Competency Assessment Template: Fill & Download for Free

This is an excerpt from my upcoming book.13. What knowledge areas are relevant to a Business Analyst during a project?Business Analyst needs to have Knowledge of business analysis, product management and technical know-how (including understanding of testing).Behavioral and personality related•​Analytical and Cortical thinking skills•​Communication•​Relationship building•​Influencing/Leadership•​Team Player/Management•​Political awareness/understanding of organizational dynamics.•​Eye for detail•​Self-confidence to be able to convince others using hard data and factual information.Business or Domain Knowledge•​Domain Knowledge (product/services, operations and industry standards and industry regulations)•​Organization (products/services, customers, operations, policies, culture, organizational units, communication channels, key people)•​Stakeholders (project initiators, SMEs, users (internal and external, including customers/supplier))•​Strategy Analysis (to define business needs, solution scope, building business case, preparing ROI)•​IT environment (sophistication, adaptability, vision for IT) within organizationIT knowledge•​Business Change Management• Project Management•​Requirement Engineering•​System Analysis•​Strategy Analysis *•​Data Mapping•​Data Dictionary•​Basics of Database (Basic SQL, Data Mapping, Data Dictionary) to communicate requirements•​Data Modelling•​Test Case/ Test ScenarioStrategy Analysis *•​Impact Analysis•​Investigative Techniques•​Facilitation Techniques• Business Technology Optimization•​Catwoe•​Consensus Modelling•​Force Field Analysis•​Six Thinking Hats•​SWOT Analysis•​Root Cause Analysis•​Competency Assessment•​Estimation•​Role Change•​Business Model Canvas•​Decision Modelling•​Functional Decomposition•​Business Change•​Business Capability Analysis•​Current State and Capability (As-IS)•​Future State and Ability (To-Be)•​Gap Analysis (To-Be – As-Is)•​Benchmarking and Market Analysis•​Financial Analysis /Business Case•​Defining solution and its scope•​Scope Modelling•​Organizational Structure and Modelling•​Stakeholder List, Map or Roles and Responsibilities•​Communication Policy and Standards•​Roles and Permissions•​Interview•​Workshop•​Business Process Modelling•​Concept Modelling•​Brainstorming•​Business Rules Analysis•​Document Analysis•​Interface Analysis•​Risk Analysis and Management•​Focus Groups•​Functional Decomposition•​Mind Mapping•​Observation•​User Stories•​Glossary•​Prototyping•​Prioritization Techniques•​MoSCoW•​Time Boxing•​Balanced Scorecard•​Acceptance and Evaluation Criteria•​Collaborative Games•​UML (Use Cases, Activity Diagram, State Diagram, Class Diagram & Sequence Diagram)•​Data Dictionary•​Lessons Learned•​Process Management•​Data Modelling (ER Diagram/Class Diagram/Data Flow Diagram)•​Non-Functional Requirements Analysis•​Metrics and Key Performance Indicators (KPI)s•​Surveys or Questionnaires•​Vendor Assessment•​Solution Assessment•​Change Management•​Decision Analysis•​Traceability Matrix/Item tracker•​Backlog Management•​Reviews•​Requirement Management•​Templates* The detailed explanation is provided about each strategy in respective sections.Business Analyst Tools•​Analytics - Google, KISSmetrics etc Basic Tool - MS Office, MS Visio and MS Project•​BPMN Modelling - System Archit Note Taking - MS OneNote and Evernote•​Confluence and JIRA Dashboarding - Microstrategty, Dashthis Data Modelling – ErWin, MS-Visio, Click chart and other free tools General Modelling - Lucidchart and Creately (in absence of MS-​visio)•​Data Extract - Microstrategy ETL, Talend Open Studio, SQL, MongoDB ShellsEPC Modelling - ARIS•​Invision - combined with Balsamiq (or designs) to make ​playable demos•​Prototyping - Flinto, proto . io and iRise•​ (IBM) Rational Toolset (it is expensive and not used widely) - ReqPro , Clearcase, Architect, Rose, XDE•​Reporting - Jaspersoft, Tableau•​Wireframing - BalsamiqThese are some of the business analysis techniques available to ​a Business Analyst. The Business Analyst must select the technique based on his and other team members' (involved in a particular activity) comfort, convenience and organizational culture.Several other free as well as licensed tools are available depending on one’s needs and comfort.

