Product Description

Improving the effectiveness of your IT through better alignment with the business is a precursor to increasing profitability. This practical, introductory guide provides you with the tools to achieve this. It teaches you about strategy analysis and how to model business systems and processes and covers other topics including business case development, change management, and engineering/information resource management. The book also supports the ISEB qualifications in Business Analysis.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #6709 in Books
• Published on: 2006-04-21
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 260 pages

Review
A wide-ranging text, which challenges those who already believe that currently IT systems are often inefficient and do not meet the organisaton's needs. Although an introductory book it is both practical and readable even for the experienced practitioner. --Kybernetes, volume 35 issue 9, 2007

About the Author
Business Analysis has been written by a team of experts who are both practitioners and educators in the business analysis field. They are all members of the International Business Systems Development Forum.

Customer Reviews

Great breadth, good depth.
This book is a compilation of chapters by a variety of authors who are all experts in the business analysis domain. Thankfully though, the editors have a good job of keeping the structure, language and depth pretty consistent. It is consistently fairly dry but there was little that really sent me to sleep like some books in this domain that I could mention. I think it covers the breadth of skills you are likely to need as a business analysis, but keep in mind that it is published by the British Computer Society to address the ISEB Business Analsys Diploma, so it may cover more that most analysis will use in their daily jobs. In terms of depth, it gives you enough to get started and hold your own for a while, but you will probably want to invest in more detailed references on specific topics such as Soft Systems Methodology, process modelling with UML or data modelling with ERDs - depending on your previous experience and the demands of your role.
In summary: a highly recommended introduction to Business Analysis, useful whether you are new to the role, thinking about a change or have some experience and want to work out in what direction to expand your knowledge.

Good revision for the ISEB exam
I bought this book to revise for my imminent oral exam for the ISEB Business Analysis Diploma, as it's taken me three years to cover all four modules of the course (I've long since lost my course notes!). It's a great book for revising what you (think you) already know, and picking up a few more things you might not have picked up along the way. It would also make a great introduction for someone without a formal IT qualification who is thinking of becoming a Business Analyst.
It won't, however, teach you to be an expert in any of the techniques and topics it covers, but it will let you know that they are there to be discovered (and hopefully mastered) - and each chapter contains an excellent bibliography, should you be inspired to dig a little deeper. Considering the size of the book and the breadth of the topics it covers, it was never going to deal with each topic in depth.
Whether it gets me through the exam or not - I'll update this review when I find out!

Great overview for junior BAs
This book was great for preparing for job interviews and to brush up on topics you may have studied or worked with previously and not used for a while. It's also a great way to decide on what to specialise in, as there are so many variations of business analysis roles. Also a great starting point for anyone looking to do the ISEB diploma.