Call SWOT!

Where's the SWOT team when you need them? They come in handy especially when you want to dial in on your strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats. That's essentially what SWOT Analysis is and I got to create my own version. This analysis made me realize to an even greater degree what I can work and what's currently working for me. A SWOT Analysis will help me track my progress throughout this journey. It will not go unnoticed.

We then took a dive into what tools and techniques would a business analyst need when gathering requirements. these techniques are super beneficial as it analyzes business needs, evaluate options and define requirements and help to deliver change.

Some of those tools and techniques will be:

1. SWOT Analysis - ahh! It's our featured tool of the day! Strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats. Always remember.

2. Interviews- A greta way to solicit information from stakeholders. Can be vital in accomplishing multiple objectives as well as building relationships with users and/or clients. Ask plenty of questions!

3. Facilitated Workshops- inviting a group of stakeholders to a structured meeting facilitated by a trained facilitator. Usually partaken during the end of a project with end-users but also used as brainstorming in breakout groups. Good for gaining a consensus view or group agreement.

4. GAP Analysis- compares a future-state model or objectives to a current-state model or capability to identify gaps. provides information to make a better decision, which further helps in improving performance.

5. Personas- used in order to understand and empathize with an intended stakeholder so that we are able to align the solution with the stakeholder need. Personas  help stakeholders from projecting individual values and biases onto the solution. They help to develop compassion for various users.

6. Product Backlog- used on agile and iterative projects. This consists of a list of requirements or user stories that constitute the entire scope of a project. Where all the potential work (product backlog items) that need to be delivered are recorded, tracked and prioritized.

7. User Stories- tool used in Agile software development to capture a description of a feature from an end-user perspective. A user story describes the type of user, what they want and why.

Those are just a few of the many tools and techniques that are used by business analysts to achieve their client's end goal.