guardian newspaper, and was briefly the #2 best-selling leadership book on Amazon.com, just behind Steven Covey). Latest Episodes MBA228: Software Development PearlsKarl Wiegers shares his lessons on requirements, project management, design, quality and more. Karl’s advice can make you significantly better at what you do. Show Notes Karl Wiegers started programming in 1970 and has collected 60 lessons he has learned in several areas of software development including requirements, design, project management, culture, teamwork, quality, and… Read more: MBA228: Software Development Pearls MBA227: The Minimum Viable BusinessIan Reynolds discusses how to discover the right solutions for your customers and then deliver them quickly. MBALC: Elon Musk’s 5-Step Design ProcessIn this lightning cast, we explore the 5-step design process Elon Musk uses for SpaceX to innovate and get better results. MBA226: The FOCCCUS FormulaThe Theory of Constraints is an approach to improving organizational performance by accelerating delivery. Author Clarke Ching shares his FOCCCUS Formula to address the system’s bottleneck. MBA225: The Value of Business ModelsDavid Mantica helps us understand business models and helps us understand how to find new opportunities to create greater value. MBA224: Corkscrew ThinkingClarke Ching shares an innovative problem solving approach to help us solve tricky problems. MBA223: The Human Work MachineDavid Mantica discusses the brain science behind some of the challenges knowledge workers face and helps you shift your mindset to enable you to thrive in a complex and chaotic environment. MBA222: Testing Your Business IdeasDavid Bland discusses the importance of testing your business ideas and shares ways to dramatically reduce the risk and increase the likelihood of success for your product, initiative, or project. MBA221: Systems Thinking and Business AgilityAdrian Reed discusses systems thinking, how it enables business agility, and how it can help elevate the value you bring to your organization. MBA220: Thoughtless Design with Karl WiegersAuthor and thought leader Karl Wiegers shares principles and lessons he has learned from poor designs and what you can do to develop solutions that create a great user experience. MBA219: How To Be an Agile Business AnalystKent McDonald shares his thoughts on what it takes to succeed as a Business Analyst in an Agile environment. BA Toolbox – A3 ReportIn this episode of the BA Toolbox, we explore the A3 report and it’s use in problem solving. MBA218: Customer-Centric TransformationMelissa Boggs discusses how the Scrum Alliance transformed into customer-centric teams and how you can have a greater customer focus. Lightning Cast: Agile PlanningUnderstanding the different levels of Agile planning and what they mean for you will help your team stay aligned and focused on achieving the right outcomes. MBA217: Objectives and Key ResultsPaul Niven helps us to understand Objectives and Key Results (OKRs), a goal-setting tool to set ambitious goals with measurable results. Lightning Cast: POWER Start for Your MeetingsStop the wasted time and money from ineffective meetings by giving your next meeting a POWER Start. MBA216: Outcome Based ChangeDavid Hawks shares an approach to transformations, projects, and large change initiatives by starting with the business outcomes. Lightning Cast: Resistance to ChangeOvercome resistance to change using Goldratt’s Four Quadrants of Change MBA215: The Challenges with Leading in Product ManagementRoman Pichler discusses the challenges associated with leading in a Product Management role and what you can do to overcome those challenges. MBA214: The BA Success PathLaura Brandenburg shares her framework for career development; the Business Analyst Success Path. MBA213: Applying Theory of ConstraintsIf you want to accelerate and deliver with greater speed and flexibility that’s critical to serving your customers, combine Agile with Theory of Constraints. MBA212: Transforming Your Work with Modern AgileJoshua Kerievsky shares the four principles of Modern Agile and how they can help you find better ways of working and achieve better business outcomes. MBA211: Adaptive LeadershipIn this time of unrelenting change, we need leadership at all levels. Here’s what you need to help your team succeed. MBA210: Vital CommunicationCommunication is vital to success on teams and across organizations. In this episode, Tommy Re shows us how to dramatically improve communication. MBA209: Visual ThinkingGrant Wright Shares simple Visual Thinking tools and practices to help your team get aligned and retain information. MBA208: Facilitative LeadershipAuthor Michael Levine helps us unleash the power of large, diverse groups of smart, experienced individuals to deliver positive business results. MBA207: Bad Behaviors in the WorkplacePaul Pelletier helps us to understand the root causes of disrespectful behaviors at work and how to address them. MBA206: Succeeding with AnalyticsJim Rushton helps us to understand why 80% of analytics projects fail and what you can do to make sure yours succeeds. Lightning Cast: BA Goals RevisitedBuilding on last year’s episode about BA performance goals, we discuss how to choose the right goals and achieve them. MBA205: Beyond Data LiteracyLori Silverman helps us get real value from data by developing core competence and creating the culture needed to support collaborative data-informed decision making. MBA204: Top Skills for 2020LinkedIn’s list of the 15 most in-demand skills includes business analysis and a many skills that are critical to your success. MBA203: Career InsuranceDavid Mantica shares ways to protect yourself from layoffs and prepare for career advancement. Yes, Virginia, There Are BAs in AgileHoliday Episode: In the style of the 1897 New York Sun editorial, a grown up Virginia asks if there are Business Analysts in Agile. Lightning Cast: Failure to Launch (a new product)Find out what you can do to ensure a successful product launch. MBA202: Business Value AnalysisDavid Mantica helps overcome one of the biggest challenges facing organizations today – understanding value and building the right solution. MBA201: Tips From an Accidental Product OwnerRichard Larson shares his experiences as an accidental Product Owner and provides tips and advice for others moving toward a role in Product Ownership. MBA200: Take Action! The Best Advice from Over 200 EpisodesHere’s the best tips and advice from industry experts in over 200 episodes. Now take action! MBA199: The Future of the BA ProfessionKevin Brennan discusses how the world of work is changing and how Business Analysts need to adapt. MBA198: DevOps – What it Means for BAsMichael Roberts helps us understand what DevOps is and how it affects the role of Business Analysts. MBA197: Making Change FunLora McCoy discusses how to shift the psychological response to change and help stakeholders adapt and adopt the change. MBA196: Customer Journey Treasure HuntingVince Mirabelli shares some practical, how-to approaches to developing empathy, mapping the customer journey, and finding business process improvement opportunities along the way. MBA195: Example MappingKent McDonald shares his thoughts about what you need to know about Agile and how to use Example Mapping; a technique to create a shared understanding. MBA194: Start Your Project Off RightAdrian Reed shares approached for successfully initiating projects and stakeholder management MBA193: About Your CareerRyland Leyton shares tips and advice from his new book to help you find the right job and grow in your career. Lightning Cast: Story Estimation – What’s the Point?Explore the use (and misuse) of story point estimation and discover the right way to estimate stories. Lightning Cast: Requirements RotIs your project suffering from requirements rot? As time passes between requirements elicitation and delivery, your requirements will become unusable. MBA192: The Blight of Product DebtProduct debt can slow the delivery, erode customer value, and make it difficult to innovate. Here are the different types of product debt and what you can do about it. Lightning Cast: The Power to Get Things DoneIn this episode, we discuss the different kinds of power you can use to get things done within your team or across your organization. MBA191: Use Cases in AgileUse Cases aren’t just for waterfall. Use Cases also work well in Agile an context and help address the challenges with User Stories. Lightning Cast: AI – Can you be replaced by a machine?80% of project tasks will be performed by AI by 2030. Will you lose your job to a machine? MBA190: Business Data AnalyticsOrganizations need to make better decisions based on real data. Find out how you can bring value in the area of business data analytics. Lightning Cast: You Are a FacilitatorFacilitation means more than running a meeting. Find out how you can facilitate the the value it brings to your organization. MBA189: Adventures in Product OwnershipBriElle Bryson shares her experience stepping into a Product Owner role and helps us understand how to prepare for product ownership Lightning Cast: Simplified Value Stream MappingEliminate waste in a process and get a holistic view of end-to-end value using a simplified Value Stream Map MBA188: The Four Ps of Product OwnershipAnu Smalley shares her 4Ps framework to address a major challenge organizations face today; how to build products customers want and love. Lightning Cast: Product DebtAre you suffering from Product Debt? Product Debt erodes customer value, stifles innovation, and increases the time and cost it takes to deliver new functionality. MBA187: Transitioning to a Scrum Master RoleDiscover how to leverage your core Business Analyst skills in a different way and be successful as a Scrum Master. Lightning Cast: Business AgilityUnderstand the importance of business agility and your role in helping your organization become more responsive to changing customer needs. MBA186: Exploring Product OwnershipCoach and author Bob Galen shares some of the challenges Product Owners face, how to overcome them, and how to take your skills to the next level. Lightning Cast: Don’t Throw it Over the WallAvoid the epidemic of creating an output and throwing it over the wall to another team. MBA185: Business Analysis in AgileJames Robertson shares some of the challenges associated with an Agile transformation and how Business Analysts can provide the most value to the organization. Lightning Cast: Non-Functional Requirements in AgileFind out how to make non-functional requirements visible in an Agile context. MBA184: Discover What Customers Want with JTBDDiscover unmet customer needs with Jobs to be Done and a unique customer interview technique. Lightning Cast: We Are the BusinessBreak down those silos and avoid the “us vs. them” mentality between business and technology. MBA183: The BA Role on a Scrum TeamFind out where a Business Analyst fits on a Scrum Team and what they can do to provide value to the team and the organization. MBA182: BA in the Service IndustryHow can a Business Analyst apply their skills in a non-technical field? Find out how your current skills and competencies can apply in new contexts. Lightning Cast: Death, Taxes, and Missed RequirementsUnderstand the certainty of missing requirements and what you can do to reduce the occurrence and impact of missed requirements MBA181: The Three BA ArchetypesUnderstanding the three Business Analyst archetypes can help you find the right job and advance your career. MBA180: Socratic QuestioningKent McDonald helps us uncover information and elicit requirements using an ancient questioning technique. Lightning Cast: BA Performance GoalsStart your year off right with tips for setting your annual performance goals. MBA179: The Power of PrototypingEffective use of prototypes can create a common understanding and develop a feedback loop to help you build better solutions. MBA178: Career Options for BAsBusiness Analysis is a critical and highly transferable skill. Here’s how to use it to advance your career. MBA177: Product Backlog RefinementProduct Backlog Refinement (grooming) is a key activity for any Agile team. Here are some tips and recommendations for successful refinement sessions. MBA176: Predictions for 2019Thought leaders share their predictions for 2019 and what you can do to be more successful in the new year. Lightning Cast: A Visit From the Business AnalystIn this Christmas episode, we find out what happens when the BA visits a struggling project team. MBA175: Product Management is the New Business Analysis – Part 2Find out the tools and techniques you need to develop a customer-centric focus for product development. MBA174: Product Management is the New Business AnalysisAgile and other changes in the way we work means that we need to change too. Here’s how we can leverage our skills and competencies in a new way and grow our careers. MBA173: Avoiding the Build TrapProduct Management expert Melissa Perri helps us to avoid some on the pitfalls of solution development and create products customers will love. MBA172: Decide Smarter Faster with Kupe KupersmithKupe Kupersmith focuses on approaches that will help you learn quickly, make good decisions, and manage risk. MBA171: Your Questions Answered – Listener MailbagIn this episode, I answer questions submitted from listeners. Questions about Agile, DevOps, and remote elicitation are answered. MBA170: Persuasion – Get Buy-In for Your IdeasMary Lynn Manns shares techniques you can use to get buy-in for your ideas and influence others to take action. Lightning Cast: Big Design Up FrontIn this Lightning Cast, we’ll explore the practice of using stage gates and a big design up front.  