In any process improvement initiative, it can be difficult to know where to begin. Targeting your efforts based on process performance helps you understand what’s working, what needs addressing, and what themes and common issues are at play. Measuring process performance has grown over the years into an entire industry and field of study –… Read More »Process performance scoring
I’d been a longstanding but quite unengaged member of IIBA (the International Institute of Business Analysis) but never really felt I got much out of it. In 12 months, all that changed. I’ve been a member of IIBA for around a decade, both the global organisation and the UK chapter. In that time, I received… Read More »IIBA UK – why I can’t recommend it enough!
I’ve been using the BPMN modelling standard for about a decade now, and I’ve yet to find a better method for mapping business processes! Since stumbling upon it, I’ve grown to become a huge fan! In this article, I explain why I think it’s such a useful framework and language. What is BPMN and where… Read More »BPMN: why I love it for process modelling!
Better Business Analysis has now been up and running as a limited company for half a year! I have an accountant, a logo, and a website. 2020 has been a rollercoaster, particularly in the uncertainty that a global pandemic and an economic downturn bring. There have of course been numerous highs and lows along the… Read More »2020: analysing my year
Pursuing the wrong projects can be disastrous for an organisation. In the first half of this article, I looked at the various reasons that organisations end up pursuing change initiatives that should never have been started, or that should have been abandoned in favour of other ideas. These reasons were grouped under the following three… Read More »Stop doing the wrong projects (part two)
Like most business analysts, I’ve worked on plenty of projects in my career that should probably not have been given a green light. Some of these went on for many, many months, with all those involved feeling powerless to stop them. In this post, I’ll look at how organisations end up pursuing the wrong projects… Read More »Stop doing the wrong projects (part one)
Today I’ve published my new guide listing 60 different strategies businesses can employ to increase their profits. Check it out on the Resources page here. The list is intended to act as an inspirational starting point, helping business leaders and change practitioners to think about their business and which areas might have potential for increasing… Read More »60 strategies for boosting profits
It’s a well-worn trope in the world of projects: most projects fail because of poor requirements. This has helped drive massive growth in the use of business analysts – but projects often still fail to deliver the expected value. This might be because your organisation fails to make best use of your business analyst. If… Read More »How to make best use of your business analyst
Lean methodology grew from the world of manufacturing, where processes are nicely repeatable, with few branching paths and where it’s generally obvious if things have gone according to plan. Machinery often handles the complex or fiddly bits. Professional services industries such as law may seem like they have little in common with that world. In… Read More »Identifying waste in professional services processes
In this post, I’ll examine some of the main advantages of using a business analyst consultant, and how this can help your organisation tackle change initiatives more effectively and efficiently. For the last couple of decades, business analysts have typically provided their services through one of two models: as a salaried employee, or as a… Read More »5 key reasons to use a business analyst consultant