Abeda Essop, Senior Business Analyst at Old Mutual, shares her training experience having recently completed the Business Analysis Practice course.
On the training Abeda learnt an approach for analysing stakeholder perspectives and modelling their conceptual business activities, and has gained new tools and techniques that are improving her professional capability.
Here’s what Abeda had to say about her training experience:
Tell us a bit about yourself, Abeda.
I’m big on family time, and make time for immediate and extended family. I exercise my right-brain by baking and decorating cakes for special occasions, and spend a lot of time as close to the ocean as possible.
I’ve been in the IT industry most of my life. When I started my career as a developer we simply accepted specifications and developed accordingly and I soon realised I’d rather be involved upfront, gathering and validating requirements and not merely implementing them. One of my previous employers had faith in me, took a chance, and gave me an opportunity as a Business Systems Analyst.
I still recall my first performance review, where I was advised to focus on the bigger picture and that’s exactly what I set out to do.
Why did you decide to take the business analysis practice course?
While I’ve completed various courses and degrees over the years, I last attended a formal Business Analysis course in 2005 and I was keen to attend this course for two specific reasons:
- To assess the validity of the methods I am applying in my current role and compare these to what would be shared on the course.
- To add to my skill-set and learn about new tools and techniques I could apply on a daily basis to enhance my personal value proposition.
It’s insane to think one can continue to apply the same tools and techniques acquired many years ago, and expect to adapt to the ever-changing Business and IT landscape.
How will the course help you in your career?
I am already applying some of the tools -- on the first day I went home and immediately applied OSCAR to a current document I was working on.
After day 2 I realised I never actually went into CATWOE detail, documenting and comparing the perspective of EACH stakeholder in a clear and concise manner.
(I suppose you’ll have to attend the course if you want to learn about OSCAR and CATWOE).
We also have a culture of knowledge sharing when we return from any course, so I’ll be sharing all that I’ve learnt with our Business Analyst Forum.
What was your biggest learning - did you have an AHA! moment?
I had a few -- as various tools were put into perspective nicely, understanding the external versus internal focus and when to use what. But ...
“BAM”!
The Business Activity Model, and learning how to get to that stage via the CATWOE Analysis -- how a stakeholders perspective leads to conceptualising the business activities.
What did you enjoy most about the BCMG training experience?
It's relevance to the modern role of the business analyst.
It was aimed at the right audience, and very well managed in terms of coverage per topic.
What would you say to someone who is considering doing this course?
If you strongly believe in continuous improvement to your own professional and personal development,
... just do it, you won’t regret the learnings, discussions and insights.
In the spirit of 'keep growing', what are you keen to learn next?
Benefits Management – as actual measurement is often neglected once a project has been implemented -- and I'd like to learn business process reengineering in detail.
Abeda took the steps to learn strategic business analysis tools that are improving her professional capability. Are you ready to gear up? Find out more about the Business Analysis Practice course here.