InetSoft Webinar: Mobile Business Analysis Application

This is the continuation of the transcript of a Webinar hosted by InetSoft on the topic of "Top Trends for Business Analysts." The speaker is Rick Flair, Senior Business Analyst at InetSoft.

What would be great about a mobile business analysis application is that I could be on the shop floor. I could be in a warehouse. I could be sketching the model over Wi-Fi. I have done a little bit of research, and I found a couple of business analysis applications out there. Some of them are absolutely terrible, but some are starting to show signs that there is value in the workplace.

Now if you look at some of the technologies, and you were to come up with the applications that are organizations are using on the iPad, there is absolutely an opportunity for organizations to start thinking about a requirements management app on an iPad, a Playbook, whatever your tablet of choice is.

I think if you’re not doing it, you should be doing it. It would make an analyst’s life a lot easier. It would make our customers’ lives a lot easier, and quite frankly I think it would foster a higher degree of collaboration. So it’s not a bad idea. If you are out there, and you are thinking about it, and you’re doing it now, let me know. I’d love to see what it looks like. I would love to have you pilot test it.

And last but not least, let’s do another poll. Would you use a tablet to help you document, model, or validate requirements with customers if given the opportunity? If your boss said tomorrow you are getting a tablet what do you think? It’s a no-brainer for me, but I am a geek and I have one on me at all points in time.

But I suspect that a lot of the business analysts are geeks, too. So, I would say somebody should develop something. That’s a pretty good little business that somebody should hop onto there. We have 93% say yes, 7% say No. So, I guess we have a lot of geeks out there. No offence to anybody though.

Well, for those for the 7% who said no, I am just wondering what you are thinking when you said no. You can go to the question box and just shout it out to the audience and say hey, this is my rationale. There might be some value in it maybe something I haven’t thought out, but thank you that was always fun for me. We have got some other questions here.

I am just going to stop on the last slide. And this is the last slide, trend number 10. I have got to tell you, last year I was at a conference, and I am predicting this year we are going to see some incredibly large numbers, if not double. This is a building business capabilities conference that the International Institute of Business Analysis hosts, and I have got to tell you with their last year and the hype, and the spirit, the camaraderie, the community, the quality of topics and the quality of speakers, the interaction and the networking was enormous.

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It was electric, like nothing I have ever seen before. I have got to tell you folks I don’t work for either one of these organizations. I am not here to endorse anybody. I am not here to brand. I am not here to encourage. But I was most impressed by the camaraderie, by the spirit, by the buzz and the interaction of all these business analysts who have converged from around the world.

That was another thing that was incredibly impressive. We had people from Johannesburg, Africa, Brazil, all over Europe, and Japan. I know I had some long time customers and friends of mine coming from Tokyo. It was enormous, the buzz. And so if you are planning on going there, I am planning on going there this year, I would encourage you to tweet and blog about it and see if this trend carries through.

I believe we have got another polling question, right? I was just looking at the answers about the tablets. What’s coming through is a lot of people want to have one, but they said that they wanted a keyboard. The other person says that they really like the whiteboard and that sort of big space to work on. I agree partly with that, but I don’t think anybody would be taking a smartboard around with them while they go on to a shop floor.

Okay, so here is the polling question, are you going to the IIBA’s BBC Conference? I am just curious, what’s going on? And we have 7% are saying Yes and 93% are saying No. Interesting, interesting, okay. I am sure those numbers may go up. We’ll see. Who knows? If you are there drop by and say hello, love to meet you. If not, look for tweets. Look for activities and actions. They do a great job on the whole tweeting thing.

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Some people are wondering where it is this year. At least there is a couple of people who have asked that question so. It’s the same place as last year, Miami. Okay let’s see if we can go through here and find some questions. There are a lot of comments.