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Actually, the true 1 year anniversary was on the 9th, but I thought I’d do as I do for most other birthdays, and forget it completely until a week or so has passed. So, we’ve been at it for a little over a year, and I think it is an appropriate time to thank all of you who have stopped by to read and comment on my posts. Thanks for subscribing to my feed and occasionally bookmarking my posts. I’d probably blog just for my own benefit anyway, but it sure is more enjoyable when you get to exchange ideas with other respected and accomplished practitioners of the trade, and benefit from their experience and expertise.

I have more to say, but first here are a few fun facts about jonathanbabcock.com’s first year (thanks to the productologist for the idea).

Number of visitors: Approximately 12,300 unique visitors. I can’t give the exact number because 3 tracking mechanisms each return slightly different results. Ok, I’m not breaking any records, but it’s more than I would have guessed a year ago.

Number of Posts: 67 (an average of just over 1 per week)

Number of Subscribers: Typically between 100 and 120 on a given day.

First commenter: Michael Schaffner. By the way, Mike’s “Why I Blog” post that he wrote about a week after I began my blog helped me understand the value of establishing a personal brand and inspired me to get off my tail and start taking blogging seriously.

My Favorite Posts:

• McDonald’s Burgers and High-Quality Business Analysts
• Good Requirements Are More Than Just Accurate
• Thought, Problems, and Business Analysts
• Business Analysts and the Abilene Paradox
• Business Analysts: SME’s or Generalists?

Number of different blog themes used: 4. In case you’re interested, here’s the list:

• Blue Zinfandel by Brian Gardner
• Blogging Pro
• Zeke by Solostream
• Suhweet also by Solostream. This is my current theme, btw.

One of the reasons I wanted to begin blogging was so I could learn more about “why” we do the things the way we do as business analysts. I wanted to learn more about how other people in other types of environments deal with challenges common to all business analysts.

I spend each working day in the trenches applying process, methodology, my own professional skills, etc., to make projects work. Over time, I have improved quite a bit at the daily, tactical business analysis activities. What I found that I didn’t have as a daily practitioner was an effective outlet to help me broaden my knowledge of the general concepts, approaches and skills that would make me as well-rounded a BA as possible. I think the blog has definitely helped in that area. Instead of an extension of work, this has really become an enjoyable hobby.

Another benefit I’ve found is that actually composing my thoughts in printed form has helped me evaluate them more fully, and challenge them in ways I hadn’t before. Sharing my thoughts on the Web has pushed me to do some additional research into some of the things I’d always believed and to challenge previous assumptions to make sure that they would withstand the scrutiny of an informed and intelligent base of readers (you guys!).

Anyway… the blog has been great for me. I hope it has been of some use to you, and will continue to get better with age. Again, thanks!

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