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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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Are You Struggling with Requirements? Project Off-Track?

by Ronald G. Ross on April 18, 2012

Guest Post by Senior Consultant to Large Organization
I am struggling on a project right now where the requirements were never properly collected in the beginning. So we’re now going back to our requirements to try and sort out what the business really wants.  
As this process of validating the original requirements started, I had just [...]

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A Buzzword Like ‘Decision’ that Covers Everything May Soon Cover Nothing

by Ronald G. Ross on February 7, 2012

One thing that concerns me about ‘decision’ or ‘decision management’ is that everything potentially becomes a decision. Software vendors love it when complex problems can be reduced to a single buzzword. Engineers of true business solutions should hate it.
I’m sure I’ll be accused of negativism, so for the record, let me say that top down [...]

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Why Don’t Requirements Approaches and IT Methodologies ‘Get’ How to Use Strategy as a Technique? … Not Acceptable!

by Ronald G. Ross on October 13, 2011

An enterprise architect recently said to me, “The motivation (why) column of the Zachman Architecture Framework is the most underrated, underutilized construct in architecture.”
Absolutely correct. Even worse, IT methodologies (that is, the people who create and use them) don’t realize how far afield they are on the matter. As a result they cause business people [...]

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Arrived Norway … Found Old Viking Business Rules … Some Good for Commerce

by Ronald G. Ross on September 25, 2011

See …
1.4 Be … Agile
3. 1 Find Out What the Market Needs
 

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Why Your IT Project May Be Riskier Than You Think

by Ronald G. Ross on September 22, 2011

Several comments on a must-read HBR article for an organization considering any IT project of significant size ….
Why Your IT Project May Be Riskier Than You Think
by Bent Flyvbjerg and Alexander Budzier 
Harvard Business Review – September, 2011
http://hbr.org/2011/09/why-your-it-project-may-be-riskier-than-you-think/ar/1
I found several points in this article particularly insightful:
 
1. “As global companies become even more reliant on analytics and data to drive good decision [...]

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HarvardBiz and Use Cases?!? Yes, Seriously … And Seriously Misguided!

by Ronald G. Ross on September 6, 2011

HarvardBiz  The Case for Starting a Design Revolution http://s.hbr.org/nXsdOk
 
This article is fundamentally misguided. I’m surprised to find such an article associated with HBR. Use cases are about designing systems, not developing business solutions for business problems.
 
All change initiatives should start with a clear, structured view of business goals and business risks, and what business policies and [...]

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A Rigorous Definition of Fluff … Good Thoughts on Strategy for Business Solutions (and Other Things)

by Ronald G. Ross on August 16, 2011

I always thought my business partner, Gladys S.W. Lam, pioneered use of the word fluff for all things superficial, especially in written material. She uses it well and often (for example, she might very well use it for these very words). However, now there is evidence of other expert users of the word. 
Just to be [...]

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The ‘Up’ Why and the ‘Down’ Why

by Ronald G. Ross on August 5, 2011

I had a major case of deja vu reading a recent post by Tom Graves, ”The Two Kinds of Why”, at  http://bit.ly/qgJ40i #baot. I’ll tell you why in a second. Believe it or not it has to do with our business card.
Zachman and I have had a continung conversation over many years about business rules and the [...]

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Business Capability … You Have to Know in Order to Do

by Ronald G. Ross on July 31, 2011

As many of you are aware, the Business Rules Forum Conference is now one of three conferences in the annual Building Business Capabilities (BBC) Conference (http://www.buildingbusinesscapability.com/), which includes the Business Analysis Forum, the official conference of the IIBA. So Gladys and I have had to do some hard thinking about the meaning of “business capability”. [...]

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