Category Archives: Tools and methods

Microsoft Excel: It’s More Than Just VLOOKUP

Posted on June 22, 2018 by R.P. Churchill

Yesterday’s post touched on the importance of being able to use spreadsheets well, and particularly Microsoft Excel. I thought I would expand on that subject here. I saw copies of Lotus 1-2-3 back in college and certainly read about it. … Continue reading →

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Domain Knowledge Acquisition

Posted on May 21, 2018 by R.P. Churchill

I’ve touched on this subject briefly before, but I wanted describe it more directly. The simplest definition of domain knowledge, for me, is: what you need to know to create and apply effective solutions in a specific situation. Acquisition, of … Continue reading →

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Advanced Manufacturing Process Integration Ideas

Posted on May 17, 2018 by R.P. Churchill

I’ve seen a lot of different things over the years and they cannot help but suggest possibilities for ways things can be done in a more streamlined, integrated way. Of particular interest to me has been the many novel ways … Continue reading →

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Follow-up: A Way To Use Jira for Everything?

Posted on May 16, 2018 by R.P. Churchill

Today I continue yesterday’s discussion of ways to implement an RTM and my framework using Jira, except this time I want to talk about using Jira for every phase of an effort and not just for implementation and testing. Given … Continue reading →

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Jira and Confluence for RTMs and My Framework

Posted on May 15, 2018 by R.P. Churchill

I finally finished the Udemy course on Jira and Confluence. As I watched each section of the course I thought about how the capabilities of the two products can be used to represent Requirements Traceability Matrices, and furthermore how they … Continue reading →

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Pittsburgh IIBA Meetup: Do You Think You Are a Good Listener? Let Us Surprise You!

Posted on May 14, 2018 by R.P. Churchill

This evening’s talk at the Pittsburgh IIBA Meetup was about communication skills. Although there was some discussion about conveying messages the emphasis was on how to receive them. Both are important to business analysts. BAs must provide context for what … Continue reading →

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A Simulationist’s Framework for Business Analysis: One More Update

Posted on May 10, 2018 by R.P. Churchill

So I’m working my way through the Jira course and I finally came to a clear understanding of a special case I’ve been trying to clarify. For the most part the processes of discovery and data collection result in the … Continue reading →

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A Simulationist’s Framework for Business Analysis: An Update

Posted on May 7, 2018 by R.P. Churchill

While continuing to work through my Jira course with an eye toward using it in conjunction with a Requirements Traceability Matrix, I’ve been thinking about the context of how the work actually gets done. I’ve discussed the content of the … Continue reading →

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Requirements Traceability Matrix (RTM)

Posted on May 3, 2018 by R.P. Churchill

One of my favorite tools to use during any project, but particularly for software projects, is the Requirements Traceability Matrix (RTM). I’ve discussed this in presentations I’ve given on the framework I use for performing business analysis (and project management … Continue reading →

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Data Collection: Characterizing a Process

Posted on April 26, 2018 by R.P. Churchill

Having discussed the process of discovery yesterday I wanted to go into detail about data collection today. While discovery identifies the nouns and verbs of a process, data collection identifies the adjectives and adverbs. I’ve listed a bunch of ways … Continue reading →

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