I haven’t carefully studied it, but I suspect chess strength (or potential strength) and IQ are very weakly correlated.My one data point is someone I know who is rated mid-2300s USCF. Granted, that’s not necessarily “professional chess player” realms, but his life is definitely chess. (He doesn’t make significant income from competing, but he has a full roster of students and after school programs.)In any case, a rating of 2300+ is certainly higher than most people achieve, even with a lot of hard work. There is no question this person has some chess talent.But he once mentioned to me that he has a low IQ.The context came as we were setting up the pieces for a Fischer Random game. I have an app on my phone that generates positions, and we were using that as a template to set up an actual board. He remarked something along the lines of, “I’m always super slow at tasks like this. I don’t know why. These kind of things are never natural to me. It’s why I always score so low on IQ tests.”I think this says more about how bad IQ tests are as assessments of intelligence than it says about this guy’s overall intelligence.

This is a very important question and I’m glad you asked. I agree that legalese can be overly excessive.At the same time, T&Cs are vital to shielding your company from exposure to liability. While privacy policies are legally required and tend to be more consistent, most of the other components are about company policy. Risk assessment is a huge part of the analysis since the T&C statement is mostly about risk management, not what’s legally required. And that’s unfortunately why legal fees can be high: if it’s done right, it’s going to be more time intensive.The SaaS-scapeThere are also business risks in addition to legal ones. Not only do you need to shield your company from liability, but you’ll also need to minimize the possibilities of taking other kinds of financial hits. So determining how the T&C statement can potentially inhibit your operations is one aspect that you need to drill down on pretty deeply since a poorly drafted T&C can cause some serious damage to a business.So it’s a bit tricky since you’ll want to avoid some fairly common pitfalls that can result from using someone else’s SaaS T&C statements. First, each company is unique, so what works for them isn’t necessarily going to work for you. Second, they could be doing some things wrong, which you’ll want to avoid with your T&C.At LawTrades, we see companies that try to create T&C statements in-house only to learn some costly mistakes later on. So I’d strongly caution you against trying to in-source this one by using other T&Cs as a template for your business.The Perils of TemplatesThe truth is that there’s little uniformity across the spectrum of T&C statements. These are highly technical legal contracts involving privacy and intellectual property (IP) issues, among many others. So while Salesforce might seem overly legalistic, it’s vital to your company’s legal and financial interests to understand that there are times - particularly where IP and privacy issues are involved - where you need that legal coverage.Using a template is risky, so I’m going to suggest you consider a few key factors. For example, there are different types of SaaS products with some significant differences. Some are consumer products, while others are for business. Which ones are you dealing with?Also, you’ll want extremely tight language to protect privacy, clarify pricing, maintain data ownership, set boundaries for limitations and warranties, and specify technical integration and training responsibilities.Additionally, there are indemnification and tax concerns that require the help of a knowledgeable attorney. For example, will you be liable for sales tax or is that clearly the responsibility of your end-user?Here’s the ChaseWith all that said, T&Cs need to be written with the assistance of those involved in the day-to-day business and operations of a SaaS provider. Plain English is important to the transparency and basic comprehension of a T&C; if it’s cluttered with heavy legalese, then it’s probably not going to serve anyone very well.On the other hand, lawyers have the expertise to understand the legal consequences of using - or not using - certain language. That’s why you really need both business people and attorneys involved in crafting this unique contract animal.It’s frustrating when a startup needs legal services that can cost a bundle of money. Instead of getting the help they need from competent attorneys, they often choose to go bare, putting their entire company at risk.I love to help startups with these types of questions and attorneys need to be more affordable so a new business can access important legal services such as SaaS T&Cs and other types of contracts. That’s exactly why I started LawTrades, which you can check out here to create a SaaS T&C statement that will serve your company’s best interests. Also feel free to message me directly.All the best with the startup!