A Step By Step Guide For Creating SQL Reports

Here is a step by step process for creating SQL Reports.

Step One: Document the Requirements for your SQL Repots

Step Two: Find out where you will be pulling your data from (AS400, Oracle, SQL Server, etc)

Step Three: Write the SQL Queries for extracting your data from a database

Step Four: Present and format your SQL Results in a Report

Step Five: Distribute your SQL Based Reports

How do I access reporting data from heterogeneous databases?

Many organizations store there data in more than one type of database which poses a challenge from a skills stand-point.

If your organization uses AS400, Oracle and SQL Server to store data and you’ve been asked to write a report that draws from all of them, you may find that challenging because each type of database uses a different flavor of SQL.

If this is your situation, then you need to start with the database that you’re the most familiar with (Microsoft Access, SQL Server, etc.) and see if you can connect to all the other databases from that.

Many database systems like SQL Server or MS Access offer you the ability to access data contained from different types of databases easily.

How do I format or design my report?

If you are asked to design a SQL based report that presents data in tables or charts with formatting of page titles, page numbering, column headers, sub-totals, totals, page breaks or more, here is what you can do.

1. You can choose a reporting tool like Crystal Reports or SQL Server Reporting Services or Microsoft Access. Out of these, Microsoft Access reports may be the easiest to learn or use for customizing your reports.

2. You can develop or code your reports as a web-page. Coding or developing your report using a web-development language like PHP or ASP.NET is a flexible but skill intensive way to develop reports.

Using a web development language like ASP.NET or PHP, you can execute SQL statements on a database and then return the results formatted into tables, columns, charts, etc, on your web-page.

You can also paginate the results add advanced searching or filtering options. This option while requiring extensive programming will allow you to create web pages that are more readily accessible on the web.

How do I distribute my report?

Depending on your organization, you have to distribute your reports based on the preferences of each individual user or group.

While some business users expect their reports to be printed and placed on their desk, others may prefer that the reports be distributed by e-mail.

How Do I Deliver Or Distribute My Reports

Even when reports are distributed by e-mail, you still have to figure out the format of the report.

By that I mean, choosing between several possible types of report delivery options including PDF, Microsoft Excel or even as a HTML based page.

Hopw Often Do I Distribute My Reports?

You also have to decide what reporting frequency will be the most appropriate for your situation (daily, weekly, monthly, end of year), etc.

Considering the complexity of reporting requirements, you may need to put on a business analyst hat before you start your reporting project.

Putting together a requirements document would help you ensure that you understand your users and their needs or help you validate the robustness of your reporting solution upfront … before you start developing your reports.

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Tell A Friend - Ask IT Career Coach

This post is a first in an important way. It is the first post in our [Ask IT Career Coach] series where we present a lesser known but equally valuable Information Technology (IT) career option.

Announcing The [Ask IT Career Coach] – Career Advice Column

I would like to start this post by introducing our [Ask IT Career Coach] service, a Career Advice Column that offers answers, help or solutions for your most challenging career situations.

How Do I Start My Career In Information Security?

Here is the first question on Information Security sent in from Waukesha, Wisconsin

I have a bachelors degree in Business from 2003 and am now in a masters in MIS program.

My goal is to obtain a management job in the IT field eventually, possibly with an emphasis in security and move on to higher levels of management from there.

Would it be a good move for me to obtain an A+ certification and try to enter the field as a remote desktop support associate or can you suggest other ways to enter the field that would lead me to my management objectives?

What about trying to enter as a business analyst or another position?

Looking forward to hearing back from you soon.

How To Become An Information Technology Professional

Let me start by making sure we’re on the same page since the Information Security (INFOSEC) Career is a relatively new career path in the Information Technology (IT) Industry.

In today’s digital economy, we leave a good deal of digital footprint as we utilize the services offered by our hospitals, financial institutions, government agencies, internet service providers (ISPs), web hosting firms, telecommunications providers (AT&T, T-Mobile, etc.) and other corporate and non-profit organizations.

Some of the digital data created by using services in banking or medical institutions are extremely sensitive, valuable or important to us. So, if they were accessed by un-authorized individuals, stolen, altered or lost, the damage to our lives could be incalculable, devastating or almost irreparable.

From another standpoint, Information Security Auditors, Professionals, Consultants or Analysts are valuable because they help assure the stability and peace of mind of the society considering the therat posed by Hackers or the real possibility of Cyber Warfare.

How To Become An Information Security Analyst

I have established the role or importance of Information Security Analysts, Auditors or Consultants. Next I would like to discuss how you can become an Information Technology professional.

