Recommended BA Books

Real life experience is always best but what books have helped you learn the trade of being a business analyst?

Here are some of mine...

1. Mastering the Requirements Process (2nd Ed) - by Robertson and Robertson

2. Software Project Survival Guide - by Steve C McConnell

3. Use Case Modeling - by Kurt Bittner and Ian Spence

Tools of the trade

My theme as a BA for the last 20 years has been "To effectively Solve Business Problems." I enjoy helping business identify and solve business problems. What I've found is that the tools that the business understands are the most important ones to put in your toolbox. I use DFD's (Data Flow Diagrams) and Use Cases for the discovery phase, depending on the person I'm interviewing. If they're a visual learner, I use DFD's; otherwise I use Use Cases. Sometimes I'll do both. Capture the requirements with a Use Case, and then convert that Use Case into a data flow diagram. (For those in the RUP camp, I am not talking about a sequence diagram - which would be the logical next step for a Use Case)

I guess, now that I brought it up, I should explain why I use a data flow diagrams. They're a very old Case methodology tool, but I still use them because of the debugging capabilities. I can actually test the results while I'm interviewing the subject matter expert in the business to make sure that they'd work in real life.