How can you identify business analysis trends in your industry?

1 Understand your industry context

Before you look for trends, you need to understand the context of your industry. What are the drivers, opportunities, threats, and regulations that affect your industry? How are your customers, competitors, and suppliers changing? What are the current and future needs and expectations of your stakeholders? You can use tools like PESTLE analysis, SWOT analysis, Porter's five forces, and stakeholder analysis to assess your industry context.

2 Follow industry sources and influencers

One of the best ways to identify trends is to follow the sources and influencers that publish relevant and reliable information about your industry. These can include industry journals, magazines, blogs, podcasts, newsletters, reports, webinars, conferences, and social media accounts. You can also use tools like Google Alerts, Feedly, or Twitter lists to monitor and filter the content that interests you. You should also network with other business analysts, experts, and practitioners in your industry and exchange insights and opinions.

3 Analyze data and feedback

Another way to identify trends is to analyze the data and feedback that you collect from your own business analysis activities. This can include surveys, interviews, observations, metrics, KPIs, user stories, requirements, testing results, and lessons learned. You can use tools like Excel, Power BI, Tableau, or R to visualize and interpret the data and feedback. You should also look for patterns, gaps, anomalies, and correlations that indicate emerging trends or challenges.

4 Validate and prioritize trends

Once you have identified some potential trends, you need to validate and prioritize them. You need to check if the trends are consistent, credible, and relevant for your industry and your business analysis practice. You can use tools like trend analysis, scenario analysis, impact analysis, or cost-benefit analysis to evaluate the trends and their implications. You should also prioritize the trends based on their urgency, importance, feasibility, and alignment with your strategic goals.

5 Adapt and apply trends

Finally, you need to adapt and apply the trends to your business analysis practice. You need to update your knowledge, skills, tools, and techniques to reflect the trends and their impact. You also need to communicate and collaborate with your stakeholders to inform them about the trends and how they affect your projects and solutions. You should also monitor and review the trends and their outcomes regularly and adjust your approach accordingly.

6 Here’s what else to consider

This is a space to share examples, stories, or insights that don’t fit into any of the previous sections. What else would you like to add?