Bridging the Gap

🚩 Many business analysts are perfectionists by nature and want to do everything they can to avoid making mistakes. But it’s not uncommon for our perfectionism to actually be the root cause of the challenges we face! ✨ In this video, Laura covers how to avoid the most common business analyst mistakes, so you can make smart project decisions that earn the appreciation of your stakeholders and open up more opportunities in your business analyst career. 👉 Click here to watch video or read transcript --> https://buff.ly/45FcFNU

👋 Today let’s meet Anna, a business analyst who has been journeying with Bridging the Gap since 2017! 💞 What we love about Anna’s story is how she found herself performing various aspects of a business analyst career before joining The Business Analyst Blueprint® training program. Her decision to join the program only increased her passion for business analysis, while empowering her to champion other BAs who were learning alongside of her. In this interview, you’ll discover how: ✅ The program built on Anna’s experience, while also providing a new layer of depth and knowledge to some of her favorite aspects of business analysis. ✅ Anna realized a new sense of confidence as a more polished BA which opened the door for her to mentor junior BAs and even start pursuing a career in Business Architecture. ✅ The feedback she received during her time in the program gave her the guardrails needed to truly execute excellent work for her organization. Click here to watch the video or read the transcript --> https://buff.ly/4dZu3kM

Do you want to develop a data-oriented mindset and understand how data is organized? Are you working on a system integration or migration project and want to be sure the data model and database design meet expectations from the business? Do you want to prepare yourself to be more successful in the world of artificial intelligence (AI), business intelligence, and data-driven decision-making? An Entity Relationship Diagram is a powerful data modeling technique that helps you analyze and envision how to structure, migrate, and integrate data to create value for the organization. If you are ready to learn how to leverage an Entity Relationship Diagram to achieve business outcomes with data-driven software, we've got the perfect training opportunity for you. Click here to learn more --> https://buff.ly/4fmn2MB

💻 ↔️ 💻 As a business analyst, you need to have the ability to showcase how data seamlessly flows between information systems, ensuring smooth operations, and avoiding the headaches of data inconsistencies and mapping issues. 💡 (Hot tip – creating a data map is WAY easier when you understand the business domain model – something you’ll learn to do in our upcoming Entity Relationship Diagramming Workshop.) 🏆 With data mapping, you can take control of your projects from the very beginning, setting the stage for successful implementation. 🎦 In this video, Laura will guide you step-by-step through the process of creating a data map, without needing any type of coding language or SQL knowledge. 👉 Click here to watch the video or read the transcript --> https://buff.ly/46PCDPx

You’ve likely heard about ChatGPT, the free tool released by OpenAI. Imagine being able to expand your thinking, create draft documentation with ease, and streamline your work as a business analyst. This is all possible with ChatGPT, and despite the industry-wide fear of AI replacing business analysts, we think a better question is “how can we use these tools to increase our efficiency and effectiveness as a business analyst?” In this video, Laura shares how to use these tools to expand our thinking and make our job as business analysts way easier! Watch or read the transcript here --> https://buff.ly/40mC3Fy

💥 Getting comfortable with data modeling will literally transform your career. You will be able to learn new business domains more quickly and communicate more effectively about technical concepts too. ✨ And it’s an absolutely essential skill set with the rise of artificial intelligence (AI), business intelligence tools, and data-driven decision-making. We have a totally free data modeling training that we'd like to share with you. ✅ You’ll discover how: ✅ You can use a system context diagram to define how information flows through an organization. ✅ You can use an entity relationship diagram (ERD) to show relationships between concepts (these models look so tricky but they are actually incredibly simple once you know the notation). The tricky part is getting your stakeholders to get clear about the relationships. ✅ You can use a glossary to be sure everyone is actually using the same terms in the same way. (This technique seems simple, but there are some important nuances to getting it right.) And there’s more… 👉 Click here to get the free training --> https://buff.ly/46Zebwz

Agree? Comment: yes or no! (And of course, let us know why. We love knowing the why! Let's have a discussion about this. ) If you are looking to build your data modeling skills, a great place to start is with Entity Relationship Diagramming. Laura is hosting an Entity Relationship Diagramming workshop on September 18. Click here to register --> https://buff.ly/4fmn2MB

‼️ Today is the last day for early bird pricing for our upcoming Entity Relationship Diagramming Workshop! When you join the Entity Relationship Diagramming Workshop (all virtual – hosted on Zoom), you’ll hone your analytical thinking skills, cultivate your data mindset, and simplify complex data structures using an easy-to-understand visual model. In the Entity Relationship Diagramming Workshop, you’ll: ✅ Develop your data mindset so you can envision how to structure, migrate, and integrate data to create value for the organization ✅ Receive a list of Data Modeling Ideas, so that whether you are currently on a project or not, you can identify an ERD to create during the workshop. ✅ Receive an Entity Relationship Diagram – Quick Reference Guide for use before, during, and after the workshop to refer back to the key elements and notations. ✅ Receive an Entity Relationship Diagram – Software Tools Guide you can use to create an Entity Relationship Diagram. ✅ Create an Entity Relationship Diagram, step-by-step, with Laura at your side, coaching you through identifying concepts/entities, defining relationships between entities, and detailing out specific attributes/data fields within each element. ✅ Have the opportunity for Laura to review snippets of your work as you go and to answer your questions if you get stuck. ✅ Learn how to identify and correct entity relationship diagramming mistakes that create ambiguity so your understanding of the data model will be clearer. ✅ Engage in a structured peer-review session to receive feedback on your Entity Relationship Diagram and deepen your confidence by providing feedback to your peers, as well as seeing diagrams from different domains and types of projects. ✅ Earn 3 PDs / CDUs for certification and re-certification needs for the ECBA™, CCBA®, or CBAP® from IIBA®. 💰 All for only $197 USD Save $100 with early bird pricing today --> https://buff.ly/4fmn2MB

🗨️ After learning to create an Entity Relationship Diagram (ERD), here’s what one business analyst had to say. 💻 A lot of BAs think they need to learn SQL or how to code in order to improve how they communicate with developers, but that’s simply not the case. 🧠 Instead, you need foundational analytical skills that empower you to understand what the system does and how information is organized. 💡 What’s more, these models help you tread the line between the business perspective and development mindset without getting too caught up in either. 🌉 This is how you literally (or figuratively) “bridge the gap”. ✅ One of the reasons that Entity Relationship Diagramming skills are so valuable is that they really help you tread this line when it comes to aligning the business perspective on information with the development perspective on database design. 😎 As a result, you build more credibility and are able to navigate complex projects more successfully. ✨ We are going to go much deeper into all of this in the Entity Relationship Diagramming workshop. 💲 And today is the last day to save $100 with early bird pricing. 👉 Register here --> https://buff.ly/4fmn2MB

A new participant in The Business Analyst Blueprint almost didn't come to a recent Office Hours session. She messaged Laura saying she'd had a really hard day. (Laura didn't see the message because she was on other calls all afternoon.) But then the participant showed up, shared a win, and asked for support. At the end, she shared: "Thanks Laura - this was so useful. I nearly didn't come tonight, and I'm so glad I did. It's really good to know there's this community here to help." Honestly, business analysis is hard. We have ambiguous roles. Deal with challenging stakeholders. Get caught in the middle of battles that aren't our own. It helps to do it together, to be part of a community of people who get you and what you are going through. Our community is open. If it's your time to join, you can find the details here: https://buff.ly/3EhiTXW