9 Books — Practical Business Analysis
how do enterprises and startups do business?
Book 1 : INCOSE. INCOSE Guide for Writing Requirements 2019. INCOSE Publications Office, 2019.
Systems that ensure reliability, safety and security of our lives and resources are built with discipline. One such discipline is that of Systems Engineering. Through the institution of IEEE, systems engineers collaborate using some common guide books. One such book says this — “Many people may want to define needs and requirements for a service or system, but that need or requirement is not valid until it is formally agreed-to, baselined, and placed under configuration management.” — INCOSE [0]
If the reader ends up reading just 1 book, then let that book be this book[0]. The book can be bought from the INCOSE ‘s official website— incose.org
Question: What are some practical books used by business analysts for writing and managing requirements specifications? Provide a list of such books in the order of usefulness for enterprise needs and for startup needs in line with the agile methodology or the most latest evolution of agile methodology.[Question to ChatGPT engine. The answer is validated and improved by the author.]
Books 2–6 (Answer: For enterprise needs:)
- “Business Analysis Techniques: 123 essential tools for success” by James Cadle (Author), Debra Paul (Author), Jonathan Hunsley (Author), Adrian Reed (Author), David Beckham (Author), Paul Turner (Author). Amazon:https://amzn.to/3zYORHh — Published in 2021, “This is the third edition of this book. The first, published in 2010, described 72 techniques; the second, published in 2014, described 99 techniques; this edition extends to 123 techniques. This growth reflects both the developments in business analysis over the last seven years and the ability of business analysts to apply and adapt techniques from other disciplines where they appear relevant and useful.” [1]
- “Requirements Management: A Practice Guide” by Project Management Institute. Amazon:https://amzn.to/417eQrQ . This book is effectively 74 pages long. “This guide is intended to be a stand-alone document and thus acts as a bridge between two important PMI documents: A Guide to the Project Management Body of Knowledge (PMBOK ® Guide) — Fifth Edition and Business Analysis for Practitioners: A Practice Guide” [2]
- “Mastering the Requirements Process: Getting Requirements Right” by Suzanne Robertson and James Robertson. The ease of reading this book makes it a good buy. It’s usually beneficial to read multiple books on the same subject to enrich the understanding and build a strong foundation in a new discipline. I highly recommend this book as a part of the reader’s syntopical reading needs. Amazon:https://amzn.to/3mz9AON
- “Agile Estimating and Planning” by Mike Cohn. Amazon:https://amzn.to/3ogwkDG. “This book could have been called Estimating and Planning Agile Projects. Instead, it’s called Agile Estimating and Planning. The difference may appear subtle, but it’s not. The title makes it clear that the estimating and planning processes must themselves be agile. Without agile estimating and planning, we cannot have agile projects.” [5]
- “User Stories Applied: For Agile Software Development” by Mike Cohn. Amazon:https://amzn.to/3zZwBNI. “The best way to build software that meets users’ needs is to begin with “user stories”: simple, clear, brief descriptions of functionality that will be valuable to real users. In User Stories Applied, Mike Cohn provides you with a front-to-back blueprint for writing these user stories and weaving them into your development lifecycle.”[6]
Books 7–9 (For startup needs in line with the agile methodology:)
- “User Story Mapping: Discover the Whole Story, Build the Right Product” by Jeff Patton. Amazon:https://amzn.to/3A24QUX. “Building a map is dead simple. Working together with others, I’ll tell the story of a product, writing each big step the users take in the story on sticky notes in a left-to-right flow. Then, we’ll go back and talk about the details of each step, and write those details down on sticky notes and place them vertically under each step. The result is a simple grid-like structure that tells a story from left to right, and breaks it into details from top to bottom. It’s fun and fast. And those details make a better backlog of stories for our Agile development projects.”[7]
- “The Lean Startup: How Today’s Entrepreneurs Use Continuous Innovation to Create Radically Successful Businesses” by Eric Ries. Amazon:https://amzn.to/3A6PtKI. This is a fun read.
- “Inspired: How to Create Tech Products Customers Love” by Marty Cagan. Amazon:https://amzn.to/3okuUI7. This book is more like the previous one. I don’t recommend it beyond the purpose of entertainment on a rainy day.
References
[0]INCOSE. INCOSE Guide for Writing Requirements 2019. INCOSE Publications Office, 2019.
[1]Business Analysis Techniques 123essential tools for success.. 3 ed. BCS, The Chartered Institute for IT, 2021. Amazon:https://amzn.to/3zYORHh
[2]MANAGEMENT INSTITUTE, Project. Requirements management a practice guide. Project Management Institute, Inc, 2016.
[3]MANAGEMENT INSTITUTE, Project. Business Analysis for Practitioners: A Practice Guide. Project Management Institute, 2015.
[4]ROBERTSON, James;Robertson. Mastering the requirements process. 3rd ed. ; 3rd print ed. Addison-Wesley, 2014.
[5]COHN, Mike. Agile estimating and planning. 12. print ed. Prentice Hall PTR, 2005;2012. Robert C. Martin series.
[6]COHN, Mike;Beck. User stories applied for agile software development. Twentieth printing ed. Addison-Wesley Professional, 2004;2015. Addison-Wesley signature series;A Kent Beck Signature Book.
[7]JEFF PATTON, Peter Economy. User Story Mapping: Discover the Whole Story, Build the Right Product. 1 ed. O’Reilly Media, 2014.
[8]RIES, Eric. The Lean Startup: How Today’s Entrepreneurs Use Continuous Innovation to Create Radically Successful Businesses. 2017 Currency International Edition ed. Crown Publishing Group, 2017.
[9]CAGAN, Marty. INSPIRED: How to Create Tech Products Customers Love. 2 ed. Wiley, 2017.
