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Author: Bob Prentiss

Can Business Analyst Boot Camps be Effective?

Boot camps are intense training opportunities that are fast paced.

When you hear the word boot camp, the first thing that pops into your thoughts is a drill sergeant yelling in a military fashion and pushing you to perform an exercise. In the military you need to be tough and boot camps build military personnel with grueling exercises over a period of weeks. In business, boot camps are fast-paced learning environments that teach students specific skills.

Learning under pressure in a fast-paced environment works for some, but not all learners. What makes boot camp learning effective is focusing on the key areas that are the most important to your career or your organization’s objectives.


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Boot Camps are Effective Experiences for Some, But Not All

Business Analysis is highly specialized work. According to a recent Bloomberg article, the Silicon Valley recruiter Mark Dinan characterized the boot camps as “a freaking joke.” Not all Business Analyst boot camps are created the same. Why are some boot camps failing?

This happens for a few primary reasons. Training organizations not providing real work examples to learn from because they focus too much on theory.. Another reason boot camps are not effective is that they are not focused and are too broad in their training.

Boot camps are effective when the training focuses on real-world practical examples that are highly focused on select skill areas. With our Bob the BA partnership, the Uncommon League is focusing on relevant, real-world, practical training – training that is focused where you need it most.

Top 10 BA Boot Camps By CIO Magazine

The Uncommon League and Bob the BA are listed as one of the Top 10 Business Analyst boot camps by Sarah K. White Senior Writer at CIO Magazine. Not all boot camps are created the same and they fill a specific training purpose. So let’s dive into the world of boot camps.

Spinach and Wisdom

Spinach was never my favorite vegetable growing up. That green soggy and slimy mess on my plate just wasn’t something I was interested in eating.

“You know there are starving children all over the world. You are not leaving that table until you finish eating your spinach.”  Our response was “Get me their address.  I will mail it to them.”  That was not an argument that would win over Mom.

Years later while working as a Business Analyst working on negotiating outsourcing contracts, cleverness was raised to an art form. A quick off-the-cuff remark that was clever could disarm the most well thought out point.  Cleverness is always concerned with triumphing over one’s opponent in an argument or discussion.  Negotiations became more of a game and less about understanding each other.  A person is considered sharp, skillful and witty throwing out quip.  You can of course also be viewed as sarcastic and mean spirited.

Many negotiations concluded, and contracts won. The art form of negotiation used cleverness frequently and very little business analysis.  It was all about getting our needs met and overcoming any opposition.  By this focus on overcoming the other side, we lost sight on really understanding the points of views of others and just forcing your point of view forward to win.  Business Analysis was throw out the window to be successful.

Winning did not produce the great results we had cleverly negotiated. Many of the outsourcing agreements feel part within two years due to significant issues with outsourcing vendors. One agreement fell apart after six months.  We just couldn’t understand why all our contracts fell apart. We later learned that our approach to not understanding the business problem and the business model of outsourcing vendors was a key factor in having these contracts fall apart. We won the battle. We got what we wanted.  The problem was we were too busy being clever.  


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Society values cleverness. Twitter runs on 128 characters or less of cleverness in discussions on complex topics. TV is full of the clever one-liners going back and forth. Being clever never helps us resolve issues but rather makes them worse.  I can make the quip about sending spinach to starving children by getting their address to win a battle but lose the war on spinach by having to sit at the table until it is completely eaten. I valued cleverness more and tried to feed it to the dog. Australian sheepdogs do not like spinach, so I was stuck eating it myself.  

Wisdom is not always so valued when compared to cleverness.  Wisdom is walking in someone else’s shoes to see the world through their eyes to understand their point of view. Wisdom is not about winning points in an agreement or negotiation. Wisdom is the observation, empathy, and thoughtfulness to gain deeper meaning and understanding. Wisdom is relating yours and others experiences together for the current issue at hand. Wisdom is slow and takes time. Cleverness is fast and quick.

It is hard being wise in an environment where speed is of the essence.  We want to go faster and faster. We want to be clever. In choosing whether to be clever or wise, I would choose wisdom. Wisdom opens your eyes to all the possibilities and gives a deeper understanding to move forward productively. Granted that may take more time for Business Analysis but it is time well spent to protect our future investment.

