Message from Your Chapter President - Sept 2021

thinker     President's Message
There are many BA techniques floating around. BAs are so creative that adaptations and new techniques are introduced all the time. It is unlikely any of us would ever use them all.  So we gravitate to a handful that become our staples. Make sure along with your faithful few you are always introducing yourself to new techniques. Abraham Maslow coined a popular phrase in his book 'The Psychology of Science' when he said "I suppose it is tempting, if the only tool you have is a hammer, to treat everything as if it were a nail." The goal is to keep your toolkit fresh and be familiar with a broad variety of tools to ensure you have access to the appropriate technique when needed.
The following link is a BA Times article which explores ways to become familiar with new techniques.

https://www.batimes.com/articles/how-to-learn-new-techniques/

A quick web search will bring back many sites listing the top BA techniques but those lists are very personal and subjective. So take some time to figure out the techniques that work for you and keep an open mind to find some opportunities to add to your toolkit.

Here are a few techniques from my standard toolkit that are worth a look if you don't currently use them:

  • Scope Modelling
  • User Stories
  • Process Modelling
  • Functional Decomposition
  • Requirements Workshops
  • Stakeholder Analysis
  • SWOT Analysis

Photo by niko photos on Unsplash


Mike Jones,
President