Welcome to Business Analysis Live.
I'm your host, Susan Moore, community engagement manager
with the International Institute of Business Analysis.
I explore topics with industry guests about the work of
business analysis professionals and how their work helps
organizations achieve better outcomes.
And Yep, we take your questions too.
Thanks for listening. Let's get started.
Have you thought about how your work adds value?
And if you haven't, that's OK, because today I've got a guest
who is thinking about that and writing about that.
She is a guest that you've seen before, and she is also someone
who joins us for webinars as well.
So I want to invite to the stage Laura Brandenburg.
Hey, Laura, how are you? Wonderful.
How are you doing today, Susan? I am doing really well.
Happy to see you in the New year.
We've been catching up and it's almost February.
So you asked the question, are we still saying happy New Year?
I guess, yeah. Well, it's not the Lunar New
Year yet. We actually have to like
February 17th for the Lunar New Year.
So, OK, good. All right.
Yeah. Well, hey listen, you have been
on a few times and maybe folks also know you from the webinars,
but in case people are not familiar with you, why don't you
just do a quick introduction? Sure.
So my work in business analysis is through Bridging the Gap.
Had a career as a tester, a business analyst, a manager and
director of a BAQA and project management team at one point.
And then I pivoted to do some consulting work and then
ultimately into the training that I do today through Bridging
the Gap. So we bring a really practical
approach to training. And then I know we're also going
to talk a little bit about my recent book here, the Value
Driven Business Analyst, which is another one of the in ways
that I support the business community, but I've been doing
that for 17 years now. I've never stayed with an actual
company that long. So it feels like a a whole other
lifetime at this point. I think one of the first times
that you and I talked, I think I said something like, I hope this
doesn't sound creepy, but I've been following you for a really
long time and I remember when you started the business and so
that you know, Bridging the Gap. I think I am sure when you came
up with that name you were thinking specifically like how
our work bridges the gap, but also because of the audience
that you are trying to reach. You are also talking about like
professionally bridging the gap, which I always just thought was
super smart. The point like it becomes almost
like a cliche now, but seven years felt like the cool thing,
the whole world. Is down right.
You were just ahead of the curve 17 years ago.
Well, but even back then you had a pretty clear sense of the
value that business analysis brings.
Maybe talk about that and why you've written the book about
how this happens. Yeah.
I think, you know, as business analysts, we can get really
focused on the deliverables we create, our analytical models
like how we facilitate meetings, all of the how and the nuts and
bolts of our work, which is essentially important.
Like we need to have those skills and capabilities like
really tapped in. But like the value that we
create is above and beyond that. It's a result of those things.
And so when we're thinking about, you know, the bridging
the gap is a great metaphor in that because I was like, we are
bridging the gap between business and IT and not just
creating a funnel bridge like a communication line, but really
bringing people together, creating alignment, creating
clarity, really fostering a sense of positive outcomes and
positive for the organization. And so it's a really big piece
to be able to deliver that kind of value for the organization.
So tell me, Laura, what do you mean when you say value?
And let me give you a little back story.
I think there's been a little bit of controversy in our
business analysis community about value versus outcomes.
And I don't see that as a do we provide value or outcomes?
I think it's a both. We do both.
But what do you mean by value? Yeah, by value, it's really in
the eye of the beholder for a certain extent, but it's also
like it needs to inform how we show up.
But I guess from that, like we were talking about this before
and I'm like, I haven't seen this like dichotomy, but in my
mind, outcomes are valuable, right?
What the business outcomes want, what the business or what the
business wants in terms of outcomes is the value that we
help create. And everything that we do needs
to support that, whether it's a business process or a software
requirement or a data model or a well facilitated meeting that
makes a great decision. We were talking before we got
started about this analogy of the hammer.
And do you really want a hammer or do you want a way to hang a
picture on the wall or to like bash a hole in the wall, right?
Like there are other ways to achieve that that, and if you
could achieve that without a hammer, you'd probably be fine
with it. So, you know, when we think
about value, we might think about the the hammer, which
would be equivalent to a process map or a data flow or a
requirements document. But what's really important is
the outcome of like, what's the business change that we're
creating? How are we getting people on the
same page so that the software development happens as easily as
possible? And so when we're thinking about
our value as B as I think we want to be, thinking about the
outcomes we generate and making sure those are what the business
actually needs and wants from us, that sets us up for success
long term. Yeah.
