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Author: Kupe Kupersmith

Things We Can Learn from the Italian Stallion. Part 2.

Written by Kupe Kupersmith on . Posted in Articles. 1 Comment on Things We Can Learn from the Italian Stallion. Part 2.

ThingsWeCanLearn1This is my blog post sequel covering the lessons we can learn from Rocky III and Rocky IV. For the first part see Things We Can Learn from the Italian Stallion.

Rocky III

At the end of Rocky II, Rocky wins the title of heavyweight champion.  He is now very wealthy and defends his title 10 times.  In the beginning of Rocky III a real contender wants a piece of Rocky Balboa.  His name…Clubber Lang.

Stay Hungry

Rocky has been living the good life for some years now beating up on has-beens and raking in the cash.  When Clubber Lang comes along Rocky is not ready.  While Clubber was training to win, Rocky had his training sessions at a hotel taking pictures with fans, selling merchandise and so on. He was doing everything, but training.  Rocky was not hungry.  He was the champ, what can stop him?  Well, Clubber Lang stopped him.  Rocky was not prepared and lost badly.

As a BA you always need to be prepared.  Every initiative you work on is different.  Just because you may have broad experience and a history of success you need to stay hungry. 

Think of your next project as Clubber Lang.  Always remember to be prepared and have the eye of the tiger! Your preparation is the act of developing a business analysis work plan.  By having a plan for your work you will have a roadmap of where you are going and have thought through many of the issues that may pop-up during a project. Think about the characteristics of the people you’ll be working with.  Some examples include each stakeholder’s preferred communication style, physical location, availability, and level of formality expected of your deliverables. Think about the characteristics of the project.  Some examples include the type of project (COTS, new development, enhancements), the project priority, and how many interfaces are impacted by the project.  Think about the processes you need to follow.  Some things to consider are what methodologies are being used within your organization and what templates are used for deliverables.

Don’t be Afraid of Change

After Rocky’s loss to Clubber Lang, the great manager, Mickey Goldmill, died of a heart attack.  In a bizarre turn of events Rocky went to train with his old rival Apollo Creed to take another stab at Clubber. In the first bout Apollo noticed how slow Rocky was and that he needed some quickness to avoid the thundering blows from Clubber.  Apollo had Rocky focus on techniques that helped him move his feet.  Initially Rocky was clumsy and struggling through these techniques.  He was obviously frustrated.  To try and motivate Rocky, Apollo tells him “it takes a real man to change.”  That was one piece that helped Rocky excel to another level and eventually defeat Clubber Lang.

My new saying is “It takes a real BA to change”.  I have said before we have to continuously learn and adapt to tackle the next project or situation.  Yes, it will be frustrating at times, but the rewards are huge.  Don’t be afraid to make mistakes.  Those are the best learning opportunities.  Use your community to share ideas and learn from others’ experiences.  In Rocky III, Rocky trained with his old rival.  Not that we have rival BAs, but don’t just talk with people that approach things like you do.  Find people at your local IIBA chapter, online communities, or in your company that have a different style or take an alternative approach to situations.  

Rocky IV

Rocky’s dethroning of Apollo Creed in Rocky II did not sit well with Apollo’s ego. He misses the limelight, and the cheers of the crowd.  When the opportunity to get back into the public’s eye arose with a bout originally meant as an exhibition fight pitting Rocky against Russian super boxer, Ivan Drago, Apollo jumped at the chance to fight again. So Apollo signs up for a fight with Drago with Rocky in his corner.

Throw in the Towel

In the first round of the fight between Apollo and Drago, Drago pummels Apollo.  At the end of the round Rocky says he needs to stop the fight.  He pleads with Apollo to stop the fight, but Apollo tells Rocky “Don’t stop the fight…no matter what!”  In round two Drago continued the pounding.  Apollo’s wife and trainer were screaming to stop the fight. Rocky picked up the towel, but never threw it in the ring to stop the fight.  With one more punch Drago killed Apollo. 

As business analysts many of you may not work on life and death projects, but you have to know when to throw in the towel.  In an earlier post, Get Your Head Out of the Weeds, I wrote about needing to get out of the detail and take a look at the bigger picture to make sure your efforts are still heading towards the goal of the project and company goals.  If you see the project is off track, throw in the towel, because If the project is off track the direction of the project needs to be realigned or even stopped. 

I recently spoke to a group of BAs about recommending a re-alignment or stopping the project. A response from the crowd indicated that doing that is a career ending move at his company.  The reason being there are people at high levels that have personal reasons for seeing a project though even if it does not meet company goals.

My response to that comment is this is not an easy decision. But, if you don’t throw in the towel the company may not be alive for long.  If enough bad decisions are made you may not have a job there anyway. 

Kupe

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Things We Can Learn from the Italian Stallion. Part 1.

