Business Analysis Live!

Why won't your stakeholders just tell you what they want? Because they don't know yet, and that's where you come in.When IIBA’s Digital Library+ recommended Stakeholder Whispering: Uncover What People Need Before Doing What They Ask to me, I felt a little called out. So I invited the author on the show! In this episode, I’m joined by Bill Shander, data storytelling expert and author. Bill has never carried the business analyst title, but he’s spent 30-plus years doing the work, and he says eliciting real needs is the most important skill any knowledge worker can build.We dig into what “whispering” is all about and why making your stakeholders feel heard is essential not just to eliciting requirements, but to building the kind of trust that gets you past the first answer to what they really need. Plus: why asking “why?” can feel like an attack, the useful paranoia every BA needs, and why this skill matters even more in the age of AI.💬 Tell us in the comments: What’s your go-to question when a stakeholder says “just do what I asked”?🎙️Episode Highlights• What "stakeholder whispering" really means• Why stakeholders don't know what they need• Fast thinking, slow thinking, and useful paranoia• The Socratic method and BA as therapy• Deep listening and follow-up questions• Imposter syndrome and owning your seat at the table• Using authority to ask "why" without the hostility• The dance of the six Ws• Everybody you work with is a stakeholder too• Where humans keep the edge over AI• Audience Q&A: signal vs. noise, political responses🔗 Resources
•       Connect with Susan on LinkedIn
•      Connect with Bill on LinkedIn
•      Stakeholder Whispering by Bill Shander (also available to members in the IIBA Digital Library+)
•       Bill Shander's Stakeholder Whispering course on LinkedInLearning (eligible for IIBA CDUs)
•       Global Business Analysis Day, November 5–6 (our annual 24-hour, free virtual event): Global Business Analysis Day 2026 | Enabling Confidence | IIBA
•       Learn more about our business analysis community: iiba.org

Business Analysis Live is hosted by Susan Moore, CommunityEngagement Manager with the International Institute of Business Analysis (IIBA). We talk with business analysis professionals about business analysis topics and answer questions from our live audience.
 

If you enjoyed the episode, don’t forget to hit that Likebutton, subscribe to the channel, and share it with your friends. Your support helps us keep bringing you great content!
 
The International Institute of Business Analysis (IIBA) is anon-profit professional association serving the field of business analysis. As the global thought leader and voice of the business analysis community, IIBA actively supports the recognition of the profession, and works to maintain global standards for the ongoing development of the practice andcertifications.
 
#StakeholderWhispering #BusinessAnalysis #RequirementsElicitation

October is Cybersecurity Awareness month, and if you’ve been thinking about getting into cybersecurity, here's the good news: you don't need to be technical to make your organization safer. You need to get good at what our guest calls “adversarial thinking.”

In this episode, Mark Cross, cybersecurity practitioner and the EMEA regional chair of the IIBA Cyber Special Interest Group, joins Susan to show how business analysts can spot risks before attackers do, starting with four personas you probably haven't put in your requirements yet.Your business analysis skills are already cyber skills. Watch the full episode to see how, then tell us in the comments which of your BA skills you think are the most valuable for keeping your organization secure.🎙️Episode Highlights• What adversarial thinking is• Why you don’t need to be technical• The four attacker personas• Security perimeters and trust boundaries• Secure by design• Red shift and blue shift• The Cyber Security Body of Knowledge (CyBOK)• IIBA’s Certificate in Cybersecurity Analysis (CCA)• AI and the changing threat landscape🔗 Resources
•       Connect with Susan on LinkedIn
•      Connect with Mark on LinkedIn
•      IIBA Cyber Special Interest Group
•      IIBA Certificate in Cybersecurity Analysis (CCA)
•      Cyber Security Body of Knowledge (CyBOK)
•    Learn more about our business analysis community: iiba.org
Business Analysis Live is hosted by Susan Moore, Community Engagement Manager with the International Institute of Business Analysis (IIBA). We talk with business analysis professionals about business analysis topics and answer questions from our live audience.
If you enjoyed the episode, don’t forget to hit that Like button, subscribe to the channel, and share it with your friends. Your support helps us keep bringing you great content!
The International Institute of Business Analysis (IIBA) is a non-profit professional association serving the field of business analysis. As the global thought leader and voice of the business analysis community, IIBA actively supports the recognition of the profession, and works to maintain global standards for the ongoing development of the practice and certifications.#BusinessAnalysis #Cybersecurity #CybersecurityAwarenessMonth

Back in 1995, Bill Gates wrote that automation applied to an inefficient operation will magnify the inefficiency. Thirty-one years later, we're still learning that lesson, only now the shiny new technology is AI. In this episode of Business Analysis Live!, host Susan Moore sits down with Oge Nwachukwu, business analysis consultant, trainer and author, to talk about why the process must come first, whatever technology you're bringing in.We also dig into listener questions on convincing the business, uncovering knowledge that lives in people's heads, using governance as a stage gate, and why business analysis professionals need to learn the technology to help stakeholders assess their options. Stay to the end to hear about Oge's new book and her upcoming IIBA webinar. 🎙️Episode Highlights• Why organizations skip the process step• Bringing discipline to the excitement• For every AI use case, what's the business case?• The process-led approach to AI use cases• Happy paths vs. exceptions• Why AI isn't an automation tool• Extracting knowledge that isn't documented• Governance as a stage gate• Crawl, run, fly: an AI roadmap• Why BAs need to understand AI• No data, no AI• Oge’s upcoming book The Business Analysis Career Book and the digital goodies included🔗 Resources
•       Connect with Susan on LinkedIn
•       Connect with Oge on LinkedIn
•       Register for Oge’s Nov 25th webinar TheReal Reasons You're Not Getting Hired as a Business Analyst
•      Learn more about our business analysis community: iiba.org

