A nice trick that business analysts can use now that collaboration technology like Google Docs exists is to allow meeting participants to simultaneously collaborate on documents during the meeting itself.  Simply have everyone in your meeting open up the document on their own computer, and then everyone can edit the document together in real time.  [...]

Let’s say you’ve been engaged in a project that’s much needed by the company. Let’s say that it has had a past filled with failure. Let’s say that it’s on the chopping block to be cut, due to being a seemingly money pit. Let’s say that you’re on a super awesome team to turn the [...]

A recent question came up from an organization implementing an agile methodology: What does it mean to put a business analysis (BA) Center of Excellence (BA COE) in an agile organization? Do you still need one? If so, does creating one require different activities? I do think you can mate a BA COE and an [...]

Requirements are often considered a relatively minor portion of IT projects – they are used to specify the functionality of the system so developers can build that functionality and testers can validate the functionality is working properly. There are, however, several other uses for requirements that can help ensure the long term success of a [...]

When is a software development project successful? Is it when funding is approved for the project? No, because that’s a first step, but nothing has actually happened yet in executing the project. Is it when the requirements are successfully defined? No, because nothing’s been built yet. Is it when the development is done? No, because [...]

Two new reports are available for download on the Seilevel main website Resources page. Both were written for IT executives and senior BAs/CBAPs, and both focus on scenarios common in enterprise IT organizations. The first report concerns Commercial Off The Shelf (COTS) projects, and ways to reduce the risk of IT project failure in these [...]

The IT side of M&A integration involves much more than an integration of IT systems; due to the business risk involved, and in the effort to create value from the M&A, it will demand complete, accurate, consumable software requirements. Done properly, it should really start with a negotiation of business needs, with the system integration [...]

In my last post, I outlined What Complexity Science Tells Us About Requirements. This post will focus on one of the key findings in complexity science: since complex adaptive systems are fundamentally unpredictable, an evolutionary strategy has a higher probability of success than a strategy that relies on prediction. In order to be successful, your [...]

Many, if not most, software shops prefer to use Agile instead of Waterfall. That makes sense, right? Short cycles where you see progress quickly that allows you to make changes without the sky falling; I like that too! Agile also affords a close environment where the team is co-located, so that communication can move freely, [...]

Call me crazy, but I’m of the opinion that all software projects need clearly defined requirements. This includes one-person projects. An aspiring, enterprising developer has just as much need for requirements as a large company implementing a global release. Now I know what you’re saying. Requirements are a way to communicate the business needs to the development [...]