Why do organizations use the BDUF approach and is there a better way? MBA169: Digital Business Analyst CompetenciesIIBA President Ken Fulmer shares eight competencies that are critical for success when working as a digital Business Analyst. MBA168: Exploring the BA Career PathAdrian Reed helps us explore the BA career path, career growth options, and actions you can take to grow in your career as a Business Analyst. MBA167: The Power of StorytellingWant to communicate in a compelling, memorable way? Storytelling allows you to connect with your audience at an emotional level and helps your ideas stick. MBA166: Mastering the Art of FeedbackIn this episode, Heather Mylan-Mains helps us to be effective in giving feedback and how to receive feedback for the greatest impact. Special MessageI’ll be unable to post the next episode for a bit. Unfortunately, I’m in the hospital with some issues with my leg. MBA165: Remembering Jerry WeinbergHere are some of the most important lessons from Jerry Weinberg in his own words. Lightning Cast: Think as a CustomerCreate solutions your customers will love by thinking as a customer. MBA164: The Agile Analysis CertificationIIBA President Ken Fulmer discusses the IIBA’s Agile Analysis certification; What it means for your organization and to your career. MBA163: Lean Six Sigma – What You Should KnowDiscover how Lean Six Sigma can help you bring value to your organization and be a differentiator for your career. Lightning Cast: Moving to a BA RoleFind out how to transition into a Business Analyst role. MBA162: The Business Analyst Role and its Real ValueGlenn Brule discusses the Business Analyst role, its real value proposition, and what you can do to increase the value you provide to your organization. MBA161: Evolution of the BA RoleWhat’s the next step in the evolution of the role of the Business Analyst? Does Agile spell the end of the BA role? Lightning Cast: Dude’s LawUnderstand what you can do to increase the value of products and solutions developed by your organization by using Dude’s Law. MBA160: The Art of Better Business RequirementsAlyce Reopelle challenges some of the practices and assumptions we make about requirements elicitation. Lightning Cast: Business AgilityDiscover what you can do to help your organization achieve business agility; the ability to quickly adapt to changes and rapidly deliver value. MBA159: Experiment Driven DevelopmentIn this episode, you’ll discover how to use hypotheses and experiments to identify the right solutions for customer needs. MBA158: Agile RequirementsIn this episode, we’ll explore Agile requirements and answer the question “Are User Stories requirements?” MBA157: The Importance of Good Data AnalysisFind out about the impact that good data analysis can have on your organization and how to get started. Lightning Cast: Symptoms of SuccessAre you successful?  Explore what it looks like to be successful as a Business Analyst or Project Manager. MBA156: The Power of MentoringWant to take your skills and your career to the next level?  A mentoring relationship can do just that.  Discover how to find the right mentor and create an effective mentoring relationship. MBA155: Hiring BAs and PMsAre you a hiring manager looking for great BA and PM candidates? Find out how to find the best candidates for your organization. Job seekers will discover how to best prepare for a job search. MBA154: Change LeadershipImplementing change in an organization goes beyond requirements and change management. You need Change Leadership to help people adjust to the change. Here’s how! Lightning Cast: BA on a Scrum TeamFind out what a Business Analyst does on a Scrum team and how you can use your BA skills in a different way to help the team. MBA153: Trends in Business AnalysisElizabeth Larson talks about current trends in the Business Analysis field and how they will affect you. Lightning Cast: Powerful QuestionsPowerful questions are a way to challenge our thinking, stimulating deeper conversations, and uncovering hidden truths. Here’s how to ask more powerful questions. MBA152: Finding the Right ProjectRichard Larson shares five techniques you can use to discover the underlying problem or opportunity to solve create the right solution. Lightning Cast: Order your BacklogA clear, well-ordered backlog leads to more focus, less time in refinement, and delivering the most important items first. Here’s how to order your backlog. MBA151: Your Consulting Practice – with Karl WiegersAuthor and consultant Karl Wiegers shares his tips and advice on getting started with consulting. Lightning Cast: Which Communications Channel Should You Use?Which communications channel should you use? The right communications medium depends on your message. We’ll explore different forms of communication and which to use in different contexts. MBA150: A High Five for Business AnalystsTomette Kirk shares what she calls the high five; five essential tasks that we need to focus on as Business Analysts to be successful. Lightning Cast: Common Issues Facing Business Analysts TodayIn this episode, I share common problems Business Analysts face and what you can do about them. MBA149: The Power of EQAuthor and speaker Jen Shirkani helps us to understand the importance of Emotional Intelligence and shares with us techniques to boost your EQ. Lightning Cast: The Business AlchemistDiscover a different way of thinking about your role and go from Analyst to Alchemist to achieve extraordinary outcomes for your organization. MBA148: 7 Keys to Succeeding with AgilePaula Maychruk helps us uncover the key concepts that allow us to be successful with Agile approaches. Lightning Cast: Trust – The One Thing that Changes EverythingTrust increases the speed to deliver projects and reduces cost. Here’s how to develop and maintain trust on your team. MBA147: The Business Agility ManifestoRon Ross explains the Business Agility Manifesto and helps us to understand the role business knowledge plays in enhancing business agility. MBA146: The Full Stack Business AnalystWhat does it take to become a Full-Stack Business Analyst? Similar to a Full-Stack Developer, a Business Analyst can broaden their skills to reduce waste and contribute more value to the organization. MBA145: Predictions for 2018Six thought leaders in the fields of business analysis, project management, and Agile share their predictions for 2018 and what you should do to be successful. Lightning Cast: Confessions of a Recovering PerfectionistPerfectionism leads to procrastination and fear. Here’s how to overcome perfectionism. MBA144: The 12 Days of the ProjectDiscover 12 approaches that lead to shorter time to market, increased customer value, and innovation. Lightning Cast: Stepping Up to Product OwnershipDiscover what it takes to transition to a Product Owner role and be successful. MBA143: Imposter Syndrome – Banishing Your Inner CriticAuthor and renown speaker Denise Jacobs helps you to overcome Imposter Syndrome and silence your inner critic to unleash your creativity. Lightning Cast: Root Cause AnalysisWe explore two common root cause analysis approaches, Fishbone Diagrams and 5 Whys, to help you understand when to use each technique. Lightning Cast: Using Competency ModelsDiscover the value of competency models and how they can help you grow in your career. MBA142: Lean Startup for the EnterpriseFind out how to apply Lean Startup approaches so that you can build solutions customers will love. MBA141: Digital Transformation – What is Means for BAsKevin Brennan helps us to understand the impact of digital transformations and what you need to do to adapt to this shift. MBA140: Improve Influence with NLPCorrine Thomas shares techniques from Neuro-linguistic Programming (NLP) that can help you build relationships and influence better. Lightning Cast: Better Communication Using the DiSC ModelImprove your communication and collaboration by adapting your approach using the DiSC model. MBA139: Thin Slicing Problem AnalysisAdrian Reed helps us avoid developing solutions that don’t address the real opportunity through thin slicing problem analysis. Lightning Cast: The Many Uses of a SIPOCIn this Lightning Cast, we explore the many applications of a SIPOC and how it can help you on your next project. MBA138: Building a Believable Business CaseRandy Radic shares his process and tips for building a realistic business case to make sure your organization is moving forward with the right initiatives. Lightning Cast: Stay in Your LaneShould business stakeholders and technology teams stay on their own lanes and not cross over to other areas? MBA137: Challenges with User Stories – with Mike CohnAuthor, trainer, and Agile thought leader Mike Cohn helps us to overcome the challenges with successfully applying User Stories. MBA136: What the IIBA Can Do for You – Part2New initiatives from the International Institute for Business Analysis (IIBA) can help you develop your skills and grow in your career. MBA135: What the IIBA Can Do for YouCEO and President of the International Institute for Business Analysis (IIBA), Ken Fulmer joins us to discuss some new initiatives at the IIBA and how the IIBA can help you advance your skills and grow in your career. Lightning Cast: Flip the Script in Your Job SearchRyland Leyton helps us to flip the script during a job search to be in the right mindset and find the right opportunity. MBA134: Distinguishing Yourself in Your CareerRyland Leyton shows us how to distinguish ourselves in interviews and in our career. Lightning Cast: Brainstorming – You’re Doing It Wrong!Brainstorming doesn’t work – at least not the way you’re doing it. Here’s a better way. MBA133: What BAs Need to Know About AgileDispel the myths and find out what you need to know about working in an Agile environment. Lightning Cast: Requirements QualityRequirements quality – What is it and how you can increase the quality of your requirements. MBA132: Next Generation CompetenciesIn this episode, Kupe Kupersmith shares a new competency framework for the next generation of professionals in the project field. Lightning Cast: The Agile Business Analyst MindsetWhat’s the mindset shift needed to be successful as a Business Analyst in an Agile environment? MBA131: Interviewing for a Business Analyst PositionLaura Brandenburg shares tips and advice for acing your next interview for a Business Analyst position. Lightning Cast: The Business Analyst Career PathWhat is the Business Analyst career path and how do you grow your career? MBA130: Exploring Requirements with Jerry WeinbergJerry Weinberg shares his thoughts on the challenges with software requirements and why we need to take requirements seriously. MBA129: Real Life Agile, UX, and Design ThinkingBrent Severson shares how he has successfully integrated Design Thinking, User Experience Design, and Agile into his BA practice to make himself valuable to teams working in the digital space. MBA128: Where Should the Business Analyst Reside?Lora McCoy shares her views on where business analysts should reside in an organization to enable better collaboration, growth, and prevent solution bias. MBA127: Guiding Principles for the Business Analyst – part 2We conclude our discussion with Steve Blais as he shares with us his 11 principles of the business analyst, which provides guidance as to what a business analyst should do to achieve success. MBA126: Guiding Principles for the Business AnalystAuthor and consultant Steve Blais shares with us his 11 principles of the business analyst, which provides guidance as to what a business analyst should do to achieve success. MBA125: Become the Conscience of the BusinessIan Huke helps us to become the conscience of the business by doing the right thing, building a following, and becoming a trusted advisor. MBA124: Business Analyst in an Agile EnvironmentIn this episode, author Lynda Girvan discusses how BAs can succeed in Agile environments by applying a lean and adaptive approach. MBA123: The 21st Century Business AnalystKitty Hass explains the evolution of the Business Analyst role and what you need to do to be successful in the 21st century. MBA122: Driving Real Value Through Business AnalysisAlaeddin Hallak shows us ways to deliver real business value through our business analysis approach. MBA121: Mastering Product OwnershipGeoff Watts helps us to better understand the Product Owner role and takes us from good to great product ownership. MBA120: Jobs to be Done TheoryAlan Klement shows us how Jobs to be Done can help you design better