I think outcomes are the means to value.
We've all been on those projects where we produce some outcome
and people said, well, that doesn't help me.
That didn't solve my problem. You gave me what I asked for,
but it didn't help. And so but and I think there's
big picture value and then there's personal value.
What is as Susan Moore showing up in the organization?
What is the value that I bring to the organization?
And we also, you know, I do some volunteering and I think about
value in terms of 1st I, I believe in the mission of that
nonprofit organization. I want to be part of it and I
know I have skills that can help.
That's, that is value. It also implies a little bit of
confidence that I know these things.
And you know, you and I, you have talked to enough people
over those 17 years that you've been in business that you know
that sometimes that value is wrapped up in confidence.
So maybe let's talk about confidence a little bit as a, as
maybe a way that it we can show value or maybe not show value.
Yeah. I think when our confidence,
like our internal confidence is shaky, what happens is we tend
to shrink and be a little bit more wary about who we connect
with, how we reach out, what we put forward.
It's like we're waiting for somebody to tell us what to do
and more of a reactive nature instead of strategically and
proactively saying this is what we need to do to move this
project forward and to generate this value driven outcome,
right. So when we get stuck in that
confidence loop, we actually deliver less value because we
are waiting to be told what to do.
And that is not a place that a professional intentional
grounded business analyst can really thrive from.
So the way one of the ways around that or to work through
that is to really be centered in like I'm creating this process
map because I know it's the first step towards generating
this outcome and really be locked into each and every
technique that we're working on, each and every conversation
we're having. Moving that value needed needle
forward because that's going to help us generate that internal
confidence because along the way we're going to face stakeholders
who don't show up and people who are like, what is the stock?
I don't need to do that, right? There's just going to be all
this noise. And if we let that noise like
really be our filter, it really impacts our confidence.
So we have to have that value from the inside out that how it
really helps us bring that confidence, which also helps us
deliver the value. They're really very intertwined.
And I think about that confidence also because we, when
we show up in spaces, it is, it's common that people don't
know why we're there. I mean, I've been asked that
question by stakeholders, by project managers, why are you
here? And that can shake your
confidence if you aren't really grounded in, I know I have the
knowledge, I believe that I have the ability to help these folks
to untangle whatever the problem is that we're here to solve.
That comes with a little bit of maturity.
That comes with a little bit of experience.
But I think it all starts with knowledge.
And I think that's, you know, for the business that you've
built. My sense is because you talk to
and train a lot of folks who have professional experience in
one area and they're moving into this who probably don't have the
confidence that, yeah, all of that professional stuff that
you've done in your life still matters, you can still apply
that. We're just gonna give you some
knowledge and some new areas. Yeah, I've trained BAS, to me
practicing BAS who have a decade or 20 years of experience, but
I've never actually learned the skill set.
And so I feel like I'm making it up as I go along and like they
go through a program and they're like, oh gosh, I've been, I've
done this. I've been doing this for a
decade, right? But like, there's a, there's
some, there's that internal confidence that comes when like
it matches up to my experience and it like, it fits like, OK,
there's a, this is what I'm supposed to be doing.
And then it allows you to get through that confidence loop a
little bit more effectively as well.
Yeah. And we do sometimes have to be
an authority figure on our projects.
Not that we have to know everything, but we have to
convey that sense of we've got a plan.
And actually that's what you and I talked about last year, right,
Having a framework and how that helps.
So that's another way that it can that we build value into the
work that we do. We have a an approach that will
drive the the momentum of our work.
So really important, but we do need to be that authority figure
because for those folks that don't know why we're there,
we've, you know, we've got to believe in ourselves and be able
to lead. So leadership, I think is also
another important value add that we can bring.
Yeah. So listen, we have talked about
a couple of ways that business analysis professionals add
valued. Are there any other ways that
you think that they add value? Yeah, I think one of the really
tangible ways to be tapped into is the idea of rework or
redecisioning, right. So when you have a structured
approach, and this is what's really in the book, is a
structured approach. We talked about it in the last
podcast too. Like you, you, you're helping
the team make a set of decisions and incrementally work through
decisions and thinking first about what problem are we trying
to solve, getting everybody aligned on where we're going at
a high level and then getting into the details.
And so that eliminates all this rework when we're not really
crystal clear and what we want. So we just like give a big
request to the development team and hope we get back something.
