Get to know some of our talented authors featured in our author spotlights. Here you can see interviews, detailed biographies, and book summaries of some of the best in the industry.
HOFFMAN: I started working in the software industry in 1983 when expert systems was the hot technology that everyone hoped was a silver bullet. As we all know, there is no silver bullet, but I found gold in my first job as a knowledge engineer. I met my mentor, Denny Brown, who hired me in spite of my not having a computer science degree. Over a five-year period, I worked in several departments at the company. I started in the software product development group. I served one stint as technical support to sales and rotated between the training group and the custom solutions group. This experience exposed me to the cultures and values of business and technical groups. Many of the software methodologies that we now take for granted, such as object-oriented design, joint application development, and use cases, were in their nascent stages at this time.
HOFFMAN: What intrigued me the most about writing the Business Analyst test was that ReviewNet already knew that developing the test would be difficult. Testing knowledge is one thing, testing for skills and "business savvy" is another. Designing a test in multiple-choice format that would provide a reasonable assessment a candidate's abilities was a challenge I couldn't resist.
HOFFMAN: Building the scenarios enabled me to re-frame some of my most difficult professional experiences. I had my doubts about the reaction of the question validators because some of the scenarios/question sets are "amazing-but-true". When the validators gave the "thumbs up" assessment for these particular scenarios/question sets, I was elated.
HOFFMAN: Being a business analyst means that you write a lot. And, because much of my work is through Expert Support, I have the advantage of having colleagues who are simply the best technical writers on the planet.
HOFFMAN: My most gratifying professional accomplishment was being a member of a team whose code name was 7Seas. The client was a joy to work for. The technical team worked together better than any team I have ever worked with since. The users gave us a standing ovation when we demonstrated the system for them. The application is listed in the Artificial Intelligence Hall of Fame.
HOFFMAN: I'm writing a book about learning to ride a motorcycle. My objective is to introduce motorcycle riding to middle-age women in particular and to short people in general. Riding has become a passion for me. The raw material for the book is available at http://www.balsamfir.com/motorcycle.htm
HOFFMAN: I take continuing education classes and I look for projects that enable me to contribute what I know in exchange for learning something new.
HOFFMAN: The Business Analyst test is focused on the skills of people who bridge the gap between the business community and the technical community. In an ideal situation, the business people have a solid understanding of what they want, what they want is reasonable; the technical people have enough resources to do the job, and there is a mutually agreed upon development/deployment methodology. Ideal situations are the exception, so the test addresses the difficulties that the business analyst typically encounters.
HOFFMAN: I would encourage someone who wants to be a business analyst to be familiar with the current version of the Myers Briggs test. The book Please Understand Me II: Temperament, Character, Intelligence, by David Keirsey, is available on Amazon. The role of the business analyst is that cultural ambassador. It is important to know your own temperament, and to be prepared to work with people whose temperaments, motivations, and values are different from your own. Success comes with being able to hear what is not being said, see what is not being shown, enabling shy people to say what they have always wanted to say, and making heros / heroines out of the people who do the real work, but never receive recognition for it.
HOFFMAN: Business Analysis has many specialities such as finance, data base mining, software development. The ReviewNet business analyst test is focused on the software development speciality. The future of the discipline is emerging from at least three directions:
* Methodologies that enable business and technical communities to work together in partnership.
* Recognition that many technical people are not only capable of, but quite good at appreciating what the business needs, and can express these needs in both technical and business terms.
* Emergence of software development environments that enable business people to build a model of the solution.
Right now, business analysts must have an unusual mix of technical and communication skills. I would like to see the skill mix become less unusual and more normal. I see this happening at the undergraduate level course listings for programs in information systems. I hope that as software development environments become more sophisticated and robust, the need for a business analyst to understand both the project's software architect's legacy system integration strategy and the business unit manager's 5-year budget will decrease.
HOFFMAN: My formal education is in linguistics. Back in the 1970's, machine translation of natural languages was a hot field of research. My interest in machine translation evolved into an interest in human models of cognition, which eventually led to a focus on human information processing and representation systems. From my point of view, business analysis is simply applied linguistics. Instead of starting with American English and generating Mandarin Chinese, I start with the need to solve a business problem and generate a description that technical people use to build, test, and deploy a solution that meets the needs of the business community
HOFFMAN: Not all companies have Human Resources staff who understand the range of skills that IT professionals must have. Ideally, the ReviewNet evaluations can provide HR staff with input about the candidate's technical skills, enabling the HR staff to focus their assessment on the candidate's soft skills.
HOFFMAN: IT hiring mistakes are often mismatches in working style. I designed the Business Analyst test so that the hiring manager would be able to recognize both potential and risk in a candidate. For example, a wrong answer may indicate someone whose reasoning is on the right track, but their chosen action highlights a blind spot in their sensitivity to the business culture. In addition, I provided a list of attributes that a hiring manager should consider when evaluating a candidate. The test addressed knowledge and cultural sensitivity, the list of attributes enables the hiring manager to gain insight into the candidate's working style.
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