BA Brew - A Business Analysis Podcast

Tricky business problem? Get those (creative) thinking caps on! In this week’s BA Brew the Crew discuss how creative thinking can help business change professionals challenge the status quo, think expansively and come up with effective solutions.

Questions addressed include:

• What is creative thinking?

• How can you create an environment for creative thinking?

• What are the potential barriers?

• What are your top 3 creative thinking techniques?

You may find the following articles, course, free learning and BA Brews useful:

ARTICLES

Zombie Penguin Business Analysts: Creativity Techniques and Divergent Thinking

Creative Thinking/Divergent Thinking

COURSE

Design Thinking Course

FREE LEARNING

NEW Free Learning Course - Creative Problem Solving

BA BREWS

BA Brew 21: Design Thinking (Feat. Kay Hardy)

BA Brew 82: The Double Diamond (feat. Liza Laya)

#servicedesign #divergentthinking #creativityinbusiness #businessanalysis #businessanalyst

If you have ever wanted to know more about psychological safety this brew is a one not to be missed. Jonathan Hunsley and Philippa Thomas are joined by Emma Lee (Chief Psychologist at Matthew Syed Consulting and registered psychologist) to discuss this important topic.

Collectively they explore questions such as:

▶️What is psychological safety?

▶️Why is psychological safety important?

▶️How does psychological safety impact individuals and teams?

▶️How might an absence of psychological safety impact creativity and organisational learning?

▶️How might we develop a culture of psychological safety?

FURTHER RESOURCES

The following BA Brews may be of interest:

BA Brew 80 - Bravery in Business Analysis (feat. Kay Hardy & Charlie Payne)

BA Brew 76: The Human Element (feat. Helen Holder)

BA Brew Episode 60: Imposter Syndrome: Are you an imposter in BA clothing? (feat. Jo Fahy)

BA Brew 49: Mental Health (feat. Petra Velzeboer)

BA Brew 30: Confidence (feat. Philippa Thomas)

BA Brew 20: Resilience (feat. Corrine Thomas)

Books Radical Candor: How to Get What You Want by Saying What You Mean – Kim Scott

Rebel Ideas - Matthew Syed

The 8th Habit: From Effectiveness to Greatness – Stephen R Covey

#businessanalysis #businessanalyst #baprofessional #psychologicalsafety #MatthewSyed

In this special BA Conference Europe BA Brew, AssistKD CEO Debra Paul is joined by three BA Conference legends: Shane McGlynn, Rachel Levermore, and James Archer (who started the ball rolling in the first place!)

The BA Conference Europe is Europe’s foremost Business Analysis conference, which has evolved over the past 16 years to over 500 attendees and 6 streams of talks.

This BA Brew celebrates:

• the dedication and enthusiasm of the Advisory Board who tune in to the latest thinking and different perspectives

• everyone behind the scenes who helps to make this wonderful conference happen

• the bravery of new speakers, stepping up for their first ever BA Conference presentations

• and most of all, the amazing BA community

Topics discussed include: how the conference has grown, kept current and pushed boundaries; inspirational speakers over the years; memorable moments… and more.

#BA2024 #ProfessionalGrowth #BASkills #Networking #BusinessConference #BAConferenceEurope #businessanalyst #servicedesign #servicedesigner #BA

Are you an Activist, a Theorist, a Pragmatist or a Reflector? Our latest BA Brew could help you find out and get the most from your learning.

The Brew Crew are joined by former Apprentice and now BA at the Environment Agency Cat Warren to talk about some of the different learning models (Kolb, Bloom and Honey and Mumford).

They look at how the different learning approaches work with training courses, course manuals and eLearning and explore how understanding other people’s different learning styles helps with facilitation and stakeholder engagement.

The following resources are relevant to the learning models mentioned in this podcast:

Kolb’s Learning Styles

The Honey and Mumford Learning Model

Bloom’s Taxonomy of Learning

You can find quick overviews of how to use Mind Maps and Rich pictures in the Bitesize Videos section of the AssistKD Learning Zone.

#learningstyles #elearning #businesstrainingcourses #businessanalysis #servicedesign #kolb #honeyandmumford #bloomstaxonomy #learning #training #businesstraining

This BA Brew is AssistKD’s second BA Question Time. Many of the questions focus on role clarity, a hot topic for BAs. Mike Williams is host, with expert panellists Jo Frances and Jonathan Hunsley providing the answers and insights.

This week’s questions are:

❓What is the difference between a Business Analyst and a Business Architect?

❓What is the difference between a Business Analyst and a Service Designer?

❓How can a growth mindset support change professionals in general?

❓ What are the overlaps between a Business Analyst and a Functional Analyst?

Do you have a question our the next BA Question Time? If so, please email us on [email protected] or post on our wall on Instagram, Facebook or LinkedIn.