Business Analysis Live is hosted by Susan Moore, Community Engagement Manager with the International Institute of Business Analysis (IIBA). We talk with business analysis professionals about business analysis topics and answer questions from our live audience.
If you enjoyed the episode, don’t forget to hit that Like button, subscribe to the channel, and share it with your friends. Your support helps us keep bringing you great content!
The International Institute of Business Analysis (IIBA) is a non-profit professional association serving the field of business analysis. As the global thought leader and voice of the business analysis community, IIBA actively supports the recognition of the profession, and works to maintain global standards for the ongoing development of the practice and certifications.
#BusinessAnalysis #ProcessImprovement #AIStrategy

Your most important work tool isn't AI — it's what you bring to the table.In this episode, I sat down with Yulia Kosarenko, lifelong business analyst, author, trainer, and professor, for a conversation that I think every business analyst needs to hear right now. Yulia has spent years thinking about what it means to have a true business analyst mindset, and at a time when AI can generate a document in five seconds, her message is incredibly timely: thinking is still your job, and that's not changing.We talked about the invisible work that business analysis professionals do and why that work is what AI cannot replicate. Yulia made a point that stuck with me: by the time you've given AI all the context, structure, and direction it needs to produce something useful, you've practically done all the analysis already. The hard work, the real work, the thinking, still belongs to us.We also got into some territory that is just under the surface of our work these days: the growing pressure to produce more faster, the risk of "AI slop" becoming the new normal, what it means to raise a generation of students (and professionals) who never learned to think without a shortcut, and why human conversations are still one of the most powerful elicitation tools in our toolkit.🎙️Episode Highlights• What it means to take responsibility for your own thinking • Why the invisible parts of our job are the parts AI can't touch• How to teach students (and yourself) to critically evaluate AI output• Using organizational language as a competitive advantage• The false confidence problem: when AI sounds right but isn't• Why human conversation is still irreplaceable for knowledge gathering• Process mining, primary data, and the techniques business analysts aren't talking about enough• AI and innovation and the issues that arise when we use AI and the trademarked data to • How to know when AI is helping you think — and when it's making you think less• Managing teams in an age of AI slop🔗 Resources
Connect with Susan on LinkedIn
Connect with Yulia on LinkedIn
Learn more about our business analysis communityBusiness Analysis Live is hosted by Susan Moore, Community Engagement Manager with the International Institute of Business Analysis (IIBA). We talk with business analysis professionals about business analysis topics and answer questions from our live audience. If you enjoyed the episode, don’t forget to hit that Like button, subscribe to the channel, and share it with your friends. Your support helps us keep bringing you great content!The International Institute of Business Analysis (IIBA) is a non-profit professional association serving the field of business analysis. As the global thought leader and voice of the business analysis community, IIBA actively supports the recognition of the profession, and works to maintain global standards for the ongoing development of the practice and certifications.#BusinessAnalysis #AIAndTheFutureOfWork #BAMindset

Ever made a decision that looked perfect on paper — and still went wrong?That's the question I opened with, and Dr. David Marco had an answer ready. David has spent decades building data and analytics programs for some of the most complicated environments out there — the FBI, Mayo Clinic, and over 150 companies and federal agencies — and lately his focus has shifted to the C-suite and boardroom, where the decisions that ripple down to the rest of us get made.In this episode, David introduces the concept of decision integrity: the ability to make evidence-based, consequential decisions that can be explained, traced, owned, trusted, and defended under scrutiny. We talk about what happens when that integrity is missing —and the real human consequences of decisions that go badly. David breaks down his four categories of decisions and his three pillars of decision integrity, and makes the case for why business analysis professionals are exactly the people who should be in the room when these decisions get made.This conversation started as a talk about decision integrity and turned into something closer to a career conversation — because for David, they're the same thing. If you've ever felt like you didn't have the authority to speak up on a decision you could see going sideways, this episode gives you permission to raise your hand and do it!Episode Highlights● What "decision integrity" means — and why boards are asking for it now● The AI hospital discharge case that shows what happens without decision guardrails● Why "human in the loop" isn't always enough ● David shares his four categories of decisions● The three pillars of decisions (and data) ● Why BAs are the connective tissue of an organization — and how to claim that role● The power of raising your hand: David's career-defining habit● A $100 million cautionary tale about a "simple" customer question
Resources
Connect with Susan on LinkedIn 
Connect with Dr. David Marco onLinkedIn     
Join our IIBA business analysis community

Business Analysis Live is hosted by Susan Moore, Community Engagement Manager with the International Institute of Business Analysis (IIBA). We talk with business analysis professionals about business analysis topics and answer questions from our live audience. If you enjoyed the episode, don’t forget to hit that Like button, subscribe to the channel, and share it with your friends. Your support helps us keep bringing you great content!The International Institute of Business Analysis (IIBA) is a non-profit professional association serving the field of business analysis. As the global thought leader and voice of the business analysis community, IIBA actively supports the recognition of the profession, and works to maintain global standards for the ongoing development of the practice and certifications.