I have been reading Business Analysis: Best Practices for Success by Steven Blais for last few days. Essentially, the book makes a good reading and the author has an excellent grasp on the issues faced by a business analyst (BA) on a day to day basis. In fact, at the end of the book, he goes on to compile a "list of comments, complaints, and concerns was collected over many years from hundreds of business analysts all over the world". And does a great job at that!

He also gives a list of Context Free Questions that can be used by a BA to explore the problem domain. (How much I would love to have a list of similar context free questions that I can use a conversation starter with people both in/outside the office!) The anatomy of requirements sets the ground work for understanding the business of requirement analysis. The checkpoints and various games introduced throughout the book are informative. A comparison of the roles of BA, Project Manager and System Analyst is interesting. Overall, the author has poured his years of wisdom and practical experience in the well researched title.

However, something caught my eye. In Chapter 16, the author talks about the circumstances of interest. It has been introduced as something that circumscribes technical and business areas in which testing will occur. He further explains this using an example that I am quoting verbatim:

"..when the organization has 1,200 employees and is growing at 10 percent a year, it is not of interest to check whether the system will handle 10,000 employees."

Fair enough, an Organization growing at 10% annually with a seed of 1200 will reach 10,000 in around its 23rd year. Is that too far away a date to consider? If not, then how far is faraway? (Hint: Y2K)

Now, it won't be a far fetched an assumption to say that the organization might grow a little faster? With a moderate rate of 30%, the organization will reach 10,000 employees in a little over 8 years.

Doesn't seem that far now, does it?