I’m not going to suggest that you do ten (10) things but that you do just one thing in order for you to become an INFOSEC Professional!

I suggest that you do everything in your power to become a Network Administrator or a Systems Administrator on the way to specializing in Information Technology.

The Network or Systems Administrator is traditionally responsible for the integrity, availability, confidentiality, access control, intrusion detection or prevention and security of the computer or networking infrastructure of an organization.

From that standpoint, becoming an Information Technology professional is a logical extension of your career path.

Would An A+ Certification Help Your Career?

Yes, starting out with an A+ Certification may be good for you because it would help you land an desktop or technical support job from which you can rise to become Network or Systems Administrator job.

Keep in mind that what you really want to be is, a Network or Systems Administrator. So, you have to make sure that getting an A+ certification does not stand in your way of getting there.

How To Become An IT Manager or IT Director

Getting into a Network Administrator role can also help you get an IT Management job because in some organizations, the top Network Administrator is also the IT Director because of the scope or responsibilities traditionally assigned to the position.

Just know that this would be on a company by company basis. Some companies may prefer business analysts or MBA degree holders or Network Administrators.

Setting on the Systems Administrator career path could work well for you because that would help keep the door to IT management or IT security doors open for you.

Information Technology Career Advice Column

In this post, I answered the question of how to get into an Information Technology (IT) or an IT Management career path.

If you have any question about this, be sure to post it as a comment on this page and I would answer it for you.

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Business Analyst Role In Data Warehouse Projects

The Business Analysts Role In Bringing Data Warehousing To Your Office

Today’s business executives spend a ton of cash on data warehouse projects because that is a big, key, strategic business initiative; the success of which weighs heavily on their minds.

Data warehousing is important because it saves or aggregates information in a manner that allows executives, management or office users to make strategic business decisions faster, better and more easily!

No More Silos In The Workplace

Data warehousing is critical to business success because it presents a way for executives or management to view or manage their corporation as a whole unit instead of in silos.

What data warehousing offers decision makers is the ability to break out of departmental information silos and see the big picture.

One of the key objectives facilitated by business analysts in data warehousing roles is that of bridging the gap between enterprise databases (marketing, finance, inventory, customer relationship management, etc.) so that decision makers or office users can ask questions or get a comprehensive, 360 degree insight across corporate / departmental databases with one query or question!

Introducing OLAP, Business Intelligence (BI) Or Data Warehousing To Business Analysts

Business Analysts assigned to data warehouse projects may be surprised to know that traditional, day-to-day relational (online transaction processing (OLTP)) databases are not optimized for querying or reporting of data for business or decision making purposes.

Databases that are actually optimized for data analysis, reporting and business intelligence are known as Online Analytical Processing (OLAP) databases.

So, another key benefit of data warehousing is that it provides decision makers with real-time business intelligence at optimal speeds through the used of OLTP systems.

Finally, Data Warehousing is important from the standpoint of facilitating forecasting trends or getting performance metrics for the entire organization.

Data warehousing provides senior management with intelligence required to see the company’s performance from a 30,000 foot level instead of being buried under a mountain of data at sea level.

Will The Real Enterprise Business Analyst Stand Up Please?

Organizations implementing business intelligence or data-warehousing projects are looking for a significant boost in their business intelligence or decision making capabilities.

Savvy business analysts pulled into data-warehousing / BI projects would fare well to keep this at the back of their mind from the git-go!

So, here are some key roles for business analysts in data warehouse projects

• The Data Warehouse Business Analysts role includes helping the business team identify key opportunities for boosting revenue, increasing sales, decreasing operational costs or achieving some other important organizatioinal or business objective.

• The Business Analyst bridges the gap between the business or executive management office and the data warehousing / BI Implementation Team.

• The Business Analyst identifies the business intelligence needs of the organization. This includes eliciting BI requirements from executives, managers or office users and then working with the data warehouse project team to identify, define or implement these business requirements.

The Enterprise Business Analyst Role In Data Warehousing Projects

Data warehousing projects are all about building, integrating, analyzing or reporting on large, complex, corporate databases.

So, Business Analysts working in such domains will be well-advised to fortify their database skills as that is the real-world domain or context of data warehousing.

Because of the strategic importance or the scope of data warehousing / business intelligence (BI) projects, the business analyst typically functions as a key member of a larger data warehouse project team.

The data warehouse project team may include the Project Manager, Data Modeler, Data Architect, Data Analyst , Tester, Report Writer, Database Developer and last but not least … the data warehousing / business intelligence (BI) business analyst.

