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Tag: Skills

The Hard Skills Precede the Soft Skills for BAs

Written by Marcos Ferrer on . Posted in Articles.

You may have noticed that I value soft skills (BA Fundamentals) very highly. The ability to work with (and at the highest levels, influence and negotiate with) people is a key success factor for senior BAs that the CBAP test cannot measure directly, but the world will always measure first.

I call on IIBA education providers to step up to this challenge – people classes are harder to do well, and look pretty flaky when done well, but they work (witness Dale Carnegie’s ongoing success, in spite of their “flaky” program).

In the meantime, soft skills without BA hard skills do not result in good BA practice. Promotions, recognition, a chance to jump to the next project before the first has collapsed, yes. Good BA practice, no.

This month is pure hard skill (thanks to blogger John Dean last month for an excellent presentation of the “sky level” overview of the problems I am presenting, and the importance of solving them).

In prior months we looked at a stakeholder type of breakdown (i.e., a top down analysis). We got individuals, businesses, governments, non-profit/non-government, and a sense of what they wanted (hire, do business, enforce the law, etc.).

There were still too many questions (what do you do if DNA is planted at a crime scene?) and too many gaps in understanding (all stakeholders need to identify employees when they hire them – what is the same, what is different).

The proposal for a new technical approach (i.e., in this case a bottom up analysis) is to move away from stakeholders for the moment, and consider actual identity transactions. Then we will see if any structure suggests itself when we consider the detailed transactions (did I say bottom up?).

There is no easy precedent for this analysis: it is huge. If anyone can suggest a technique for organizing the following list, I will try it out next month. Otherwise, I will do what I want, so there!

Here is one brainstorm – by the way, I think I’m smarter than my readers – prove me wrong!

How well does your brain compare with mine – what important transactions did we miss? What are the categories or structure we can use to organize this unruly list?

Identify a qualified BA (the CBAP is the current standard – are you helping to set it)?

  • Cross a Hostile Border
  • Cross a Welcoming Border
  • Cross a Border at some level of gradation in between (is there any set of statuses that is simpler than the exponential combinations of relations between individual countries)?
  • Identify a friend in person Identify a friend remotely Identify an enemy in person
  • Identify an enemy remotely
  • Identify family for daily stuff
  • Identify family for inheritance stuff
  • Identify the owner of an object
  • Identify the owner of non-physical property
  • Identify DNA at a crime scene
  • Identify the actual criminal regardless of DNA, which is portable
  • Paternity
  • Maternity (an issue for modern procreation, no doubt)
  • Buy candy
  • Buy cigarettes or alcohol
  • Buy medical marijuana
  • Buy stocks
  • Set up a trust
  • Create a will Identify a conspiracy group
  • Perform Identity theft
  • Counter Identity theft
  • Perform successful witness protection
  • Hide from an abuser
  • Identify an abuser
  • Control or prevent spam, viruses, worms, spyware, etc.
  • Hire a janitor
  • Hire an FBI agent
  • Hire a fast food worker
  • Hire a dockworker
  • Hire a government worker
  • Hire a CEO
  • Hire a doctor/nurse/health provider/hospital
  • Hire a CIA worker
  • Hire a CIA spy
  • Hire a black budget spy
  • Hire a president, congressman, etc.
  • Hire a police officer, detective, TSA screener
  • Buy weapons at a swap meet
  • Trade weapons for drugs on the street
  • Obtain permit to own a weapon
  • Obtain permit to carry a concealed weapon
  • Obtain permit to use a weapon in public with backing from law enforcement (this is NOT just cops)
  • Give blood
  • Give sperm
  • Adopt a child
  • Put a child up for adoption
  • Be convicted of a crime
  • Be acquitted of a crime
  • Be left in limbo re: a crime (mistrial, hung jury, never charged, never caught) omigod.

What are the categories, if any?

What did I leave out (participate in a one night stand? – follow-up one night stand if VD is detected?).

If you can’t think about this, you may be struggling with what you are working on – test yourself! ©

©2008 Marcos Ferrer

Show Me The Money

Written by Marcos Ferrer on . Posted in Articles.

Last month we posed a quiz, as we continue to build robust requirements for a National and Global Identity System. We “hid money” in this quiz, and now we’re going to try to find it! Here is the list of stakeholders we gave last month:

Citizens

Businesses

  • Banks
  • Credit Card Companies
  • On-Line Sellers
  • Airlines
  • Hotels
  • Disney (takes fingerprints, did you know?).
  • Retailers
  • More along the same lines….

Government

  • Law Enforcement
  • National Security
  • Immigration
  • Customs
  • Internal Revenue
  • Labor Department
  • Unemployment Agency
  • More along the same lines…
  1. What might be wrong with the above list? First – note that it is not only citizens with a stake, but all individuals. If you were being arrested, how would you feel if the police identified you improperly? If you are an illegal alien, you still need to work (and we need you). What is to be done? Second – what about non-business, non-government institutions? Are non-profits different? Are some organizations not even characterizable simply as non-profit? Third – identifying individuals, businesses, governments and other institutions may not be sufficient. Do all stakeholders have the same needs and goals? Are there categories based on identity “needs” more useful than the institutional ones we have chosen? How is local law enforcement different from homeland (I hate that word) security or immigration?
  2. What might it cost to ignore the errors/omissions/assumptions, if any? We know the answer to this, because existing ID systems have NOT identified and addressed all stakeholders and their needs. The cost is exactly the situation we have now – a world of rampant identity theft (1 in 20 may be affected each year), in which law enforcement is almost powerless, a world of unjust convictions and misuse of DNA evidence, a world of constant privacy violation with little or no recourse (the price of fame is constant media pecking, a disincentive to achievement).
  3. What concepts or categories might help with analyzing this list, regardless of any problems so far? Identity needs for criminal convictions are different from those for purchases, for charitable giving, attendance at private social events, and hiring a handyman, etc.
  4. If you, as a BA, can even begin to address such questions, what is your earning potential? I can only speak for myself – since realizing what I was capable of, and getting my CBAP so others would know too, my income is now well into six figures, and my ability to get work and promotions is vastly improved. How are you coming along?

FOR NEXT MONTH:

To reassure ourselves that we REALLY understand the stakeholders, we will try to list the “identity transactions” that might occur in society, and we will try to match these transactions to the kinds of stakeholders we are aware of so far (individuals, businesses, government, and other organizations).

 How many identity transactions can you think of, or how would you elicit such a list?

Potential answers will be discussed next month, and incorporated into the case study. The best reader response will be acknowledged next month (send a picture with your response!) and will undoubtedly receive a large raise in the near future, just for rising above the pack!