Category: Uncategorized
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No Apologies Necessary
I’ve been thinking a lot lately about apologizing. Not about anything specific, just about apologizing in general – for example, it seems like many people, women in particular, feel like they have to apologize in advance of saying something. You may be thinking, Colleen, what on earth does this have to do with Business Analysis?…
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SLAs and Eggs
BA in the Wild – *New Series* My husband and I went out for breakfast on this Labor Day morning, and I found ample opportunity to practice some business analysis. And it’s something that we often miss in the course of our practice – defining Service Level Agreements, or SLAs for short. Before I get…
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Do I need a degree to be a BA?
A lot of people ask me what it takes to become a business analyst. Some think it’s a very specialized field, and that surely a college degree would be required. And if it’s for business analysis in IT, maybe even a technical degree. This perceived lack of proper education can be a major hold back…
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What’s the Problem?
It has been a LONG time, and so much has happened in my life since my last post, but one common theme keeps emerging: words have meaning. You may be asking, “Well, what does that even mean?!” I mean, even Led Zeppelin told us that “sometimes words have two meanings.” And I suppose they are…
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Who’s on First?
It’s baseball season, y’all! And let me tell you, organizing your personas can be as confusing as that legendary Abbot-and-Costello bit about a favorite summer pastime. That’s right, I said “organizing” your personas. Why? Because not all personas carry equal weight in a given effort, as lovely as that thought may sound. As an analyst…
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Work-Life Integration
A good friend of mine said once that he doesn’t practice work-life balance; rather, he practices work-life “integration.” That was an interesting concept, and consequently, I discovered I do pretty much the same thing. The great thing about being a practitioner of business analysis (regardless of title) is we get to do things in our…
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Digital DON’T!
Car rental agencies are a thing of beauty on airport properties, especially if you’re a loyalty member. You can breeze through and be on your way smoothly as if you’re picking up your own car in your own garage. But take the car rental desk out of the airport and things deteriorate. Quickly. Take, for…
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It’s about Conversations.
I ran across this article quoting LinkedIn’s CEO, Jeff Weiner: https://qz.com/work/1423267/ It’s brilliant. Sure, coding is becoming more and more desired as a skill as the world ramps up – for better or for worse – into AI, VR, and any other form of technology that may follow that attempts to replicate human reasoning. But, there’s…
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Digital Customer Experience Wins!
Wayfair.com I had been shopping at a different home goods website because of a perception of lower prices, when I happened upon an online ad for Wayfair.com. It reminded me of their catchy TV commercials and the jingle, “Wayfair, you’ve got what I need!” That little jingle always made me feel happy, and so I…
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San Antonio ROCKS Analysis!
Yes! I will be presenting a half-day workshop as well as a one-hour forum on the Digital Customer Journey along with renowned business analysis professional, Heather Mylan-Maines at the Building Business Capability conference November 5 – 9 in my favorite city I’ve ever visited – San Antonio, Texas! Our sessions will show you what a…