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White Papers
The Creative Business Analyst
Part 1 - Understanding Problems
Many of us are familiar with the process of business analysis – start by gathering requirements from stakeholders then turn them into a specification which developers can understand. These days however, we need to do more than just document the requirements.
We need to work with stakeholders and business users to understand their systems and analyse their problems – why do you do it this way, why not that way? This is the real value add the analyst brings to the table. It means challenging the status quo, pushing the boundaries, looking for alternative or creative solutions.
To develop a solution - unless we’re very lucky - we first need to understand the problem that drives the need. In this paper we look at how to understand and define business problems – part 2 will look at how to generate solution ideas and part 3 will cover how to choose the best ones...
 download paper (110kb)
Part 2 - Generating Solution Ideas
A lot of people think that coming up with solutions to business problems is the hardest part about being a business analyst – particularly when working with a client who knows more about the business than you ever will. Don’t believe it, after all you’ve already made considerable progress in understanding the problem – and your understanding is based on level-headed analysis rather than a potentially emotional interpretation by your client.
Now it’s time to look for solutions – to be creative and think outside the square. In this paper we’ll offer a few tips and techniques for getting the creative juices flowing. We’ll show you that anyone can be creative and that solutions can come from the most unexpected places – you don’t have to be a subject matter expert to come up with valid, workable solutions to business problems.
download paper (277kb)
Part 3 - Making Better Decisions
Now that we’ve thoroughly understood the problem or opportunity we’re trying to address (The Creative Business Analyst Part 1) and come up with lots of ideas (Part 2), it’s time to be selective and decide which of our ideas will solve the problem and can be implemented by our organisation.
In this final paper of the series we look at decision making techniques – how to select the best idea from the many we’ve come up with – and how to justify our recommendation to our client, manager and peers.
download paper (144kb)
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