About This Book

The goal of this book is to arm the business analyst with principles, practices, and tools for effective facilitation and meeting management, with a focus on meetings the business analyst is likely to lead. The business analyst’s role is all about the art of driving various constituencies through processes to achieve consensus on the needs of the business. A business analyst who is an expert facilitator does this in a manner that encourages participation and ownership and that maximizes the productivity of everyone involved in requirements definition and management.

Some business analysis activities take place in one-on-one interviews. Conducting a good interview is a valuable business analysis skill, and we will provide some useful insights on how to plan and conduct an effective interview. However, most business analysis work to elicit, analyze, specify, and validate requirements is done in some type of meeting. The goal of this book is to equip the business analyst with several powerful tools to successfully negotiate through the myriad meetings, informal working sessions, and formal workshops that are necessary to develop business requirements.