products and spur innovation. Jobs to be Done (JTBD) is a mixture of design thinking, lean startup, and agile to help you make great products that people will love. MBA119: What’s in Your Backlog?In this episode, we discuss the different types of items that may make up a product backlog (Hint: It’s more than just User Stories) MBA118: Virtual LeadershipDr. Penny Pullan shares strategies for working on virtual project teams and helps us get the most out of virtual teams and virtual work. MBA117: Getting Requirements RightJared Wiese shares an approach for focusing on value to help you not just elicit requirements, but to get requirements right. MBA116: Implementing Solutions vs Problem SolvingMatt Adams helps us understand what to do when we’re given a solution to implement. His approach leads us to become trusted advisors. MBA115: Political Martial Arts – Navigating Office PoliticsPaula Bell shares her tips and advice to break through the red tape and bureaucracy of office politics that holds many projects back. MBA114: Value Proposition of the BA RoleDavid Olson discusses the evolution of the Business Analyst role and its true value proposition. MBA113: Problem Solving – The RIGHT StuffLearn a problem solving approach that takes you through incovering the right problem, finding the right solution, and putting the right plan into action. MBA112: User Centered DesignCaleb Carroll helps us deliver better business value through a User Centered Design approach. MBA111: Design Thinking IS Good Business AnalysisExplore the tools of Design Thinking and find out how it helps ensure you build valuable solutions. MBA110: Managing Ambiguous RequirementsScott Stribrny shares four techniques to identify and address ambiguous requirements. MBA109: Foundations in Business AnalysisGet back to basics and establish a strong foundation for your business analysis skills and techniques. MBA108: Prioritizing with the MVPLearn how to find the minimum viable product and use it to identify work that you should deliver first. MBA107: Backlog Refinement – From Misunderstanding to Collaborative DiscoveryRichard Dolman helps us take backlog refinement from an underutilized meeting that doesn’t get the respect it deserves to a powerful forum for collaborative discovery. MBA106: Rapid Requirements GatheringScott Killen shares an approach for quickly eliciting a majority of project requirements with very little prep work. MBA105: The Best Advice I Ever ReceivedThought leaders in Business Analysis share the best advice they ever received. MBA104: Predictions for 2017What does the future hold for Business Analysis? Here are my predictions for 2017. MBA103: How Mr. Finch Stole the ProjectHear the holiday tale of Mr. Finch as he tries to sabotage the project, read in the style of the popular children’s author, Dr. Seuss. MBA102: Product Management – Build the Right ThingRich Mironov helps us to better understand the Product Manager role and what we can do to make sure we build a solution that drives success for our organization. MBA101: Split Your Stories!Chris Sims shares four techniques to split your user stories to make them smaller, more manageable, and to help draw out details. MBA100: My Biggest MistakeEight business analysis leaders share personal stories of their biggest mistakes and what they learned along the way so you don’t make the same mistakes. MBA099: Assumptions MappingDavid Bland shares an exercise from LeanUX for gaining clarity in times of uncertainty and developing a deep understanding of customer needs. MBA098: The Art and Science of InfluenceDavid Mantica talks to us about influence and how to successfully navigate any organization to move projects to execution. He also shares several approaches and techniques to improve your ability to influence. MBA097: Partnership Between the PM and BAAuthor and consultant Cheryl Lee helps us to improve the collaboration and partnership between Business Analysts and Project Managers. MBA096: The Standard for Business AnalysisDavid Bieg, Business Analysis & Requirements Program Manager for the PMI, tells us about PMI’s development of a foundational standard in Business Analysis. MBA095: Lean Change ManagementAuthor and international speaker Jason Little helps us to understand how to use Lean Change Management to create change that sticks. MBA094: Perspectives in Business AnalysisPeter Leftrov helps us to understand how the BA Perspectives can help you choose which techniques and tasks are applicable to your specific project. MBA093: Beyond Project RiskLook beyond typical in-project risks and adopt a systems thinking approach by identifying organizational risks that may come up as a result of your project. MBA092: Reducing the Risk of Missing Non-Functional RequirementsRoxanne Miller shares six ways to help reduce the risk of missing non-functional requirements (NFRs). MBA091: Going from Order Taker to Trusted AdvisorElizabeth Larson helps us along the path going from order taker to trusted advisor and helps us to avoid some of the common pitfalls. MBA090: BABOK 3.0 with Richard LarsonRichard Larson helps us to understand what’s changed in version 3 of the BABOK Guide and how it can help you and your career. MBA089: Agile Manifesto – What it Means to Business AnalystsWhat do the principles behind the Agile Manifesto mean in the context of Business Analysis? Same skills as traditional approaches, but applied differently. MBA088: Effective Requirements WorkshopsLora McCoy shares her five step process for running effective and engaging requirements workshops and discovering requirements quickly. MBA087: Replaced by a Robot – Interview with Kupe Kupersmith MBA086: DocOps – Keep Your Documentation Agile MBA085: From Models to Stories MBA084: Agile Modeling with Scott Ambler MBA083: The BA Core Concept Model MBA082: Addressing Bottlenecks with Theory of Constraints MBA081: User Story Mapping with David Hussman MBA080: Think Like a Freak MBA079: Effective Collaboration MBA078: Design Sprints MBA077: Preparing for the Future of Business Analysis MBA076: Product Strategy MBA075: Slices of Big Truths MBA074: Lean Business Analysis MBA073: Agile Requirements – What’s DifferentWhat’s different about requirements in an agile environment vs. requirements in waterfall? Success with agile requirements requires a shift in mindset from big design upfront to continuous small, valuable pieces as well as an understanding of when to dive into the details and when to keep the information at a high level. MBA072: Improve Your Facilitation MBA071: The Essence of Business Analysis MBA070: Better BA and PM Collaboration MBA069: Business Rules – What You Need to Know MBA068: Realities of Being a Product Owner MBA067: All About the PMI-PBA Certification MBA066: Starting a BA Community of Practice MBA065: The Value of Business Analysis MBA064: Transitioning to a Product Owner Role MBA063: Starting a Career in Business Analysis MBA062: Peer Reviews for Better Requirements MBA061: Overcoming Roadblocks to Success on Complex Projects MBA060: Business Architecture and Business Analysis MBA059: Problem Solving for Business Analysts MBA058: Reusable Discovery Testing MBA057: The 6 Stakeholders You’ll Meet in Project Hell MBA056: Design Thinking for Better Business Analysis MBA055: The Agile BA – Interview with Ryland LeytonRyland Leyton, author of The Agile Business Analyst: Moving from Waterfall to Agile, joins us to talk about what it means to be an agile business analyst and how to be successful in an agile environment. MBA054: Strategy and its Role in Business Analysis MBA053: Use Cases and Beyond – with Ivar JacobsonThe father of Use Cases, Dr. Ivar Jacobson, joins us to discuss how he came up with the idea for Use Cases, how to use them in an agile environment, and what lies beyond Use Cases. MBA052: Portfolio Management & The Agile Extension MBA051: A Visit From the Business Analyst MBA050: The T-Shaped Business Analyst MBA049: The First Line of Defense Against a Security BreachHans Eckman helps us to understand how the Business Analyst is perfectly suited to be the first line of defense in preventing security breaches. Hans also shares some approaches and advice for handling security related requirements. MBA048: Finding the Minimum Viable Product MBA047: The DNA of a Great Agile Business Analyst MBA046: The Product Owner / Business Analyst Relationship MBA045: The Agile BA – Myths and Misconceptions MBA044: Business Process Automation MBA043: Abuser Stories – Think Like a Bad Guy MBA042: Stop Using User Stories – Interview with Jim Benson MBA041: What’s the Second Best User Story?James Robertson helps us decompose user stories into smaller, more manageable pieces and look critically at stories so that they don’t specify a solution. MBA040: User Stories – Are You Ready? MBA039: The Big Deal with Big Data MBA038: Use Cases, CX, and UX: Putting it all together MBA037: The Key to Better CollaborationJim Tamm shares some essential skills for effective collaboration and practical tools designed to help you manage your own defensiveness, build trust, reduce conflict and create a more collaborative working environment. MBA036: Psychology of Leadership – Interview with Cillín HearnsLeadership and performance coach Cillín Hearns helps us explore what it means to be a leader and will show you how to advance your leadership skills regardless of your current role or level. MBA035: Active Listening – The Most Important SkillWhat is the single most important skill needed by every business analyst, product owner, and project manager? It’s a skill that allows you to build trust and ensure an accurate, shared understanding. That skill is active listening. MBA034: Use Case 2.0 – Interview with Ian SpenceIn this episode, author Ian Spence introduces us to a different way to utilize Use Cases in agile environments – Use Cases 2.0. After listening to this episode, you will understand: The advantages of using use cases How to use cases can be used in an agile environment Why and how to create thin slices of use cases Show Notes  … Read more: MBA034: Use Case 2.0 – Interview with Ian Spence MBA033: Landing and Succeeding in Your First BA Role – Interview with Alex PapworthIn this episode, consultant and blogger Alex Papworth shares his advice for starting a career as a Business Analyst – how to get and succeed in your first role as a BA.   After listening to this episode, you will know: How to find opportunities to advance your BA skills and experience How to target your job search… Read more: MBA033: Landing and Succeeding in Your First BA Role – Interview with Alex Papworth MBA032: Systems Thinking – Interview with Paula BellIn this episode, consultant and author Paula Bell shares her approach to Systems Thinking – a holistic analysis approach to understanding how the parts of an organizational system interrelate. After listening to this episode, you will understand: What Systems Think is and why it’s important How to begin How you can better understand your customers and build… Read more: MBA032: Systems Thinking – Interview with Paula Bell MBA031: UX – Are you Experienced? Interview with Neil TurnerIn this episode, User Experience designer and researcher Neil Turner will share his thoughts on how and when to interact with UX professionals in your company as well as give you some practical tips and tools you can use to create a better experience for your customers. After listening to this episode, you will understand: What… Read more: MBA031: UX – Are you Experienced? Interview with Neil Turner MBA030: Myths and Patterns of Organizational Change – Interview with Linda RisingIn this episode, author, speaker, and consultant Linda Rising helps us to better understand resistance to change and some of the myths and patterns associated with leading organizational change. After listening to this episode, you will understand: The myths of organizational change that lead us down the wrong path Why simply stating facts doesn’t persuade people How… Read more: MBA030: Myths and Patterns of Organizational Change – Interview with Linda Rising MBA029: Business Process Improvement – Keep it Simple – Interview with Brian HuntIn this episode, Business Process Consultant Brian Hunt shares with us his approach to starting a business process improvement initiative and some simple tools you can use to get started. After listening to this episode, you will understand: How to start a business improvement initiative The right people to talk to to discover improvement opportunities Simple… Read more: MBA029: Business Process Improvement – Keep it Simple – Interview with Brian Hunt MBA028: Talking Techie and Presenting Complex Ideas with Melissa MarshallIn this episode, Melissa Marshall will help us to understand how to bridge the gap between technical terms and business terms and present information in a meaningful way.   