The Business Analyst's Handbook

Some of the reviews written on this site are rather odd. It seems some people must have expected this book to be written for entertainment. It isn't a comic book or a love story. It isn't a book you are going to read in a week and miraculously become a Business Analyst. I found the writing to be very clear, explanations well thought out and concise, and the overall composition to be structured in a professional manner. The structure follows the BA's modus operandi making it extremely easy to know which section of the book to turn to for a quick reference.For CBAPs and practitioners you would understand that it follows the BABOK structure. To the layman, consider that part of the title identifies it as a "Handbook". This is a paperback but, physically, it is a big book weighing several pounds. The text is a medium font. I wear reading glasses normally, but they are not necessary with this text. The pages are a non-glossy off white making it easy to read in natural or artificial lighting. I can read this book for several hours with only a minimal amount of eye strain. The Business Analyst's Handbook is a reference. No, it is an Excellent reference. It is detailed with numerous charts, models, and definitions. I am enjoying reading it. But, then, one of my degrees is in Economics and I thouroughly enjoyed reading all of my textbooks in that discipline. Every BA, PMP, and aspiring practioner should have a copy of The Business Analyst's Handbook on their shelf for a quick refresher.

This book is a great reference guide and handy pocket tool for Business Analyst and stakeholders that want to learn more about business analysis as it relates to system design and software development. From a prospective of an IT Consultant with over twenty year's experience, this book should be required issuance to Business Analyst on day one! As stated by the author this book is not intended to be read from end to end, but used as a reference guide for Business Analyst career development. A career is the pursuit of a lifelong ambition or the general course of progression towards lifelong goals. A job is an activity through which an individual can earn money. It is a regular activity in exchange of payment. With that said a career oriented Business Analyst will have material on a variety of subjects and organize their time to sharpen their saw!

In my experience most technical books are either overly dry and are useful as a reference tool or completely theoretical leaving it up to the reader to determine application modes. Howard Podeswa does a great job of blending the two. He also does this in the context of one of the most important and least discussed role - the Business Analyst. Over the years I have had the privilege to be part of many software teams. We have had great successes and a few failures. One thing that is a constant is the impact of the Business Analyst role on project success. The The Business Analyst's Handbook provides a complete tailorable approach to facilitating, organizing and disseminating business information that is sure to have a positive impact on any team. This is a book that should be near and dear to any professional Business Analyst.

The good news is that if you are a Business Analyst or need to understand the work of business analysis, Podeswa gives you a framework. That is no small thing, and for that, he is to be commended. Whereas the BABOK (Business Analyst Body of Knowledge) gives you a model, Podeswa gives you what you could use as (though he would protest) a method or process for doing this work. Because this is an encyclopedia of techniques and terms, it isn't the most user-friendly book. It has lots of stuff, but most of it is listed alphabetically, not by situation, so you have to know what you are looking for to find it. And then, two beefs with his approach to this work that may not bother others. First, he assumes that Business Analysts will be part of software implementation. I understand that his approach has to account for that, but a large, large portion of my work and people who have done this work for and with me has stopped short of a software implementation. Just process work. Just understanding the problem. Etc. He doesn't offer disclaimer enough for my taste that a Business Analyst may put his/her time to good use serving ends other than software development or implementation. Second, he assumes that decisions happen in meetings. He includes lots of great meeting design templates and checklists. My experience says that meetings are not where real conversations take place. If you wait until that point to look for consensus, you are asking for trouble. The meeting will either make official what has been decided elsewhere or (God help you!) give lip service to the proposal until the REAL discussion happens in the hallway. So a Business Analyst may do all that Podeswa says to set up good meetings--and still not get the commitment to a decision he/she needs. Still, this is a useful addition to your library--for now.

Have been a BA for more years than I care to acknowledge :) and found this book to be very informative and a great reference. Particularly appreciate the detailed questions to ask stakeholders that have never occurred to me. They say you never know how ignorant you are until you learn something. Well, I've been ignorant and thankfully a more knowledgeable after reading this book. A great tool for any BA.

Once upon a time, one would be hard pressed to find many reference books on doing business analysis work properly but since the creation of the International Institute of Business Anlysis professional association and the advent of the CBAP certification in 2005, there has been a welcome torrent of titles. I recommend this as an essential tool in your BA toolkit especially if you perform business analysis in Agile software development environments, though many of these techniques can be adapted to other software development methodologies as well.

Written by the editor-in-chief of Business Analyst Times ([...] this book is full of good information and can help you clarify concepts found in other texts when studying for the CBAP. I just wish it referenced the sections of the CBAP that it's referring to when making statements about specific concepts.

The author says in the introduction that he began his career in Chemical Engineering and attempted to create a book similar to Perry's Chemical Engineer Handbook. At first I thought it was a neat idea to have everything I could ever need to know as a BA in one place. After muddling through the first couple of chapters, I noticed that this book contains way *too much* information in one place. It's like trying to read an encyclopedia cover to cover. This book may have its place in very rigorously structured environments where BAs need to quickly reference something, but as a comprehensive starting point for Biz Analysts it fails miserably. I think the biggest failure of this book is that it attempts to formalize everything too much without first getting across a hi-level overview of what a BA is supposed to learn from a particular section. As a BA for several years, I can say that I found nothing in here of practical value. The organizations in which I have worked did not place much value of formal structure of analysis, so that may be why I do not find this book worthwhile. Plus, the writing style is dreadfully dry. As my title suggests, when an engineer writes a book about soft skills this is about what you might expect. I'm a former engineer myself and have first hand knowledge of the low value placed on communication skills by many otherwise competent engineers (of course there are exceptions). I got more techniques for analysis out of Project Management books than this one (like the portable MBA series book on Project management) and I believe there are much better books out there but they probably don't have Business Analyst in the title.

A very useful handbook for every Business Analyst.

Es un libro muy completo

Great book with a lot of detailed information. I really enjoyed this book it is not to technical though it does provide a lot of tools and templates and concepts that every business analyst could use. This is a great reference book to keep on the shelf. Sometimes you may not find the answer you are looking for but the book provides the base concepts and gives a reader a great starting point. I strongly recommend this book.

Good reference guide for a BA.

I have read many Business Analyst like books and article, this is one definitely far better than others. It does tell you how to use the best practices per project and lets you use you own judgment as BABOK is concerned. One word of caution, the Table of Contents of this is out of sync especially the Template section (actually starts at Page 241 not 231), so you have to hunt the right pages to read up on something which is a very minor error. I would still recommend this book to anyone who needs quick reference to BA knowledge material.