With that in mind, here are the business analyst’s roles in the context of an enterprise data-warehousing project implementation team.

• Management Role: working with executives, management or the business team, the business analyst identifies the gaps in corporate intelligence / reporting capabilities.

• Data Analyst Role: working with data analysts, the business analyst identifies, understands and documents the sources of data discrepancies or gaps in business intelligence.

  The actual work of identifying data sources may be assigned to the data analysts or Extraction, Transform Load (ETL) developers while that of documenting or modeling the data transformations assigned to a business analyst comfortable with creating data models.

• Data Modeler / Data Architect / Database Developer Role: The business analyst works with the data modeler, data architect or database developer to create the logical or conceptual data model.

  The business analyst also validates that the data model meets business requirements before it is implemented.

The Data Warehouse Business Analyst Skill Sets

The enterprise data warehouse business analyst is not your traditional business analyst. so, here are some of the skill-set requirements for business analysts in a data warehouse project.

• The business analyst needs a thorough understanding of Extraction, Transform and Load (ETL) processes.

• The business analyst also needs a strong understanding of the logical database design process, data modeling, data-mart design and a good understanding of OLAP compared to OLTP systems.

• The business analyst needs to be comfortable with the business intelligence tools used in delivering corporate intelligence to decision makers which may be as simple as a Microsoft Excel-based Business Intelligence (tool).

• The business analyst also needs a good understanding of data warehousing terminology as well as the corporate data being analyzed by the business.

  In other words, familiarity with the data is important whether one’s eliciting requirements from the business team or validating data models and ETL processes with the Data Warehouse implementation team.

Bringing Business Intelligence (BI) To The Office

An increasing number of organizations are either planning or implementing BI projects with the objective of improving the quality of corporate intelligence available to decision makers.

As a business analyst, it’s your duty to assist your organization with their BI / Data Warehouse endeavors.

You can achieve this by learning as much as you can about databases, data warehousing, business intelligence, data analysis and decision making processes.

The data warehouse business analyst job description includes a cross-functional suite of skills in Relational Database Development, SQL Query Writing, Data Analysis and Business Analysis.

You can get more information on this from both the Data Analyst Boot Camp and the Business Analyst Boot Camp.

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How To Break The Un-Employment Cycle?

Sometime ago, Glendal (a project manager on this website) asked me to suggest a solution for the current unemployment crises facing the USA. While still working on an answer to that, the same question was again popped to me in a recent interview with Dice.com.

Since this is a question weighing on the minds of people … Today, it will be my pleasure to answer the question: “How To Solve The Unemployment Crises Facing The United States of America.“.

I will preface my solution by saying that unemployable people will find that their situation results from either not having the right skills or not knowing how to market their skills or both!

Disregarding folks who can’t work because of disability or medical issues, you will find that most people can find work, if they pay enough attention to their skills, hands-on experience or their marketability.

How To Break The Cycle Of Unemployment Facing The USA

The solution to unemployment is embracing a lifestyle of learning new technology. For your career or skills to be marketable, what you know must be tied into a facet of technology that is currently in-demand in your industry.

Why should you care about technology?

Technology in one form or the other creates or eliminates jobs and drives the entire economy forward. When you ride the wave of technology, your career is in-demand and when your skills are behind the technology curve, your employment prospects start to dwindle!

So, one of the biggest challenges facing unemployable people is that their skills are behind the technology curve.

Read about the dependency between modern-day careers and technology in this article titled: “Always Be Learning“.

Here are some pointers or indicators of having skills out of touch with today’s technology.

• College Band-Aid

  You have a college degree and you think that makes you employable. Or you don’t have a college degree and you think that is the reason why you can’t get a job!

• The Gold Watch Syndrome

  You are too focused on racking up years of service or retiring with a gold watch at the end of your career.

  Losing your job forces you to face the unpleasant reality that employers don’t care about years of service anymore!

• Certified Incompetent

  You view certifications as the roadmap to career success and so, you buoy your career up with them.

  Only to lose your job because your employer eventually sees through your certified incompetency.

A long-time ago, having a college degree guaranteed an entry-level job at a great company. Once you were hired, you would stay at that one job and build your nest egg.

Today’s employer hires for sharpness of skills or breadth of experience and not for old-school reasons. And you have a job, only for as long as your skills are in-demand or you stay-ahead of the technology curve!

How To Be Employable

• #1 – Bridge Technology Gaps by Learning New Skills

  Learn skills that are in-demand by employers.

  Don’t just learn the skills you like or want, develop skills that are actually being posted in real-world job descriptions.

