Joe Newbert

March 2010's IIBA Chapter meeting in Cape Town considered The Art of War for Business Analysts.

The presentation looked at applying some of Sun Tzu’s wisdom, from his military treatise, to help strategize and navigate through the (hopefully, less blood stained) battleground that is Business Analysis and Change.

You can get a copy of the slide-deck here: The Art of War for Business Analysts.

The talk started by considering the 'congestion' in today's Business Change world and suggested that it was time to demystify back to fundamental basics. Cue, the General Sun Tzu and his translator Lionel Giles, a high-level view of the The Art of War as a Business Change Body Of Knowledge and a quick lesson in interpreting war terminology to business .

The core of the presentation provided a summary of each of the thirteen chapter's, one by one, detailing a series of strategic rules for each. One strategic rule was then elaborated upon further by providing translation excerpts, discussing their relevance to the Business Analysis profession before finally distilling the lesson into a straightforward strategy.

The session closed with conversation regarding the surprise similarities and parallels between War and Projects, and at the age (500 BC) of the wisdom itself.

A big thank you to the IIBA Cape Town Chapter for allowing me an opportunity to express my ideas, I hope to be able to contribute further to this worthwhile initiative in the near future.