BA Brew - A Business Analysis Podcast

What is your ‘Why?’. In this inspiring BA Brew, Joe Newbert joins the Crew to talk about how we can create purpose and meaning in our personal and professional lives. Topics covered include: Jacob Morgan’s framework for purpose and meaning; values driven leadership; bringing our personal purpose and meaning to work; finding consensus on purpose and values; intent-based leadership and helping other...

What is Business Service Design and is it the next big thing? If you’re curious about this powerful new human-centred approach you will be interested in this BA Brew where Jonathan, Kerry and Kate share their thoughts on the subject. Topics covered include: Systems, Service, Design and Lean Thinking; Business Service Design tools, frameworks, techniques and more. AssistKD provides training, appren...

AssistKD’s Kate Biddle joins us for today’s BA Brew, her first as part of the Crew. It’s a good one, discussing how to break those bad habits and build positive behaviours instead. Topics covered include: the power of habits; self awareness; the habit loop; habit stacking; planning ahead; good BA habits and the value of moral support from friends, colleagues and family. Books recommended during th...

It just takes one person to gather people together to help each other. Today the Brew Crew chat with Lou Powell about how she set up and grew the BA Crowd, a Meet Up group for her local BA community. Topics covered include: the value of community, how to get sponsorship, finding speakers and more. Louise Powell is a Senior Business Analyst at BGL Insurance and Co-founder of the BA Crowd . AssistKD...

Have you ever found yourself in a situation where you’ve thought ‘You just could not make this up’? Today Jonathan, Mike and Lisa discuss their experiences as customers and as business analysts. They range from the sublime (luxurious upgrade, anyone?) to the ridiculous (a multi-million pound project with no agreed scope… two years in). Hear about Jonathan’s nightmare coach journey, Lisa’s broadban...

Are BAs leaders or followers? Jonathan, Debbie and guest Emily Tom explore this challenging question in today’s BA Brew. Topics discussed include: the importance of context; why BAs are more than scribes or translators; the new vs. the mature BA; lifelong learning; giving back to the BA community; growing your skillset and challenging stakeholders. Regional Director of IIBA Americas Northeast regi...

Have you heard about job crafting? It’s where you make small changes to and personalise your role to make the most of your strengths, passions and experiences. Charlotte Axon is an expert on the subject and shares her wisdom in this first BA Brew of the new season. Topics discussed include: the five types of job crafting; self-actualisation and job crafting in the face of the Great Resignation. Ch...

In this latest BA Brew, the Brew Crew debate the value of data. Jonathan plays the role of Devil’s Advocate… can Debbie and Pete convince him that data is more than simply a means to an end? Topics discussed include: why data is fascinating; what data tells us; the difference between data and information; metadata; quantitative vs. qualitative data; data models; ethics and more. Participants: Assi...

If you want to see Mike Williams wearing a very bad wig and (later on) a horse’s head, you won’t want to miss this extra entertaining BA Brew. Georgiana Mannion, known for her ‘Playful BA’ talks, very generously shares her inspirational ideas on how to bring play, fun and games into your BA practice. Topic discussed include: how to energise a Teams meeting; branding your BA team; flipping the proc...

Moon, Rose, Fish is the English translation of Maan, Roos, Vis, a well known Dutch phrase connected to the early stages of learning to read and write. It’s the equivalent of ‘A, B, C’. In this episode the Brew Crew discuss the value of having a mental checklist of the basic elements when looking at the requirements of an IT system. Moon or Maan stands for the data model, Rose or Roos stands for ho...

As BAs and business change professionals, how can we make an impact in our organisations and the wider business analysis community? That’s the question the Crew tackle in today’s BA Brew, with the help of our guest Christina Tan (and freshly brewed coffee or tea of course). Topics covered include: Leaving a legacy; making an impact on multiple levels; the purpose of the BA; giving and receiving su...

This week, the Brew Crew are joined by guest Niven Postma, author of the highly acclaimed book If You Don’t Do Politics, Politics Will Do You . “If you think your work speaks for itself… Think again.” Niven and the crew discuss how, whether we like it or not, we all have to navigate office politics. Niven shares her valuable tips, leaving the crew wishing that the book was available at the start o...

