Business Analysis Live!

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.

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

🔗 Resources
· Connect with Susan on LinkedIn
· Connect with Russell on LinkedIn
· Find out more about Being Nimble, IIBA’s research on the role of business analysis in organizational agility

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 #Instinct #CriticalThinking

Learn more at ⁠⁠⁠⁠https://www.iiba.org/

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

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.

Learn more at ⁠⁠⁠⁠https://www.iiba.org/

#FOBA2026  #BusinessAnalysis  #AdaptAlignAccelerate

This week Susan is joined again by Yvonne Ruke Akpoveta— change management strategist, founder of the Change Leadership Community, and author of the newly released Anatomy of a Change Leader — for a conversation we don't discuss enough of in this profession: layoffs.We talk about it from every angle we've each lived. Being let go. Staying behind while your team disappears around you. And the part that's uniquely uncomfortable for business analysts — sometimes our own analysis is the data that leads to the decision. Yvonne and I both got laid off early in our careers, and we get honest about how it shaped us, what organizations still get wrong about "survivor" support, and why mindset determines what you do with the time you're given.If you've been laid off, are watching it happen around you right now, or just know it's possible in this AI-disrupted moment — this one's for you.🎙️Episode Highlights● Yvonne's first layoff — and the mindset shift that came from it● Why organizations plan for the people they let go, but not the people who stay● Survivor's guilt and the anxiety loop of "am I next?"● The ethics of being the BA whose analysis feeds a layoff decision● Cognitive empathy vs. reassurance in change communication● Building "indispensable" skills before the layoff happens● Why breadth — not just technical BA skill — is what organizations want now● The Kübler-Ross change curve and getting to acceptance🔗 Resources• Connect with Susan on LinkedIn• Connect with Yvonne on LinkedInHave you been laid off? IIBA has resources and a community to help!

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 analysistopics 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, IIBAactively supports the recognition of the profession, and works to maintain global standards for the ongoing development of the practice and certifications.

#BusinessAnalysis#ChangeLeadership #CareerResilience