Business Analysis

by Debra Paul, James Cadle

All organisations need to respond to the challenges within today’s highly competitive global economy. Business analysts are at the forefront of these responses, enabling the development of practical, creative and financially sound solutions that address business problems and grasp new opportunities. The fourth edition of this bestselling publication provides comprehensive guidance for business analysts, encompassing the essential concepts, frameworks and techniques needed to provide professional business analysis services. Key topics covered include the strategic context, investigating business situations, managing stakeholders, improving processes and defining requirements. New topics in this edition include the service view of business analysis, the strategic context and enterprise architecture, customer experience analysis and design thinking.

Genres: Business, Nonfiction, Reference, Management

436 pages, Paperback

First published April 1, 2006

Reviews

[Richard Newton · Rating 3 out of 5]

You do not read a book like this purely for pleasure, at least I can't think of many people who would. I have been slowly going through it to remind myself of some Business Analysis techniques which I've got a bit rusty on, for professional reasons. This is a thorough coverage of the role of the BA, and includes much useful material and pointers to further resources, but it is a little dull. Worthy and reasonably comprehensive rather than pithy, fun reading!

A couple of issues. As each chapter is written by a different person the style is inconsistent. This is no big deal, but sometimes you wonder why certain material has been included - which vary from quite specific BA information to rather generic and general business tools and concepts. It also feels dated as I finished reading it in late 2019. It was published in 2010 and lots has happened in that decade. Changes include the increasing dominance of the many variants of Agile, some of which are openly disparaging of the role of the BA, and which therefore a book on Business Analysis needs to have a clear opinion on. To be fair there is, I think, a third edition now so you may well be better off with that should you be in the search for a book on business analysis.

[Vanessa · Rating 4 out of 5]

Helpful introduction to Business Analysis. Covers a lot of areas and goes into sufficient detail from a beginner's point of view. There are some typos and the writing could be a lot more concise, but is a good basis for preparing for any beginners certification.

[Steve Whiting · Rating 3 out of 5]

Recommended with some caveats. It's a good introduction to Business Analysis, and has a broad coverage of the subject. On the other hand, the coverage of most topics is pretty superficial - it would make a good first book, but anyone working as a business analyst is going to outgrow it pretty rapidly

[Dorothy]

I painstakingly read every. single. page (ok some parts may have been skim read…) and I have earned this point towards my reading goal for this year. Turns out being a corporate girlie is difficult difficult lemon difficult. Alone, this book is not very conducive to learning about BA / passing the exam, but when read with a focus on the exam syllabus it was okay-ish (but a good third of the text could be removed which would leave the book with better, easer to digest, more concise content).

[Barry · Rating 3 out of 5]

Decent book covering the Business Analysis discipline. It's well written and quite thorough with just a few typos. It covers the general processes in business analysis projects from initiation, developing solutions and gathering and modelling requirements. It works very well as a companion volume to '99 Business Analysis' techniques which I can heartily recommend.

The book, coming form the British Computer Society does have a heavy accent on IT's usage in Business Change. Whilst that may be appropriate for traditional BA type roles I do think more focus should be on transformational business change and understanding organisations from a systems perspective.

That said I have dipped into this on more than one occasion over recent weeks and suspect I certainly will for some time in the future.

Good resource for those new to Business Analysis.

[Ravi · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a re-read of the book almost a year after my previous read. It has given me a nice chance to reflect and relate the usage of concepts in the book to my actual day to day activities at work. I am happy with the progress I have made in the past year, and, as always, there is scope for improvement.

Edit (Jan 2020):
This is a further re-read. The concepts and ideas are becoming clearer and more relatable with each read. In this iteration, I could see more clarity on topics related to Business Strategy and Business Architecture.

[Sarah]

I copy-edited the second edition for the publisher, working on screen in Microsoft Word. I liaised with the author to resolve editorial queries and returned the text edited and tagged ready for typesetting.

[Ankur · Rating 4 out of 5]

The official text for BCS certification path, it is a useful primer to the process of business analysis. It lacks case study questions, thus fails to give readers a chance to apply/practice their skills.

[Britt · Rating 3 out of 5]

Cursus BCS Business Analyse afgerond en daar hoort dit boek bij. Super handige informatie die je hands-on kan inzetten. Maar wel fijn er een training bij te krijgen, anders is het maar droge stof.

[Francesco Luca · Rating 5 out of 5]

An extremely comprehensive overview of the business analysis profession

I like the fact that it includes all you have to know as a Business Analyst and points out all the areas that can then be drilled down further. A must read for anyone who wants to pursue a carrier in business analysis.

[Mark Ngô · Rating 4 out of 5]

It

[Noemi · Rating 3 out of 5]

A manual for someone who wants to do business analysis by the book. :-) Of course, real time practice is different than the theory.

[Mary Lee · Rating 4 out of 5]

Good Book

As a graduate student, this book was required for class. It did provide good detailed information and was very useful for projects.

[ricky dodds · Rating 5 out of 5]

Perfect book for any aspiring BA looking to break into the world of Business Analysis or any accomplished BA looking for a refresher.

[Paul Pryce · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great, still use it today. With this I passed the exam too.

[Bishal Paudyal · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent book for BA practitioners

[DBiddle · Rating 3 out of 5]

The layout of the pages is way off kilter. It will start to explain one concept then interrupt said concept by including diagrams of different concepts on the next page and then returning to the original concept two pages later.

Difficult to follow as a result.

[Trevor · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very useful for the ISEB exam, just waiting on the result now.... :)

[Lynda · Rating 4 out of 5]

Dip in to this when I am looking for strategy tips.

[Nicci]

i want to read

[Chris · Rating 4 out of 5]

A good framework for business analysis

[Anna · Rating 4 out of 5]

Read this to help prepare for a BCS exam. Interesting with a lot of helpful information highly applicable to my current work projects.

[N Sudheer]

I Want to read

[S.P. · Rating 4 out of 5]

Excellent guide to the tools and processes needed to do Business Analysis in a structured way.

[Janet]

it is excellent to do any business analysis