A colleague of mine in the construction industry once said to me, “To build a house in 3 days – you have to design and plan for three years.”  At the time, I thought he was nuts.  The truth of it was that he was perfectly correct.  In building a new development, we really could get a house framed with doors and windows, painted walls, electrical, plumbing and flooring all completed in 3 days. A customer bought the house on Monday, and it was ready to move in on Thursday.  Solid good quality homes built from the ground up in a fraction of the time.  Those three years paid off big time.  The construction company saved considerable amounts of money by being able to close on houses faster.

Looking back at those outsourcing contract negotiations, it is clear to me that wisdom was missing.  We did not look deep, did not understand their situation or expectations, and we failed even while getting everything we wanted.  Wisdom would have driven us to walk in their shoes and understand them more fully before attempting to construct those agreements.

In the case of spinach, it may have been wiser to gulp down the cooked spinach and ask for raw spinach next time.

May we have the good sense to know when to be clever and when to be wise.

Can Business Analyst Boot Camps be Effective

Boot camps are intense training opportunities that are fast paced.

When you hear the word boot camp, the first thing that pops into your thoughts is a drill sergeant yelling in a military fashion and pushing you to perform an exercise. In the military you need to be tough and boot camps build military personnel with grueling exercises over a period of weeks. In business, boot camps are fast-paced learning environments that teach students specific skills.

Learning under pressure in a fast-paced environment works for some, but not all learners. What makes boot camp learning effective is focusing on the key areas that are the most important to your career or your organization’s objectives.

Boot Camps are Effective Experiences for Some, But Not All

Business Analysis is highly specialized work. According to a recent Bloomberg article, the Silicon Valley recruiter Mark Dinan characterized the boot camps as “a freaking joke .” Not all Business Analyst boot camps are created the same. Why are some boot camps failing?

This happens for a few primary reasons. Training organizations not providing real work examples to learn from because they focus too much on theory.. Another reason boot camps are not effective is that they are not focused and are too broad in their training.

Boot camps are effective when the training focuses on real-world practical examples that are highly focused on select skill areas. With our Bob the BA partnership, the Uncommon League is focusing on relevant, real-world, practical training – training that is focused where you need it most.

Top 10 BA Boot Camps By CIO Magazine

The Uncommon League and Bob the BA are listed as one of the Top 10 Business Analyst boot camps by Sarah K. White Senior Writer at CIO Magazine. Not all boot camps are created the same and they fill a specific training purpose. So let’s dive into the world of boot camps.

 bootcamps 1

How Organizations Can Use Boot Camps

First things first. Evaluate your team’s skills and determine their needs. The IIBA competency model is a good starting place if you are an IIBA member. Another good starting point is to create a SWOT (Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats) analysis. Look for patterns and try to get to the root cause of the problems your team is having. Retrospectives, post-project reviews, and interviews with stakeholders also help form a picture of where to focus your training. Boot camps work best for organizations when their outcome goals are clear and focused.

Focus your organization’s approach

Focus means working on your organization’s weaknesses and areas where it wants to improve. If your organization is having difficulty with eliciting good requirements, you will need to dig deeper into the reason why that is happening. Is it building relationships and trust with stakeholders? Do you Business Analysts understand how to Influence Without Authority? Are the requirements getting too technical?

Organizational approaches to boot camps

Organizations typically use the boot camp approach for a few different reasons:

  • Filling a skills gap that everyone on the team has in common.
  • Standardizing work quality so all team members perform elicitation of requirements, analysis, design, or other key areas at the same level of competency.
  • Using the boot camp to bring a team together on common ground to help each other create a support system or informal mentoring.