Written by Kupe Kupersmith on . Posted in Articles.

ThingsWeCanLearn1OK, I’m coming clean.  My all time favorite movies are from the Rocky saga or “hexology”; Rocky, Rocky II, Rocky III, Rocky IV, Rocky V, and Rocky Balboa (number VI).  Every now and then I watch one of the movies and never get tired of the scenes of Rocky training or battling the next opponent in the ring.  But, there is more to the Rocky movies than just boxing.  There are lessons we can all learn from Rocky Balboa. I decided to dedicate this blog post to the greatest boxer to ever live! Let’s see what we can learn from the first two Rocky Movies.

Rocky

Mentorship

As part of our personal and career development we should all find mentors and be a mentor for someone else.  There are many benefits to being a mentor including working on your listening and leadership skills.  Being a mentee will allow you to learn valuable lessons from someone who has priceless experience and has already been where you are at this point in your career. 

Throughout the Rocky movie, the concept of mentorship kept popping out to me.  There is a scene where a young girl, Little Marie, from Rocky’s neighborhood is hanging out with some older boys on the street corner. Rocky pulls her away and walks her home.  During the walk home he is trying to give her advice about life and how the people she associates with will influence who she is as she grows up.  As Little Marie is walking into her house she turns and says to Rocky, “Screw you creepo”. As Rocky walks away he mumbles, “Yeah, who am I to give advice.”  Don’t think you can’t be a mentor. You have experiences that can help others.  Little Marie ends up thanking him later. 

Later in the movie after Rocky decides to fight Apollo Creed he does not accept help from anyone to help train and prepare for the fight.  Finally he comes around and gets Mickey to be his trainer and even gets Paulie, his future brother-in-law, involved.  In the end he is prepared for battle.  We all need mentors, we can all learn from others that have experienced things we have not.  Do not be ashamed to have a mentor.  You do not have to do this alone. 

As BA professionals you can find mentors and mentees within your family, company, or organizations like the IIBA.  Also, check out this site for mentoring tips, http://www.mentoringgroup.com/.

Rocky II

In case you are not as familiar with the Rocky movies as I am, here is a little recap of what happens at the end of Rocky.  Rocky goes 15 rounds with Apollo Creed.  Rocky’s right eye is badly damaged and the peripheral vision in that eye is all but gone.  At the end of the fight both Rocky and Apollo say there will not be a rematch.

Now on to Rocky II where we learn some important lessons about checking our egos at the door and never saying never. 

Ego

Since Apollo was supposed to finish off Rocky in three rounds in their first fight, Apollo was getting abused in the media and received a ton of hate mail,  basically calling him a joke, washed up, etc.  Apollo then started calling for a rematch with Rocky.  Even though his trainers, managers, and family all thought it was a bad idea he kept pressing for a rematch.  He wanted this rematch because of his ego not because it was the right thing to do. 

As BAs we need to leave our egos at the door when working on projects.  The project is not about us.  Our goal is to do what is right for the project.  If your mindset is focused on the project needs, the project will be a success and you will get recognition.  Remember, it is not what the project can do for you, but what you can do for the project!

“There Ain’t No Can’ts”

“There ain’t no can’ts” is such a great line from the great manager Mickey Goldmill.  Apollo pushed and pushed until Rocky and Mick finally agreed to the rematch.  The problem was that Rocky’s eye was so bad that he could not fight as a Southpaw (left handed).  Since his peripheral vision was so poor he would never see punches coming from Apollo until they were right on his face if he fought left-handed.  So Mick was pushing Rocky to become a right-handed fighter.  After a number of times with Rocky saying “I can’t do it Mick.” Mick yells back “there ain’t no can’ts.” 

Every situation we encounter as BAs is slightly different.  The project characteristics are different; the people we work with are different.  We cannot use the same techniques on every project we work on.  Always try to learn new techniques and skills and try them at the appropriate times on projects. If you don’t adapt the “punch” you may not see is a great opportunity. Never say “I can’t do it, Mick.” 

In future posts I’ll discuss lessons learned from the last four movies of the saga.  Oh darn, I guess I’ll have to watch the movies again!!

Kupe

Start Your Own Business Analyst Tradition

Written by Kupe Kupersmith on . Posted in Articles. 1 Comment on Start Your Own Business Analyst Tradition

StartYourOwnBATradition1With spring comes Major League Baseball in the United States and Canada. With baseball comes tradition. One of the great traditions of baseball is the ceremonial first pitch. Before each game a guest throws a ball to a home team player to end the pregame festivities and mark the beginning of the game.

April 5, 2010 was the 100th anniversary of the first Presidential Opening Day ceremonial first pitch. It has become part of the normal routine for starting a game. Everyone knows that once that pitch is thrown it is time for the game to start. Grab your hot dog, peanuts, and beverage and sit back, relax and enjoy the game. This tradition is as consistent as it gets. It is what we have grown to expect. I’m not sure why, but something would not feel right if there was not a ceremonial first pitch.