  Don’t wait for employers to lower their requirements and don’t plan on finding work with obsolete skill-sets either.

• #2 – Stay Ahead Of The Technology Curve By Constantly Updating your Skills

  Plan to update, improve or become an expert at what you do.

  Don’t assume that what you learned 1 year ago is still current … because it’s not.

  If you sharpen your skills constantly, you will become a highly skilled or sought-after technology professional.

  If your skills are sharp, you will be highly employable and in-demand … even as employers compete for your services and not the other way round!

• #3 – Always Be Learning

  Invest time, money and effort on a continuous basis in your career development.

  Don’t bet on making a one-time investment that will keep you employed for the rest of your life because that is no longer realistic.

  What is realistic is an expectation to “get out of your career … only what you put into it“.

  So, invest money, time and effort into learning new skills or updating skills continuously and you will be sought-after or in-demand in your industry.

• #4 – Market Your Skills Better

  A number of unemployed people can get jobs if they just learned how to market their skills better.

  If you hate to hear the “marketing word”, here how to market your career without being a shameless promoter!

  • Build Your Brand Or Become A Leader

    Start by doing what you love and then convey your passion at job interviews.

    This last point is important because hiring managers or employers love to hire passionate IT professionals who really care about their skills, their careers or their industry. Because there are so many people that are out to just get a job … your passion will stick out in a crowded job market!

    If you can’t find something that you love, then go into a career that you can eventually become really good at.

    Finally, build a brand around networking with people and solving the problems facing your industry.

    The approach that I’m talking about is explained in an article titled: Become A Leader And Get The Job You Want!

• #5 – Choose A New IT Career

  Let me wrap up by saying that this post is intended for Information Technology (IT) professionals (business analysts, computer programmers, database professionals, software testers, project managers, etc).

  If you’re not already an IT professional or you need help with evaluating your IT career choices, I suggest that you get a copy of the THE BLUEPRINT – YOUR ROADMAP TO CAREER SUCCESS E-BOOK + WORKBOOK. Starting with the e-book and finishing up with the workbook, you will learn how to make better career choices.

Finally, unemployment is not based on education or age but on how well-aligned your skills are with the current technology. If you choose the right career, improve your skills constantly, and market your career better, your skills or services will always be in-demand.

You Deserve A Good Life … Go Get It

Read additional thoughts on employment, job prospects and technology titled: “Always Be Learning“.

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Cowboy Coder Or Agile Programmer

Are You A Cowboy Coder Or Agile Software Developer?

Software Developers facing a new programming project sometimes start coding before thinking through or planning an approach.

Coding without first planning or thinking through is a programming method known as cowboy coding.

Cowboy coders approach work with the mindset of coding without estimating or planning.

And they are at a complete lost when the results achieved by their cowboy coding tactics does not meet expectations.

Cowboy Coding Is Dead, Long Live Cowboy Coding

While many programmers publicly ridicule cowboy coding, they privately practice cowboy coding because it is the easier thing to do.

Look around you for cowboy coders. They exhibit some of the following tell-tale signs:

1. They do not estimate the work required for a software development project before coding because that is too difficult or unnecessary for them

2. They hack away at code instead of taking time to find the best algorithmic or coding approach for solving a programming challenge

3. They frequently under-estimate the complexity of software development projects and so they work late nights, weekends or even holidays in a bid to catch up with late deliverables

4. They dislike working with system architects, business analysts and project managers because the only work that matters to them … is that of writing code

5. They can’t find time to sharpen or improve their programming skills because all their time must be spent on coding

6. They get stuck in their code or hit dead walls because they under-estimate the complexity or difficulty of working with technology

7. Cowboy Coders get frustrated because their programming projects always seem to take a longer time to market than they estimated.

   Unable to see the complexity of their code ahead of time, they are stumped when their efforts fail to produce working software on time or under budget.

8. Cowboy Coders bite off more than they can chew by embarking on projects that are too large for such tactics.

   Since they do not take time to understand the complexity of their code, they are also likely to under-estimate the time or effort required.

9. Cowboy Coders develop poorly designed, buggy, unreliable software because of a lack of proper architecture and a lack of a software development methodology

10. Cowboy Coders produce poor quality software because of a lack of unit testing skills or good co-ordination with other software testers or quality assurance professionals

We Are Cowboys

Despite the superiority of iterative, agile or even Waterfall software development, Cowboy Coding is very much alive and well … and here are the reasons why:

• Software Developers resort to cowboy coding because structured software development including Agile or Waterfall methods requires more thinking and planning skills from the developers.

• Formal software development practice is more of an art than a science.