Choose the right approach for your team that effectively addresses your organization and team goals.

bootcamps 2


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How Individuals Can Use Boot Camps

For the individual, think about your career objectives. A thoughtful self-evaluation of your career will help guide you. Ask yourself the questions:

  • Where do I want my career to go in the next 5 years? Think about the tasks you will want to be doing on a daily basis. Forget the titles, they are different for every organization. Focus how your day will go in the future and what types of projects you will be working on. Would this boot camp help you reach your future?
  • Certification or skills growth? Certification demonstrates to potential and current employers you are committed to your craft and meet the expectations of an outside standards body. Are you ready for certification? Do you have all the skill sets needed in order to thrive in a Business Analyst role? Remember certifications require years of experience before you can apply to take the certification test. The choice here is whether or not to focus on sharpening your skills or for proving your skills.
  • What skills am I missing now? Retrospectives, post-project reviews, and open thoughtful feedback from colleagues can help you figure out what skills you are missing. Are they skills the boot camp will provide you?
  • Your best learning experience. What was your best learning experience? Was it high pressured? Interactive? What made that experience the best and most useful? If you learn better in a slower collaborative environment than a boot camp might not be right for you.

Align the answers to the questions above to the boot camp. Does it cover the topics you need? Is it focused on your needs or on topics that are not of value?

 bootcamps 3

Virtual Boot Camps

Augmented reality (AR) has proven to be effective in learning quickly. UNIMERSIV states, “The armed forces are incorporating VR into troop training in a wide variety of ways, making training more interactive and engaging than ever. As a result, troops acquire skills more quickly and retain the knowledge they learn through a personal connection.” Virtual immersive training works because it is dealing with real-world situations.

AR training for business analysts is a ways off but virtual training without AR goggles produces effective outcomes.

Many organizations use virtual or online training as an effective way to deliver high-quality training. According to virtual learning experts, The Training Industry publication points out 4 key areas for effective virtual training:

  • Instructor Personality. The instructors engaging personality ensures learners are engaged and actively learning while in the virtual training session. It is very easy to get distracted or bored when the instructor doesn’t actively engage the learner during the training.
  • Application Conversations. The instructor needs to engage the students by asking “how would you use this in the real world?”. The student needs to know how to apply this training in their day to day tasks. The instructor should provide stories from their own backgrounds into why the technique or skill worked for them – or didn’t work for them.
  • Ensure Engagement. The instructor needs so facilitate student engagement and verify the students are fully engaged in the materials.
  • Smart Visuals. “Death by PowerPoint” is not something you want in your training sessions. Large text, bright colors, and meaningful engaging pictures are needed to bring concepts to life.

The Uncommon League focuses on ensuring we meet these objectives for the optimal boot camp training experience.

Face to Face Camps

Boot camps are highly effective in face to face training too. Organizations with smaller teams of less than 24 Business Analysts tend to lean this direction. This option works best for organizations that have their teams located in one location or are willing to pay for travel expenses for training.

Face to face brings your team into a safe space where new ideas and concepts can be experimented with in an effort to bring them into the workplace. This team experimentation also builds team relationships as they work to solve common problems.

Boot camp training sessions are great for team building and for skills building at the same time because the team is face to face solving issues and learning.

Spinach and Wisdom

Spinach was never my favorite vegetable growing up. That green soggy and slimy mess on my plate just wasn’t something I was interested in eating.

“You know there are starving children all over the world. You are not leaving that table until you finish eating your spinach.” Our response was “Get me their address. I will mail it to them.” That was not an argument that would win over Mom.

Years later while working as a Business Analyst working on negotiating outsourcing contracts, cleverness was raised to an art form. A quick off-the-cuff remark that was clever could disarm the most well thought out point. Cleverness is always concerned with triumphing over one’s opponent in an argument or discussion. Negotiations became more of a game and less about understanding each other. A person is considered sharp, skillful and witty throwing out quip. You can of course also be viewed as sarcastic and mean spirited.

Many negotiations concluded, and contracts won. The art form of negotiation used cleverness frequently and very little business analysis. It was all about getting our needs met and overcoming any opposition. By this focus on overcoming the other side, we lost sight on really understanding the points of views of others and just forcing your point of view forward to win. Business Analysis was throw out the window to be successful.

Winning did not produce the great results we had cleverly negotiated. Many of the outsourcing agreements feel part within two years due to significant issues with outsourcing vendors. One agreement fell apart after six months. We just couldn’t understand why all our contracts fell apart. We later learned that our approach to not understanding the business problem and the business model of outsourcing vendors was a key factor in having these contracts fall apart. We won the battle. We got what we wanted. The problem was we were too busy being clever.

