http://barocks.com Mia (Murphy) Horrigan talks about Business Analysis, User Centred Design in Requirements Development and Business Process Improvement Thu, 26 Nov 2009 08:22:35 +0000 http://backend.userland.com/rss092 en Yes I know i have been quite lately but in recent months. However i have been active again thsi year,  I have changed jobs and started a new blog with my BFF and project partner, Matt Hodgson. Our blog is called - ZenAgile.  We started the blog as we found ourselves ... http://barocks.com/2009/11/26/new-agile-blog-for-miahorri/ I have been involved in WIC for awhile and this year am Vice President of the Board so have a huge and challenging job ahead of me. I am passionate about mentoring and i think that is why i love being involved in WIC. When i was starting out in ICT, ... http://barocks.com/2009/08/30/women-in-information-and-communication-wic-events-0910/ This year I have been asked to give two presentations at BA World in Sydney (6 Jul), Melbourne (13 Jul), Canberra (21 Sep) and Brisbane (6 Oct). This is a great opportunity to talk about some exciting projects I have been involved in and also meet some of my BA colleagues. The ... http://barocks.com/2009/08/28/business-analyst-world-2009/ At our recent ABAA meeting here in Canberra, Phil Rich, a Senior BA, discussed what makes a good business analyst (presentation is now on slideshare). Phil's presentation was particularly interesting given his journalism back ground. His key points on journalism and business anlaysis were that: if you can't interview you can't get information if you ... http://barocks.com/2009/08/24/what-makes-a-good-business-analyst/ We now live in a networked world and relationships are important to do business and do business well. In order for projects to be successful we must understand: Stakeholder relationships  How people are connected How they communicate Why they are connected  BAs often need to identify stakeholders and entities, but often it is the social connectedness  ... http://barocks.com/2008/12/11/social-networking-analysis/ With the economic downturn of recent months, the release of the Gershon Review into ICT and a general slowdown in government spending as part of the normal election and budget cycle, I started to think about what skills and capabilities will be needed in teh future and what does this ... http://barocks.com/2008/11/29/are-ba-skills-in-demand-and-recession-proof/ We have all worked in project teams with vastly different stakeholders. This is challenging as we all think, act, make decisions, listen and want information differently. We therefore need to understand how our stakeholders want to communicate in order to ensure our requirements analysis is effective. This means that as ... http://barocks.com/2008/11/15/understanding-different-behaviour-styles-to-help-communicate-requirements/ Canberra has been abuzz in ICT circles ever since the Gerson Report into ICT in the federal government arena was announced.  Sir Peter Gershon in 2003 conducted a review into teh UK Public Sector so many in Australia eagerly awaited his review of ICT. The perception going into the review was ... http://barocks.com/2008/11/10/gershon-review-into-ict/ To paraphrase a Zoolander quote, Agile is "so hot right now". When you ask business areas and IT managers what they are interested in, they respond that they want to be more agile in order to adapt in a changing environment. What is it that everyone wants to be agile? ... http://barocks.com/2008/11/06/everyone-wants-to-be-agile/ As BAs, our requirements analysis is not done by simply sitting down at our desk and developing requirements based on a template we used previously. It can only be done by getting out and talking to users about what they require the system to do and then building systems that ... http://barocks.com/2008/11/03/communicating-requirements-is-vital/