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5 Reasons Why You Need a Business Analyst Before Project Kickoff

Written by Brad Egeland on . Posted in Articles. 1 Comment on 5 Reasons Why You Need a Business Analyst Before Project Kickoff

In a perfect project world, the cost of the project and the resources you use on it wouldn’t be an issue and the best resources could be available to the project 24/7 from the beginning. Oh, and they wouldn’t need sleep, and they would never get tired. In a perfect world – or at least some alternate universe.

But we don’t live in a perfect world and project resources do cost money – a lot of money. And, unfortunately, they actually do need sleep.

So in this imperfect world, we really don’t want the entire project team on board at kickoff time because there isn’t anything for all of them to do yet. They would likely end up charging time to the project budget that we don’t need. While we usually can’t get – or even want – the entire team assigned at kickoff, it can be extremely beneficial to have the business analyst assigned by that point. Why?

Related Article: A Business Analyst’s Best Friend: The Project Manager

Here are my 5 reasons why assigning a business analyst at kickoff will help the project, the project customer, and the project manager.

1. Technical questions DO come up in the kickoff session.

Some technical questions need to go back to the project team AFTER kickoff and then handled via other communication with the project customer and his end users or subject matter experts (SMEs). And those I will cover later in this article. But some nearly always come up during the kickoff session that can be handled – and should be handled for the sake of forward progress – during this critical meeting. The project manager may be able to handle those, but the business analyst should be able to handle those and between the two some key decisions can be made – with the project customer and any SMEs present that will keep the discussion flowing rather than halt progress and create yet another issue “to be handled later.”

2. Next steps involve requirements, and the business analyst will play an integral role in the definition and documentation of requirements.

Usually, the next steps after the project kickoff session involve some discovery, some business process review, some AS-IS and TO-BE planning, and definitely the detailed project requirements definition and documentation. A business analyst who has been present in the statement of work (SOW) review, the draft project schedule preparation, and the discussions that happen at the project kickoff session will be that much farther ahead when both sides sit down to document real, complex, detailed requirements that the tech team will build technical design documents from and develop the solution from.

3. Prep includes the project schedule, and the business analyst can definitely add much value to the drafting of the initial schedule.

As I’ve stated, the drafting of the project schedule will happen prior to the project kickoff session. This project schedule likely won’t be reviewed in detail during the kickoff session, but it will be in the customer’s hands during that session and the more detail that goes into the schedule and the more that it makes sense, the more confident the project customer will be in the delivery team’s ability to roll out a quality end solution. And that first impression is always big. While I am always in favor of having a project manager who can fight his way out of a technical paper bag on his own, the business analyst is usually his superior technically, so his input to the draft project schedule that goes to the customer and helps drive the kickoff session discussions can be extremely beneficial.

4. There will be take away questions – having the business analyst present negates the potential for misinterpretation and miscommunication as those questions go to the tech members of the project team.

I’m not saying the project manager can’t handle this. I’ve handled this many times. But I’ve also led enough technical projects to know that if I have a business analyst sitting beside me, they are also representing the tech team that hasn’t been assigned yet, and their brain is already thinking that way while I’m still focusing on organization and next steps. Having the business analyst present during kickoff lessens the possibility of any misinterpretation or miscommunication of those questions that need to be taken to the tech project team.

5. The business analyst can add more precision to the estimates that go into the draft project schedule.

The draft project schedule that is taken to the project kickoff session is really more than a draft schedule. It is the active, living, breathing schedule at that point and should only need some minor tweaking as the kickoff session comes to a close. That being the case, having the business analyst assigned and putting that together with the project manager means that effort estimates that go into that schedule will be that much more accurate. As a project manager, consultant, and former developer, I consider myself a very good estimator of project task effort – yes, even all the complex development tasks on technical projects. But the business analyst usually – at least on my projects – has served to be the liaison between the project manager and tech team and they are usually even just a bit better at providing detailed, fairly accurate estimates than I can. And more accuracy and realism is always good as you head into the kickoff session and beyond.

Summary / call for input

The bottom line is this. In my opinion kickoff sessions and the project, in general, just go better if the business analyst is assigned as quickly as possible. Unlike the tech team members who really can’t do much until design starts, the business analyst can prove to be an invaluable resource from Day One as the project manager goes through the administrative work and planning to get the project kickoff session in place and the project schedule assembled.

What about our readers? What are your thoughts on the business analysts assignment to the project team and the timing of that assignment? What is your organization’s policy or does it depend on the project? What is your preference?

5 Things the Legendary Musician and Artist Prince Can Teach Us

Written by Angela Wick on . Posted in Articles. 1 Comment on 5 Things the Legendary Musician and Artist Prince Can Teach Us

When I sat down in a Canadian hotel room to write this article for BATimes, I had a completely different topic in mind—a rant about the length of TSA pre-check lines and how bad processes make life miserable for users. But as I was writing, I became more and more distracted by the news of Prince’s death. Social media started blowing up with Prince memories, pictures of buildings and monuments bathed in purple lights, and videos of spontaneous tribute parties in front of Prince’s Paisley Park headquarters and First Ave, one of Prince’s favorite clubs in Minneapolis.

