Business Analysts (BAs) are pivotal in guiding organizations through a rapidly evolving landscape, leveraging new technologies and methodologies to address complex problems. In 2025, these ten trends will redefine the scope and capabilities of business analysis, enabling businesses to thrive in complex environments.  Here’s how individual analysts can prepare to take advantage of these opportunities.

Imagine you are in the cockpit of an airplane. Before taking off, you need to ensure all systems are operational, from the engine to the navigation tools. Now, think of your business as that airplane and cybersecurity as the systems you must inspect before flight. In the same way pilots rely on checklists, business analysts use cybersecurity maturity assessments to evaluate an organization’s preparedness for cyber threats. These assessments help you determine where your company stands in its cybersecurity journey, revealing strengths, weaknesses, and areas for improvement. But how do you conduct a cybersecurity maturity assessment? Let us explore some of the tools and techniques business analysts can use to assess and improve their organization’s cybersecurity maturity.

Shared or informal accountability emerges from peers’ expectations and the software professionals’ intrinsic drive. While the former promotes a sense of collective accountability, where individuals feel compelled to reciprocate and demonstrate their accountability to their peers, the latter is innate and intrinsically grounded. When feeling intrinsically driven to achieve certain outcomes (e.g., code quality or meeting deadlines), software professionals manifest a self-driven accountability. This self-imposed answerability is rooted in a personal desire to excel or meet self-imposed standards, reflecting software professionals’ internal commitment and motivation to uphold and align the quality of their deliverable with their professional and personal values. Shared accountability is mainly reinforced by software engineering and development practices (i.e., testing and code review) and peers’ feedback.

Tools can amplify a software developer’s capability, but ineffective or inappropriate tool usage amplifies their shortcomings as well. Properly applied tools and practices can add great value to a project team by increasing quality and productivity, improving planning and collaboration, and bringing order out of chaos. But even the best tools won’t overcome weak processes, untrained team members, challenging change initiatives, or cultural issues in the organization. 

Planning to take CPRE certification and grow your business analysis career further? This article may help you with some of the starting questions and their answers. First and foremost any certification exam requires a huge level of determination and commitment from within yourself (self motivation). The drive could also be the encouragement/backing from your organization as part of your professional development goals. In any case, congratulations on start of this journey, now that you are thinking of studying something afresh and are ready to learn further about it.

Most people know the phrase ‘active listening’, but if you ask them to define it, we get a range of vague descriptions, often involving adopting a concerned expression and nodding occasionally. What is the ‘active’ element that makes us a participant rather than a passive recipient? What is Active Listening?  It means listening for total […]

The post What is active listening? (it’s not just nodding) appeared first on Business Analyst Articles, Webinars, Templates, Jobs.

Back in the late 2000s, I started a new job, having worked for my previous employer for a long time. It was a really weird feeling—I can still remember entering the building, being assigned a desk, logging in and there being virtually no email for me. I was already assigned to a project, and I […]

The post The Hidden Cost of Side Quests: How BAs Can Protect Their Time appeared first on Business Analyst Articles, Webinars, Templates, Jobs.

While considering the educational qualifications to become a business analyst, an obvious question that may come to your mind is if having a degree is absolutely necessary. Traditionally, degrees in areas like finance, economics, IT and business have been the standard route to becoming a business analyst. However, today’s professional landscape is more flexible, which […]

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The key to adoption. Don’t forget the obvious.   As a Business Analyst at heart, requirements play a part in my everyday life. Much to the annoyance of those closest to me, I’m wired to think of everyday activities in terms of requirements 😊 However, transition requirements are sometimes elusive, even to those of us […]

The post Transition Requirements – The Key To Adoption appeared first on Business Analyst Articles, Webinars, Templates, Jobs.

Where I live, every year residents receive two water bills. One is for the fresh (tap) water supply, the other is for wastewater and maintenance of sewers. The wastewater bill is a standard tariff, and I guess most people have automatic monthly payment set up. It’s the kind of thing you “set and forget about”.  […]

The post User Stories Without Users: The Pitfalls of Assumption-Driven Design appeared first on Business Analyst Articles, Webinars, Templates, Jobs.

Today, we meet Precious, a cybersecurity business analyst in the UK. After 2 years of BA experience and transitioning to a new role, Precious found herself a bit overwhelmed and experienced panic at the thought […]

The post Gaining Confidence to Thrive as a Cybersecurity BA: Precious first appeared on Bridging the Gap.