Society values cleverness. Twitter runs on 128 characters or less of cleverness in discussions on complex topics. TV is full of the clever one-liners going back and forth. Being clever never helps us resolve issues but rather makes them worse. I can make the quip about sending spinach to starving children by getting their address to win a battle but lose the war on spinach by having to sit at the table until it is completely eaten. I valued cleverness more and tried to feed it to the dog. Australian sheepdogs do not like spinach, so I was stuck eating it myself.

Wisdom is not always so valued when compared to cleverness. Wisdom is walking in someone else’s shoes to see the world through their eyes to understand their point of view. Wisdom is not about winning points in an agreement or negotiation. Wisdom is the observation, empathy, and thoughtfulness to gain deeper meaning and understanding. Wisdom is relating yours and others experiences together for the current issue at hand. Wisdom is slow and takes time. Cleverness is fast and quick.

It is hard being wise in an environment where speed is of the essence. We want to go faster and faster. We want to be clever. In choosing whether to be clever or wise, I would choose wisdom. Wisdom opens your eyes to all the possibilities and gives a deeper understanding to move forward productively. Granted that may take more time for Business Analysis but it is time well spent to protect our future investment.

A colleague of mine in the construction industry once said to me, “To build a house in 3 days – you have to design and plan for three years.” At the time, I thought he was nuts. The truth of it was that he was perfectly correct. In building a new development, we really could get a house framed with doors and windows, painted walls, electrical, plumbing and flooring all completed in 3 days. A customer bought the house on Monday, and it was ready to move in on Thursday. Solid good quality homes built from the ground up in a fraction of the time. Those three years paid off big time. The construction company saved considerable amounts of money by being able to close on houses faster.

Looking back at those outsourcing contract negotiations, it is clear to me that wisdom was missing. We did not look deep, did not understand their situation or expectations, and we failed even while getting everything we wanted. Wisdom would have driven us to walk in their shoes and understand them more fully before attempting to construct those agreements.

In the case of spinach, it may have been wiser to gulp down the cooked spinach and ask for raw spinach next time.

May we have the good sense to know when to be clever and when to be wise.

The Skeptical Business Analyst – 9 Tools to Build a Baloney Detection Kit

Skeptical is a highly-charged word. Are you skeptical? In business being skeptical is akin to being a nay-sayer, difficult to work with, not being a team player or a trouble maker.

Skeptical does not need to be destructive or negative. You do not have to be a jerk to be skeptical. Skeptical can mean looking at things with a critical eye respectfully and politely to create thoughtful and meaningful discussions to elicit business requirements and build business solutions.

Carl Sagan (November 9, 1934–December 20, 1996) was an American astronomer, cosmologist, and astrophysicist who was known as a master of the balance between skepticism and openness. In Carl’s last book, he wrote a chapter titled “The Fine Art of Baloney Detection” where he outlines the “Baloney Detection Kit.” With the introduction of new ideas, Carl Sagan used the kit to evaluate them. If the new idea survives examination by the tools in the kit, the idea was given a warm reception and sometimes a provisional acceptance of the idea. If the new idea was challenged by the kit and didn’t fare well, the idea was refined and modified.

The Baloney Detection Kit is a collection of tools that can apply elegantly to business solutions and requirements elicitation in the Business Analyst profession. Although these tools were designed for the larger realm of cosmic exploration, physics, and science, they are equally at home with a Business Analysts thinking. Let’s focus on how these tools are used for elicitation and design as a part of the Business Analyst role.

1. Wherever Possible There Must Be Independent Confirmation of The Facts

Several hard lessons were learned in dealing with Commercial Off-the-Shelf (COTS) vendors and when dealing with reporting dashboards for business intelligence projects. The mistake was accepting the facts at face value and not verifying those facts.

For the COTS project, it meant accepting the vendor’s statement that the solution would perform the desired function without verifying the desired function worked. Building a sandbox to use as a playground to verify the desired function worked in the COTS application is very beneficial.