As a legendary musician and artist, Prince influenced my life in many ways.

Minneapolis is my hometown, and it’s where Prince grew up and lived most of his life. When I was a kid, purple was my favorite color. Raspberry Beret was like a theme song for recess in elementary school—I sang it non-stop with friends on the playground. Purple Rain was one of the first movies I saw in a theater, and I grew up wondering what 1999 would be like.

Related Article: Diving Into the Unofficial Roles and Responsibilities of the Business Analyst

It may seem like a stretch to use Prince’s approach to music and life as a metaphor for business analysis, but creative genius is universal and can inform our approach to all areas of life, including project work.

So, in tribute to Prince, here are five things BAs (and all people?) can learn from Prince’s legacy.

1) Be unique in expressing your talent, blaze a trail!

Prince blazed a trail of creativity and innovation. He released 39 albums in his 37-year career and is rumored to have several hundred additional songs in his Paisley Park vault. At the same time, he lived in Minnesota, not California. He didn’t swear. He wore heels. He was often seen riding a bicycle through his neighborhood and enjoyed ping-pong.

What would the BA equivalent of this career path look like? How could BAs use their analytical, creative, empathetic, and relationship-oriented talents to generate volumes of innovative work in an authentic way?

We have this awesome role we provide to organizations that can be uniquely executed and performed in our own individual style and personality with success! Embrace it, go with it! Know your mission as a BA and live it!

2) Unleash creativity.

Prince was a master of unleashing creativity in himself and others. He was passionate about collaborating with others to discover new sounds and create new music.

As BAs, we are called to model creativity in our approach and to inspire others to be creative as well. Creativity takes many forms in our work including:

  • Building strong relationships with stakeholders.
  • Identifying and applying the right technique to elicit effective requirements.
  • Utilizing techniques that create a collaborative culture that encourages good dialogue from all perspectives.
  • Using advanced facilitation skills to help others find innovative solutions to problems.
  • Mastering analysis techniques that help others make good decisions.

3) Create for everyone!

Just as Prince’s music resonated with multiple types of audiences, so should our requirements. Our work as BAs requires us to create and facilitate for multiple audiences and diverse stakeholders. We are masters of catering to multiple audiences:

  • introverts and extroverts
  • technical and non-technical
  • leaders and subject matter experts

4) Surrender to your art.

The sheer volume and variety of work Prince produced indicates an all-consuming passion and commitment to his craft.

What would our BA work look like if we approached it as an art? What would it mean to surrender to our art as BAs? Perhaps we would:

  • Be more confident in our role and mission.
  • Advocate for the strategic importance of our role.
  • Define a unique approach for each project/situation rather than complying with cultural norms or taking direction that might not benefit the organization or the end customers.
  • We would hone our craft by finding mentors and collaborating with peers to learn new skills and techniques.

5) Experiment.

Remember the vault with hundreds of unreleased songs? Prince never stopped experimenting. Prince hosted surprise concerts all the time. He would just jam and experiment, inviting others to participate and react.

Experimenting with technique is critical to mastering our BA craft as well. We experiment to learn. We try new things to see how they feel and to see how our stakeholders react. We apply new techniques to deliver and drive value to our organization and its customers. We try new things even though we might fail and we learn and adapt when our experiments don’t yield expected results.

Prince inspires by being himself and bringing so many together. How has Prince inspired you? Please leave your comments below.

From the Archives: 6 Key Characteristics of a Senior Business Analyst

Written by Kupe Kupersmith on . Posted in Articles.

In our profession there is a lot of discussion about what makes a business analyst a senior business analyst.  To help better delineate between the levels of BAs the IIBA® has recently released a business analysis competency model which includes five levels of business analysts. 

For today’s post, I wanted to share my thoughts on the key characteristics of a senior business analyst.  Before I unveil the list I want to say that number of years as a BA is not an indicator if someone should be classified as a senior BA.  I don’t think you can get to the senior level without a number of years of experience, but number of years alone is not an indicator. 

Related Article: Taking the Helm: Navigating the Job Search Ocean

1. Business Analysis Techniques: Breadth and Depth of Knowledge and Experience

As BAs we need to have knowledge and experience in the various techniques to elicit, analyze and communicate requirements.  We need a large tool box which we can pull from to meet the specific needs of each project.  Without this large tool box your ability to perform at a high level for any project type that you are a part of is limited. Take a look through the IIBA’s BABOK® to see how large your toolbox is.   

I have been asked by BAs who focus on specific areas, like facilitation or process modeling, if I felt they were senior BAs.  My answer is no.  They are most definitely senior facilitators or senior process modelers, but senior BAs need a broader, deeper skill set.  

2. Project Types and Business Area Experience

Senior level BAs need experience working on multiple project types.  At the highest level there are three types of projects I feel are necessary, COTS (commercial off the shelf), new development, and enhancements/support.  Each of these project types requires some different techniques and skills.  Having worked on different types of projects gives you the knowledge of which techniques work best for each project type. This will aid in planning which is characteristic number three, coming up next. 