As a business analyst you need some traditions, too. You need consistency so your stakeholders know what to expect from you. As a BA being completely consistent is not a great thing. Using the same techniques on all projects is not the positive consistency I am after. As I have said before, every project is different. You need to determine what adds value to a project and do not do something just because that is how you have done it for years. You don’t want your stakeholders to expect you to do more than is needed for the project. There are things that can be done consistently that do add value. For starters here are two areas where you should be consistent.

Behavior

When colleagues are getting ready to approach you, can they always anticipate a positive interaction? Can your coworkers reasonably anticipate your behavior from one situation to the next? When they come to ask you a question, are you sometimes very open and engaged and other times pre-occupied, and do not give them the attention they need? I am not saying you have to be available for everyone all the time. Even if you don’t have the time you can be open and approachable. If someone walks in your office and you don’t have time to talk, ask to schedule some time later when you’ll be freed up. People will respect that and understand. This way people will know that when you do have time, you will give them your full attention.

Meeting Management

Do you start and end meetings on time? I know we work in an environment where we are in and out of meetings. If you are consistent with your start and end times, people know what to expect. More people will start showing up on time. Sometimes it is almost impossible for someone to show up for your meeting on time or stay until the end. When meetings are back-to-back it is physically impossible to be at one meeting until the end and make it to the next meeting on time. Try one or both of these tips (traditions) on meeting times and your attendees will thank you.

  • High school class method: Hold your meeting for 50 minutes. This way you’ll end the meeting 10 minutes to the hour allowing people to make it to their next meeting. Maybe they’ll have time to stop at their locker.
  • Turner Time: In 1981, TBS Superstation began airing programs 5 minutes after the top and bottom of the hour. So a show on TBS would start at 7:05pm compared to 7:00pm on other stations. One reason they did this was so people would continue watching shows on their station. If a show ended at 7:35 pm and shows on other stations started at 7:30, most likely they would stay with TBS because they missed the beginning of a show on the other stations. Start your meetings off the hour or half hour. Try starting a meeting at 10:15am. Then your attendees will have time to make it to your meeting and not have to rush out to make another one that starts at the same time yours ends. Be careful. Others will catch on to this method and try and copycat. You have to stay ahead of the curve for this to be effective!

Do you manage your meetings consistently? Do you stick to common meeting ground rules?

During a customer meeting I was facilitating, five out of the six attendees were on their Blackberry. After a failed attempt to get everyone to put their Blackberry’s away I packed up my stuff, explained I would reschedule the meeting and started to walk out. Talk about shock factor. They tried getting me back and I refused. I told them in a very nice way that obviously they had important things to get done, so I would let them get back to their desks. The rescheduled meeting was Blackberry free. My customers knew what to expect from me.

What are some of your traditions? What do your customers know what to expect from you?

To tradition!

Kupe

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Build Trust; High Five Your Teammate

Written by Kupe Kupersmith on . Posted in Articles. 2 Comments on Build Trust; High Five Your Teammate

BuildTrust1When I began writing this blog series at BA Times last year, I aimed to focus on the behavioral characteristics of our role as business analysts.  My goal was to go deeper than the science of our role and focus on the softer skills. I wanted to give you my thoughts and concrete ways to separate yourself from the pack of BAs by giving you ideas to up your game as a BA. After 10 months and 20 blog posts I have discovered the one thing, above all else, that is the pillar to your success as a business analyst That one thing is trust. The higher the trust relationships you have, the more success you can achieve.

When It Hit Me

Last week I delivered a webinar, The BA Life Beyond, Charts, Diagrams, & Documents. The purpose of my webinar was to help the attendees understand the importance of the “soft” skills and behaviors needed to be an excellent, desired BA. As I was working on the content with a colleague we both read Stephen M. R. Covey’s book Speed of Trust.  Quickly, trust stood out as the pillar that supports the underlying competencies outlined in the IIBA BABOK® Guide V2.0, the “soft” skills. If you have trusting relationships, communication is more efficient and easier, your ability to lead and influence increases, your teamwork improves dramatically, and the list goes on.

Why Trust?

In his book Covey asks a few simple questions that help you understand why trust is so important.  Take a minute to think about these as I lay them out here. For the purposes of this blog think of a work relationship, although this can be applied to any relationship.

Think about a person with whom you have a high trust relationship. Describe this relationship?  What’s it like? How does it feel? How is the communication? How well do you communicate?  How quickly can you get things done? How much do you enjoy this relationship?

Now think of a person with whom you have a low trust relationship.  Describe this relationship?  What’s it like? How does it feel? How is the communication? Does it flow freely…or do you feel like you’re constantly walking on land mines and being misunderstood? Do you work together to get things done quickly or does it take a disproportionate amount of time and energy to finally reach an agreement and execution? Do you enjoy this relationship or do you find it tedious, cumbersome, and draining?

