Category: Psychology

The amount of information we have to manage on a daily basis is quite phenomenal.   In 2010, Eric Schmidt (CEO of Google) told us that every two days, we create as much information as we did from the dawn of civilization up to 2003. We all know the amount of news and social media…

A question from Steve in the USA “How does a business analyst reduce the instance of availability bias when asking stakeholders about problems and issues?” What is the Availability Bias? The availability bias determines the facts that you pick to support your case when you are reasoning something through or making a decision. The brain…

A question from Steve in the USA:    “Assuming that it is important during elicitation to get accurate information, how does a business analyst overcome confirmation bias in him or herself, and in the person providing the information?”  What is Confirmation Bias? Confirmation bias describes the behaviour where you look for, analyse and remember facts…

Early in 2018 I was a guest on Penny Pullan’s BA Virtual Summit, talking about cognitive biases and the Business Analyst. As part of this attendees were invited to submit questions to speakers. Penny was kind enough to transcribe our discussion and I am sharing it as a series of blog posts. Edited, of course, to…

There is an ongoing hum of concern about the effect the smartphone has on our lives. For many of us, the first thing we do in the morning is reach for our smartphone. People complain that others are glued to their phone and don’t talk to those they are with. We have laws to criminalise people…

One of our biggest challenges in working with a team is keeping people motivated when things get hard.   Why does one person work themselves into the ground doing far more work than is necessary, while another spends hours on anything other than the thing they are supposed to do? Why does one sail along…