How I learned to stop worrying and love the customer

You have to enjoy being told what to do to survive in the computer business. Develop a thick skin, don't laugh at the users when they are wrong, and don't trivialize their needs. When you can't do this--when everything that the users do seems retarded and useless--you have to stay as a programmer, where that sort of behavior is tolerated. To make it as an analyst, whether it's a systems analyst or a business analyst, you have to get past all that and put up with all the crap.

Analyst or Therapist?

If you've ever sat through a requirements meeting and listened to a dozen or more people complain about the legacy system, which was not your fault but they don't care about that, then you have certainly felt like the group needed a therapist more than they needed an analyst.

Speaking of analysts and therapists, the Fox sitcom Arrested Development had a character named Tobias (played by David Cross) who was formerly an Analyst and a Therapist, and decided to combine his two passions and billed himself as an Analrapist. In one form or another, when pursuing Business Analysis, and as the group dynamics play themselves out, that very thought crosses your mind.

To pursue the sitcom metaphor a little further, it is the Bob Newhart Show and the character of Robert Hartley, a psychologist, that resembles best what is required for business analysis. To understand individual needs, and work them out in a group setting in such a way that they don't kill each other, and they thank you for it, and they pay you money, as well, is the ultimate success. Like Dr. Hartley, a Business Analyst requires empathy, great knowledge, and a sense of humor. Techniques can be used to help reveal the needs. Once the needs are revealed, they can be discussed in order to discover the problem and find a solution.

This site provides the practical knowledge you need to effectively act as a Business Analyst. Anecdotes provide insight into the application of that knowledge. The blog will relate similar stories as they occur to me, which I will then refine into articles as appropriate. The Tools page describes the tools available to you as a Business Analyst, with suggestions and recommendations.