When asked “What’s the most important lesson you’ve learned in your Business Analysis career?” Alec knew the answer immediately – it was the core message in Fred Brooks’ classic article “No Silver Bullet - Essence and Accidents of Software Engineering.” The title mentions “software engineering” but it’s really about a fundamental difficulty in Business Analysis – the challenge of separating the Essence - the “what” - from the Accident - the “who and how.” For example, it’s relatively easy to describe the current “who and how” – this person (who) does something using that tool (how,) then another person does something using another tool, and so on. What’s difficult – often very difficult – is figuring out what is actually being accomplished. Sometimes, our business clients and subject matter experts are so immersed in their job, and how they do it, they’ve literally lost sight of what is really being done.

This short but content-packed presentation will first cover some examples to illustrate the principle and show why “essence vs. accident” can be so challenging, then shift to real-life examples of using this principle in four areas:

1. Business Process Change

2. Data Modelling and Business Information

3. Application Requirements with Use Cases / User Stories

4. Even an intervention to address organisational dysfunction

One-sentence description

Alec describes the difference between “essence” and “accident” (“what” vs. “who and how”) and ways to use this to be a better Business Analyst.