The Eyes Have It

I have always proclaimed that 4 year olds are the best business analysis professionals.  Great BAs have an easy time of asking why.  Have you ever been around a four year old that did not ask why to every response?  I think I found a challenger to the 4 year olds.  Eye doctors.  If you ever had an eye exam you should know why.  One thing for sure has not changed since I can remember getting an eye exam. At some point the eye doctor swings this big apparatus in front of your face and you are staring at an eye chart in front of you.  You look through these lenses in the apparatus and then it starts.  “Is it clearer like this”… the lenses switch…”Or is it clearer like this?”  This constant lens switching continues.  “Do you like #1 or #2…1 or 2?” The eye doctor continues until there is complete clarity.

What technique is the eye doctor using? Scenarios.  For an eye doctor the solution they are after is building the best pair of glasses or contacts for each individual.  For you as a business analysis professional you are helping your team build the best solution to meet the business needs. 

Most likely you use scenarios today with prototypes, simulation software and/or textually written in a use case or user scenario.   It is not enough to just elicit one scenario per goal from the user.  Where you add value to project results is acting like the eye doctor. When developing scenarios you need to make sure you provide multiple scenarios per goal per user or user group.  Always ask “do you like #1 or #2 better?”  Keep asking until there is clarity for the team and the user. 

All the best,

Kupe