  And it requires additional formal training, education or discipline beyond that of just learning a programming language.

• Agile or waterfall software development methods places an initial burden or responsibility on the programmer to think or plan their work first before coding.

  This goes against the natural habit of undisciplined cowboy coders.

• Asking cowboy coders to go Agile hurts their feelings because it suggests that they cannot instantly, easily or intuitively come up with the best code for a programming challenge

• Agile and Waterfall software development methods require more planning, design and architecture skills which are harder to come by or less intuitive than simply coding before thinking or cowboy coding.

Developers Go Agile!

Why the Waterfall model may seem like the next step up from Cowboy Coding, I recommend that developers bite the bullet and go agile for the following reasons

1. Faster Time To Market:

   Agile developers work for their clients or customers.

   Agile Software Development helps you get the most important features to market first knowing that about 60% of software features are never used.

2. Customer As King:

   Agile software developers work for the customer and not for the development process.

   They are empowered to focus, respond and adapt to the customer’s needs with the end goal of giving the customers what they want!

3. Agile Project Management:

   Agile project managers focus on the current iteration or use it to make better estimates for the next one.

   Agile software developers have better, more realistic or more accurate project plans to work with because they are only tasked with producing working software for the current iteration and not for the entire project at once!

4. Agile Software Testing:

   Agile software testers work with software developers to produce high-quality software a the end of each iteration instead of waiting for the entire project to complete before testing!

   Testing for bugs at the end of each iteration, reduces the chances of producing unreliable, buggy software at the end of the entire project unlike the waterfall model.

Case Study: An Agile Developer Breaks The Cycle Of Unemployment

Here is a real-life case study of how I helped a C/C++ programmer break the cycle of un-employment using Agile Programming techniques.

Un-employed C/C++ Programmer

Sometime ago, I was approached by a C/C++ programmer with a college degree who had been unemployed for a couple of years.

Transition From C/C++ Programming

Instead of just re-writing the programmer’s resume, I counseled the C/C++ programmer to learn a new programming language and database platform from scratch.

Agile Hands-ON ExperienceFor acquiring hands-on experience in the new programming language, I gave the C/C++ programmer an iterative software development project to build from scratch.

I also tasked the programmer with building a working release of the project very early in the lifecycle and then presenting that to hiring managers immediately.

Guess what happened, including the agile development experience in a resume, got the developer hired in the very first job interview and with only 1 month of software development experience in a new programming language!

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Dice.com - #1 Job Search Portal for IT Professionals

Interviewed on How To Escape The Cycle Of Unemployment

A few weeks ago, Leslie Stevens-Huffman of Dice.com fame interviewed me on How To Escape The Cycle Of Unemployment.

As a background, Dice.com is one of the premier technology job search portals and is arguably the #1 job search site for Information Technology (IT) / tech professionals.

Click here to read excerpts of the interview by Dice.com

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database careers in demand

The 7 Top, In-Demand Database Careers

Database skills are foundational to jobs in the IT Industry.

By that, I mean whether you’re a business analyst, software tester, project manager, software developer or even a web designer, you’ll be using relational database and sql query writing skills at some time in your career.

Database or SQL skills are also important because they position you for multiple careers paths ranging from that of the database developer to the data mining professional.

Career Paths for Database Professionals

Here is a comprehensive list of database career paths and their respective roles, duties, responsibilities and skill sets.

1. Relational Database Developer Career

   This is one of the foundational database careers in the sense that you can hardly qualify for other database career path without a strong relational database design & development foundation.

   Database developers are responsible for designing, architecting or developing relational databases using a database development tool like Microsoft Access, SQL Server, MySQL or Oracle.

2. SQL Developer / Query Writer Career

   This is the another foundational database career in the sense that you will need strong SQL query writing skills regardless of your role, job or designation in the IT Industry.

   SQL Developers or Query Writers are typically responsible for updating, deleting, creating or manipulating the data contained in relational databases using a database programming or query language known as SQL.

   There are several dialects of SQL marketed by database vendors and each dialect is executed in the database using an administrative front-end tool like SQL Server’s T-SQL Management Studio.

3. Database Administrator (DBA) Careers

   DBAs are responsible for keeping the database up and running for the company’s operations.

   DBAs are also responsible for installing, configuring and maintaining the entire database infrastructure or platform in their organizations.

   In addition, DBAs secure their databases from unauthorized access, manage the storage available on databases and optimize their performance.

   DBAs are found in organizations that store and maintain their own data in-house using relational database management systems like SQL Server, Oracle and MySQL.