For the Business Intelligence project, it was confirmation of the meaning of the data, and it’s overall quality and accuracy. A simple data discussion has turned into a spirited debate about what a data field means and the data it contains. Learning to avoid useless reports by carefully evaluating the quality and accuracy of the data has been my greatest lesson. Just because data is captured doesn’t mean it is captured accurately or that it has quality. I have had many cases where all stakeholders trusted the quality of the data without question, but after thoughtful and careful review it was determined the data was of low quality.

2. Encourage Substantive Debate by Knowledgeable Proponents of All Points of View

A forest is seen in many ways. From above you see the canopy of green leaves. From the ground, you see the tree trunks and branches. Looking from below ground, you see the roots of the trees. Different perspectives give you a deeper understanding of the overall situation that leads to more efficient and meaningful solutions.

When eliciting the requirements or validation of the business solution, a Business Analyst needs to see the whole picture. By looking more globally, you can determine how the solution will fit into the organization. An example of this would be only looking at the needs for a Customer Relationship Management tool from the perspective of customer service and ignoring marketing and sales teams in eliciting requirements. Marketing and Sales have specific requirements when interacting with customers just as the Customer Service Team. Even though the scope of the project is entirely within Customer Service, care should be taken to understanding Marketing and Sales teams that could in the future utilize or connect with the system.

Systems created in a silo was a pitfall for many of my clients by not looking at the larger organization and how it would use a CRM solution. So, each department that interacted with a customer – 9 different teams in all – created their separate systems which created a costly solution to maintain 9 CRM solutions and 60+ interfaces to pass data between them. The solution was to combine all 9 CRM solutions into a single CRM solution to save costs. It took two years to complete the consolidation. It was very costly for the organization not to look at a more global approach to creating a CRM application.

Another example of this would be from another client that had three different locations for product testing laboratories. The labs mostly did not talk with each other because they were in different parts of the world. The project was to upgrade a Laboratory Information Management System (LIMS) in one of the locations because the vendor no longer supported the version the lab was working on and it did not connect to all their new lab equipment. The lab manager assured me that talking with the other labs would be a waste of time. The team saw an article on the web about one of the other labs upgrading to a new system. We reached out to them to get a better understanding of the cost and project effort that would be required. Surprisingly we discovered they had a tool that would meet all our needs, an enterprise license for the software that would save our project money and desired a better connection to our lab. The overall result was the reduction of the project budget and project duration cut in half.

3. Arguments from Experts Carry Little Weight

This tool is the most charged of the tools in the kit. The statement here is that no one is all knowing or God-like in his or her knowledge of a system or process. Experts have made assumptions based on their experience, but handle assumptions of all kinds with great care. Systems and processes are ever evolving and changing. This situation seems to happen on projects where a business team member is considered the all-knowing expert for a process or system that doesn’t like to be challenged. These individuals begin to “spin” the facts to avoid looking like they made a mistake and their desire to maintain the status of all-knowing. They do not want to lose face. It becomes tough to understand the overall current state but probing gently and thoughtfully in a non-threatening way can lead to the discovery of the current state issues and root causes. Care if taken to avoid the expert feeling that you do not trust them. Seek to understand first and gain the agreement of the current or future states.

No one is infallible or all-knowing. Care should be taken to verify what an expert gives you facts or requirements. It is not disrespectful to challenge an expert. If done thoughtfully and gently it can build a strong business relationship.

4. Spin More Than One Hypothesis

In Business Analysis, we create solutions to problems, and we help build designs to solve those business problems. In a way, a business design or a business solution is a hypothesis. It is a potential way to solve a business problem. In Business Analysis, we typically don’t create multiple business solutions and then compare them against each other, but one of the strengths of a COTS project is that you are comparing multiple vendor solutions against each other to ensure you get the best possible. In several recent projects, I have taken to building multiple potential internal solutions and then comparing them against each other in a similar fashion to comparing COTS solutions to each other.

The outcome of this was that I could see a broader range of solutions. Additionally, my stakeholders and sponsors felt they had an opportunity to pick a solution, feel invested in that solution and not feel Technology was forcing them to accept only one solution. The other interesting outcome of this approach is stakeholders and sponsors pulling ideas from one solution into another solution to create a whole new approach.