And then we are kind of in this like brick fix kind of mode for
a long time. And so as a business analyst,
you know you should, if your company has a history of that
brake fix or you think you've built something and then you're
constantly tweaking it until it actually meets the business
need. You know that look, looking at
that time and how you can condense that and ensure that
the requirements that get in are clear and vetted and represent
what really is going to solve the business problem.
It's going to save a ton of time on the development side, as is
the decisioning process. So like the decisioning process
is never easy and it's not that you're going to like wave a
magic wand and everybody's going to agree, But when you, what
will happen is if you really get clear on decisions, you know,
when that decision kind of just like, oh, wait, did we ever
talk? I don't think we talked about
this. Let's like react this whole
thing. Like those are the pieces where
you should be coming in. And like, you know, we talked
about this before. This is why we made the
decision. Like is there new information
here? Is there a reason to revisit
this versus, you know, go up and down all these rabbit holes and
revisiting things and that saves an immense amount of time from
other team members and also just kind of angst and frustration.
I mean, everybody has way too much to do these days.
And so when you're pulling people into meetings and then
they're frustrated about why they're there, that's the kind
of chaos that we're looking to minimize and hopefully eliminate
as a business analyst. Yeah.
So I hear you saying that another part of the value that
we can add is simply by applying our skills to our own ways of
working, whether it's to our own own personal way of working, our
team's way of working, or the organization's way of working,
we can apply that lens there. And that can help us with
outcomes in indirect ways. Because you're right, rework and
decision making are two of the things that can derail work.
But if we can help people to make decisions faster, better,
whatever, that actually can speed up work in ways that are
not. We need more sprints, we need
more deliverables, right? It can just help us get, I think
Angela Witt calls it like we can get to a better decision
velocity. We can make decisions faster.
Yeah. So, All right, well, so let's
talk about, I feel like if we want to talk about value, maybe
we got to talk a little bit about AI and how I know do we?
I feel like that's so 2025. That's like that went the way of
6-7 really. They're going on to the last
threat, but they don't like it when I say it.
If I say it, it's totally cool. Because, you know, as a mom,
there is a, there is an inherent not cool factor, just 6-7
that's, you know, but I feel like one of the ways that
organizations or technology, whatever are telling us that we
can be valuable is by using AI is that does AI add value to us,
to our work? What do you think?
Yeah, I think the current applications of AI really do
focus on productivity for the business analysts, right, and
creating deliverables more quickly, helping you identify
questions that you can ask. I just recently used it with a
pro bono client I'm working with to help identify solution
options. Like I uploaded our scope and
was like, what are some tools that we could use for this
document signing piece? And like that work would have
taken me multiple developer meetings and like in the past,
right? And but I was able to do that
research using AI. So I think the productivity
enhancements are huge and we want to certainly be looking at
where we can use it to, to do our work more effectively, but
we can't focus just there. We also then want to look at
with that energy freed up, where can we focus that time and where
can we focus that energy in ways that will create more value.
And I think that's where the opportunities for more intent,
intentional collaboration, the relationship building, the
things that people have been saying for a long time, like my
meeting calendars too full, right?
And, and maybe we now have a little bit of capacity for some
of those conversations that we didn't have before as well as
then, like if you're going to use AI for some of the basics
that speeds up some of the basics, where are there new
deliverables that maybe you can create that are truly going to
be valuable from the organization standpoint?
So not just the requirements documents, but could you help
draft the test cases or some help documentation or FAQs or
training materials And really using AI to do those things or
at least get to the 80% on those things that allows you to kind
of create another set of work that is super valuable.
Like you wouldn't want to do it just to do it, but that you
maybe just didn't even have time in the past to do.
And so we really got to look at where can I not just do more,
but where can I engage at a higher level?
And so because now these tools are supporting some of the
basics. Yeah, I think there is a lot of
hype around Guy and what it can truly do for our work because I
do think so much of our work is wrapped up in our connections to
our stakeholders, our customers, our clients, like the humans
that we work with. And in a lot of ways, we are
almost solely one of the only roles that where we are tasked
with that human communication because so many other groups
that we work with have a have another kind of output or
outcome that they deliver. They're developing code, they're
testing apps, they are, you know, working in finance.
But we really are communication is our collateral.
And so I think, you know, AI can be helpful.
It can also really not be helpful.
And so I think you've got to know that fine line between when
you're going to get some return on investment.
But I think making a real focused effort on some of the
things you just talked about, collaboration, relationship
building, we think it's not important.