4. The Report Writer Career

   Report Writer Career paths are equally important in the database industry.

   Report Writers need to have strong relational database and SQL query writing or development skills.

   The Report Writer’s responsibility includes designing, developing, scheduling and distributing database reports.

   Report Writers utilize tools like Crystal Report Writer, Business Objects, Microsoft Access or SQL Server Reporting Services for their work.

   Report Writers also tend to spend a good amount of time collecting requirements or presenting their reports to stakeholders, executives, management, business analysts or software developers.

5. Data Analyst Career

   The Data Analyst career is frequently confused for a purely statistical career path.

   Data Analysis roles actually utilize SQL query writing, relational database development and statistical data analysis skills.

   In the IT industry, the information accessed and analyzed by data analysts resides in relational databases. So, data analysts have to also master the relational database and sql query writing path of their careers as well … and not just the statistical skills.

   A lot of people struggle with the distinctions between purely statistical careers and the database analyst careers … don’t be one of those!

6. The Data Warehousing / Business Intelligence (BI) Career

   BI and Data Warehousing careers require skillsets that are almost opposite to that of the relational database developer.

   While traditional database developers focus on their normalization skills, data warehouse / BI professionals do the exact opposit by developing enterprise, de-normalized databases.

   Another key difference is that while traditional database developers typically create Online Transaction Processing (OLTP) databases, data warehousing / BI professionals focus on building Online Analytical Processing (OLAP) databases.

   The BI / Data Warehousing professional’s responsibilities also include creating and delivering multi-dimensional reporting tools using Business Intelligence tools like Oracle’s Business Intelligence (BI) or Microsoft’s SQL Server Buisness Intelligence platform.

   From a responsibility standpoint, the data warehousing / BI professional is responsible for aggregating the data from multiple corporate databases (developed by database developers) into enterprise, corporate databases.

7. The Data Mining Career

   Data Mining careers require a rigorous background, education or training in specialized computer-based data mining algorithms or techniques.

   Data Mining professionals run algorithms like Neural Networks, Classification, Regression, Segmenattion, Association or Sequence Analysis algorithms on large databases.

   Traditionally, data mining professionals had to have a strong background in mathematics, statistics and computer science because they often had to create data mining algorithms from scratch!

   But these days, vendors like Microsoft are placing analytics and even data mining within the hands of every motivated database professional through out-of-the-box data mining algorithms like those of SQL Server’s Data Mining Suite.

The foundational skills required for database careers are taught in the SQL Boot Camp and the additional statistical data analysis requirements for data analysts taught in the Data Analysts Boot Camp.

If you are interested in gaining one of the most verstaile IT career skills, you should register for either the SQL Boot Camp or the Data Analysts Boot Camp (which includes all the courses in the SQL Boot Camp and additional statistical, data analysis training.)

The only thing left … is to take your SQL / Data Analysts training knowing that relational database development, SQL query writing and statistical data analysis skills will help advance your future for a long time!

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The Agile Business Analyst

The Agile Business Analyst plays a key role in facilitating conversations between stakeholders, quality assurance / testing teams, customers, subject matter experts (SMEs) and software developers in an incremental, iterative fast-paced product development environment.

So, who is the Agile Business Analyst and why should business analysts who are already comfortable with the process of eliciting requirements in a traditional product development environment be concerned about becoming more agile?

Introducing The Agile Business Analyst Role

The Agile Business Analyst’s role includes facilitating communication, reducing the reliance on extensive documentation and reducing the length of the feedback loop in product development projects.

1. Collaborative - The Agile Business Analyst works closely with software developers, stakeholders, project managers and software testers and relies less on comprehensive requirements documentation at the inception of the project.

2. Flexible and Adaptable - Unlike a more traditional software development project, an agile business analyst expects and welcomes changes in requirements. Being Agile means that changing requirements is not made difficult because of extensive documentation, communication cycles or change management processes.

3. Just In Time Requirements – An Agile Business Analyst knows what is the right amount of requirements documentation to gather for a development cycle or iteration.

4. More Face to Face Meetings – Because the Agile Business Analyst focuses on less documentation and more face to face meetings or interviews with stakeholders, software developers or testers, Agile Business Analysts make use of more User Stories and less Use Cases for documenting requirements.

5. Iterative Development – And unlike requirements management practiced in a traditional waterfall software development life cycle, the agile business analyst only focuses on gathering, analyzing or validating the requirements needed in each iteration.

Between The Agile Business Analyst and Traditional BA

So, the Agile Business Analyst focuses on the deliverables for each iteration to o facilitate a faster development process.

