I have found that I have spent a lot of time explaining to people what my specific role, or in general what the role of a business analyst, is. To help with this I usually explain that when American President John F Kennedy set NASA the objective of putting a man on the moon, the first question that had to be answered was Ôcan we do it? Can we build a rocket to go there?Õ When that question was answered the project could go ahead. But the mission wasnÕt to build a rocket, the mission was to put a Ôman on the moonÕ. It is the role - if not the key objective - of the business analyst to keep the project focused on mission, not the technology, in order to bring clarity and purpose. This booklet gives my current top 7 tips on how to do this. This is based on 25 years experience of in the field work.