I'm just talking to so and so in the break room.
It's so important. It's really important.
Yeah. And where ICBAS get into fear
around AI, it's like if you historically associated your
value with the documents, right? And AI can create wonderful
looking documents, but they might be 80%, right?
If you're lucky, if you had a really good prompt and gave it
really good context, that document could be 80% right,
which should save you time, but it doesn't replace the context
you give it, the structure you give it kind of prompt you're
at. Like, you know, when you think
about all that goes into that. So if you're getting a great
looking document with a really easy AI prompt and you think
you're done, like I've had people like, how do I now
validate this? Or what is the role of A, the BA
of A is creating the document. Like you still have to validate
that that's what the stakeholders actually want.
Like just because you have a document doesn't mean you're
done. But if historically that's how
you've really linked into your value, you do have to really
shift that and thinking about something a little bit more.
Like it's not just about that deliverable, it's about the
understanding and the clarity and like getting everybody on
the same page or on that content, which currently a guy
does. Not, yeah.
So thinking about the skills that would normally have gone
into the development of that. So it is the analytical
thinking, the systems thinking, the, you know, being able to
validate information to be able to trace it back to something
that is a need, something that you heard.
Those are, you know, again, I think it is taking it up a level
because that's you're right. If I only think about my value,
if and you know, I may be in an organization that signals that's
my value. So how do you help those folks?
Like, what are the things that you say to folks who are like,
well, my organization defines my value and I just push paper?
Yeah. And that's where you're looking
at what is the ultimate outcome that they're looking for on a
project level or an initiative level or a value stream level.
And then, you know, up to posing to them some additional ways
that you could enhance the value or you could add to that.
So you and you barely like when you're an organization that sees
you one way, you almost have to take the risk and start to do
something different and contribute in a new way so that
you they're like, oh, I see how this can work, right?
And so you have to constantly be pushing the envelope and
stepping outside that sort of constructive role in order to
really generate something, you know, start to shift that
perception because, yeah, it's not a great place to be.
That to me is like, you're on the road for whatever the next
cost cutting initiative is. If you've been kind of winnowed
into that little box, like not to, you know, I know it's a
scary time. I don't want to add to the fear.
But like if you're like content with that box and like if that
box is not sustainable over the long term, unfortunately.
Yeah, right. And it is really about showing
your value sometimes. That is the first step sometimes
here, what are the things I can tell my manager or my boss's
boss about what I do? Well, the first thing you can do
is you can show them. And so that's showing them what
it is that you can produce, not a deliverable, but what are what
is the outcome? What is the decisions like?
Connecting your work with something that has moved the
organization forward is a first step in showing your value.
And then like, don't be so humble about it because you know
how business analysts are. Yeah, I did that thing and I
just like. This is actually like we did
that thing. It's always we Oh yeah, whole
story. I tell my book about like, it's
not like, yes, we were always part of a collective.
Nothing in business analysis happens alone, but also none of
those outcomes would have happened if you were not in the
room. And so like finding the I, the
piece that you contributed and really owning that is just as
important. Yes, absolutely.
And so I think let's, let's talk about your book a little bit.
And we should tell folks in addition to that book, you've
got a framework in there and you have got a three-part series,
webinar series that's coming up with IIBA on that uses this
framework. And, and so if you're a member,
this is exclusive to you. I did not grab, I did not grab
the link. So I'm gonna let you talk a
little bit about that framework. I'm gonna go grab the link.
Sounds good. So in the book, I walk you
through an 8 step framework for how to approach and project or
initiative or change as a business analyst.
So starting with getting oriented, which could be like, I
got an e-mail and I got to start working on something through
defining business objectives, clarifying scope, coming up with
your deliverable plan, working through the detailed
requirements, supporting the business and technical
implementation teams, and then assessing the ROI at the end.
So in this upcoming three-part webinar series with IBA for IB
members, I'm super excited because we're going to use that
framework as a way to for, to help you appreciate your value,
the value you're already generating in the role you are
today. To actually like give a clear
picture of that and then assess your process or your practice to
look at where you're being maybe reactive and proactive
opportunities to be proactive or proactive to add maybe a piece
or take away a piece that's not working.
And to look at the opportunities to refine and improve your
practice. And then we'll like actually
look at one of your opportunities to help you choose
which one to implement next. And then the third part, we're
then going to work through how do we actually make that change?
