Blog
Discover a new approachHearing Crickets on Web Conference Calls? 3 Tips to Get People to Participate!
Dead air and chirping crickets--is that what you hear when someone asks a question during virtual meetings? It's frustrating for the...
4 Habits Agile Teaches That We Can All Refocus on in 2016!
Agile was born out of a conversation about what works well in software development. It wasn’t meant to be a dramatically “new” way of...
Value-Driven Planning Brings Context to Iterations
Agile planning includes more than just task-based planning before each iteration. It's the value-driven planning associated with the...
What’s Your 2015 Lightbulb Moment?
As the year draws to a close, it seems natural to pause and take a look backwards. Instead of beating ourselves up for the...
Don’t Plan Too Much: Make Room for New Opportunities
After a fall filled with work travel, I am so happy to be HOME for the holidays! It's truly time for reflection, celebration and maybe...
Your Backlog Might Be Broken If…(Part 2)
One of the most overlooked factors of project success or failure is the health the project’s backlog. How does your project team...
Turn and Face the Strange Changes!
I've been on the road this fall, sharing my "Face the Strange" message with conference attendees across the United States. Inspired by...
Your Backlog Might Be Broken If….(Part 1)
How does your team build and manage their backlog? Is your current process working well or does your backlog need a reboot? One of the...
The BA Role is Changing! Are you Keeping Up?
Requirements practices are changing--RAPIDLY! The dramatic changes in the business and technology space push us to be continuous learners....
Diving Into Unofficial Roles and Responsibilities of the Business Analyst
WHY ARE WE THE PSYCHOLOGISTS AND THE BABYSITTERS? Often on airplanes I get asked, “So, what do you do?” I am sure if you travel you get...
3 Tips to Modernize Your Requirements!
Interested in modernizing your requirements practices? Whether your team is waterfall, agile or somewhere in between, these three tips...
The Business Analyst’s Accountability in Scope Creep and Changing Requirements
In my classes and consulting work I get the same complaints when I ask teams about the biggest roadblocks in requirements work: “My...
Analyst or Therapist? BAs Need to Stir Up the Animals!
Do you ever feel more like a psychoanalyst than a business analyst? It can be tough to get into the minds of our stakeholders to get the...
Don’t Skip the Analysis When Moving to Shorter Iterations!
In most organizations, the days of multi-year, single release, all-or-nothing waterfall projects have come to an end. Instead, teams...
Lean Requirements Practices = More Value, Less Waste
With increased focus on customer value and intense pressure to get products to market faster, leaders are always looking for ways to trim...
User Stories: You Don’t Have to be Agile to Use Them!
In past articles, I’ve spent lots of time asking you to find common ground between waterfall and agile. Not to discount either...