Business Analysis For Dummies

Chapter 18

Ten Experts Chime In

In This Chapter

Getting the most out of elicitation

Taking advantage of diagrams

Like doctors practice medicine, business analysts (BAs) practice business analysis. With every experience, you gain knowledge that improves your skills for your next interaction or project. Direct experience isn’t the only teacher, however. You can also learn a lot from others’ experience in the field, like where they think a technique is best used or how they adapt the technique for different situations. For this chapter, we ask nine experts to chime in on their favorite techniques and explain how they use them to add value to their work, and Kupe throws in an extra tip at the end.

The Three Pains Approach to Better Elicitation (Hans Eckman)

According to Hans Eckman, a technology workstream manager at SunTrust Bank in Atlanta, Georgia, one challenge foils most projects: elicitation. “Stakeholders often represent their wants as needs in elicitation sessions and simply rattle off a wish list of solutions, when they should be talking about problems, causes, and necessities,” says Eckman. “An approach called the three pains can help you uncover the true business needs. During your elicitation sessions, ask variations of ‘What three things are causing the most pain?’ This ...