After listening to this episode, you will understand: Why it’s critical to be able to communicate complex information to a general audience How to use an audience… Read more: MBA028: Talking Techie and Presenting Complex Ideas with Melissa Marshall MBA027: Elicit User Requirements with Legos – Interview with Ellen GroveIn this episode, Ellen Grove speaks with us about how to use Legos (the building blocks for kids) to elicit user requirements. This requirements elicitation technique quickly surfaces areas where there is not a shared understanding and identifies gaps missed by other approaches. MBA026: Guarding Against Scope CreepScope creep isn’t just the nickname of that weird guy with chronic bad breath down the hall. It also refers to uncontrolled changes or the continuous growth in a project’s scope. Often, this addition to scope comes without corresponding changes to the budget, resources, and schedule. Scope creep is also known as requirements creep and can occur when the project scope is poorly defined and as a result, requirements are added that do not align with the objective of the project. MBA025: Don’t Just Make Software, Make an Impact – Interview with Gojko AdzicIn this episode, Gojko Adzic speaks with us about how to deliver solutions that the business truly needs to achieve their goals and avoid creating shelfware.  He’ll also introduce us to a tool that he uses called Impact Mapping.   After listening to this episode, you will understand: How to focus on creating an impact for your… Read more: MBA025: Don’t Just Make Software, Make an Impact – Interview with Gojko Adzic MBA024: Lead with the Power of a Jedi – Interview with Heather Mylan-MainsIn this episode, we’re joined by Heather Mylan-Mains.  Heather is going to share with us how to motivate and inspire as a leader based on her presentation entitled “BA Jedi Master Leadership Academy – Learn How to Lead with the BA Force”.   After listening to this episode, you will understand: How Business Analysts can lead… Read more: MBA024: Lead with the Power of a Jedi – Interview with Heather Mylan-Mains MBA023: Using Behavior Driven Development for Better User Stories – Interview with Jeffrey DavidsonIn this episode, we’re joined by Jeffrey Davidson.  Jeffrey will help us to better understand how to get better at user stories and how behavior driven development (BDD) helps create a shared understanding.  We also discuss how to create the nirvana state of living requirements.   Jeffrey Davidson is the past president of the IIBA Dallas… Read more: MBA023: Using Behavior Driven Development for Better User Stories – Interview with Jeffrey Davidson MBA022: How to Know Where to Focus Your Efforts – Interview with Chris MattsIn this episode, we’re joined by Chris Matts.  Chris will introduce us to the Cynefin framework and how he uses it to understand where to focus business analysis activities and where the focus should be more product management driven.  Chris also discusses Real Options, which is a decision-making process for managing uncertainty and risk that he developed.… Read more: MBA022: How to Know Where to Focus Your Efforts – Interview with Chris Matts MBA021: Is the Business Analyst Role Just Overhead? Interview with John Sextro“Let’s get rid of Business Analysts and ScrumMasters.”  In this episode, we’re joined by John Sextro.  John recently gave a provocative lightening talk at a conference about removing Business Analysts and ScrumMasters from agile teams.  We’ll discuss what this would mean for the BA role. John Sextro has been in the software industry for 21 years and… Read more: MBA021: Is the Business Analyst Role Just Overhead? Interview with John Sextro MBA020: The Value of Certifications – Interview with David ManticaIn this episode, David Mantica, President of ASPE-SDLC, shares his views on the value of professional certifications – both to the individual and to the organization. David Mantica is president of the American Society of Professional Education Inc. (ASPE-SDLC) and has two decades of experience as a business leader in the training industry.  David has participated… Read more: MBA020: The Value of Certifications – Interview with David Mantica MBA019: Why Start with Why? Interview with Stephen ShedletzkyIn this episode, leadership speaker and Start With Why facilitator Stephen Shedletzky helps us understand how to apply the Start With Why concept to our role to help our organizations work on the right things and deliver value to customers.  He’ll also share his thoughts on how to inspire others to take action. After listening… Read more: MBA019: Why Start with Why? Interview with Stephen Shedletzky MBA018: Step Up to Leadership with the Five-Rule Framework – Interview with Scott StribrnyWhat makes a great leader? In this episode, Scott Stribrny begins to answer this question by presenting a business analyst relevant five-rule framework to apply in real life.  Scott will discuss principles that guide effective leaders and will explore the short-term orientation of leadership with examples for day-to-day action as well as the long-term orientation… Read more: MBA018: Step Up to Leadership with the Five-Rule Framework – Interview with Scott Stribrny MBA017: Does Your Communications Engine Need a Tune-Up? Interview with David BarrettIn this episode, David Barrett speaks with us about what I feel is the most important skill for a Business analyst . . . communication.  David is the National Program Director for the Centers of Excellence in Project Management and Business Analysis at the Schulich School of Business and is one of the founders of… Read more: MBA017: Does Your Communications Engine Need a Tune-Up? Interview with David Barrett MBA016: User Story Mapping with Jeff PattonIn this episode consultant, author, and agile thought leader Jeff Patton shows us how to use Story Maps to create a shared understanding of a feature and create thin slices that relate to the minimum viable product and additional releases.  Jeff also shares his thoughts on the proper way to use User Stories and how to avoid… Read more: MBA016: User Story Mapping with Jeff Patton MBA015: Promise Theory for Team Cooperation – Interview with Mark BurgessIn this episode, Dr. Mark Burgess, creator of CFEngine,  explains how he uses concepts from physics to explain how complex systems work.  He uses his Promise Theory to not only develop better computer systems, but also to give us a better framework for individual and team interactions. After listening to this episode, you will understand: How we can use… Read more: MBA015: Promise Theory for Team Cooperation – Interview with Mark Burgess MBA014: The Future of Business Analysis – Interview with David ManticaIn this episode, David Mantica, President of ASPE, shares his views on the future of the business analyst role and how we can open up new opportunities for career growth and drive valuable change in our organizations. After listening to this episode, you will understand: How different organizations are structured to manage business analysis activities The… Read more: MBA014: The Future of Business Analysis – Interview with David Mantica MBA013: Trust is the New Workplace Currency – Interview with Nan RussellIn this episode, Nan Russell shares with us how to build trust and the effect increased trust (or the lack of trust) can have on your team and the organization.  She’ll also help us to understand how the little things we do can hurt the bigger things we want to do and how to use… Read more: MBA013: Trust is the New Workplace Currency – Interview with Nan Russell MBA012: Beyond Requirements – Interview with Kent McDonaldIn this episode, Kent McDonald shares his thoughts on requirements analysis in an agile environment and will give you tips on how to make your agile projects more successful. After listening to this episode, you will understand: The role of the agile analyst and how it differs from analysis on traditional projects The mindset and underlying… Read more: MBA012: Beyond Requirements – Interview with Kent McDonald MBA011: Make Your Waterfall Projects More AgileIn this episode, we discuss practices from agile that you can implement in your traditional (waterfall) projects that will allow you to reduce risk, adapt to change, and accelerate project delivery. In this episode, you will understand: How to use some of the values, principles, and practices of agile to adapt to change and speed up… Read more: MBA011: Make Your Waterfall Projects More Agile MBA010: Make Virtual Meetings More Effective – Interview with Angela WickIn this episode, we’re joined by Angela Wick of BA-Squared.  Angela shares her tips and techniques for making virtual meetings more effective.  You’ll learn the signs that people are multitasking and  understand how to use virtual collaboration tools to keep people engaged and run a successful virtual meeting. In this episode, Angela shares with us: The… Read more: MBA010: Make Virtual Meetings More Effective – Interview with Angela Wick MBA009: Exploring the 7 Product Dimensions for Better Requirements Discovery – Interview with Mary GormanIn this episode, we’re joined by Mary Gorman, co-author of Discover to Deliver.  Mary will take us on a deep dive into a holistic framework to discover product requirements, the 7 Product Dimensions.  She will also share with us models to use as you move through the 7 Product Dimensions that will allow you to… Read more: MBA009: Exploring the 7 Product Dimensions for Better Requirements Discovery – Interview with Mary Gorman MBA008: How to Discover Product Requirements – Interview with Ellen GottesdienerIn this episode, Ellen Gottesdiener shares an effective approach to discovering product requirements. You will understand how to break out of being an order taker and become a product co-creator. Ellen’s holistic approach to requirements discovery includes a mindset shift that needs to take place to recast stakeholders as product partners, how to get everyone… Read more: MBA008: How to Discover Product Requirements – Interview with Ellen Gottesdiener MBA007: How to be a Badass Business Analyst – Interview with Bob PrentissWant to be the go-to person on projects, in high demand and highly regarded?  In this episode, you’ll discover how to do exactly that.  Bob Prentiss is the Founder and Principal Consultant at Bob the BA, Inc.  He’s a trainer, mentor, consultant, major nerd, and all around badass Business Analyst.  Become a badass BA and… Read more: MBA007: How to be a Badass Business Analyst – Interview with Bob Prentiss MBA006: The Business Analyst Career Path – Interview with David DeWittWhere do I go from here and what are the career opportunities for a Business Analyst?  David DeWitt, President of the Chicagoland chapter of the IIBA and IT Leadership Practice Director at NueVista Group, discusses the Business Analyst career path.     In this episode, David shares with us: Career opportunities for a new Business… Read more: MBA006: The Business Analyst Career Path – Interview with David DeWitt MBA005: Interview with Len Lagestee – How can a BA deliver value to an Agile Team?Today, author and agile coach Len Lagestee helps us to discover how a Business Analyst can bring value to an agile team.  Len also discusses where a BA fits on an agile team and how to become a catalyst for positive change.   In this episode, Len shares with us: What a Business Analyst can… Read more: MBA005: Interview with Len Lagestee – How can a BA deliver value to an Agile Team? MBA004: Defeat the Meeting Super Villians MBA003: How can introverts work well on agile teams – Interview with Ken HowardIn this episode, consultant and author Ken Howard shares with us how to discover the right method to work with and communicate requirements to project team members.  He also dispels some myths about introverts and helps us to understand how introverts can benefit agile teams. In this episode, Ken shares with us: A method for… Read more: MBA003: How can introverts work well on agile teams – Interview with Ken Howard MBA002: How to Elicit Non-Functional Requirements – Interview with Roxanne MillerToday’s episode is an interview with Roxanne Miller, consultant, speaker, and author.  Roxanne shares with us a framework for holding effective stakeholder elicitation meetings and everything you ever wanted to know about non-functional requirements. In this episode, you’ll find out: How to hold effective stakeholder meetings How non-functional requirements differ from functional requirements The impact… Read more: MBA002: How to Elicit Non-Functional Requirements – Interview with Roxanne Miller MBA001: Introduction to the Mastering Business Analysis PodcastToday’s episode is a quick introduction to the podcast.  I will share with you what this podcast is all about and why I created it.   Have a question about Business Analysis or a suggestion for an upcoming episode?  Leave me a voice mail using the widget at the side of the screen or send… Read more: MBA001: Introduction to the Mastering Business Analysis Podcast Thank you for listening to the program To get more valuable content to enhance your skills and advance your career, you can subscribe on iTunes and other podcatchers. Also, reviews on iTunes are highly appreciated! I read each review and it helps keep me motivated to continue to bring you valuable content each week. The post MBA226: The FOCCCUS Formula appeared first on Mastering Business Analysis.

