BA Brew - A Business Analysis Podcast

Active listening is one of the most valuable skills a Business Analyst can develop — and one of the easiest to get wrong. In this episode of BA Brew, Jonathan Hunsley from AssistKD is joined by Craig Rollason and Corrine Thomas to discuss how active listening helps business analysts build trust, improve stakeholder conversations and gather better requirements. The discussion covers: What active listening really means for business analysts Why listening is central to effective stakeholder engagement Common unhelpful listening behaviours and how to avoid them How to prepare yourself to listen properly The value of summarising, silence and open questions How teams can practise and improve their listening skills together Whether you are a business analyst, service designer, change professional or team leader, this episode offers practical advice for improving conversations and outcomes. EXPLORE ASSISTKD TRAINING: AssistKD offers Business Analysis and Service Design training online, in person and through eLearning, with over 30 years' experience in professional development. Relevant courses for this episode: BCS Stakeholder EngagementBCS Requirements EngineeringBCS Advanced Requirements EngineeringBCS Business Analysis PracticeLISTEN & SUBSCRIBE: Find BA Brew on Spotify, Apple Podcasts and all major platforms.

What does it really mean to be a “professional” Business Analyst? In this episode of BA Brew, Kerry is joined by Laurens and Lisa to explore professionalism in business analysis – from preparation and mindset to qualifications, growth, and career progression.They discuss:What professionalism means in a BA contextTheir journeys through the BCS International & Advanced DiplomasAchieving CITP statusThe path to becoming an Expert BAPractical advice for BAs looking to advance their careersIf you're considering the BCS Advanced Diploma, CITP, or the Expert BA route, this conversation is packed with insights from real practitioners who’ve been there.FURTHER RESOURCESBA BrewsHow to Become a Business Analysis ProfessionalTransferable SkillsCommunities of PracticeSelf-Assessment and Development ToolsI’m a Business Analyst — How Did That Happen?ArticlesNo Limits to LearningElevating the BA VoiceSkill Development of the Business Analysis PracticeFrom Junior BA to BA Manager: A Business Analysis JourneyQualificationsBCS International Diploma in Business AnalysisBCS Advanced International Diploma in Business AnalysisChartered IT Professional (CITP)The Expert BA Award

In this informative BA Brew Adam Pearson talks to the Crew about why BAs need to develop an accessibility mindset and how he, as a registered blind person, has used his BA skills to help to make it easier to both generate and consume accessible content.Topics discussed: why accessibility must be considered from the start of every project; useful tools for generating accessible content and for consuming content; the difference between usability and accessibility; how AI tools can support accessibility; why making mistakes and learning means you are doing it right; and more.As Adam says: “The more we all do as a collective, the fewer barriers there are into this fantastic field of work.”Adam Pearson is now a Business Analyst at The RNIB.FURTHER RESOURCES BA BREWSBA Brew 20: Resilience (feat. Corrine Thomas)BA Brew 27: The BA ApprenticeshipARTICLESResilience ResourcesStrengths Spotting - Achieve your goals by leveraging your strengthsAssistKD’s Business Analyst (Level 4) Apprenticeship SchemeAssistKD BA Career Planner Tool10 Top Tips for Entering the Business Analysis Profession

If you have relevant transferable skills, it is possible to change careers at any time of life. In this thought-provoking episode, Lisa Croft of Herd Consulting and AssistKD’s Amanda Christianson talk about transferable skills with host Jonathan Hunsley. Relevant skills discussed include: stakeholder engagement; customer service; teamwork; data analysis; problem-solving; taking a holistic view; and documentation. RESOURCES CAREER PLANNING AssistKD Career Planing Tools COURSES One Day Careers Workshop ARTICLES What I Wish I had Known When I Started my Business Analyst Career 10 Top Tips for Entering the Business Analysis ProfessionBA BREWS BA Brew 77: How to start your BA Career (Feat. Timothy Clark & Michelle Shakesheff) Updating your skills toolkit? AssistKD offers a wide choice of business training courses.Assist’s Learning Zone is packed with free learning resources, with new and topical content added regularly. Discover the latest BA Brew podcasts, articles, blogs, short learning videos and more.

In this stressbusting BA Brew, special guest and yoga teacher Jennie Macdonald talks to the Brew Crew about how yoga, mindfulness, and something as simple as a breathing technique can foster balance, calm and resilience in your work and home life. Jennie and Ruth recommend the following online Yoga and Mindfulness resources: Yoga with Adriene is a particularly good entry point – well worth subscribing to on YouTube. This includes movement and breathing exercises, and she has multiple 30 day courses where the daily sessions are about 20 minutes long: Yoga With Adriene - YouTube The Mindful app is a great one for walking meditations – it isn’t free but it’s well worth the subscription: A Guided Walking Meditation for Daily Life - Mindful Nalanie Chellaram is a great teacher if people want to get into yoga in its broader sense: Nalanie Chellaram - YouTube FURTHER RESOURCESBA BREWS BA Brew 20: Resilience (feat. Corrine Thomas) BA Brew 30: Confidence (feat. Philippa Thomas) BA Brew 45: Developing Positive Habits and Behaviours ARTICLES Resilience Resources Strengths Spotting - Achieve your goals by leveraging your strengths BOOK REVIEW: Begin with You by Petra Velzeboer Wellbeing in Times of Change By Petra Velzeboer