The following BA Brews and articles are relevant to the topics discussed:

This article on Business Analysis and Business Architecture is based on the workshop run by Victoria Banner and Jonathan Hunsley at the BA Manager Forum in June 2024.

This is an interesting BA Brew on Business Architecture.

BA Brew 22: Business Architecture (Feat. Wouter Nieuwenburg)

This article compares the BA Service Framework and the Service Design Service Framework and addressed the ‘grey area’ between the roles.

This book review is relevant to the growth mindset.

This output from the BA Manager Forum provides some useful information on the growth mindset.

#businessanalysis #businessanalyst #baqt #growthmindset #businessarchitecture #businessarchitect #servicedesign #servicedesigner #functionalanalyst #dataarchitecture #roleclarity

If you’re concerned about the impact of Artificial Intelligence on your business or your job, this BA Brew is a must-watch. Debra Paul and Pete Thompson discuss the benefits, risks and opportunities with Donald Farmer – one of the foremost thinkers, researchers and presenters in the field.

Topics discussed include: automating processes; cost savings; intellectual property; caring about the human element; inherent bias in AI; the need for new requirements; mitigating for unexpected adverse effects and more.

Donald Farmer is a visionary data and analytics strategist with over 30 years’ experience designing data and analytics products. He has led teams at Microsoft and Qlik Technologies and is now the Principal of TreeHive Strategy where he advises software vendors, enterprises and investors on data and advanced analytics strategy.

FURTHER RESOURCES

This short article lists the top takeaways from Donald Farmer’s talk at the Business Change and Transformation Conference Europe: Generative AI and Business Strategy: Innovation or Imitation?

You may also be interested in the following articles and BA Brews on AI:

Articles:

AI Alchemy: Turning Change into Gold

AI and the Business Analysis Role

Book Review of Hello World by Hannah Fry

BA Brews:

Business Analysis and AI

The AI Brew

#AI #artificialintelligence #AIautomation #requirements #dataanalytics #dataanalysis #businesschange #servicedesign

This BA Brew is all about bravery, asking what bravery is and how we can develop it. Charlie Payne and Kay Hardy join the Brew Crew to try to answer these questions and more. The discussion includes: how elements of police training can also apply to business analysis; a great skiing analogy; building resilience; psychological safety; power poses; and more.

During the BA Brew, Amy Cuddy’s TED talk Your Body Language May Shape Who You Are is referenced, and also her book Presence.

#businessanalysis #businessanalyst #bravery #challenging #businesschange #bodylanguage #managingstakeholders #designthinking #BA

If you are interested in Agile, you won’t want to miss this. This BA Brew is all about the second edition of ‘Agile Business Analysis: Practical guidance for IT professionals’ by Lynda Girvan and Debra Paul.

Watch as the authors discuss what readers can expect from the revised and updated edition, including:

⭐ the latest Agile developments

⭐ new techniques

⭐ new thinking

⭐ real-life case-studies where experienced practitioners share challenges and lessons learned.

The wide-ranging discussion covers organisational agility and the role of the BA; the relevance of the Agile Manifesto; how to apply Agile in an informed and relevant way; the increased focus on the customer and much more.

#agile #IT #businessanalysis #businessanalyst #businesschange #digital #agilebusinessanalysis

In this special edition of our BA Brew, it’s BA Question Time! Mike Williams presides as AssistKD’s Fiona Bruce with Debra Paul and Jonathan Hunsley as the panellists.

This week’s questions are:

❓Should BAs understand commerce/business?

❓How can a BA team of 20 balance sharing knowledge and experience as a team with time on their own projects?

❓How do I bring together a group of professionals working in and around the business analysis space together to add value to the business?

❓Business Analysts often feel overlooked. How can we raise the profile of the profession?

❓What’s going to be in fashion in the BA World this year?

Do you have a question for our next BA Question Time? If so, please email us on [email protected] or post on our wall on Instagram, Facebook or LinkedIn.

The following BA Brews and articles are relevant to the answers given:

Adair’s model of action centred leadership addresses balances the team, the task and the individual.

This article on inclusive leadership.

This article on establishing a centralised Community of Practice.

This article on creating a BA Service Definition.

BA Brew 68: Stepping Beyond the BA toolbox

BA Brew 44: Building a BA Community

#BAQT #businessanalysis #businessanalyst #BAtoolkit #leadership #teamwork #business

In our latest brew Jonathan Hunsley and Nicole Alderton are joined by Michelle Shakesheff and Tim Clark of Close Bros to share their thoughts on getting started in a BA career.

They share insights on the different modes of learning available to build the professional toolkit, the importance of mentoring and stepping out of your comfort zone to take on new challenges. Handily, they also delve into the sources and benefits of ongoing self-development.

With so many structured routes into business analysis, including the BA apprenticeship, perhaps gone are the days of simply drifting into the BA career.

#businessanalysis #ba #businessanalysis #growthmindset #mentor #apprenticeships