Who do we need to get on board? How do we need to think about
this? Do we even need to get anybody
on board or do we just start it? What does it look like?
What's the measurable success that we're looking for as a
result of this? So the webinar series is going
to walk us through that whole process.
And I'm also really excited because we're bringing both AI
and collaboration to this Ida webinar format in a new way.
We're using a new tool that's going to allow us to facilitate
breakouts where you can have actual conversations with other
people from the community, but then we're also going to be able
to get data, like AI driven data insights from those breakouts,
all anonymous, but that we can share back because it's a
three-part webinar series. So we'll be able to kind of file
some insights based on the things that you share with your
peers, share those back so that we can all learn from that data
together. I'm really excited to see how it
unfolds. It's a bit of we've, I've
experimented with some of this in my own smaller training, but
this is like another level of of collaboration that AI use.
So thank you Susan. You've done a lot of work behind
the scenes to Yeah, this all happened.
So we are excited about this tool.
The tool is called Natter and they are an AI tool.
They use some of the same features that a lot of us may be
familiar with that this concept of a breakout room, except in
this breakout room, you know, you are limited to as the
speaker, you can only show up in maybe 1-1 or two rooms over the
course of a webinar. You can't appear everywhere.
Also, sometimes those breakout rooms are really big and it
prohibits a lot of individual discussion.
But with this tool, we have the ability to put just two people
into a room for you to be able to talk to each other.
And then we anonymize all of that data and we we can start to
talk about and learn from those conversations.
So, you know, we were talking about AI is so 2025, but also
we're using it for the series, so whatever.
So it's a three-part series here I created here's that it's
called How to amplify your value and each part has a specific
subtitle to it where we go through that.
If you are a member, you can sign up.
If you're not a member, do this because I was Laura and I were
kicking around. If we could maybe make that
first one open to the public. I need to do a little bit of
work behind the scenes. So if it is something you're
interested in here, I'll pop this.
Nope. Yeah.
There you go. e-mail me live@iba.org.
Let me see if I can figure out how to get you a code or
something if you want to join us for that first one.
Because it's really, in some ways, it'll be really familiar,
but in some ways it'll be kind of a new experience.
OK, let's turn off some of these things here.
Whoa. All right.
Well, I tell you what, because I have now found some of our
questions. Do you want to take a couple of
questions or is there anything else?
OK, All right, so let's let me go here.
So again, I'm just reading from my phone.
All good. So this the fast things happen
in the Jazz, right? Right, right.
OK. This is more just kind of an
observation from Lefabo. So thanks for joining us today,
Lefabo. I'm a big believer in AI as an
assist for business analysis. That definitely helps speed
things up. But I've noticed the churn and
expectations that increase alongside it.
I agree with Laura that one of the strongest use cases is
helping with testing scenarios and validating options more
quickly. Yes, yeah, great point.
Yeah, I think to that point too, like we need to be really
cognizant about what it can and cannot do and be educating.
Like, and you could even say here's how I used AI, here's the
type of results I got, here's the work I still had to do
because that's a global, like a leader at a high level.
Like you're just looking at, oh, like this stuff gets easy now or
that's unnecessary or these things and things are certainly
collapsing and that is going to create a lot of internalized
pressure and change. Like we're all feeling this
right now. So if you were feeling that you
were certainly not alone, but also like educating on well,
here's the what I really got back and here's what I needed to
do to make it work for me. Like, yes, it's helped.
Like you don't want to be the naysayer of like it's not
helpful, but yes, it's helpful. And here's where I'm still doing
the pieces, like in educating your manager, your leaders about
the the feasibility of their expectations.
Yeah, because I think that discussion around it's, it is
still important for us to put quality information in front of
our stakeholders because if we don't, we lose trust and that
just destroys every everything that we do.
It kind of, you know, it poisons all of the activity.
So we need to be seen as a credible team.
And so in order to do that, I have to take time to validate
those outputs even if I got them faster.
So. All right, Let's see.
Robert Snyder. You probably met Robert.
Yeah. Robert is has joined us today.
He adds a decision Symphony shapes, impressive decision
speed. The synchronization skill of the
boss dictates the speed of the team.
Yep. And he continues.
AI doesn't solve our meeting gridlock or communication
traffic jams. Absolutely.
Yeah. And I just just want to speak to
Robert's comment like, yes, it doesn't solve that law, GM, but
you can use AI to input like your perceived profiles of the
people that are coming into the room.