David Mantica helps us understand business models and helps us understand how to find new opportunities to create greater value. Show Notes Creating product requirements and delivering features is one thing. Understanding the business context and business models associated with your product and identifying different avenues to drive value is quite another. Understanding your business model can help drive value for your organization and increase the value that you contribute as a Business Analyst, Product Owner, or Project Manager. A business model incorporates how you package a product, how you sell it, how you market it, how you deliver it, and how you get paid for it.  The packaging refers to the offer itself, not the box it comes in. Your business model gives you insight into how you extract money or time from somebody for the product and understand the expense necessary that actually deliver it and the margins associated with it.  You then tie in how you fit in the value chain of your organization and where you fit from a competitive standpoint. Business Models for Internal Products The first thing we have to remember with internal products is that revenue is considered with use and adoption of the product. Instead of revenue being much somebody paid for something, your internal customers pay for what you build based on their time; if they’re using it more, they’re paying a lot of money for it.  Once you understand the use, you could tie value back to productivity. We need to consider that there are different ways that you can deliver; all the different ways you can sell, all the different ways that you could generate revenue, ways that people engage with your product are different.  You can commoditize the same solution but within two different business models and get two totally different results.  You can understand the business model from an internal perspective by digging into how you deliver something. How do you package that delivery?  What’s the value proposition?  What’s the internal marketing associated with it?  How you judge success? Increasing Value To validate the value of a product, service, or feature, we don’t just need to test ideas. We also have to test how the idea is delivered, the information that is given, and how we monetize its use. As Business Analysts, we’re a lynchpin between what can happen and who uses it. We have to start influencing the groups in the middle that deliver elements of the product to help them see the fact that their scale and repeat model is in need of an adjustment or needs to be replaced by something else. By serving as internal management consultants, we can work to understand the changes in the business model and educate people on potential failures and view the business model together to enhance the product value. One of the failures could be how we support someone when they have a problem or not delivering the service appropriately.  Perhaps it’s the wrong platform.  Perhaps there’s an external impact based on use that we have to incorporate because all of our customers are using a different software system and they have different experiences. Understanding how business models change due to a digital transformation is critically important. Looking at options associated with the business model may help you to see different options.  Perhaps you can license the product. You can sell the software, sell the data, or provide information online. Understanding the concept of how a digital transformation starts to impact some of these production environments that we’ve been working on for quite some time is a good educational step to start getting yourself a better understanding of what may occur and then also being able to truly understand the market. Listen to the full episode to get more advice and insights on using business models to bring more value to your organization and your customers. HOMEWORKReview some case studies about different types of business models and take time out to thing about your business models and how you can apply what you’ve learned. David Mantica David Mantica believes leaders should be servants to their organizations and people.  He is the Vice President and General Manager at SoftEd, a consultancy that offers advisory and education services to help organizations discover new ways of working for better business outcomes.  David is a frequent speaker on Project Management, Business Analysis, and leadership. Thank you for listening to the program To get more valuable content to enhance your skills and advance your career, you can subscribe on iTunes and other podcatchers. Also, reviews on iTunes are highly appreciated! I read each review and it helps keep me motivated to continue to bring you valuable content each week. TrendingMBA089: Agile Manifesto – What it Means to Business Analysts Recent Episodes: MBA228: Software Development Pearls MBA227: The Minimum Viable Business MBALC: Elon Musk’s 5-Step Design Process MBA226: The FOCCCUS Formula MBA225: The Value of Business Models MBA224: Corkscrew Thinking MBA223: The Human Work Machine MBA222: Testing Your Business Ideas MBA221: Systems Thinking and Business Agility MBA220: Thoughtless Design with Karl Wiegers MBA219: How To Be an Agile Business Analyst BA Toolbox – A3 Report MBA218: Customer-Centric Transformation Lightning Cast: Agile Planning MBA217: Objectives and Key Results Lightning Cast: POWER Start for Your Meetings MBA216: Outcome Based Change Lightning Cast: Resistance to Change MBA215: The Challenges with Leading in Product Management MBA214: The BA Success Path MBA213: Applying Theory of Constraints MBA212: Transforming Your Work with Modern Agile MBA211: Adaptive Leadership MBA210: Vital Communication MBA209: Visual Thinking MBA208: Facilitative Leadership MBA207: Bad Behaviors in the Workplace MBA206: Succeeding with Analytics Lightning Cast: BA Goals Revisited MBA205: Beyond Data Literacy MBA204: Top Skills for 2020 MBA203: Career Insurance Yes, Virginia, There Are BAs in Agile Lightning Cast: Failure to Launch (a new product) MBA202: Business Value Analysis MBA201: Tips From an Accidental Product Owner MBA200: Take Action! 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MBA190: Business Data Analytics Lightning Cast: You Are a Facilitator MBA189: Adventures in Product Ownership Lightning Cast: Simplified Value Stream Mapping MBA188: The Four Ps of Product Ownership Lightning Cast: Product Debt MBA187: Transitioning to a Scrum Master Role Lightning Cast: Business Agility MBA186: Exploring Product Ownership Lightning Cast: Don’t Throw it Over the Wall MBA185: Business Analysis in Agile Lightning Cast: Non-Functional Requirements in Agile MBA184: Discover What Customers Want with JTBD Lightning Cast: We Are the Business MBA183: The BA Role on a Scrum Team MBA182: BA in the Service Industry Lightning Cast: Death, Taxes, and Missed Requirements MBA181: The Three BA Archetypes MBA180: Socratic Questioning Lightning Cast: BA Performance Goals MBA179: The Power of Prototyping MBA178: Career Options for BAs MBA177: Product Backlog Refinement MBA176: Predictions for 2019 Lightning Cast: A Visit From the Business Analyst MBA175: Product Management is the New Business Analysis – Part 2 MBA174: Product Management is the New Business Analysis MBA173: Avoiding the Build Trap MBA172: Decide Smarter Faster with Kupe Kupersmith MBA171: Your Questions Answered – Listener Mailbag MBA170: Persuasion – Get Buy-In for Your Ideas Lightning Cast: Big Design Up Front MBA169: Digital Business Analyst Competencies MBA168: Exploring the BA Career Path MBA167: The Power of Storytelling MBA166: Mastering the Art of Feedback Special Message MBA165: Remembering Jerry Weinberg Lightning Cast: Think as a Customer MBA164: The Agile Analysis Certification MBA163: Lean Six Sigma – What You Should Know Lightning Cast: Moving to a BA Role MBA162: The Business Analyst Role and its Real Value MBA161: Evolution of the BA Role Lightning Cast: Dude’s Law MBA160: The Art of Better Business Requirements Lightning Cast: Business Agility MBA159: Experiment Driven Development MBA158: Agile Requirements MBA157: The Importance of Good Data Analysis Lightning Cast: Symptoms of Success MBA156: The Power of Mentoring MBA155: Hiring BAs and PMs MBA154: Change Leadership Lightning Cast: BA on a Scrum Team MBA153: Trends in Business Analysis Lightning Cast: Powerful Questions MBA152: Finding the Right Project Lightning Cast: Order your Backlog MBA151: Your Consulting Practice – with Karl Wiegers Lightning Cast: Which Communications Channel Should You Use? MBA150: A High Five for Business Analysts Lightning Cast: Common Issues Facing Business Analysts Today MBA149: The Power of EQ Lightning Cast: The Business Alchemist MBA148: 7 Keys to Succeeding with Agile Lightning Cast: Trust – The One Thing that Changes Everything MBA147: The Business Agility Manifesto MBA146: The Full Stack Business Analyst MBA145: Predictions for 2018 Lightning Cast: Confessions of a Recovering Perfectionist MBA144: The 12 Days of the Project Lightning Cast: Stepping Up to Product Ownership MBA143: Imposter Syndrome – Banishing Your Inner Critic Lightning Cast: Root Cause Analysis Lightning Cast: Using Competency Models MBA142: Lean Startup for the Enterprise MBA141: Digital Transformation – What is Means for BAs MBA140: Improve Influence with NLP Lightning Cast: Better Communication Using the DiSC Model MBA139: Thin Slicing Problem Analysis Lightning Cast: The Many Uses of a SIPOC MBA138: Building a Believable Business Case Lightning Cast: Stay in Your Lane MBA137: Challenges with User Stories – with Mike Cohn MBA136: What the IIBA Can Do for You – Part2 MBA135: What the IIBA Can Do for You Lightning Cast: Flip the Script in Your Job Search MBA134: Distinguishing Yourself in Your Career Lightning Cast: Brainstorming – You’re Doing It Wrong! 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MBA118: Virtual Leadership MBA117: Getting Requirements Right MBA116: Implementing Solutions vs Problem Solving MBA115: Political Martial Arts – Navigating Office Politics MBA114: Value Proposition of the BA Role MBA113: Problem Solving – The RIGHT Stuff MBA112: User Centered Design MBA111: Design Thinking IS Good Business Analysis MBA110: Managing Ambiguous Requirements MBA109: Foundations in Business Analysis MBA108: Prioritizing with the MVP MBA107: Backlog Refinement – From Misunderstanding to Collaborative Discovery MBA106: Rapid Requirements Gathering MBA105: The Best Advice I Ever Received MBA104: Predictions for 2017 MBA103: How Mr. Finch Stole the Project MBA102: Product Management – Build the Right Thing MBA101: Split Your Stories! 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MBA040: User Stories – Are You Ready? MBA039: The Big Deal with Big Data MBA038: Use Cases, CX, and UX: Putting it all together MBA037: The Key to Better Collaboration MBA036: Psychology of Leadership – Interview with Cillín Hearns MBA035: Active Listening – The Most Important Skill MBA034: Use Case 2.0 – Interview with Ian Spence MBA033: Landing and Succeeding in Your First BA Role – Interview with Alex Papworth MBA032: Systems Thinking – Interview with Paula Bell MBA031: UX – Are you Experienced? Interview with Neil Turner MBA030: Myths and Patterns of Organizational Change – Interview with Linda Rising MBA029: Business Process Improvement – Keep it Simple – Interview with Brian Hunt MBA028: Talking Techie and Presenting Complex Ideas with Melissa Marshall MBA027: Elicit User Requirements with Legos – Interview with Ellen Grove MBA026: Guarding Against Scope Creep MBA025: Don’t Just Make Software, Make an Impact – Interview with Gojko Adzic MBA024: Lead with the Power of a Jedi – Interview with Heather Mylan-Mains MBA023: Using Behavior Driven Development for Better User Stories – Interview with Jeffrey Davidson MBA022: How to Know Where to Focus Your Efforts – Interview with Chris Matts MBA021: Is the Business Analyst Role Just Overhead? Interview with John Sextro MBA020: The Value of Certifications – Interview with David Mantica MBA019: Why Start with Why? Interview with Stephen Shedletzky MBA018: Step Up to Leadership with the Five-Rule Framework – Interview with Scott Stribrny MBA017: Does Your Communications Engine Need a Tune-Up? Interview with David Barrett MBA016: User Story Mapping with Jeff Patton MBA015: Promise Theory for Team Cooperation – Interview with Mark Burgess MBA014: The Future of Business Analysis – Interview with David Mantica MBA013: Trust is the New Workplace Currency – Interview with Nan Russell MBA012: Beyond Requirements – Interview with Kent McDonald MBA011: Make Your Waterfall Projects More Agile MBA010: Make Virtual Meetings More Effective – Interview with Angela Wick MBA009: Exploring the 7 Product Dimensions for Better Requirements Discovery – Interview with Mary Gorman MBA008: How to Discover Product Requirements – Interview with Ellen Gottesdiener MBA007: How to be a Badass Business Analyst – Interview with Bob Prentiss MBA006: The Business Analyst Career Path – Interview with David DeWitt MBA005: Interview with Len Lagestee – How can a BA deliver value to an Agile Team? MBA004: Defeat the Meeting Super Villians MBA003: How can introverts work well on agile teams – Interview with Ken Howard MBA002: How to Elicit Non-Functional Requirements – Interview with Roxanne Miller MBA001: Introduction to the Mastering Business Analysis Podcast The post MBA225: The Value of Business Models appeared first on Mastering Business Analysis.