If there’s something to be explained, think of all the different explanations. Then think of tests by which you might systematically disprove each of the alternatives. What survives has a much better chance of being an effective solution than if you had simply run with the first idea.

5. Try Not to Get Attached to a Hypothesis Just Because It is Yours

A better way to state this would don’t get hooked on a solution you came up with and ignore other potential solutions. Be open to other potential business solutions and be open to modifications or changes to the business solution you have put forward. Building the best business solution needs flexibility and collaboration.

Ask yourself why you like the idea. Compare it fairly with the alternatives. See if you can find reasons for rejecting it and modify the idea to strengthen it.

6. Quantify

If whatever it is you are explaining has some measure, some numerical quantity attached to it, you will be much better able to discriminate among competing hypotheses or solutions. Quantification of requirements and business solutions are important. Ensure the requirement or solution can be quantified by analysis. Every solution should have an objective measurement that can be used to determine its value when compared to other solutions.

Anything that is vague and open to many different explanations will result in requirements and business solutions being confusing, frustrating, and easily misinterpretation. At the beginning of a project either when we are creating the business case or just been assigned to a project there is a lot of uncertainty and assumptions. As you move through the project, it is important to track all the assumptions made and verify them as you move forward. I have had some assumptions that were never resolved until the project was almost completed. Challenge assumptions made and resolve them continuously throughout. A bad assumption can lead the project down a path to a bad or ineffective business solution.

7. Every Chain Link Must Work

If there’s a chain of argument or solution, every link in the chain must work (including the premise) — not just most of them. Business solutions are systems, hardware, software, processes, data, interfaces, integrations and business rules that are chained together. This is where traceability shines brightly.

Ensuring that scope aligns with requirements and requirements to test cases is the basic traceability. Advanced Traceability is making sure every part of the business solution is in alignment and supporting each other and that nothing was missed from the overall solution design.

Business process neatly falls into this discussion. Each task in a business process is connected by the task ahead of it or after it. To verify a business process each task’s input, processing, and output are verified. The SIPOC can be a good technique for verification.

8. Occam’s Razor

When faced with two hypotheses or solutions that solve the business problem equally well, it is wiser to choose the simpler or less complicated solution. Simplicity has great power in that it can be understood more easily. The greatest challenge of any business analyst is taking complex business problems and solving them with simple business solutions.

9. Always Ask Whether the Hypothesis Can Be, At Least In Principle, Falsified.

This tool is the second most charged tool in the kit because of the word falsified which has a strong negative reaction. The hypothesis in this context can be related to a business solution. In the Business Analysis context, this is the verification or validation of the business solution.

Let’s take the word falsified in a new direction and away from a negative space and any ethical discussions. To apply this tool to Business Analysis the proposed business solution should be testable and verified. Building a sandbox or prototype helps test a business solution without having to completely build it.

Conference room pilots and simulations are other ways of testing to ensure the business solution will solve the business problem. In Business Analysis terms this is the verification of the proposed business solution. Testing is one part of the equation. Verification and validation which can be managed in requirements traceability are equally important. Resolving assumptions and verification of those assumption used in the business solution should be addressed.

Review the solution and open it up to critical feedback from stakeholders. This opens up collaboration with stakeholders and sponsors on the business solution. Allow your assumptions, experiments, prototypes to be interacted with by stakeholders and sponsors to see if they get the same results you did when interacting with the business solution.

Summary

There are a lot of good things that can come from being a positive skeptical Business Analyst. Are you a skeptical Business Analyst? Do you think you can be skeptical without being seen as mean spirited? Let me know your thoughts in the comments below.

References
In The Demon-Haunted World: Science as a Candle in the Dark by Carl Sagan published February 27, 1997. Available on Amazon.com. ISBN-10: 0345409469
Carl Sagan Autobiography – https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carl_Sagan
The Baloney Detection Kit: Carl Sagan’s Rules for BS-Busting and Critical Thinking – https://www.brainpickings.org/2014/01/03/baloney-detection-kit-carl-sagan/