Adversarial Thinking for Business Analysts

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

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

A gut feeling. A hunch. That feeling that something's off. As business analysts, we're trained to bring data to the table — but what about the things we know before the data catches up?Russell Mears — IIBA board member and 15-year BA veteran — joins Susan Moore on this episode of Business Analysis Live! to make the case that tapping into your instinct isn't abandoning rigor. Actually, it's a form of it. Drawing on philosophy, history, and hard-won experience in some of the most intense environments in finance, Russell reframes what it means to "do your homework" as a business analyst — and why dismissing your gut might be the most expensive mistake you make.This episode also gets into the real barriers to acting on your instincts — psychological safety, the pressure to quantify everything, and why a confident-looking output can silence the very people who know something's wrong.Episode Highlights• Trained instinct vs. raw hunch — what’s the difference? • Michael Polanyi's "we can know more than we can tell"• Gary Klein's research on expert pattern-matching under pressure• Why "garbage in, garbage out" assumes you can spot the garbage• The barriers to speaking up — psychological safety and the pressure to quantify• Instinct as a leading indicator • How instinct shows up in the business analysis practice• IIBA's Being Nimble research: sensing and responding to change

This week on Business Analysis Live!, Susan Moore sits down with the team behind the Festival of Business Analysis (FOBA) — IIBA Australia's Abi Sachithanantham and Luigi Bini — to unpack this year's crowdsourced theme: Adapt, Align, and Accelerate. It's a two-week celebration (online first, then in person across five Australian cities plus Auckland and Wellington), and this year's program leans hard into more than just AI hype. Susan also catches up with closing keynote speaker Shane Hastie (CBAP #140 and a core contributor to BABOK 3.0) on why career shape-shifting — not job titles — is the real story of this AI moment. Vaughan Luckman of Luckman Beyond BA makes the case that BAs are the "kings and queens of context" and they can't afford to sit back and wait for a seat at the table. And Sharon Robson and Will McNellis of Core State Consulting preview their workshop on political quotient — because office politics isn't something to avoid but something we need understand. Whether you're headed to Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane, Perth, Adelaide, Auckland, or Wellington — or joining online — this episode is a taste of what you’ll hear at FOBA this year.- Episode Highlights● How FOBA's 2026 theme for this year was crowdsourced from the community● Shane Hastie talks about his closing keynote - "the shape you didn't plan" and the broken-comb shaped skill set● Vaughan Luckman says ditch the 300-page document and claim a seat at the table● Sharon Robson & Will McNelis want you to embrace your “political quotient” and hack (rather than avoid) office politics● Learn where and how you can join FOBA this year! - Resources Connect with Susan on LinkedIn Follow the IIBA Australia Chapter on LinkedIn Find the agendas and get your tickets: festivalofbusinessanalysis.org Connect with Vaughan Luckman on LinkedIn Connect with Sharon Robson on LinkedIn Connect with Will McNellis on LinkedIn Connect with Shane Hastie on LinkedIn