Resources for
Business Analysts

I was in Orlando for the Rational Software Development Conference June 1-4. This is a great place for me to connect with old friends and to find out what direction IBM is taking Rational.

The focus this year was on teams - to be successful we have to collaborate globally.

The big new thing is the Jazz platform. This is what ties the various Rational products together. They have been developing Jazz for about 3 years, but this year announced a variety of products that integrate with Jazz.

In the area of team collaboration, IBM is releasing Team Concert on the Jazz platform. This product is currently in beta, but will be available about the end of June. This product lets you define people, teams, roles, and processes. One thing I thought was very cool was that a team can select a process, such as SCRUM or RUP, and customize it in the tool. Then the team selects which people will play which roles. When you do your work, the tool prompts you what to do based on your role and the process that your team is following.  There are other features as well, such as something that looks like an instant messenger capability.  I have not played with it much yet, but this is the product to enable communication between team members.

Go to jazz.net and register for a free account to get access to the beta. My understanding is that IBM is going to allow anyone to get 3 licenses free, so if you have a small team, this might be an interesting tool for you to try to help your team share information and artifacts.

Another product that interests me on the Jazz platform is Requirements Composer. As you might imagine, this got my attention! Requirements Composer is something you use during requirements elicitation. There is a rich text editor and a storyboarding tool.  You can import files of many types. You can collect a lot of information in a group, then label some part (maybe a name) as a requirement that you manage in Requisite Pro. It uses the features of Team Concert and Jazz to enable collaboration.

This tool will be available for beta about the end of June, at the jazz.net site.  Requirements Composer will integrate with Ravenflow, iRise, and RequsitePro.

ClearCase and ClearQuest also plug into the Jazz platform, so it is possible for you to access those tools from the other tools that plug into Jazz.

I know this kind of integrated platform has been tried before. This is looking pretty interesting though. I’m excited by the use of open source and web technologies to construct these products, and that the developers come from the open source community so they understand distributed collaborative development.

I’m keeping an eye on developments this year and plan to spend time with the various beta releases, trying out the products and providing feedback to IBM. I encourage you to do the same.

Geri

No tip today. I know it has been quite a while! My excuse is that I am working in a full-time contract during the day, doing Wyyzzk management tasks in the evenings, and writing a book on the weekends.

I am working on a book for all of you. The current title is “The Art and Craft of the IT Business Analyst”. It is my thoughts about what a Business Analyst is and what a Business Analyst does. The first draft is about half finished. Once I have the draft finished, then the publisher will look it over. If all goes well, the book will be in print sometime in 2009. There is a fairly long lead time for books. I’ll let you know more about it’s availability when I have a better idea.

Jason did graduate from Carnegie Mellon University in May. I am very proud of him. It is quite an accomplishment at our ages to complete a degree, and even more so from such a tough program. It is a fantastic school - while the students are expected to work extremely hard, the faculty are wonderfully supportive. There is an old Dilbert cartoon where Asok says he graduated from CMU (or was it MIT?) where they learned to only sleep on national holidays. That is about right! We have both enjoyed our association with CMU - Jason as a student in Computer Science, Geri as visiting faculty in Information Systems teaching classes on Software Architecture and on Systems Development.

In other news, the Rational Software Development Conference (RSDC) starts in just over a week in Orlando, Florida. I’ll be going there again this year to network, attend sessions, and meet up with many friends, old and new. They say William Shatner is the guest speaker this year.  Maybe I’ll get to meet him while there. That could be fun.

Let me know if you will be in Orlando. We can try to meet up while there.

Geri

Here in the US we are celebrating Thanksgiving day November 22. It is a time when we get together with family and share the things we are thankful for in our lives.

Of course I am thankful for my family and my good friends. Their support and encouragement led me to where I am today.

I am also thankful for the many people who read my blog. The information is for you, so I really appreciate knowing that it is useful to you, enough for you to take some time out of your day to read it. You give me the gift of your attention, and for that, I am most thankful.

Geri

I got this message recently from Lilia Lee and thought I’d share it with the rest of you:

There are two other use case writing software tools that I am intimately acquainted with. They are: CaseComplete by Serlio Software and Visual Use Case by TechnoSolutions. The latter is a really awesome tool that generates the use case flow visual automotically. Just wanted you to be aware of these tools that are very inexpensive.

I have opened registration for a use case class (run as teleseminars) starting Wednesday October 24. This is the last class of 2007, so if you are interested, be sure to register.

The classes are all recorded, so if the teleseminar time is not convenient, you can listen at a later time.

If you are interested, click here Use Case Seminars to see the sales page with all the information. There are 2 pricing options - one with physical materials, and one with electronic materials only. The electronic materials option is at the bottom of the page.

I look forward to the next eager group - the questions people bring to the class are really great.

Talk to you soon!

Geri

This past weekend, my dear friend Brian Lyons passed away after being in a motorcycle accident.

I have known Brian since 1992 when we were both at Rational Software. Back then, I found him to be a very funny, warm, and genuine person, who went out of his way to help other folks. He stayed the same wonderful person to the end of his too short life.

Over the years, my admiration for Brian as a person and a business leader has grown. He is my hero - an example of the kind of person I try to be.

hiho,

I always knew the message was from Brian with this typical greeting.

This is very formal for Brian!

Brian as we were used to seeing him.

Another typical Brian photo.

——- b

Brian’s unique signature.

Brian lived a lot in his short life, and was very happy and fulfilled. In a message from him in November 2006:

“Tamara and I are going to have a son toward the end of December. And Number Six is looking like it will have a $29.25M year. All is going well for me personally and professionally.”

Be at peace, dear friend. Though you are gone from this Earth, you live on in our hearts. I miss you terribly, but will remember your goodness.

Another tribute to Brian is here: http://www.implementingscrum.com/blog/2007/09/05/in-memory-of-a-friend/

You can see the official news, information about his funeral, and a blog with more tributes from friends at Number Six Software, the company he founded, was CEO, and CTO: http://www.numbersix.com

The photos are from Number Six software and friends Greg Gurley and Dave Norris

Hi everyone -

I’m just back from a nice relaxing vacation and found a notice for an IBM/Rational event with Scott Ambler on August 30. So here is the information for any of you who might be nearby and want to attend:

IBM Rational / SDLC event

I have scheduled the next Use Case Writing System teleseminar series. It starts September 11, 2007 at 8pm EST. We will meet on September 11, 18, 25, and October 2.

I will have one more class after that starting the week of October 22, though I have not yet picked the day or time.

After that, I will break for the holidays, and the next classes will be in 2008.

Information about the course is at Use Case System and you can register for the September class on that page.

Geri

There is a thing called the 30 day challenge starting Aug 1. It is really for teaching people how to build an internet business, but they are extensively using Web 2.0 technologies and teaching everyone exactly what these things are, how to find them, and how to use them.

So even if you are not running an internet business, but you just want to learn a lot more about what all this Web 2.0 stuff is, go here to sign up for the 30 day challenge:

http://www.thirtydaychallenge.com

There is no charge for it, you can get as involved as you want to be, or not. I have just been going through the “preseason” videos and there is a lot of good information in there already. And they promise much more over the next 30 days. If they keep to the same quality of information, this will be a fantastic resource for learning Web 2.0 technology.

Best!

Geri