- 1
- 2
- 3
- < previous
- next >
Read up on the latest ideas and technologies from companies that sell hardware, software and services. Newsletter Subscription
"Their fundamental goal is to get the project focused early by translating the initial high-level vision into something realistic," Ambler writes.
2. Interpret business needs. A critical responsibility of business analysts is "to work with project stakeholders to translate their requirements into something that developers can understand as well as to translate the resulting questions that the developers have into something the stakeholders can understand," Ambler writes. A key skill needed in this part of the process is the business analyst's ability to distil the differing messages and needs of project stakeholders into a single, consistent vision.
"This task often includes significant negotiation and political manoeuvring," Ambler writes. Business analysts will "often find themselves spending significant time in meetings, thereby saving the rest of the development team from this inefficient use of their time."
3. Translate technical issues. Business analysts also have the arduous task of breaking down technical and architectural complexities so that project stakeholders can easily understand any issues that crop up, such as "why your HTML-based application can't have as slick of a user interface as a Visual Basic application," Ambler writes. "BSAs often explain what the developers are doing and why they need to do it, including explanations of the basis of schedules and estimates."
4. Spell out the project details and requirements. "BSAs will often work with project stakeholders to identify, model and then document their requirements and business domain details," Ambler notes.
5. Put development team in touch with the right people. "BSAs typically have very good connections within the business community," he writes, "and therefore are in a position to help development teams find the right people to work with."
6. Political guide. "BSAs often help project teams through the political minefields within their organizations, particularly when the BSA has worked within the same organization for several years," Ambler notes.
7. Test and validation. Business analysts work with project stakeholders to "validate their requirements and analysis models via techniques such as reviews, walkthroughs and play acting," he writes. "BSAs will often aid in writing user acceptance test (UAT) cases and will be a liaison between project stakeholders and your testing organization during UAT."
8. Represent project stakeholders throughout the process. If project teams don't have direct access to their project stakeholders, which is never a good situation, business analysts have to act as "stakeholder surrogates," Ambler suggests. "Typically developers will treat a BSA as the 'customer' from which requirements, domain information and business priorities are provided. The BSA, in turn, will work with the stakeholders to obtain information and to verify decisions."
- 1
- 2
- 3
- < previous
- next >
Discover how SOA can create smarter outcomes for your business.
Attend and learn:
- How SOA is helping leading companies to become more agile
- Where you should be applying SOA processes in your company
- The top SOA implementation mistakes to avoid
Click here for more information.
- +
CIO Live Podcast #79: Brent D Taylor, author of The Outsider's Edge: The Making of Self-Made Billionaires Part II 05 October, 2007 06:00:00
For his new book, The Outsider's Edge: The Making of Self-Made Billionaires, social researcher Brent D Taylor spent four years of intensive research investigating the psychological make-up and backgrounds of some of the world's richest men and women, including IT luminaries Bill Gates, Larry Ellison and Steve Jobs. Taylor discovered that, despite working in different industries and coming from different upbringings, they all have one thing in common -- they are all outsiders. - +
CIO Live Podcast #78: Brent D Taylor, author of The Outsider's Edge: The Making of Self-Made Billionaires 28 September, 2007 17:34:25
For his new book, The Outsider's Edge: The Making of Self-Made Billionaires, social researcher Brent D Taylor spent four years of intensive research investigating the psychological make-up and backgrounds of some of the world's richest men and women, including IT luminaries Bill Gates, Larry Ellison and Steve Jobs. Taylor discovered that, despite working in different industries and coming from different upbringings, they all have one thing in common -- they are all outsiders. - +
CIO Live Podcast #77: Panasonic Speeds Up Trans-Pacific File Transfers, Part III 21 September, 2007 07:00:00
Part three in our three-part special report from CIO's sister publication Network World in the US, as Paul Desmond reports from the Network World IT Roadmap Conference in Santa Clara, California. With development teams in the US and Japan, Panasonic needed a more efficient way to move very large files between the two locations. Iben Rodriguez, IT consultant for Panasonic Research and Development, explains how a storage-area network and virtual server technology helped speed up WAN performance. - +
CIO Live Podcast #76: Panasonic Speeds Up Trans-Pacific File Transfers, Part II 14 September, 2007 07:00:00
Part two in our three-part special report from CIO's sister publication Network World in the US, as Paul Desmond reports from the Network World IT Roadmap Conference in Santa Clara, California. With development teams in the US and Japan, Panasonic needed a more efficient way to move very large files between the two locations. Iben Rodriguez, IT consultant for Panasonic Research and Development, explains how a storage-area network and virtual server technology helped speed up WAN performance. - +
CIO Live Podcast #75: Panasonic Speeds Up Trans-Pacific File Transfers, Part I 07 September, 2007 07:00:05
Part one in our three-part special report from CIO's sister publication Network World in the US, as Paul Desmond reports from the Network World IT Roadmap Conference in Santa Clara, California. With development teams in the US and Japan, Panasonic needed a more efficient way to move very large files between the two locations. Iben Rodriguez, IT consultant for Panasonic Research and Development, explains how a storage-area network and virtual server technology helped speed up WAN performance.