Another key difference with agile business analysts is that they work with software testers or quality assurance professionals to elicit Test Cases directly from User Stories instead of from Use Cases.

Because Agile Business Analysts rely on face to face meetings and in-person communication, they work better in teams where the developers, stakeholders, project managers and testers are located in the same place and are committed to being involved on a continuous basis through the life time of the project.

The Agile Business Analyst gathers just-in-time (JIT) requirements through intense collaboration with customers, customer advocates, software architects, stakeholders and software testers.

Why Are We Not More Agile?

Traditionally, a business analyst is expected to gather all the requirements for a project at the beginning. These requirements are then shared with the Project Manager and Stakeholders as a static, fixed or immutable set of requirements.

This type of requirements gathering is common in product or software development project that make any or all of the following assumptions:

1. Business Analyst – The business analyst can gather, analyze, validate and specify all the requirements at the beginning of the project and before a single line of code is written.

2. Project Manager – The project manager needs to have a complete set of requirements to facilitate accurate project planning.

3. Software Tester / QA – The software tester needs to have a complete set of requirements before creating a test plan and user acceptance or QA tests.

4. Software Architect – The software architect needs to design the entire software system at the beginning of the project befor e a line of code is written.

5. Computer Programmers – That computer programmers need to receive an extensive and complete set of requirements preferably in Use Cases format before they start coding.

   Traditional software or product development projects also assume that for developers to create a working product, they need to be told in detail, every basic, alternate path and exception flow through the system.

6. Customers – That customers have a mind, wants, needs and desires that can be completely known at the beginning of the project through extensive requirements gathering and documentation.

   This also means that once the customer’s requirements is gathered or documented, it will not change during the life cycle of the product or software development cycle … at least not without extensive negotiation, documentation and signing-off.

The Role of The Customer Advocate

But is this true? Can the customer’s mind, needs, wants or desires be known and documented completely at the beginning of the project?

Does setting the customer’s requirements in stone assure a better product, a more satisfied customer and increase the chances of project success?

1. The needs of today’s customers are not set in stone. Far from it, the very process of gathering customers requirements can change what the customer wants.

2. The marketplace is always changing and product features become less important or even irrelevant in short periods of time.

3. The practice of planning projects or designing entire software systems completely, at the inception of a project is fraught with risks, estimates and guesses.

   This practice often leads to more software features that are out of touch with the customer’s needs and more project failures.

   Considering that so many projects planned this way fail, Business Analysts need to consider utilizing more agile communication skills to supply requirements when they are needed.

Unlike the traditional business analyst who works from the assumption that requirements once signed off on are fixed in stone or immutable, the agile business analyst plays the role of a customer advocate by assuming that requirements can and will change during the life cycle of the product development effort.

The agile business analyst welcomes changes in the customer’s requirements because they reflect what the customer really wants and not what was documented.

In doing this, the agile business analyst elevates the customer’s needs above the needs for more documentation.

The agile business analyst understands that there is always some uncertainty in the marketplace, so the planned features of a product or software application cannot be set in stone!

The agile business analyst understand that software developers do not need to have 100% of a product or project’s requirements extensively documented using Use Cases before they begin coding.

So the Agile Business Analyst relies more on communication, presentation and facilitation skills than written documentation in communicating with software / product developers.

Today’s constantly changing marketplace requires the Agile Business Analyst A customer advocate who elevates the customer’s needs above that of extensive requirements documentation!

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stay ahead of the technology curve

The Love – Hate Relationship With Technology

Most days, we are in love with technology and can’t seem to get away from getting work done on our iPhones, laptops and the Internet or watching hi-tech adventure movies like James Cameron’s Avatar on 3D

We have witnessed the rapid pace of technological change in the last 20 years … the advances in computers, video games and electronics and of course … the coming of the internet.

As IT professionals, we all seem to participate in this drama either as consumers, producers or enablers of technology.

And regardless of the work we do as business analysts, computer programmers, desktop support technicians; we constantly interface, use, enable or create technology.

We love to be entertained or get work done through new technology.

But sometimes hate to study it, because whatr we learn becomes obsolete in a relatively short period.

Moore’s Law

Gordon Moore (Intel co-founder) in 1965 stated that the number of transistors on a chip will double every 24 months.

This statement which later became known as Moore’s Law is a guiding principle of the high-tech industry.

Moore’s law explains why IT professionals are always learning some new technology.

Moore’s Law promises tech workers that before they finish learning, another new or improved technology will make their skills obsolete.

So, what can we do when we finally get tired of learning new technology?