In this episode, Clarke Ching shares an innovative problem solving approach to help us solve tricky problems. Show Notes We’re often called upon to apply our problem solving skills and help organizations make better decisions.  The challenge is when we face really tricky problems.  To solve these, we need an innovating problem solving approach. Corkscrew thinking is about how to come up with clever ideas when you’re facing what seems like an impossible situation. This approach helps you to be creative and wander around to figure things out.  You’re trying to invent something or discover something new.  If you’re facing two choices and they conflict or directly oppose each other, corkscrew thinking can help you discover new solutions. When we make decisions, we often make out a pros and cons list.  What we’re trying to do with corkscrew thinking is to get the best of both options while eliminating the negative aspects.  Start with the two options that are in conflict and figure out what to get the benefits out of each of those options and then solve a different problem, which is to come up with new options. It allows you to get a better solution than the options you started with. One way of envisioning corkscrew thinking is to imagine that you’re holding two choices or options, one in each hand.  Next, think about the benefits of each option and stack those on each shoulder.  These are the requirements or the positive outcomes that each choice will help you to achieve. Now imagine the higher purpose that you’re trying to achieve related to these two options.  Imagine this overall mission on top of your head. Finally, consider the benefits on your shoulders and the higher purpose above your head and search for options that combine the benefits of both while serving your higher purpose. This exercise can best be done with a quick drawing or sticky notes. Listen to the full episode to understand how to apply corkscrew thinking to solve your tricky problems. HOMEWORKStart noticing when you have a dilemma and are torn between two choices.Every hour we’re faced with dozens of decisions and often we’re not actually making choices because we’re stuck with a dilemma and we don’t even notice it.Just start to notice when you’re torn between two options and then write them down and write the pros and cons. Then ask yourself how to get all of the pros / benefits. Links Mentioned in This Episode Connect with Clarke on LinkedInCorkscrew Solutions – Clarke’s book on Amazon Clarke Ching Clarke has been powered by the Theory of Constraints for over 20 years and Agile since 2003.  He wrote Rolling Rocks Downhill (the Agile business novel that never mentions Agile) and The Bottleneck Rules (which was featured in The Guardian newspaper, and was briefly the #2 best-selling leadership book on Amazon.com, just behind Steven Covey). Thank you for listening to the program To get more valuable content to enhance your skills and advance your career, you can subscribe on iTunes and other podcatchers. Also, reviews on iTunes are highly appreciated! I read each review and it helps keep me motivated to continue to bring you valuable content each week. The post MBA224: Corkscrew Thinking appeared first on Mastering Business Analysis.

David Mantica discusses the brain science behind some of the challenges knowledge workers face and helps you shift your mindset to enable you to thrive in a complex and chaotic environment. Show Notes As knowledge workers, we rely on our brains and relationships to get things done. That’s where some of the challenges lie. The hard skills of business analysis, project management, and product ownership are relatively easy to learn. But the soft skills . . . that’s the real challenge. It’s amazing how little education knowledge workers get about how our brain impacts our ability to be successful. Our brains operate for two things; survival and efficiency. That efficiency word is very scary when it comes to complex cognition. The survival aspect can be even more difficult because it ties back into the physical survival mechanisms of our body, because we really haven’t evolved yet to understand that we are an apex predator. A lot of the initial reactions that our brain drives in our system is protecting us from a physical perspective when fear occurs. So the manifestation of fear around losing your job becomes a physical manifestation similar to being chased by a saber tooth tiger. You lose a lot of the power of cognition in that. The first step is not so much getting into the details of communication skills and emotional intelligence. It’s getting a better understanding of the fundamental workings of our brain and how you have to combat that to be healthy and to be able to thrive in constant change. Cognitive DistortionsOne thing we do a very poor job of is feeding our brain to operate with high level of cognition over an extended period of time. Since our brain wants to be efficient, it will process and gather information and look at the information using its stereotypical heuristic patterns it’s used to. This is why you see yourself having a tendency to try to solve the same problem using the same tools and getting frustrated. You’re not realizing that you have to force yourself to think deeply about a problem to get your brain processing at the cerebral cortex level and to get into something called deep literacy. And then on top of all that, it’s our society’s goal to pound this with sound bytes of information so that we’re always operating on that system. That’s important for us because the first technique you need to be thinking about is when analyzing a complex future state situation, taking a step back and doing some deep thinking and try to push away the emotional stimulus that’s around you to get your cognition going; it’s critically important because it doesn’t naturally occur. We’re bombarded with data all the time and our brains want to operate efficiently, so we ignore a lot of the data that we see in our daily lives. That can lead to snap judgments and unconscious biases, leading us to thinking down the wrong path. One such cognitive distortion is confirmation bias. It’s a tendency that we look for things that agree with what we’re thinking about and block the things that don’t agree with what we’re thinking about. It’s a preservation technique, it’s an efficiency technique, and it drives a lot of failure in the workplace. This can also lead to tensions in working relationships. Another common cognitive distortion is loss regret. The concept of the loss regret is that I would rather do nothing and not have to lose then do something and have the potential to lose, even though when I do something there’s a chance I could win. That fear of change is so scary for the brain because it wants efficiency and it wants survival. It’s going to force us to try to stay in the status quo. That’s why we all have that tendency to stay in our bubble and we don’t take certain risks. These cognitive distortions and others affect how you interact with stakeholders and could be at the root of some of the challenges you face. The Stress ResponseWhen faced with a stressful situation, our bodies release chemicals that often lead us to a freeze, fight or flight response. Our evolutionary biology predisposes us for pessimism, and that pessimism drives all of those cognitive distortions. But that pessimism also drives a lot of the emotional distortions and the emotional distortions we fear. Fear centers around two things; one is the limbic system of our brain processing that information, using the concept of the physical survival mechanism. Our bodies release adrenaline and cortisol; both are great for muscles and running fast and getting your heart pumping so you can really handle something. But it’s horrible for cognition. It makes cognition more difficult. That pessimism also leads to negative self talk, which fuels a lot of the emotional distortions that become physical. These situations can trigger a vicious cycle where get the stress response, you can’t think or behave properly, and then you do poor work. As a result, your boss yells at you and creates this cycle over again, creating a downward spiral. Understanding the human work machine and the how our brain operates will help us to better deal with the emotional and cognitive distortions. Addressing the DistortionsThe first thing you can do to address the impacts on these cognitive and emotional distortions is to do an analysis of your mindset by taking a step back and asking yourself “What are those things that you believe? What do you believe about work? What do you believe about people?” From that, you can see how those beliefs would manifest itself in the behaviors and actions which then would start building up the stress response. Better understanding the mindsets that drive behaviors and actions is key to effectively dealing with the distortions we all experience. In addition, we need to look at yourself to be more aware of what you’re feeling and where those emotions are coming from. This also helps you get a handle on your self talk.Meditation is also a powerful tool to be able to teach your brain to slow down and not be as reactive. Pause, take a deep breath, relax yourself, clear your mind for a moment and picture what you’re trying to do and the intended outcomes. Simply pausing for a second and mentally shifting your mindset or stance to curiosity changes your behavior. Listen to the full episode to get David’s tips on how to make the mindset shift to better adapt to challenges. YOUR HOMEWORKFirst, learn more about deep literacy. After that, set aside time in your schedule to think.Perhaps you’re going to think about the complex relationship that you’re trying to deal with, or think about a specific problem at work they haven’t quite been able to solve.Take half an hour and dig into it deeply so you can start pushing your brain to start getting into that deeper thinking process more readily. You may find that you’re more tired because this type of thinking is draining, so you have to start researching and learning about how you get the right nutrition for your brain. Links Mentioned in This Episode SoftEd.comThe Better Work Project PodcastHead Strong – a book on brain energy and thinking faster David Mantica David Mantica believes leaders should be servants to their organizations and people.  He is the Vice President and General Manager at SoftEd, a consultancy that offers advisory and education services to help organizations discover new ways of working for better business outcomes.  David is a frequent speaker on Project Management, Business Analysis, and leadership. Thank you for listening to the program To get more valuable content to enhance your skills and advance your career, you can subscribe on iTunes and other podcatchers. Also, reviews on iTunes are highly appreciated! I read each review and it helps keep me motivated to continue to bring you valuable content each week. TrendingMBA161: Evolution of the BA Role MBA195: Example MappingMBA129: Real Life Agile, UX, and Design ThinkingMBA096: The Standard for Business AnalysisMBA028: Talking Techie and Presenting Complex Ideas with Melissa Marshall The post MBA223: The Human Work Machine appeared first on Mastering Business Analysis.