- +
Cutting Through the Spin of Recent Vulnerability Disclosures 13 October, 2008 10:53:00
The FUD surrounding the ClickJacking and TCP/IP vulnerabilities has the world seemingly frozen in fear. But once you cut through the spin, the vulnerabilities aren't all that they were made out to be.There are a few highly publicised vulnerabilities at the moment which haven't completely been disclosed and which, it is claimed, could threaten the whole Internet as-we-know-it. Only, when the vulnerabilities are finally disclosed, it seems that the whole incident has been somewhat Chicken Little. - +
PCI app security: Who's guarding the data bank? 13 October, 2008 11:09:00
Compliance strategies for PCI's new application security requirementsWhile Willy Sutton never really said it, the truth is that people rob banks because that is where the money is. Today's criminals don't walk into banks with loaded guns and get-away drivers. Rather they connect from a remote location using a browser and are armed with hacking tools and spyware. - +
Data-center security tools to not overlook 10 October, 2008 11:37:00
With the rise of security suites, it's time to consider some emerging security tools and rethink othersProtecting a corporate data center is like trying to keep an elephant safe from a swarm of flies. Despite your best efforts, bites happen. As the staples of security -- such as firewalls, antivirus software, spam and spyware filters -- come together in suites of products that allow for sophisticated management, there are other security tools either emerging or worth a rethink. - +
IBM, Secret Service, others study identity/cybercrime issues 09 October, 2008 10:09:00
Center for Applied Identity Management Research organization teams experts in criminal justice, financial crime, biometrics, cybercrime and cyberdefense, data protection, homeland security and national defense.IBM, LexisNexis and the Secret Service are among a group of corporations, government agencies and academic institutions that has formed to study and help solve identity management challenges around cybercrime, terrorism and narcotics trafficking. - +
Strange account management at Amazon 09 October, 2008 09:51:00
A careless login led to the discovery of some strange ccount management practices at one of the Internet's largest retailers.Via the RISKS mailing list comes an interesting tale of poor online account management at a major online retailer. According to Graham Bennett, accounts with Amazon display an odd behaviour that doesn't seem to have attracted much attention in the past.
NetStar Networks Calls Brisbane Home 13 October, 2008 12:01:00
New Verizon Business Managed Service Makes Collaboration Easier 13 October, 2008 10:06:00
F-Secure achieves excellent results in Internet security suite comparison 10 October, 2008 14:37:00
Lock It Up With Maxtor BlackArmour, Hardware Encrypted Storage Provides Government Grade Security For Consumers 10 October, 2008 09:04:00
Pitney Bowes MapInfo Launches New Version of AnySite 10 October, 2008 05:58:00
|
||
|
||
|
|
||
|
The Secrets of C-Suite Success
With help from the CIO Executive Council, we tap into research about successful executives. Read on to learn more about the competencies CIOs need to develop to take the corner office, where CIOs fall short and what CEOs expect from CIOs.
Subscribe to CIO