You can see that in high trust relationships you move faster, communication is clearer, and a team with high trust will be able to solve problems and make decisions more efficiently.

Build Trusting Relationships

Covey provides 13 behaviors of high trust people and leaders worldwide.  One I want to talk about today is “Show Loyalty”.  He talks about showing loyalty in terms of giving credit freely.  Acknowledging the accomplishments of others, shows you the value that person brings.  People want to be on your team if you give credit where credit is due and not take the credit for the work of others. 

Here is where the high five comes in.  In the March 15, 2010 Sports Illustrated there is a fabulous article written by Chris Ballard about the high five and all of its variations.  He shared findings from a study that examined the effect of “touch” (high fives, head slaps, shoulder bumps, etc.) in the NBA.  What they found was that the more high fives, head slaps and shoulder bumps, the more wins the team had.  The opposite was also true.  The teams with the least amount won the least amount of games.  And the individuals that high fived the most were the team leaders. 

What is a better way to give credit to someone than a high five?  When a teammate facilitates a great elicitation session, feel free to walk up to them and deliver a high five as you are leaving the conference room.  As you are working on designing a solution and a teammate has a great idea, reach across the table and offer up a fist bump. 

I know some of you are thinking I am crazy.  Maybe you’re right.  People may be a little thrown off if you jump in the air in hopes to connect with a flying shoulder bump or put out your forearm going for a forearm bash.  But, you get my point! Right?  When others do a good job make sure you acknowledge it. 

High fives for everyone,

Kupe

Be a Leader; Focus on Change

Written by Kupe Kupersmith on . Posted in Articles.

bealeaderLast week I had lunch with a former co-worker to discuss an improvement plan she was implementing for a team of business analysts.  I told her I would not reveal her name in this blog so let’s call her Wonder BA. Wonder BA is an active reader of this blog, so maybe she’ll chime in with a comment or two on this post and reveal herself. Wonder BA was recently promoted and given the responsibility to lead a BA improvement initiative. As we discussed her approach and things to consider with this initiative, I noticed the conversation did not focus on business analysis. There was little talk about an analysis process, how the BA role was used in their agile environment, or how to organize the BA group. The main focus was on the project team environment, how the team perceived the value of the BA, what their management team wanted to see more of from the BA community, and steps to roll out the BA improvements. It was all about ways to ensure this initiative or more specifically this change initiative would be accepted and adopted in Wonder BA’s organization. We talked about how to assess the change readiness of the organization and the individuals impacted; her thoughts on if the culture in her group was one that will accept and adopt the changes she wanted to implement, and how to motivate the individual BAs to embrace the change.

This got me thinking about the change created with every project we work on.  Too often the project team’s focus is on the features or the new process being implemented as a result of the project. Time is spent worrying about time.  Sleep is lost thinking about ensuring we have the right resources to create the solution.  Once the project rolls to production, the team is happy and moves on to the next round of enhancements.  Teams need to start spending more energy on how to help the users and organization accept and adopt the change created by the project.  Often the business comes to the project team asking for new enhancements or a new application to help them overcome the challenges they face.  But too often, the impact on the business of introducing a new process or application is underestimated. 

As I was writing this blog I called a trusted thought leader in change management, Darshana Patel, change and conflict specialist and founder of SplashMaker LLC.  I asked her opinion on this topic and how BAs can help with adoption. Here is her response:

“With increasing efforts to improve the reliability of project outcomes, a new realization is emerging: a successful project does not equal a successful change.  Project and change are two sides of the same coin.  A project delivered on time, on budget, with targeted scope and quality does not guarantee adoption, institutionalization, and sustainability of the solution.   

With the business analyst positioned closest to the pulse of the people and processes affected by a project, here are five key considerations for the BA in planning for and executing successful change.

  1. How will individuals, groups, and the organization be affected by this project? How do we motivate each level to align with the changes required by the project?
  2. Which levers do we need to adjust: goals, culture, structure, and process to support ongoing adoption? Who needs to be involved to make this happen?
  3. What is the organizational context of this project? What dynamics are at play that may impact the likelihood of success?
  4. Politically speaking, who supports or needs to support this project? Whose lack of support can sink the short or long term viability for success? What information can be provided to influence their position?
  5. Who can we employ as change agents to actively broaden and strengthen the coalition of support? What is the formal and information communication plan to propagate the themes, messages, and ideas that align conversations and people with the project?”

Early in the project, begin to think about the points Darshana raises. You still need to focus on the features and new processes to be implemented. But does any of that matter if the new features and processes are not adopted?  As a BA you are a leader.  By focusing your attention on planning and executing change you will be acting like one.

To change!

Kupe

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