5 Rules of Thumb for Going Beyond the Data

  Decision Making   Leadership   ProjectsAtWork  

What rules of thumb do you keep in mind when you’re analyzing business problems and recomending solutions? It is the thought processes behind the data that can often make the difference between good work and great work. Here is one BA’s list.

I’ve been thinking about what makes a good business analyst, and in general the soft knowledge is harder to pick up in many cases than explicit knowledge like accounting or marketing. To that point, here are a few of the rules of thumb I try to follow. None of them is particularly sophisticated, but I include them because they are the issues that people tend to neglect when rushing to finish a project or a deliverable.

These more ambiguous thought processes are often what separate good analysts (and for that matter decision-makers) from great ones.

The 80/20 rule

Most people have heard about the 80/20 rule (otherwise known as the Pareto rule), but it’s often ignored in practice. Consultants in particular, myself included, often have a hard time not throwing every analysis and every recommendation against the wall. Throughout your work, always ask yourself what will truly make the biggest difference and focus on that. Do your best to ignore other issues, or at least put them in an appendix (literally and figuratively) where they don’t distract people from the top priorities.

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