Can we perhaps, just drop out of the rat-race in search of a new career or hide from the challenges of always staying ahead of new technology?

Technology Is Everywhere

The problem is that any career we switch to will use or interface with technology … and require us to learn or master it!

It doesn’t matter whether we choose to become bloggers, journalists, school teachers or go into politics … because everyone in a civilized society is connected through technology!

We all work in a society that strives to keep up with new technology … captive in a drama rooted in Moore’s Law.

Technology Is The Future

The good news is that our career accelerates when we embrace the implications of Moore’s Law or stop acting like it doesn’t exist or influence over our lives.

The right question is not how we can preserve our skills … because we can’t.

Our skills are useful because employers are willing to pay for them.

And as technology changes, employers revise what they will pay for, so tech workers have to learn new skills or risk losing their jobs!

The question really is one of : “How To Stay Ahead Of The Technology Curve” and the answer to that is:

How To Stay Ahead Of The Technology Curve

1. Always Be Learning – make a habit out of studying, learning technology or improving your skills.

2. Keep Your Skills Current – update your skills before they become obsolete. Because it’s far better to be ahead of the technology curve than to be behind it.

3. Study Effectively – we can’t stop the future and we can’t ignore that it’s driven by technology. But we can learn how to study new technology effectively, and live successful, productive or rewarding lives.

Success comes by accepting technological changes as part of life, adopting a lifestyle of learning and by staying ahead of the technology curve.

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business analyst in 5 steps

5 Steps to a New Business Analyst Career

I talk to a number of business analysts interested in changing careers to new domains.

They come from diverse backgrounds (insurance, sales, financial, etc.) and they all share a common goal … that of switching careers to new domains.

So, when one of these business analysts asked; if I would like to throw more light on changing BA careers / domains at job interviews, I was glad to say yes

How To Switch Business Analyst Domains

Some degree of sales or marketing skills is needed to get a job. And your understanding of the sales process determines how successful your career switch will be.

Here is what you need to know about switching business analyst careers:

1. Put Yourself In Employers Shoes:

   Don’t make the classic mistake of approaching the business analyst job interview from the standpoint of what you can get out of it!
   

   Rather, put yourself in the employer’s shoes and talk to their interests and needs … that is basic human nature and selling 101.

   This matters because job interviewers will not care about you or get interested in you, if you don’t care about or show a genuine interest in them (read Dale Carnegie’s classic – “How To Win Friends and Influence People”).

2. Emphasize Cross Functional Skills:

   Accept that employers will be skeptical of your resume, skill-sets and suitability for the job, when switching careers or domains.

   Now, resolve the employer’s doubts by showing how your skill-sets are a better match to their needs.

   Do this by emphasizing cross-functional skills like your communication and presentation skills. Then, go further and explain how your business analysis skills (like those taught at the business analyst boot camp) will be useful to the employer inspite of your previous domain or background.

3. Tailor your Resume to the Job:

   Yes, tailoring your resume to the job helps, when you have some relevant background information that will be lost in your traditional resume.

   Several years ago, I transitioned from a chemical engineering job to an information technology (IT) consulting career.

   I only had a few months of relevant IT experience but several more years of irrelevant chemical engineering training and experience.

   Following the advice of a recruiter, I re-wrote my resume to focus, expand and highlight my strong>limited information technology background while reducing my chemical engineering background to a foot note … which worked like a charm!

   The lesson hear is to “reduce the employer’s doubt and anxiety by rewriting sections of your resume that doesn’t directly relate to the job you’re interviewing for“.

4. Leave your Pride at the Door:

   Don’t let any negative behavior or comments cause you to lose your cool at the job interview.

   Instead, carry yourself as a true professional regardless of what you see or hear at the interview.

   I was fortunate to be interviewed for a Procter & Gamble Management Trainee program out-of-college.

   However, before I was hired, I had to maintain my composure under some negative, psycho-analysis by an interviewer whose main goal was to see if I would lose my cool under the pressure of the interview.

   So, do whatever it takes to get the job interview … that is your sole mission and objective.

5. Study your Prospective Employer’s Industry:

   I have been to a few job interviews where I used my knowledge of the company’s market place to advantage.

   This is not something that you can do, if you’re looking for an easy job. But it is definitely something that you can do, if you’re really interested in the company.

   Research the prospective employer’s competitors, industry, technology, business processes and come prepared with suggestions, ideas or information that would genuinely help the prospective employer.

So., now I have given it to you … skills, techniques or steps for changing your business analyst career or domain. What are you going to do with it?

If you would like to leave discuss more about your experience at job interviews, just go ahead and leave a comment below.

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