There is one incredibly important thing to do first on ANY project… ⛅ Especially if you are in an ambiguous role like being a “Business Analyst.” 💯 Even if you’ve done this 100 times before. […]

The post New Project? Here’s What to Do First… first appeared on Bridging the Gap.

Today we 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 […]

The post From Laid Off to Mentor of Business Analysts: Anna first appeared on Bridging the Gap.

Today we meet Chad Crider, a recent participant in The Business Analyst Blueprint® training program and an Applications Analyst from CNG Inc in Ohio. With over 20 years of experience on a different career path, […]

The post Turning a Skill Set into a Repeatable Framework: Chad Crider first appeared on Bridging the Gap.

As you are growing your business analysis team and practice, it’s likely that you’ll want to put business analysis performance metrics and KPIs (Key Performance Indicators) in place so that the business analysts on your […]

The post Guide to Business Analyst Performance Metrics and KPIs first appeared on Bridging the Gap.

Explore the transformative power of Agile storytelling, showcasing how deliberate narratives can inspire change, foster engagement, and overcome resistance.

The post Agile storytelling: Inspiring change through sharing experiences first appeared on Agile Alliance.

How a fintech giant transformed stagnant Sprint reviews into dynamic, user-focused collaborations through Agile values, boosting team morale and user engagement.

The post Turning Sprint reviews into a powerhouse of feedback first appeared on Agile Alliance.

The success story of a German insurance company overcoming "copy-paste Agile" by embracing true agility with cross-functional teams and customer focus.

The post From copy-paste Agile to true transformation first appeared on Agile Alliance.

Agile projects fail when misapplied, often due to poor risk management, scope creep, wrong methodology, lack of support, or not fully embracing Agile principles.

The post 7 researched-backed reasons Agile projects falter first appeared on Agile Alliance.

How a real-life log cabin project influenced a team’s approach to Agile, showcasing the power of adaptability, collaboration, and purpose-driven results.

The post A storm, a vision, and an Agile mindset first appeared on Agile Alliance.

I believe in the 'learning by doing' approach—you learn more this way.

The AI field is rapidly evolving, becoming one of the most dynamic areas within machine learning.

This article focuses on demystifying the difference between traditional data analytics methods vs.

Graph RAG, Graph RAG, Graph RAG! This term has become the talk of the town, and you might have come across it as well.

Without any doubt, Large Language Models (LLMs) have emerged as one of the biggest AI breakthroughs in recent years: they excel in understanding and generating human-like text , making them versatile for a wide range of applications.

One of the things I’ve learned the hard way is to always clarify what people mean when they use terms and jargon. One that is particularly fresh in my mind is MVP, which you will probably know stands for Minimum Viable Product. I know there are formal definitions of what MVP means. The first time… 

The post MVP or Useless Pile of Garbage? first appeared on Adrian Reed's Blog.

It may surprise you to know that my first ever job was as an assistant groundsperson in an industrial estate. For those of you unfamiliar with what a ‘groundsperson’ does, it’s essentially a job that involves maintaining just about everything that is outside, including gardening, roads, and so much more.  With such a varied role,… 

The post Lessons from the MultiVac: The Importance of Context in Business Analysis first appeared on Adrian Reed's Blog.

When considering buying or designing a new product, it is often the functionality that dominates the conversation. Cast your mind back to the day that you got your first smartphone. If you’re anything like me, you were excited about the new features that you’d be able to use: suddenly there was the ability to send… 

The post It’s Functionally Fantastic, But We Still Hate It: The Importance Of NFRs first appeared on Adrian Reed's Blog.

We recently had some (relatively minor) repairs done on the roof of our house. If you’ve ever had to arrange repair work on a house, you’ll know that the process can be tricky. It’s necessary to find a credible and reputable tradesperson, and then actually get a quote and arrange a date. What is made… 

The post Defining “Finished”: Don’t Leave Trash In The Forecourt first appeared on Adrian Reed's Blog.

One area where BAs can add significant value is in the early stages of a project or product development initiative.  All too often, initiatives start out without a clear agreement on why change is necessary in the first place. Different stakeholders might have subtly (or vastly) different perspectives on what is wrong and what success… 

The post Navigating the Why: The Essential Role of Product Vision and Coherence first appeared on Adrian Reed's Blog.