Business analysis

In what way?
* Creating business processes within an organisation for service product/solutions?
* Achitecting the companies IT functions?
* Competitive analysis?
* Financial analysis?
 
In all honesty if you want a general book that would teach you about the items Sigma listed then a BPP study book for the ACCA P3 exam would be a good start. Also cheap of the bay.

edit - also a good website for different models and one that helped me pass my exams is: http://www.quickmba.com/strategy/
 
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Not sure what level you're learning/wanting it but Management, An introduction to, by David Boddy is alright, not amazing but readable although I guess it's more about management than business analysis (funnily enough lol). I'd have thought most business books would be quite similar.

Edit - ACCA P3 would be better.
 
I am doing this in university atm, one of the books we are using is

Contemporary Strategy Analysis - Robert Grant
 
Thanks i'll take a look :)

Is there anything equivalent to say PRINCE2/ITIL etc for business analysis? (preferably with an IT focus if possible.
 
I was just looking at the ISEB stuff but it's not something i've ever heard of some i'm unsure how much value there is to it.

I just think having something like that to aim for would give me a structured way to learn
 
Wardie said:
I was just looking at the ISEB stuff but it's not something i've ever heard of some i'm unsure how much value there is to it.

I just think having something like that to aim for would give me a structured way to learn
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What's the context? Are you currently a BA or looking to get into it, or what?

Prince2 Foundation and ITIL Foundation are always useful for BAs, as are any Agile courses.
 
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Potentially looking at a move into it in the future, so looking to move into it I guess (and i'm a bit sad and just want to expand my knowledge!).

I've got some PRINCE2 material but I was going to look at BA first.
 
The thing about being a BA is you get paid to point out the bleeding obvious :p
 
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I think the ISEB is the only BA specific course that I know that anyone has done. Most of the BAs I know (myself included) either did BA focussed degrees or simply started a BAing at a junior level and expanded their knowledge though doing.

Phate said:
The thing about being a BA is you get paid to point out the bleeding obvious :p
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And very lucrative it is too, thank you. ;)
 
Just finished an OU postgrad course "Software Requirements for Business Systems". The set book, "Mastering the Requirements Process" (Robertson & Robertson) is fantastic; in fact I'd say that it's probably the best text book I've come across in 18 years of study. Crucially, unlike many books on practices, it doesn't just spout theory at you but also gives some practical guidance on how to resolve issues if their guidelines aren't working or applicable in your situation.

Of course, as with many books proposing techniques or ways of working, to get the most out of it you need to be in a position to implement changes across the team, something most of us aren't able to do. The irony is many of the people making the decisions are traditionally the least qualified (in a technical sense) to do so!

Personally from what I've seen I think something generic like PRINCE2 is more desirable to employers than ISEB BA. Likewise I've got OU M865 "Project Management" (recognised by BCS as equivalent to ISEB PM) but recruiters will always be looking for PRINCE2 or similar (when talking qualifications, ignoring experience etc).
 
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If you looking into Business Analysis in relation to software development then learning about some common development methodologies would be a good start, so agile, waterfall, etc...

An understanding of product life-cycle and deployment will also be beneficial you might want to look into various PM methodologies such as Prince 2, Agile Project Management, TSP, etc...

Finally you need to have the right mind set and personality.. You need to be able to understand and qualify requirement, really be able to think of and ask the right questions, make sure that you are interrupting requirement correctly and then be able to present it in a manor that the end-user and the developers can understand and not mis-interrupt ...
 
HangTime said:
The irony is many of the people making the decisions are traditionally the least qualified (in a technical sense) to do so!
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Indeed but those technically qualified aren't normally the best qualified to make strategic / business decisions... Good management is ofc about recognising ones own weakness and using the resource available to come to the 'right' decision

HangTime said:
Personally from what I've seen I think something generic like PRINCE2 is more desirable to employers than ISEB BA. Likewise I've got OU M865 "Project Management" (recognised by BCS as equivalent to ISEB PM) but recruiters will always be looking for PRINCE2 or similar (when talking qualifications, ignoring experience etc).
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Which always seems odd to me... although Prince 2 offers a foundation it shouldn't be the be all and end all... the number of PM's that can't think outside the box or use some common sense really does surprise!
 
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Pneumonic said:
Indeed but those technically qualified aren't normally the best qualified to make strategic / business decisions... Good management is ofc about recognising ones own weakness and using the resource available to come to the 'right' decision
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That rarely happens though in my experience. Where I work decisions that have widespread impact (adopting new tools, methodologies, internal projects etc) are taken without consulting people with expertise in those fields. Although, the times may be a-changing as a lot of the people concerned have been given the boot in recent months :)

In my experience the best managers are technically adept in addition to possessing all the traditional management skills. I just like working for those type of people who have it all rather than just one set of skills.

Which always seems odd to me... although Prince 2 offers a foundation it shouldn't be the be all and end all... the number of PM's that can't think outside the box or use some common sense really does surprise!
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The thing is even if an organisation isn't going to follow a strict methodology like PRINCE2 (something that is becoming less and less common in the private sector at least), I think employers feel a sense of security in hiring people who are certified to that level. If nothing else they should be capable of learning and adapting to a new methodology.
 
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