Tag Archives: discovery

All Solutions Are Iterative

I’ve spilled a lot of wind and electrons talking and writing about iteration as a path to solving problems, in a business analysis context and elsewhere. My framework incorporates multiple levels of iteration, of course, but through earning and maintaining … Continue reading

Posted in Tools and methods | Tagged , , , | Leave a comment

TWSL Series 07: Discovery and Data Collection

Today I gave this webinar for the Tom Woods School of Life Lunch and Learn Series. The slides are here.

Posted in Tools and methods | Tagged , , , , , | 1 Comment

BA Webinar Series 04: The Solution

Today I gave this webinar for the Tampa IIBA Lunch and Learn Series. The slides are here.

Posted in Tools and methods | Tagged , , , , , | Leave a comment

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

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

Posted in Management, Soft Skills, Tools and methods | Tagged , , , | Leave a comment

Discovery: Learning What’s In a Process

Discovery is observing or researching what’s in a system or process. It identifies facilities, entities, resources, information, and activities. These are the nouns and verbs that comprise the system or process under investigation. Discovery does not try to quantify the … Continue reading

Posted in Tools and methods | Tagged , , , | Leave a comment

Methods of Observation

This past weekend my CBAP training course asked me to speak briefly on the technique of Observation. I reviewed the basic information in the BABoK itself and the training guide we’re using for the class, and I’ll refer to this … Continue reading

Posted in Tools and methods | Tagged , , , , | Leave a comment

On Process Discovery, Domain Knowledge Acquisition, and Subject Matter Expert Interviews

This is a weird but true story … A complaint was received by the Pontiac Division of General Motors: This is the second time I have written you, and I don’t blame you for not answering me, because I kind … Continue reading

Posted in Life | Tagged , , , | Leave a comment

Business Process Model and Notation (BPMN 2.0)

Today I was able to complete a thorough power-read of the book Real Life BPMN by Jakob Freund and Bernd Rücker. I’ve performed discovery on, analyzed, characterized, automated, modeled, simulated, documented, controlled, and improved various kinds of customer processes more … Continue reading

Posted in Tools and methods | Tagged , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Discovery Takes Place on Many Levels

Technical projects involve learning on many different levels. You learn about your customers, your colleagues, yourself, technologies and techniques, modes of organization, ways to prevent errors, ways to add value, your customer’s project, how to do the next person’s work, … Continue reading

Posted in Management | Tagged , , , | Leave a comment

Project Management Environments I’ve Worked In – Part 1

Most of the work I’ve done in my career has been accounted for on a project basis. I was never an operations guy, my job was always to build or fix something under a particular job code and then go … Continue reading

Posted in Management | Tagged , , , | Leave a comment