oday, the business analyst role acts as a broker of
information, getting big picture and details from executives, experts, vendors,
technical resources, etc. What the BA does with all this information and how it
gets communicated and repurposed for each audience is opportunity for a
business analyst.
Conceptual Modeling of the business view of the solution has
always been a critical tool to help bring business, technology, and delivery
groups together in defining solution scope. Technical architecture and
data context diagrams have their place, but the critical BA skills is the
business view (vs. technical view) of the solution scope, this will be critical
to engaging stakeholders and setting the stage for innovation.
According to Nancy Nee, vice president of Global Product
Strategy, ESI International, there are specific business
analysis (BA) trends that will be prominent in 2013. We have already
gone over eight of them in our previous posts. So, let’s now move to number nine.
In 2013 is all about pictures, graphics or models. What you
will begin to see is that the BAs are going to be using and leveraging all of
the different models and modeling techniques they know to be able to deliver
the messages they need. For instance, user stories require the use cases to be
able to develop the value the customer is looking for. Process models are a way
to understand how the organization as a whole is going to be able to deliver
what they are looking for and add operational effectiveness and across the
board.
In 2013, will we see the written word disappear?
“I hope not, but pictures speak a thousand words so 2013 BAs
should get focused on practicing your modeling skills and techniques because
the model is going to pay the rent,” said Nee.
Amanda Ciccatelli, Social Media Strategist at IIR USA in New York City, has a background in digital and print journalism, covering a variety of topics in business strategy, marketing, and technology. She previously worked at Technology Marketing Corporation as a Web Editor where she covered breaking news and feature stories in the tech industry. She can be reached at aciccatelli@iirusa.com. Follow her at @AmandaCicc.