Maybe what you sense their objections are like objectives
are the outcomes they want. What you sense their objectives
objections are of like what are their issues with it?
And ask for what are some creative ways to frame this
right? Or what are some ways that I
could pull some common threads between these two people who
disagree? Like where might I find?
And so just like I find like using AI as that Co creative
thinking partner to like think through, you might come up with
some creative ideas. And again, it's probably going
to give you 10 ideas that don't work and maybe three that do.
So that's where your human assessment and validation comes
in. But just to think about how
could I manage this conversation in a different way and what are
the perspectives I want to draw from?
I finally AI gives me great ideas I might not have thought
of on my own. Yeah, I that I think is one of
its absolute strengths because sometimes we are bound by
whatever, you know, are the technology we work in, the
relationships that we have our own biases and sometimes AI can
just make a bunch of connections that we would never think.
So if you are looking for options and you just want to go
a little bit crazy, AI is great for that and then you get to
take the ones that you think really could work or be expanded
on. So I agree.
Here's a question. What requests or demands does
the business analysis profession have of adjacent professions or
titles so that all of us increase value?
And you know what, you and I were talking about this.
What about those people that don't have a title of business
analysis, but value is clearly important to their work?
What you know, what do you think about that?
And I'll ask it again since I was what request or demands does
the business analysis profession have of adjacent professions and
titles? Yeah, I think the most honest
and impactful request is just shared communication, right?
So sitting down with those roles or those people and clarifying
roles beforehand. But then also like, I would
really love if you call me in if this kind of issue comes up,
like once you've handed off a set of requirements to
developer, like please, if you have any questions or if you
find yourself making an assumption that you just like,
I'm here if you want to test it out, Like if you see somebody
changing the decision, please call me in.
Or if you hear somebody talking about a change, like, you know,
just like what communication do you want to be a part of so that
people are listening? You know, one of the problems we
have today is often we just invite everybody to a meeting
and then everybody's calendar is full.
And there's a lot of people who are just like listening in.
Like, can other people be listening in for you?
So you don't have to be physically present and you can
really focus intentionally on your work and know that you'll
get called in if you need to. That's what I would ask from the
other people on my team. Yeah, yeah.
All right, let's see. Looking through here for some
other questions. Please don't hesitate.
Ask us a couple of questions. We've got a few extra minutes.
Here's another question. Historically, mathematicians who
work to solve people's problems weren't specialist of a certain
domain. Should business analysis
professionals live up to a similar take on problems just
being generalist? And I apologize, I don't know if
it was me or you, but there was a bit of a delay.
Could you just read that one again?
Yes, there was a delay. It might have been me.
I'm scrolling. I'm usually I turn off all my
devices. So it's it might be me.
This question is from Hisham. Historically, mathematicians who
work to solve people's problems weren't specialists, they were
generalist. So should business analysis
professionals try to live up to a similar take a similar
approach? You know, we've been, we were
talking about how I've been doing this for 17 years.
This was like what I thought was the hot topic 17 years ago.
It was like, oh, we're like, you know, the front, the
organization or the VA role was often very specialized and we
were I the VA was a lot newer than than it is now.
And it was just this groundwork around the generalist BA.
And we are, you know, I'm a pragmatist sort of by design.
And here we are 17 years later and it is an even bigger
problem. The role is even more
fragmented. The layers of expertise that are
expected are often even deeper. So theoretically, sure, like
yes, as ABA you can switch industries, you can go into new
environments. You offer a great perspective.
Pragmatically, if you are in the job market looking for a role
right now, I would say focus on those areas of expertise or
tangential areas of expertise and to, you know, once you get
in, perhaps you can widen your role and look more generally.
But like, it's a hard, it's a harder and harder fight.
And I just, I don't see the like, industries want what they
want. And yes, we can do magical
things outside of our areas of expertise, but the reality is
that people are looking for those.
Yeah. Should we?
I don't know, you know. It depends which is the typical
answer for our profession. It depends.
You know, I work with some adjacent communities who include
business analysis, but they are deeply experienced and
knowledgeable in things like a, you know, platform.
So whether it is JD Edwards or SharePoint or Vanessa Grant
joined us last year, we talked about Salesforce and you know,
that kind of deep expertise is really good because there is a
market for that. And also they're still dealing
with the kinds of big picture questions that everybody in our
community deals with, which is how do I get stakeholders to,
you know, to tell me what their needs are?
