MBA176: Predictions for 2019

In this episode, three industry thought leaders and I share our predictions for 2019 and help you understand what you can do to be successful in the new year. Adrian Reed | Blackmetric Business Solutions Prediction: We live in a fast moving, unpredictable world. As such, we’ll need to continue looking not only internally at out projects, but also using the many techniques in our toolbox to look externally to spot trends. We’ll also need to ensure our projects are aligned to organizational strategy and what’s happening in the external business environment. To do this successfully, we’ll need to shift left and get involved in pre-project strategy. We’ll continue to recognize that there isn’t a single, prefect BA role to which we should all aspire. It’s likely that in 2918 we’ll see more flavors of business analysis emerge. This will require us to become more T-shaped and borrow ideas from other disciplines. We need to constantly look for opportunities to update and enhance our skills. The world needs critical thinking now more than ever. Business Analysts are in a position to provide a lot of value to their organizations in this capacity. We need to continue to talk about and influence the use of business analysis skills so that we can get the opportunity to step up even further and provide the critical, analytical thinking skills to our organizations. Lora McCoy | LMc3 Consulting Prediction: With the importance of data and the emergence of the field of data analytics, the confusion between data analysis and data analytics is going to increase. Job descriptions will be unclear about these roles and it will take a while to sort out the differences between the two roles. Agile will continue to grow rapidly and with it, some of the challenges organizations face while adopting Agile will highlight the need for different tools and approaches. The role of the Business Analyst in Agile will become clearer as will the value that they bring. The career path of the Business Analyst will slowly start to solidify. Organizations will further recognize the value in IIBA certifications, which will lend credibility to the role and support the BA career path. With this change, more organizations will engage Business Analysts as internal consultants. Heather Mylan-Mains | President of BAs Without Borders Prediction: We’ll see an evolution in the BA role as we move past the perception of order takers. Work will become much more collaborative and BAs will apply facilitation, collaboration, and critical thinking skills to benefit their organizations. We’ll also see more of a focus on customers. Analysts will need to understand their customers in a way they never have before. The need for BAs who can think like a customer will increase and we’ll need to use new tools and approaches to be successful. Listening, empathy, and product ownership will become more and more important as we shift to focus on our customers. Here are my predictions for 2019: There will be a greater need and focus on solving the right problem with the right solution. I expect to see a bluring between product and business analysis. To be successful, we need to have a greater customer-centric focus, apply tools and techniques to help us better understand our customers, and apply an experimentation mindset to ensure we create solutions our customers want and will love. Listen to the full episode to hear how close I was with my 2018 predictions, learn more about our 2019 predictions, and what you can do to be successful in the future. http://traffic.libsyn.com/masteringbusinessanalysis/MBA176.mp3 Thank you for listening to the program To get more valuable content to enhance your skills and advance your career, you can subscribe on iTunes and other podcatchers. Also, reviews on iTunes are highly appreciated! I read each review and it helps keep me motivated to continue to bring you valuable content each week. . The post MBA176: Predictions for 2019 appeared first on Mastering Business Analysis.