Microsoft .net experience is preferred.

Send resumes to hmingo@certifiedba.org

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Champion a trustworthy principle and you'll never stand alone.

Welcome to your first secret of the Master Business Analyst.

Andrew Carnegie, the founder of Carnegie Steel Company later known as U.S.
Steel, said that the true road to preeminent success in any line is to make
yourself master in that line.

For the first secret, let me share my viewpoints about information systems
and software development, and you can see if they match yours.

First, I believe the purpose of software development is to meet customer and
business requirements, not win awards or applause. This is why I will share
little secrets of master business analysis, applied to software development.

Second, I believe that a single measurement is worth a thousand opinions.
That's why these secrets are proven strategies my clients and I have discovered
by experience and investing in scientific research.

Third, I believe in developing systems with integrity. The strongest
documentation tells the truth dramatically. You don't have to complicate the
truth, baffle your customers with prose, or cut corners. Treat your customers
with high regard and they will reward you in turn.

Fourth, I have faith in you, in the awesome unexploited power of your mind to
accomplish anything you sincerely desire and believe, as long as it does no harm
to others. So I will serve up bite-sized secrets of great software development,
tips to reveal your own creativeness, productivity, and aptitude to reach your
greatest potential.

If you share these views, I am happy we have found each other.

Secret #1: In your career, especially your resume, never be afraid to say
with clarity and conviction precisely what you specialize in. Like the original
Carnegie Steel, make yourself a master. Find your niche and master it.

The Master.

A master is somebody who has great skill in a particular
area.

But it is much more than a skill. It is a demonstration of your principles
which serve as a trumpet call to bring together like-minded professionals.

When you stand for something, you will find that you will never stand alone.
Standing for something special in an overcrowded profession sets you apart from
an overabundance of copy cat competitors trying to be everything to everybody
who end up being useless to everyone.

Mastering your niche within your profession is the best way I know to catch
the attention of the people that truly believe in you. You will attract your
most loyal allies and your best clients and friends.

For more
information, visit http://certifiedba.org

How important are requirements?

Requirements dictate the project and how the business is run. Therefore, we must be careful when gathering customer requirements. Henry Ford said, “If I had asked people what they wanted, they would have said faster horses.” This is profound in a lot of ways. We translate this requirement as the customer wants to travel faster. The horse was simply the best known method at that time. When gathering requirements we must understand the needs and wants before we focus on the technology or the means. Henry Ford developed a way to mass market the automobile to help the masses go faster, but then they wanted more features. When we satisfy a need the wants move up in priority. Their want becomes your need if you want to retain their business. Someone else is always eager to cater to their wants if you are not.

Simple Principles for Exploding Your Success

Apply the 80/20 rule to achieve breakthroughs regularly. I am a strong believer in the Pareto Principle, also known as the 80/20 rule. In any requirements gathering activity, just a few factors are responsible for the majority of success or failure. For example, just 20% of the issues consume 80% of the time; 20% of your daily activities generate 80% of your success; and so on. This certainly applies to the factors governing success gathering requirements. Consequently, you don't need to master hundreds of rules and secrets. The right few will bring you success. Learn the right few and you may well become a master of business analysis. Achievement is the key to happiness and you will achieve by mastering the vital few, while others squander their time on the trivial many.

Keep it Simple

The vast majority of business analysts spend most of their days dreaming up ways to make things more complicated and mysterious, which is why their projects are almost always delayed and over budget. A tiny handful of master business analysts know that simplicity is the secret of successful projects. Never make your models more complicated than your requirements. Always join your requirements and your models together, so that you never promote one without the other. There is no more powerful or consistent way to garner positive response. Surround your requirements with clear, illustrative models and watch your response skyrocket.

One magic question will give you an unfair advantage

What are the real requirements? This simple question is the easiest way I know to get yourself and your staff to think outside the box. It can establish your reputation as a visionary. For every project always ask, "What are the real requirements?" Don't stop until you've got a long list of answers. The difference will often astonish you, open up new opportunities.

Example: your customer is looking for a way to process more information with fewer people or lower costs. Does spending millions of dollars on a software solution that purposely eliminates 50% of the workforce necessarily solve the problem? What about the workforce of highly paid professionals that will be required to support the new system? Are you really looking for the best solution or are you trying to impress them with fancy, complex solutions? Are you really solving the problem the best way?

Buyers beware: Many software companies and information technology departments rely on new projects and big problems to justify their existence. They may sell you more than you need if you don’t have your own master business analyst to gather your requirements. Your analyst has you in their best interest and will seek the best solution for you without the conflicted interest.

The Secret of Hidden Data

The secret of hidden data is a little-known secret for instantly accelerating your success in requirements gathering or any other activity in life. This secret is so powerful, it can work a profound change in every area of your life, including requirements gathering. The secret is amazingly simple. It will empower you to open your eyes and see the world in a new way. It will let you uncover many of life's treasures hiding in plain sight, and can be used to obtain anything you desire far more easily.

I call it the secret of hidden data. Imagine that you and I are sitting in a conference room looking at a huge project proposal or business case. I say to you, "Business Analyst, look around this project. Take a good look and then close your eyes." Then I ask, "Business Analyst, how many requirements did you notice?" You think for a moment and reply, "Why, I really didn't notice any. I was looking at the project." As I thought, when it came to noticing requirements, your eyes were wide open but you were still asleep. Likewise, your team is also blind to requirements until you point them out. Scan the project again, but this time, look for the requirements. You do so and suddenly notice more requirements than you can count. Right away, you have just experienced a quantum leap in your ability to identify requirements.

Why is this such a powerful secret for mastering requirements gathering or anything else in life? Simple: For the words, requirements, substitute something else like opportunity, new approach, risk, threats, weaknesses, efficiencies, waste, etc. You won't likely stumble across any of these things by going through life staring blankly at the projects. But you will spot them unfailingly once you look purposely, exclusively, and persistently for each. Awareness is made possible by purpose. Seek and ye shall find, but it works only when you seek for one thing persistently. 

The secret of the hidden data takes a minute to learn and a lifetime to master, because we all want many things at once. We are not only looking for requirements but the entire solution and technology simultaneously. But as you saw in the project of your mind, life reveals opportunities one at a time. To find a requirement, you must look for requirements and only requirements, and keep looking for a requirement until you find one. Then you can move on to technology and other things.

Arguably the most important aspect of any application development
project is requirements gathering.
Key questions are What, Where, When, Who, and Why?
However, the impulse is to start asking, how?
Logically, “how” comes after we learn “what” is required.
Once we know what, why, when, who, and where, the possibilities and
implications for how become more obvious.