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Showing posts from February, 2015

What Do Business Analysts Actually Do for Software Implementation Projects?

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Everyone knows who the business analysts are in their organization, but not everyone knows what they actually do and what they are responsible for during software implementation projects. Generally speaking, most business analysts "own the requirements processes," where they work with key line-of-business executives and users on just what it is they want from a new application, says Carey Schwaber , a senior analyst of application development at Forrester Research. "If you believe that software projects succeed or fail based on the quality of the requirements," Schwaber says, "then you believe that software projects succeed or fail on the basis of business analysts, too." Beyond gathering requirements, however, the other important duties inherent to the business analyst role (besides being a good communicator) are still not well-known today. In fact, according to Schwaber and fellow Forrester analyst Rob Karel, not many people, includ

There’s No Such Thing as Anonymous Data

by: Scott Berinato February 9, 2015   About a decade ago, a hacker said to me, flatly, “Assume every card in your wallet is compromised, and proceed accordingly.” He was right. Consumers have adapted to a steady thrum of data breach notifications, random credit card charges, and out-of-the-blue card replacements. A privacy-industrial complex has sprung up from this — technology, services, and policies all aimed at trying to protect data while allowing it to flow freely enough to keep the modern electronic bazaar thriving. A key strategy in this has been to “scrub” data, which means removing personally identifiable information (PII) so that even if someone did access it, they couldn’t connect it to an individual. So much for all that. In a paper published in Science last week , MIT scientist Yves-Alexandre de Montjoye shows that anonymous credit card data can be reverse engineered to identify individuals’ transactions, a finding which calls into question

Creating Adaptive Organizations

By: Steven Kenney Last updated 8/5/2010 http://www.amanet.org/training/articles/Creating-Adaptive-Organizations.aspx?pcode=XCRP&utm_source=t.co&utm_medium=referral&utm_content=AMA-article Since publishing The Adaptive Corporation in 1985, Alvin and Heidi Toffler have theorized about what organizations must do not only to survive but to prosper in a social-economic environment that is fundamentally different from the industrial era in which they were born. As part of our mission to provide clients a path to a profitable, sustainable future through actions to be executed today, To

7 Sentences You Shouldn't Say to Your Boss - EVER

Bernard Marr There are certain things all bosses dread to hear. “I lost the account,” “There’s a big mistake,” and “I think the building is on fire,” would all qualify, but I’m talking about sentences that may seem innocuous to you, but can be a big deal to your boss. Consider each of these sentences — and how you can turn them around to stay on your boss’ good side. “Are you sure you want to do that…?” You don’t want to come across as teaching your boss something he or she already knows. Tread carefully when schooling your boss on anything. If you feel you have to say something, approach the topic with the assumption that your boss may have overlooked or forgotten something — not that he doesn’t know how to do his job. “Did you see what so-and-so just did? She is just so hard to work with!” Save the interpersonal drama for your friends and family members, because your boss doesn’t want to hear about it. He certainly doesn’t want