Jonathan Babcock

Not long ago, CIO.com ran an article entitled, Why Business Analysts Are So Important for IT and CIOs. The article has apparently piqued the interest of many business analysts as I’ve seen it mentioned in various blogs and discussion groups.

It is exciting that reliable research firms like Forrester are producing reports such as this that acknowledge the value of the BA role and provide such a positive outlook.

I wanted, first, to point out the article to those of you who may not yet have read it; second, to share some of my own commentary on passages that I found particularly interesting. So, here we go:

Some recent articles I’ve read and training that I’ve received has taught me how important a clearly defined business strategy is to meeting organizational goals. What’s more, it’s now plain to me how important the corporate strategy can be in helping to make business and technology decisions.

Welcome! This site specializes in providing tips and tools for Business Analysts and systems development in general. If you’re new here, you may want to subscribe to my RSS feed. If you’d prefer, you can also receive my posts directly to your e-mail. Thanks for visiting!Random observations from the February, 2008 Atlanta IIBA chapter meeting.These [...]

I’ve blogged recently about participating in the business analysis community, and felt like I should get involved in what is going on in my local Atlanta IIBA chapter. Well, I went to the chapter meeting this past Tuesday and thought I’d share a few of my notes and impressions.
First off, it was a good time. [...]

I’ve noticed a recurring discussion around various business analysis-oriented websites of late concerning the relevance and value of the Business Analyst, especially in an agile environment. Some argue that with agile, “business analyst” responsibilities are carried out by software developers or technical architects, eliminating unneeded layers of communication (read; BA’s).
Karl Wiegers, one of my favorite [...]

This post is based on a quote I read and liked from the article, “When Requirements Go Bad: Part II” by Kurt Bittner. The article is available from Dr. Dobb’s Requirements Development e-zine (free subscription required). According to Bittner:

We need to banish the practice of writing requirements that we can “throw over the wall” to developers or testers and instead pursue a more open, communicative approach. What is important to realize is that requirements are what motivate discussions, but it is the discussion that matters most.

Well said. While I’ve taken an occasionally rocky path to get there, my experience as a BA has led me to the same conclusion.

For some reason, last week I picked up and began reading from Benjamin Franklin’s autobiography. In it, he mentions a mutual improvement society that he and several of his acquaintances founded in colonial Philadelphia to compare ideas, to critique each other’s publications, and to gather sociably. They called it “Junto.” The idea behind Junto was that in gathering like-minded individuals with a common cause for civil discourse, all participants stood to benefit.