This week the Brew Crew are joined by guest Jamie Toyne, who explains how he has adapted the BA Service Framework to define and promote the services offered by his BA team. Topics covered include: how the BA Service Framework was developed (Debbie’s ‘lightbulb moment’); creating a common language to define the BA role; the shift from product focus to a service level view and the importance of “set...

Fuelled by freshly made coffee, Steve Wright and the Brew Crew discuss the difference between functional and non-functional requirements; why it pays to have non-functional requirements on the agenda from the start; the joy of checklists and more. During the chat Pete Thompson recommends the book Software Requirements Patterns by Stephen Withall, for its useful contextual checklists. Participants:...

In today’s BA Brew, our Crew talk with Sarah Gale about developing core business analysis skills, and how to use BA tools and techniques with confidence. Topics covered include softer skills including communication, relationship building and listening skills; business architecture; customer experience analysis and design thinking; mentoring and coaching; the need for BAs to sell their services; sk...

Karl Wiegers is back! In this latest BA Brew, Karl and the crew discuss his new book ‘Software Development Pearls: Lessons from Fifty Years of Software Experience’. Topics include quality (including Karl’s experience of 9th grade woodworking, where he learnt an important lesson about taking the time to ‘do it right’); estimating the time a project will take; the user centred vs. product centred ap...

On the first of Season 4 of the BA Brew podcast, Systems Thinking comes under the spotlight. Topics covered by the Brew Crew and guest Dr Alison Rodrias include whether Systems Thinking can be learned; scenario and impact analysis; reductionist thinking; user stories and applying Systems Thinking within the BA role. During the podcast, Debbie refers to ‘Systems Thinking, Systems Practice’ by Peter...

When speaking in public, challenging authority or dealing with negative feedback, business analysts need to feel and appear confident. But how do you build that confidence? In our Season 3 Finale, the Crew, with guest Philippa Thomas, come up with some top tips that include doing what you fear, visualising success and being selective about the criticism you pay attention to. During the podcast, Ph...

When good business analysis happens nothing goes wrong, but there’s a danger that the extensive work behind a project running smoothly is not seen, understood or appreciated. Stefan Bossuwé joins the Brew Crew to talk about how, as a profession, we can turn the invisible BA into the visible BA. The chat touches on professionalism and competency; thinking holistically; the importance of the questio...

Today’s chat over a brew is all about the BA mindset. Debbie, Christina and Fabricio discuss how the BA mindset extends much further than the business analyst role. Topics include curiosity and thinking analytically; how SWOT analysis has escaped professional boundaries; the danger of action for action’s sake and the value of sharing the BA mindset with others. Participants: AssistKD’s Debra Paul...

In this final podcast of 2021, the Brew Crew discuss the Business Analyst Level 4 Apprenticeship scheme. Guest Claire Carroll gives an employer’s perspective, while Kuldip Kang shares her experience of going through the 18-month programme. Topics discussed include the different styles of learning involved, time-management challenges and more. Listen to the end for some useful tips from our guests...

GIVEAWAY COMPETITION ALERT! Listen or watch to the end of this BA Brew for some festive chat and our not-to-be-missed Christmas stocking filler competition. Taking the time to understand who stakeholders are and what they need is key to the success of any project. In this Brew, our intrepid crew chat with Pip Hall about why she dislikes the term ‘stakeholder management’, and discuss how BAs can es...

The Brew Crew are never shy about thorny issues, so were happy to rise to the challenge when Karen Newnham got in touch about the tricky topic of solutions. In recent years BAs have been advised to avoid talking about solutions, yet nobody wants to ‘shut down’ stakeholders. Mike, Jonathan and Karen discuss where the ‘anti-solution’ mindset comes from, and how to engage with stakeholders when they...

Having just discussed the Business Case Necessity in the last podcast, this week the Brew Crew tackle the perfect follow up subject: the value and challenges of benefits planning and realisation. Jonathan, Sandra and guest Simon Harbisher (who approached AssistKD with the idea) discuss the importance of learning from successes and failures; the role of the business analyst as negotiator; POPIT; th...

Another chance to put the business world to rights over a refreshing brew. This week our Brew Crew are joined by author and BA thought leader Ian Richards, to discuss the necessity for the business case. Debbie, Jonathan and Ian discuss the value of the business case; why there is some controversy with some saying the business case is ‘anti-agile’; the succinct vs. the detailed business case; who...