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Business Model vs. System Model: eCommerce

by Ronald G. Ross on May 11, 2012

In yesterday’s post I talked about the difference between business models and system models: http://goo.gl/CMMPi  To make a long story short, business models talk directly about real-world things (as business people do); systems models talk about surrogates for real-world things (as system designers do). Not the same thing!
Some people argue that the separation between business [...]

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What’s the Difference Between Business Requirements and Functional Requirements?

by Ronald G. Ross on May 10, 2012

We’re teaching our online training course next week: Business Analysis with Business Rules: From Strategy to Requirements. http://goo.gl/Vnko3 Hope to see you there!
Naturally, we’ll be talking a lot about business requirements. Are business requirements the same as functional requirements? No!
Functional Requirement vs. Business Requirement
Wikipedia describes a functional requirement as …
“a requirement that defines a function [...]

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Understanding Strategy as a Key Business Analysis Tool: It’s Not Business Process!

by Ronald G. Ross on May 8, 2012

John Matthias recently wrote this about our new book, Building Business Solutions: Business Analysis with Business Rules[1]:
“I especially liked the discussion about the mission and goals. I still see business process analysis in organizations I visit where the goals are not articulated well, and the results are not useful. (I’ve done it myself.) It’s [...]

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Harvesting Business Rules??

by Ronald G. Ross on May 6, 2012

guest post by Cecilia Pearce
Are we actually harvesting the business rules?
To harvest something you are required to go to a designated area to gather the crop or fruit. ‘Harvesting’ implies you ‘grew’ the business rules with deliberate purpose – cultivated special ground, keep it watered and weeded, watched over it as it matured.
This is not [...]

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Creating a Business Model: Walk the Walls!

by Ronald G. Ross on April 20, 2012

In running facilitated sessions, we like to create each kind of business model on a different wall.  We find that the physical act of walking or shifting focus from one wall to another helps participants rapidly grasp and remember what each wall represents.  It also helps business leads and Business Analysts identify disconnects and gaps [...]

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Batting 1000 on Amazon: Our New Book “Building Business Solutions: Business Analysis with Business Rules” Hits Eight 5-Star Reviews (of 8) on Amazon

by Ronald G. Ross on February 22, 2012

Our new book has been extremely well received this far – very gratifying. See the Amazon reviews: http://goo.gl/8lk4u and more comments: http://www.brsolutions.com/b_building_business_solutions_reviewers.php
Two reviewers, George McGeachie and Maria Amuchastegui, made same criticism, both giving the book a 5-star rating anyway. So let me clarify.
George McGeachie wrote: “The point about business rules and deployment is made on [...]

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How Important is Basic Business Vocabulary? … A Short (True!) Story

by Ronald G. Ross on February 14, 2012

Guest Post
I was teaching a BA class, trying to convey the value of having a prototype. The class was divided into ‘developers’, the BA, and the ‘executive’. The developers were given a bag of duplos, multiple shapes and colors. The executive was given a bag with a completed duplo creation. The instructions were for the [...]

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The ‘Process’ of Business Analysis is a Great Example of a Social Process

by Ronald G. Ross on November 29, 2011

In a recent post, Jonathan ‘Kupe’ Kupersmith said:
“In manufacturing following a process step by step is a good thing. In our world [business analysis] this is not the case.  Following an A to Z process for every project is a bad thing.  Every project is different.  Different people, different risks, different priorities, etc.  You need [...]

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Requirements and Business Rules … All Just a Matter of Semantics (Really)

by Ronald G. Ross on October 24, 2011

It almost goes without saying (but I’ll say it anyway) that you must know exactly what the words mean in all parts of your business requirements. In running a complex business (and what business isn’t complex these days?!), the meaning of the words can simply never be taken as a ‘given’.
Some IT professionals believe that [...]

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Is Agile Development of Business Rules Possible? … And What Would You Call It If It Is?

by Ronald G. Ross on October 18, 2011

I’ve been exploring the meaning of ‘agile’ with respect to business rules. In our new book, we say:
“Business agility results when the IT aspect of change in business policies and business rules disappears into the plumbing. All artificial (IT-based) production freeze dates for deployment disappear and the software release cycle becomes irrelevant. The only constraint [...]

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