David Bland discusses the importance of testing your business ideas and shares ways to dramatically reduce the risk and increase the likelihood of success for your product, initiative, or project. Show Notes Studies show that 7 out of 10 products fail to deliver on expectations.  We often fall into the trap of moving forward with a project, product, or business idea without first validating it.  This results in wasted time and money from solutions that don’t have a good market fit or aren’t solving the right problem. The most expensive way to find out if you’re right or wrong is to build the whole thing.David Bland The Three Lenses When testing your idea to reduce risk, look at the solution through three lenses; desirability, feasibility, and viability. Desirability implies that customers want your solution.  Feasibility means that we can build and support the solution.  This is isn’t just technical feasibility; we also look need to look at overall regulatory, policy, and governance that would prevent you from making your solution a success. While customers may want your solution (desirable) and you can build it (feasibility), perhaps there’s not enough of a market for it or people won’t pay enough for it.  This is viability. We want to unpack our risk and then test our way through it, going from no evidence to some evidence and then from some evidence to strong evidence that we’re on the right path. Process to Validate Your Idea If you have an idea that you want to validate, start by understanding the higher level risks.  Who’s your customer?  What’s your value proposition?  What’s your revenue model and the cost it’s going to take to do this? This information helps you map out desirability and viability.  Then work to understand the big activities you need to do, the resources you need to have, and anything else related to feasibility. A business model canvas may help you to understand the things that have to be true for your idea to succeed.  From there, you can identify the things that have to be true that you have no evidence to support.  You can then select experiments that would help generate evidence about those things. Listen to the full episode to understand how to sequence your experiments, discover simple yet effective ways to test your business ideas before spending a lot of time and money, and more. YOUR HOMEWORKQuite often, the biggest risk is desirability. Look for observable evidence that there are more people than just you or friends or family that have the problem you’re trying to solve with your project or product. Learn firsthand whether or not there’s a market for what you want to do.Find out if it is a problem that’s big enough to actually build something for before you spend a lot of time and money. The observable evidence in this scenario would be people searching for something.Google could show search trend analysis could help show how big of a problem you’re solving. Are people searching for it regularly? Is it seasonal? How many people are searching for it? Was a search volume look like weather related terms or to specific regions in the world where it’s popular? Links Mentioned in This Episode David’s website DavidJBland.comPrecoil – David’s companyDavid’s Book – Testing Business Ideas David J. Bland David Bland is the founder of Precoil, an organization that helps companies find product market fit using lean startup, design thinking and business model innovation. David has helped validate new products and businesses at companies such as GE, Toyota, Adobe, HP, Behr and more. David has also written several books and is the co-author of Testing Business Ideas: A Field Guide for Rapid Experimentation. Latest Episodes MBA228: Software Development Pearls MBA227: The Minimum Viable Business MBALC: Elon Musk’s 5-Step Design Process MBA226: The FOCCCUS Formula MBA225: The Value of Business Models MBA224: Corkscrew Thinking MBA223: The Human Work Machine MBA222: Testing Your Business Ideas MBA221: Systems Thinking and Business Agility MBA220: Thoughtless Design with Karl Wiegers MBA219: How To Be an Agile Business Analyst BA Toolbox – A3 Report MBA218: Customer-Centric Transformation Lightning Cast: Agile Planning MBA217: Objectives and Key Results Lightning Cast: POWER Start for Your Meetings MBA216: Outcome Based Change Lightning Cast: Resistance to Change MBA215: The Challenges with Leading in Product Management MBA214: The BA Success Path MBA213: Applying Theory of Constraints MBA212: Transforming Your Work with Modern Agile MBA211: Adaptive Leadership MBA210: Vital Communication MBA209: Visual Thinking MBA208: Facilitative Leadership MBA207: Bad Behaviors in the Workplace MBA206: Succeeding with Analytics Lightning Cast: BA Goals Revisited MBA205: Beyond Data Literacy MBA204: Top Skills for 2020 MBA203: Career Insurance Yes, Virginia, There Are BAs in Agile Lightning Cast: Failure to Launch (a new product) MBA202: Business Value Analysis MBA201: Tips From an Accidental Product Owner MBA200: Take Action! The Best Advice from Over 200 Episodes MBA199: The Future of the BA Profession MBA198: DevOps – What it Means for BAs MBA197: Making Change Fun MBA196: Customer Journey Treasure Hunting MBA195: Example Mapping MBA194: Start Your Project Off Right MBA193: About Your Career Lightning Cast: Story Estimation – What’s the Point? Lightning Cast: Requirements Rot MBA192: The Blight of Product Debt Lightning Cast: The Power to Get Things Done MBA191: Use Cases in Agile Lightning Cast: AI – Can you be replaced by a machine? MBA190: Business Data Analytics Lightning Cast: You Are a Facilitator MBA189: Adventures in Product Ownership Lightning Cast: Simplified Value Stream Mapping MBA188: The Four Ps of Product Ownership Lightning Cast: Product Debt MBA187: Transitioning to a Scrum Master Role Lightning Cast: Business Agility MBA186: Exploring Product Ownership Lightning Cast: Don’t Throw it Over the Wall MBA185: Business Analysis in Agile Lightning Cast: Non-Functional Requirements in Agile MBA184: Discover What Customers Want with JTBD Lightning Cast: We Are the Business MBA183: The BA Role on a Scrum Team MBA182: BA in the Service Industry Lightning Cast: Death, Taxes, and Missed Requirements MBA181: The Three BA Archetypes MBA180: Socratic Questioning Lightning Cast: BA Performance Goals MBA179: The Power of Prototyping MBA178: Career Options for BAs MBA177: Product Backlog Refinement MBA176: Predictions for 2019 Lightning Cast: A Visit From the Business Analyst MBA175: Product Management is the New Business Analysis – Part 2 MBA174: Product Management is the New Business Analysis MBA173: Avoiding the Build Trap MBA172: Decide Smarter Faster with Kupe Kupersmith MBA171: Your Questions Answered – Listener Mailbag MBA170: Persuasion – Get Buy-In for Your Ideas Lightning Cast: Big Design Up Front MBA169: Digital Business Analyst Competencies MBA168: Exploring the BA Career Path MBA167: The Power of Storytelling MBA166: Mastering the Art of Feedback Special Message MBA165: Remembering Jerry Weinberg Lightning Cast: Think as a Customer MBA164: The Agile Analysis Certification MBA163: Lean Six Sigma – What You Should Know Lightning Cast: Moving to a BA Role MBA162: The Business Analyst Role and its Real Value MBA161: Evolution of the BA Role Lightning Cast: Dude’s Law MBA160: The Art of Better Business Requirements Lightning Cast: Business Agility MBA159: Experiment Driven Development MBA158: Agile Requirements MBA157: The Importance of Good Data Analysis Lightning Cast: Symptoms of Success MBA156: The Power of Mentoring MBA155: Hiring BAs and PMs MBA154: Change Leadership Lightning Cast: BA on a Scrum Team MBA153: Trends in Business Analysis Lightning Cast: Powerful Questions MBA152: Finding the Right Project Lightning Cast: Order your Backlog MBA151: Your Consulting Practice – with Karl Wiegers Lightning Cast: Which Communications Channel Should You Use? MBA150: A High Five for Business Analysts Lightning Cast: Common Issues Facing Business Analysts Today MBA149: The Power of EQ Lightning Cast: The Business Alchemist MBA148: 7 Keys to Succeeding with Agile Lightning Cast: Trust – The One Thing that Changes Everything MBA147: The Business Agility Manifesto MBA146: The Full Stack Business Analyst MBA145: Predictions for 2018 Lightning Cast: Confessions of a Recovering Perfectionist MBA144: The 12 Days of the Project Lightning Cast: Stepping Up to Product Ownership MBA143: Imposter Syndrome – Banishing Your Inner Critic Lightning Cast: Root Cause Analysis Lightning Cast: Using Competency Models MBA142: Lean Startup for the Enterprise MBA141: Digital Transformation – What is Means for BAs MBA140: Improve Influence with NLP Lightning Cast: Better Communication Using the DiSC Model MBA139: Thin Slicing Problem Analysis Lightning Cast: The Many Uses of a SIPOC MBA138: Building a Believable Business Case Lightning Cast: Stay in Your Lane MBA137: Challenges with User Stories – with Mike Cohn MBA136: What the IIBA Can Do for You – Part2 MBA135: What the IIBA Can Do for You Lightning Cast: Flip the Script in Your Job Search MBA134: Distinguishing Yourself in Your Career Lightning Cast: Brainstorming – You’re Doing It Wrong! MBA133: What BAs Need to Know About Agile Lightning Cast: Requirements Quality MBA132: Next Generation Competencies Lightning Cast: The Agile Business Analyst Mindset MBA131: Interviewing for a Business Analyst Position Lightning Cast: The Business Analyst Career Path MBA130: Exploring Requirements with Jerry Weinberg MBA129: Real Life Agile, UX, and Design Thinking MBA128: Where Should the Business Analyst Reside? MBA127: Guiding Principles for the Business Analyst – part 2 MBA126: Guiding Principles for the Business Analyst MBA125: Become the Conscience of the Business MBA124: Business Analyst in an Agile Environment MBA123: The 21st Century Business Analyst MBA122: Driving Real Value Through Business Analysis MBA121: Mastering Product Ownership MBA120: Jobs to be Done Theory MBA119: What’s in Your Backlog? MBA118: Virtual Leadership MBA117: Getting Requirements Right MBA116: Implementing Solutions vs Problem Solving MBA115: Political Martial Arts – Navigating Office Politics MBA114: Value Proposition of the BA Role MBA113: Problem Solving – The RIGHT Stuff MBA112: User Centered Design MBA111: Design Thinking IS Good Business Analysis MBA110: Managing Ambiguous Requirements MBA109: Foundations in Business Analysis MBA108: Prioritizing with the MVP MBA107: Backlog Refinement – From Misunderstanding to Collaborative Discovery MBA106: Rapid Requirements Gathering MBA105: The Best Advice I Ever Received MBA104: Predictions for 2017 MBA103: How Mr. Finch Stole the Project MBA102: Product Management – Build the Right Thing MBA101: Split Your Stories! MBA100: My Biggest Mistake MBA099: Assumptions Mapping MBA098: The Art and Science of Influence MBA097: Partnership Between the PM and BA MBA096: The Standard for Business Analysis MBA095: Lean Change Management MBA094: Perspectives in Business Analysis MBA093: Beyond Project Risk MBA092: Reducing the Risk of Missing Non-Functional Requirements MBA091: Going from Order Taker to Trusted Advisor MBA090: BABOK 3.0 with Richard Larson MBA089: Agile Manifesto – What it Means to Business Analysts MBA088: Effective Requirements Workshops MBA087: Replaced by a Robot – Interview with Kupe Kupersmith MBA086: DocOps – Keep Your Documentation Agile MBA085: From Models to Stories MBA084: Agile Modeling with Scott Ambler MBA083: The BA Core Concept Model MBA082: Addressing Bottlenecks with Theory of Constraints MBA081: User Story Mapping with David Hussman MBA080: Think Like a Freak MBA079: Effective Collaboration MBA078: Design Sprints MBA077: Preparing for the Future of Business Analysis MBA076: Product Strategy MBA075: Slices of Big Truths MBA074: Lean Business Analysis MBA073: Agile Requirements – What’s Different MBA072: Improve Your Facilitation MBA071: The Essence of Business Analysis MBA070: Better BA and PM Collaboration MBA069: Business Rules – What You Need to Know MBA068: Realities of Being a Product Owner MBA067: All About the PMI-PBA Certification MBA066: Starting a BA Community of Practice MBA065: The Value of Business Analysis MBA064: Transitioning to a Product Owner Role MBA063: Starting a Career in Business Analysis MBA062: Peer Reviews for Better Requirements MBA061: Overcoming Roadblocks to Success on Complex Projects MBA060: Business Architecture and Business Analysis MBA059: Problem Solving for Business Analysts MBA058: Reusable Discovery Testing MBA057: The 6 Stakeholders You’ll Meet in Project Hell MBA056: Design Thinking for Better Business Analysis MBA055: The Agile BA – Interview with Ryland Leyton MBA054: Strategy and its Role in Business Analysis MBA053: Use Cases and Beyond – with Ivar Jacobson MBA052: Portfolio Management & The Agile Extension MBA051: A Visit From the Business Analyst MBA050: The T-Shaped Business Analyst MBA049: The First Line of Defense Against a Security Breach MBA048: Finding the Minimum Viable Product MBA047: The DNA of a Great Agile Business Analyst MBA046: The Product Owner / Business Analyst Relationship MBA045: The Agile BA – Myths and Misconceptions MBA044: Business Process Automation MBA043: Abuser