How am I putting this together so I get the outcomes that
matter to them? You can still be very deeply
specialized in an area and still do a lot of this, you know, this
kind of business analysis work that so, you know, it depends.
And by the way, there are a lot of people who really enjoy that
kind of deep, you know, deep knowledge in a particular area.
So I'm with you. I it just.
And the opportunity is to bring the foundational skills of
business analysis into those roles, right?
Versus trying to pull the expertise out of the roles.
But like, let's layer the business analysis in because
they do feel like they're making those parts up as they go along.
Often like, oh wait, there's a way to do this that is like
teachable and learnable and repeatable versus just I got to
work from my expertise and kind of figure the rest of it out as
I go along. Yeah.
And I know you've actually talked to that Salesforce
business analysis community about that.
And I know I've when I join the Quest Oracle community that
deals with things like PeopleSoft and JD Edwards, they
also feel that same way. I really know my platform, but
I'm not sure about this other stuff that I need to be doing.
And so if you do bring that general knowledge of business
analysis, you really can be helpful to those specialists in
ways that maybe you didn't think you could.
So yeah, so it's. A huge opportunity in AI now
too. I just had like an AI analyst
ask me like, well, is this process really relevant for AI?
Like my AI team like and like, yeah, yes, right, yes.
Especially. Yes.
Yeah, Yeah. So, All right, Well, let's see.
Hey, you know what? We've made it work today.
Yeah, even though I'm, we're not seeing all of the comments, I,
we've done a pretty good job. Well, let's see, let's wrap this
up. And so let's remind folks first
pop up your book. Let's and tell them how.
Where can they find it? Yeah, so you can go to
bridging-the-gap.com/value with hyphensbridginghyphens.hyphengap.com
and that will list all the different Amazon stores it's
available on. If you do not see your country
listed most often it's available through the US most people who
are the.com U.S. website. Or you can just go to your
version of Amazon and look up the Value Driven Business
Analyst or put my name in and you'll see it there.
Available in print and Kindle. Awesome.
And then just as a reminder, how to amplify your value?
Part 1 starts Wednesday, February 8th.
I dropped the link into 18th, 18th, and I think we're doing
it. Basically the second one is
March 18th I think, and then I think in April, the last Part 3
is like the 14th or something. But if you go to the first
registration page, not only can you register for those, you can
also see the dates of parts two and three and register all from
the same page. It is.
A member exclusive, but I'm going to try to figure out how
if you're listening to the podcast, how I can get you a
code and you can join us at least for that Part 1 and I
don't anything else we need to tell folks today.
I'd be happy to connect with you on LinkedIn as well, so if
you're followed along please reach out.
And if you have any follow up questions, feel free to reach
out as well. I know sometimes it can be a
little scary to post your comment.
But I can attest Laura is not scary.
So feel free to ask her questions.
She'll answer you. All right.
Well, Laura, thank you again for joining us.
And you always bring such a great perspective.
And I'm looking forward to this webinar series.
It's really going to be something unique.
So if you're listening, you're a member.
Please join us because I think. It would be, yeah.
And it'll be like, how could we use this for our business
analysis work, right? Like that would be, we're
exploring it here as a community, but wouldn't it be
kind of cool if you had a big workshop to be able to do
something like this too? So.
Exactly. I'm sure the folks at Natter.
Would love to I. Would love so would love to hear
that they because this is really a cool platform.
All right. Well, thanks again for joining
us today, Laura. Thank you so much for having me,
Susan. Take care.
All right. Well, that's it for today.
Thanks for joining us. We're going to be back in two
weeks and in two weeks we're going to talk about what is
change leadership. Change is a constant in our
work, but there is a lot of discussion in some spaces not
typically thought of as business analysis circles where they talk
about change leadership. We've got a guest who runs one
of those conferences and is part of that community, and she's
going to share more about that. Hey, I want to thank you guys
for joining us today. We will see you in two weeks.
See you then. Bye.
If you're hearing this, you made it to the end of the episode.
Thanks for listening. Do you have any questions,
comments or thoughts about today's topic?
We'd love to hear them. Drop us a review or leave a note
in the comments. Then like, subscribe or share
this podcast if you like what you heard.
And hey, you can help us shape future episodes.
What do you want to know more about?
Send us an e-mail at Live at iiba.org with your ideas.
See you again on our next episode.