Business Analysis Archieven - Page 6 of 7

9 February 2026

9 February 2026

Switching between business analysis certifications

If I already hold a certification, can I move to another scheme without starting from scratch? The short answer: yes, but with conditions. The longer answer depends on how the International Institute of Business Analysis (IIBA), British Computer Society (BCS), and International Requirements Engineering Board (IREB) certification frameworks overlap and where they don’t.

16 February 2026

Discovering customer value in business analysis

16 February 2026

Discovering Customer Value When Change Is Constant

Change is no longer something organizations deal with occasionally. It is constant, rapid, and increasingly technology-driven. Over the years, I’ve worked with many organizations that delivered exactly what they planned and still failed to create value. The issue was rarely execution. It was that the problem they solved was not the problem customers actually had.

23 February 2026

23 February 2026

Your First Business Analysis Certification: IIBA, BCS, or IREB?

In this post, I’ll compare the International Institute of Business Analysis (IIBA), British Computer Society (BCS), and International Requirements Engineering Board (IREB) through a career lens: consulting vs. corporate, geographic reach, industry fit, and the professional community you’ll be joining.

3 March 2026

3 March 2026

Choosing the Right Elicitation Technique

There is a well-documented pattern in requirements engineering that most experienced practitioners will recognize the moment they hear it and quietly wince. Research (2014) from the Universidad Politécnica de Madrid found that when an analyst faces an elicitation challenge, they tend to reach for the technique they know best, regardless of whether it is the most appropriate one for the situation.

13 March 2026

The Volere Snow Card

Business analysts often face a common challenge when gathering requirements. Stakeholders tend to focus on solutions instead of their actual needs. As a result, important requirements can stay hidden. At a recent workshop, someone brought up this exact problem. His stakeholders kept talking about solutions instead of the problem they wanted to solve.

1 April 2026

Rapport Is Not Small Talk

Rapport is one of those business analysis skills everyone agrees is important, yet it is often described so vaguely that it becomes useless. We hear that good analysts should “build trust,” “connect with stakeholders,” or “develop strong relationships.” All true. But what does that actually look like in the moment?

7 April 2026

Rapport Is a Skill

In the first post in this series, we watched Anna, a business analyst, meet Marcus, a skeptical IT Director, in three different versions of the same corridor conversation: same setup, same 10 minutes, three very different outcomes. In one, she built a strong connection. In another, she lost him entirely. In the third, she stumbled but recovered.

14 April 2026

14 April 2026

Beyond Power and Interest: Adding Attitude to Your Stakeholder Analysis

In our previous post, we explored Mendelow’s Matrix, a fundamental tool for mapping stakeholders along two dimensions: power and interest. By now, you know which stakeholders to manage closely, which to keep informed, which to keep satisfied, and which require minimal effort. That is already a significant step forward in your stakeholder engagement planning.

21 April 2026

21 April 2026

Beyond Good Intentions: The Mechanics of Rapport in Stakeholder Conversations

The techniques in this post draw on concepts from Neuro-Linguistic Programming (NLP), developed by Richard Bandler and John Grinder in the 1970s. While NLP as a discipline is debated, several of its communication techniques, like mirroring, pacing, and sensory awareness, are widely used in coaching, negotiation, and stakeholder engagement.

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