Could BAs be the new digital solutions superheroes? This week’s BA Brew, which features special guest Catherine Plumridge, looks at how the skills of BAs plug into digital solutions across every element of the BA Service Framework. Questions addressed in the chat include: Could the BA role in the future embrace the development of digital solutions, using no-code platforms and AI? How does using the POPIT™️ framework enhance digital solutions? In what ways will the BA role evolve? Catherine Plumridge is a BA Leader at Kensington Mortgages and was a key early reviewer of the new BCS Digital Solutions series written by Pete Thompson. Stuart Mullinger and Fiona Kiss worked with Pete Thompson on designing and developing AssistKD’s new BCS Foundation Certificate in Digital Solution Development course. FURTHER RESOURCES BOOKS Defining Digital Solutions Designing Digital Solutions Delivering Digital Solutions ARTICLES AI and the Business Analysis Role COURSES Solution Development Courses DIPLOMAS The BCS International Diploma in Solution Development BA BREWS The AI Brew BA Brew 102: Trilogy Pete: The Digital Solutions Series | Assist Knowledge Development

In this week’s BA Brew, Kerry Adams chats to avid beekeepers Mike Williams and Mick Brian about what business analysts can learn from the organisation of a beehive – including how the bees communicate, make decisions, and allocate their resources. Interesting facts include the many different jobs of the worker bees (they don’t just collect pollen) and the intricacies of the ‘waggle dance’. FURTHER RESOURCES BA Brews BA Brew 33: BA Skills and How to Develop ThemBook Business Analysis Techniques: 123 Essential Tools for Success Articles AI Alchemy: Turning Change into Gold] Courses BCS Foundation Certificate in Business AnalysisFree Courses and Learning Videos Check out the free Bitesize Learning Videos in our Learning ZoneTop up your BA skills with free courses, in the ‘Free Resources’ section of our Learning Zone

According to Simon Platt, every one of us, regardless of our age, job, title or background, has it within us to inspire others – even if we don’t always realise it. Simon lived in the same village as Sir Captain Tom Moore, and observed close at hand how a simple idea lifted the nation’s spirits in lockdown and raised £39 million for NHS charities. In this uplifting BA Brew, Simon talks to the Crew about the skills, traits and beliefs that can help us inspire ourselves and others in the BA community and beyond. The Brew crew are also joined by Simon's colleague Charlotte Neill who is running a workshop with Simon at the IRMUK BA Conference 2025. They are hoping that by BA’s sharing their stories in the workshop, others might see themselves in them or realise they’ve been inspiring people all along without even knowing it. Topics touched upon include: What comes first, motivation or inspirationPractical steps to inspire yourself and othersThe lasting impact of role modelling and ‘paying forwardTangible actions we can all take in our day to day lives. Simon Platt is Principal Business Analyst at Whitbread, a Neuroinclusivity Advocate, public speaker and podcast host. Simon was a BA of the Year Finalist in 2023.Further ResourcesArticlesWork-life Balance: Creating a Career and a Life you LoveNeurodiversity: The BAs Survival GuideBook review: Begin with You by Petra VelzeboerWellbeing in Times of ChangeCoursesIntroduction to NLP One Day WorkshopBA BrewsBA Brew 49: Mental HealthBA Brew 54: Neurodiversity

hat is Business Service Architecture, and why is it important to business change professionals? In this BA Brew, Debra Paul and Jonathan Hunsley, authors of Business Architecture: A Comprehensive Guide, answer these question, and more. All too often, services and products just don’t work, resulting in poor outcomes for customers and other stakeholders. Business Service Architecture takes an ecosystem view, looking at how the architecture of a product or service can be better designed. Topics discussed in this BA Brew include: How end-to-end thinking and taking customer feedback on board helps to eliminate ‘pain points’ How collaboration feeds into continuous improvement Why getting it right matters, and the challenges and opportunities involved The brew also explores: Ecosystems, building blocks and capabilities of the service architecture Business service architecture techniques (including value streams; SIPOC; business activity models; service blueprints and the CALM framework). If you liked this BA Brew, you may be interested in the following: This article compares the Business Analysis and Business Architecture roles, in particular their respective Service Frameworks.Find out more about AssistKD’s Business Service Architecture course here. Find out more about AssistKD’s Architecture courses here: This BA Brew on Strategy and Business Architecture features Vicky Rothwell, a contributing author to Business Architecture: A Comprehensive Guide:. Scroll through our bitesize learning videos and you will find ‘What is Business Architecture’ and ‘What is Enterprise Architecture’:This BA Brew focuses on ‘Business Architecture: a comprehensive guide’: Business Architecture: a comprehensive guide is available from the BCS book shop, and also on Amazon.