Stories – Think Like a Bad Guy MBA042: Stop Using User Stories – Interview with Jim Benson MBA041: What’s the Second Best User Story? MBA040: User Stories – Are You Ready? MBA039: The Big Deal with Big Data MBA038: Use Cases, CX, and UX: Putting it all together MBA037: The Key to Better Collaboration MBA036: Psychology of Leadership – Interview with Cillín Hearns MBA035: Active Listening – The Most Important Skill MBA034: Use Case 2.0 – Interview with Ian Spence MBA033: Landing and Succeeding in Your First BA Role – Interview with Alex Papworth MBA032: Systems Thinking – Interview with Paula Bell MBA031: UX – Are you Experienced? Interview with Neil Turner MBA030: Myths and Patterns of Organizational Change – Interview with Linda Rising MBA029: Business Process Improvement – Keep it Simple – Interview with Brian Hunt MBA028: Talking Techie and Presenting Complex Ideas with Melissa Marshall MBA027: Elicit User Requirements with Legos – Interview with Ellen Grove MBA026: Guarding Against Scope Creep MBA025: Don’t Just Make Software, Make an Impact – Interview with Gojko Adzic MBA024: Lead with the Power of a Jedi – Interview with Heather Mylan-Mains MBA023: Using Behavior Driven Development for Better User Stories – Interview with Jeffrey Davidson MBA022: How to Know Where to Focus Your Efforts – Interview with Chris Matts MBA021: Is the Business Analyst Role Just Overhead? Interview with John Sextro MBA020: The Value of Certifications – Interview with David Mantica MBA019: Why Start with Why? Interview with Stephen Shedletzky MBA018: Step Up to Leadership with the Five-Rule Framework – Interview with Scott Stribrny MBA017: Does Your Communications Engine Need a Tune-Up? Interview with David Barrett MBA016: User Story Mapping with Jeff Patton MBA015: Promise Theory for Team Cooperation – Interview with Mark Burgess MBA014: The Future of Business Analysis – Interview with David Mantica MBA013: Trust is the New Workplace Currency – Interview with Nan Russell MBA012: Beyond Requirements – Interview with Kent McDonald MBA011: Make Your Waterfall Projects More Agile MBA010: Make Virtual Meetings More Effective – Interview with Angela Wick MBA009: Exploring the 7 Product Dimensions for Better Requirements Discovery – Interview with Mary Gorman MBA008: How to Discover Product Requirements – Interview with Ellen Gottesdiener MBA007: How to be a Badass Business Analyst – Interview with Bob Prentiss MBA006: The Business Analyst Career Path – Interview with David DeWitt MBA005: Interview with Len Lagestee – How can a BA deliver value to an Agile Team? MBA004: Defeat the Meeting Super Villians MBA003: How can introverts work well on agile teams – Interview with Ken Howard MBA002: How to Elicit Non-Functional Requirements – Interview with Roxanne Miller MBA001: Introduction to the Mastering Business Analysis Podcast Thank you for listening to the program To get more valuable content to enhance your skills and advance your career, you can subscribe on iTunes. Also, reviews on iTunes are highly appreciated! I read each review and it helps keep me motivated to continue to bring you valuable content each week. The post MBA222: Testing Your Business Ideas appeared first on Mastering Business Analysis.

Adrian Reed discusses systems thinking, how it enables business agility, and how it can help elevate the value you bring to your organization. Show Notes We live in a complex, rapidly changing world. In order to support our stakeholders and our organizations, we need to expand our view and adopt a systems thinking mindset. This allows you to see the whole and the interconnectedness between the parts, which in turn allows you to help stakeholders make the right decisions. Systems thinking makes business agility possible. With business agility, your organization is able to sense its external environment, really work out what’s significant, and then respond to it. To be really agile, your organization needs to see what’s changing. It needs to work out how it needs to change and then it needs to actually do it. Many organizations see that there is a strategic problem and something they really need to do, but they can’t quite configure themselves to respond to it. Business analysis is central to that because you think about sensing and seeing what’s coming. There’s a huge amount of strategic business analysis that fits into that space. You think about assessing how to change and there’s a lot of solution evaluation, problem solving, and understanding that fits in that space. Who’s Responsible for Strategic Systems Thinking? There’s often a belief that the top c-level executives should be doing this analysis. In reality, systems thinking and strategic thinking should happen at all levels. Think about what might change out in the world and how it might have an impact on how this project runs or how this product will need to incrementally change. Understanding what’s going on outside our organization or even internal – it can be “what if the priorities of this department change or what if we lose this key person” or some other event. That speaks to systems thinking; understanding the upstream and downstream impacts as well as all the pieces that are at work in a delivery system. We may write process and procedure manuals, but nobody really thinks about how they can adapt. So when something unexpected happens or some competitive threat comes along, we haven’t built variety into the processes. We lean out all of the slack and there can be times when that’s necessary. Systems thinking would encourage us to look more holistically and to recognize the complexity and to think about how the environment might change. Business analysis is a big part of that. Listen to the full episode for tools you can use to apply systems thinking and tips on providing next level value to your stakeholders and organization. Full Transcript for this episodeDownload YOUR HOMEWORKDon’t be afraid to look outside of the box that the organization has put you in.There are times when you’re busy with projects or initiatives and you’re asked to do something that doesn’t feel right. You’re under pressure and that doesn’t feel like a good time to descent. Sometimes that’s the most important time to pause, have a deep breath and think about if you need to put your attention elsewhere or look outside of the department that’s currently focusing on this change. Pick your head up and share your concerns.We’re all interested in getting to the right outcome. Bringing your observations to the attention of stakeholders lightens their load because it’s something that they probably should do and they probably want to do, but they’ve don’t have time.This is another way we elevate the reputation of our role. People start to realize that we’re strategic thinkers, and we should have a place at every part of the conversation, not just at the delivery. Links Mentioned in This Episode Adrian Reed’s Blog: https://www.adrianreed.co.uk/Blackmetric Business SolutionsSign up for the BA Digest Adrian Reed Adrian is a Principal Consultant and Director at Blackmetric Business Solutions where he provides business analysis consultancy and training solutions.  He also speaks internationally on topics relating to business analysis and business change. TrendingMBA056: Design Thinking for Better Business Analysis Thank you for listening to the program To get more valuable content to enhance your skills and advance your career, you can subscribe on iTunes. Also, reviews on iTunes are highly appreciated! I read each review and it helps keep me motivated to continue to bring you valuable content each week. The post MBA221: Systems Thinking and Business Agility appeared first on Mastering Business Analysis.

Author and thought leader Karl Wiegers shares principles and lessons he has learned from poor designs and what you can do to develop solutions that create a great user experience. Show Notes We’re all experienced products that are confusing, difficult to use, and cause frustration. Author Karl Wiegers has pulled together a collection of products with a thoughtless design and created a set of design principles and lessons to help us create solutions with the user in mind. If the solutions that we create aren’t usable, they’re not valuable to our customers. Design Lessons Karl’s first design lesson is to focus the design on usage, not on product features. Studies show that a high percentage of the features that are included in software packages are rarely used. Let’s think about what people want to do with the product and the environment in which they’re going to be using it. Then we can design the product to make it easier for users to get the job done. Let’s understand the disease before we come up with a cure. A second lesson is that design demands iteration. You’re not going to get the design right on your first try. You have to iterate. You have to sneak up on approaching a better design with each cycle until you have a design that’s good enough to satisfy the requirements and usability. You can iterate at multiple levels. You can iterate with each product release similar to the iPhone. When you iterate at that level, you may also get a lot of new bugs and increase complexity of the product. Making a product, marketing it, then seeing how people like it and making another try in a year is an expensive way to iterate. We want to iterate as cheaply as possible as many times as we can, and that requires doing things with prototypes and mockups. We can have an incremental growth of the level of precision and detail with the prototypes. The third lesson is we need to involve real users whenever possible. If you’re iterating on a design, how do you know what to change on your next cycle to make it better? Ideally, you’ll have some user representatives that are working with you; perhaps working with a prototype or a mockup under realistic usage conditions, as we can come up with a design. The users are going to show you things and tell you things that you just don’t get in the design lab. Sometimes you may not have real users available. You might have to work with user surrogates, but whenever possible, there’s just no substitute for having real people work with something that’s similar to the real product and tell you all the reasons why you’re not there yet. Fundamental Design Principles There are nine design principles in Karl’s book that are fundamental to good design. The design principles include: Make the product easy and obvious to use: The product should provide visual cues to the user to make the product easy and obvious to use.Make it hard to make a mistake: The product should be designed in a way that makes it hard to make a mistake, or at least have the user verify their intentions before taking a step that potentially could be a mistake. Design for the user’s convenience: Think about what the user is trying to do and create a design that allows them to get the job done. Avoid designing for the business’s convenience at the expense of the user. Remember that thoughtful design is something that makes it hard for users to make mistakes, doesn’t waste the user’s time, and is for the user’s convenience. Let’s try to detect unsatisfied preconditions and erroneous inputs as early as possible in the test sequence so the user doesn’t waste time on a task they can’t complete. Listen to the full episode to get more of Karl’s tips and advice on building products with the customer’s usability in mind. Your HomeworkAs a Business Analyst, Product Owner, or designer, let’s not make something and then have people tell us all the stuff we did wrong and why they hate it. Instead, try to satisfy the nine design principles from the outset.As a consumer, it helps us think more carefully about what features we’re looking for when we’re considering possible products that we might buy. What are the things that are important to me as a user before I buy it, take it home and saying that’s not what I was hoping was going to be? On a broader scale, we should all think more about the properties and characteristics and capabilities that we’re looking for before we put down our money. Links Mentioned in This Episode Karl’s website – https://karlwiegers.com/The Thoughtless Design of Everyday Things book site: http://thoughtless-design.com/ Karl Wiegers Karl Wiegers is an independent consultant, author, speaker, and thought leader in the project community.  His books on software requirements are considered required reading for Business Analysts and Project Managers.  As a consultant and trainer, Karl has worked with more than 100 companies and government organizations of all types, helping them improve the effectiveness and efficiency of their software development activities. Karl’s most recent book is The Thoughtless Design of Everyday Things Thank you for listening to the program To get more valuable content to enhance your skills and advance your career, you can subscribe on iTunes. Also, reviews on iTunes are highly appreciated! I read each review and it helps keep me motivated to continue to bring you valuable content each week. The post MBA220: Thoughtless Design with Karl Wiegers appeared first on Mastering Business Analysis.