Your computer going down without a backup is something people think will never happen to them – but when it does it can be devastating.

Whether you’re a home user with lots of personally valuable data (photos, personal e-mails etc…) or a professional with hours (and days) of work on your hard drive – the impact can be HUGE.

Having some sort of regular backup in place is a MUST for any computer user today – but what should you back up?

The main types of files on a computer are user data (your documents, photos etc…) and system data (program files, configuration data).

Many people focus on backing up their user data – but system data can be just as important and is often neglected.

So – which files should you back up – how can you do it and how can you restore them…?

This short guide is aimed at individual Windows users – if you work for a large organisation and want to backup everything across the enterprise, this is a job for your server admins (and to be honest they should be doing it already!!) Read the rest of "Which Files Should You Backup?"

In any project team you need someone with knowledge of business analysis, this is very important and it’s a great skill for any project manager to have.

Usually, the business analyst’s role entails –

• Consulting
• Requirements Management
• Requirements Analysis
• Systems Analysis
• Business Analysis

It is vital that the business analysis process doesn’t happen just once as it is a key concept within the structure of a project. It needs constant monitoring and should start at the beginning of the project and work right through to the end.

Read below to find out the main time-frames in the project lifecycle, where business analysis is key –

When producing a Business Case – Plans are drawn up for every project, it should include in-depth information and everyone involved should understand what is expected of them.

Requirements Planning – creating a schedule with various time-based requirements and documenting tasks.

Requirements Management – Managing the project as things develop and change is very important, it can be very complex and lots of things can change and evolve as the project progresses.

Obtaining Requirements – Building a relationship with stakeholders is key, you need to think about how you word and structure your questions and also consider where things could go wrong so you’re prepared.

Even though project management and business analysis do have common characteristics, they are still noticeably different. The whole project is presided over by the project manager, this includes being in charge of the projects progress, reducing the chance of risks and finishing the project on time and within budget. Whereas the business analysts’ job is to define the product in the project and make sure that it is of a sufficient standard. This job doesn’t end until the stakeholders confirm that the product is at a good enough standard and so it follows the whole project lifecycle.