Everyone who watches this leadership focused BA Brew with Byron Morrison can think of someone they’d like to share it with. It’s packed with nuggets of wisdom from the author of ‘The Effective CEO 2.0’, including… At 2’ 41 – how to deal with overwhelm At 7’ 19 – moving from ‘doing’ to ‘leading’ At 14’ 01 – are you setting your team up for success… or failure? At 20’ 37 – what is your ‘Zone of Genius’? At 21’ 49 – why ‘Push’ and ‘Pull’ days help you avoid burnout At 27’ 23 – how to empower (and trust) your team At ️31’08 - how to become an effective leader And there’s so much more. Byron and the Crew discuss what a ‘Not to Do’ list is; why a team of all ‘A’ players would not work; and Philippa Roll warns against dealing with work emails from Everest base camp! Byron Morrison is a speaker, author and management and leadership coach with a special interest in supporting first time CEOs. He is the author of several books including ‘Think Like a CEO’ and ‘The Effective CEO 2.0’, available from Amazon and other outlets. If you liked this BA Brew, you may also enjoy the following: BA Brew BA Brew 51: Think Like A CEO (feat. Byron Morrison) Articles BOOK REVIEW: Think Like a CEO by Byron Morrison Inclusive Leadership: The Secret of High Performing TeamsCourses Team Leadership Training Courses | Business AnalysisFree Learning Free eLearning course – Effective Leadership: FREE Courses | Assist Knowledge Development #businessanalyst #servicedesign #CEO #businessleadership #teamleadership #inclusiveleadership #effectiveCEO #thinklikeaCEO

What AI tools do you use as a BA? Business change consultant Mick Brian is an early adopter and expert on the subject. In this thought-provoking BA Brew, he discusses the challenges and rewards of introducing an LLM (Large Language Model) into a large organisation. Topics covered include: why the input of BAs is essential when introducing AI tools; the intangible benefits of LLMs; why you need to prompt AI to your level of expertise; the government’s ‘AI Playbook’ and more.As promised in the BA Brew, Mick Brian has shared these useful links for BAs with an interest in using AI tools. AI Playbook for the UK Government The Leader in Agentic Process Automation System | Automation AnywhereLucidchart | Diagramming Powered By Intelligence Process Intelligence and Process Mining | CelonisRory Sutherland Podcast Mick also recommended the book ‘Alchemy’ by Rory Sutherland. If you liked this BA Brew, you may also enjoy the following articles and blogs:AI Alchemy: Turning Change into Gold - based on the presentation by Mick Brian and Will Izzard at the Business Change and Transformation Conference Europe 2024. BOOK REVIEW: Hello World by Hannah Fry AI and the Business Analysis Role The following BA Brews may be of interest: BA Brew 63: The AI BA Brew (Hosted by Chat GPT) BA Brew 75: Business Analysis and AI (Feat. John Wisner) BA Brew 81: The Benefits, Risks and Opportunities of AI in Business Analysis (Feat. Donald Farmer)

What’s all the fuss about cybersecurity? And why do business analysts need to understand it? Cybersecurity and business analysis expert Bindu Channaveerappa is the special guest on this week’s BA Brew, where she argues that an understanding of cybersecurity is now integral to the work of the BA. “When we create the value, why leave the security to someone else?” Bindu Channaveerappa is a highly respected author, trainer and international speaker on business analysis and cyber security. Her book, ‘Cyber Security and Business Analysis: An essential guide to secure and robust systems’ is available from BCS Publishing. AssistKD runs a 1-Day Cybersecurity and Business Analysis workshop for Business Analysts and Business Change professionals. In this article Embracing a Security Mindset: The Next Frontier of Business Analysis cybersecurity expert Mark Cross urges BAs to focus on security against cyber threats. You may also enjoy this AI focused BA Brew, hosted by ChatGPT. #cybersecurity #cyberthreats #businessanalysis #businesschange #digitalsolutions

Difficult stakeholders or colleagues? Help is at hand! How we (and others) react in response to challenging situations at work – especially where there is resistance to change – is explained by the Transactional Analysis model. This week’s special guest, and an expert on #transactionalanalysis, is Leadership Development Consultant and MD Mandy Green. Watch the Brew to find out more about the ego states of (Critical) Parent, Adult and (Fractious) Child and how insight into those states can help us break free of the ‘Drama Triangle.’ You may be interested in the following BA Brews,BA Brew 20: Resilience (feat. Corrine Thomas) BA Brew 30: Confidence (feat. Philippa Thomas) BA Brew 36: If You Don't Do Politics, Politics Will Do You (feat. Niven Postma) BA Brew 45: Developing Positive Habits and Behaviours BA Brew 49: Mental Health (feat. Petra Velzeboer) BA Brew 52: Books that Changed the Way We Work BA Brew 54: Neurodiversity (feat. Simon Platt) BA Brew 69: Self Assessment and Development Tools (feat. Corrine Thomas) BA Brew 71: Neurodiversity: The BA Survival Guide (feat. Nicola Pinkney & Paul Haywood) BA Brew 86: Psychological Safety (feat. Emma Lee) BA Brew 89: Character Crafting (feat. Helen Holder)