Working in multiple business areas within a company helps lay the foundation for strategic thinking, characteristic number four.  By being involved in multiple business areas you start to see overlapping functions and interdepartmental dependencies. This allows you to start recommending solutions that benefit the whole company, not just the specific business area you are involved in.

3. Business Analysis Planning

How do you answer the following question when you are first assigned to a project? “How long will the analysis effort take?”  Senior BAs respond to that question with an intelligent business analysis work plan. They think through the people they will be working with. They identify the stakeholders, get to know them and understand key characteristics to best work with them.  They think through critical project characteristics like the size of the project, the business risks involved, and how many interfaces the project will include.  They think through the processes that need to be adhered to for the project.  They make sure they understand what project methodology is being used for the project, project roles and responsibilities, and what deliverables are required.  Thinking through the people, project, and process gives you the ability to outline the tasks and deliverables needed for the project, to estimate their time needed, as well as the time of the stakeholders involved.

4. Strategic Thinking

A senior BA needs to see the big picture and do a deep dive for the project.  Senior BAs will try to see the bigger picture before heading into the details trying to understand where this project fits in with the organizational goals.  They will also be aware of, or try to determine how the project they are assigned to impacts other projects or business areas.  They also take a look at the big picture during the project.

In an earlier post, Get Your Head Out of the Weeds, I highlighted the need for BAs to find ways to pull themselves out of the detail during a project to ensure their project is still meeting the needs of the organization.

5. Advocate and Advisor

Many BAs report into IT departments, but still need to be viewed as part of the business team they support.  You work for the business and need to truly be an advocate for the business and their needs.  I’m sure many of you can tell stories where there was conflict between the technology team and the business.  A senior BA steps up to resolve the conflict to provide the best solution for the business. 

A way to know you have this characteristic is if the business calls you for advice before and after a project.  Do you have discussions with the business to determine what’s most important for an upcoming project? Do you attend their staff meetings to find out their pains and to understand their values and goals?

6. Ability to Learn a New Domain

The need to have domain experience for BAs is one of the biggest debates in our profession.  I do think you need some domain knowledge prior to starting a project, but that does not mean you need to have worked in that domain for years.  I believe a senior BA needs to be able to learn a new domain to be effective.  Here are three ways that I primarily use to learn new domains prior to an interview or starting a project.

  • Google: There is so much information out there at your finger tips. Google the subject you need and take an afternoon reading.
  • My network: I am a big believer that I don’t need to know everything; I just need to know the people that have the answers. I use my network to help answer questions I have to learn about a domain. Continue to build your network.
  • Personal experience: I may not have worked in banking, but I do interact with banks as a consumer. I draw from my personal experiences to help understand a domain.

Please share your thoughts around the characteristics I’ve outlined and provide one or more of your own.

Kupe

Don’t forget to leave your comments below

Top 5 Reasons Organizations Should Support Certifications

Written by Richard Larson on . Posted in Articles.

There will always be a debate about certifications and whether organizations should support them. Some feel they are an essential and growing part of professional life. Others feel a credential does not make practitioners a better business analyst, Agilist, or project manager. Both sides have a point, and the debate will continue.

What is undeniable, though, is what we see as the organizational benefits for supporting certifications and credentials. Support can include (in no certain order): providing time to study for a certification exam, paying for certification classes, hosting study groups and forums, and incorporating credentials into hiring and promotion practices. We’re sure there are even more.

Related Article: Business Analysis on its Path to Maturity

Here are the top five reasons organizations should support certifications and the benefits to those that do:

1. Facilitates a common language and set of techniques.

An industry standard and credentialing process, like the PMP or CBAP, unites practitioners across organizations and countries. Take the PMP, for example. Prior to the PMBOK and its framework, most organizations managed projects according to their own methods or those from a proprietary vendor. The large push to get project managers certified with the PMP helped organizations use a common language for common processes and techniques that had previously different terminology. This leads to increased mutual understanding which, in turn, increases quality and reduces re-work. Recruiting is also improved, and managers can hire with more confidence when candidates use common concepts and terminology.

2. Provides an avenue for employees to show dedication to a profession.

More than one CIO has told us they value certifications for the dedication that employees show when pursuing and achieving one. We couldn’t agree more. Some people will take initiative on their own and be self-motivated to achieve one independently. They are valuable staff members (and in the minority). Most people need some encouragement and a path for getting a credential. However, we don’t advise the routine use of credentialing as a way to weed out employees who don’t achieve one, but that is a subject for another blog.

3. People learn a lot when studying for credentials.

Successful, credentialed participants are almost always more effective at work. The reason is the amount of learning that has to take place in order to pass an exam. Even those of us who have been on the job and who have had training related to our industry (business analysis, project management, Agile), come to realize what we don’t know. Using my experience as an example, I (Rich) thought I understood project management until I studied for my PMP. Hah! What a mistake! Doing my prep work of reading, attending a class, and doing practice exam questions woke me up to the reality of what I did not know. Many hours of study later, spread over several months, got me ready to pass the exam. My studying also gave me increased PM knowledge which I still use to this day when managing projects and programs.

It is well to add here that some certifications usually result in more learning than others. “Broad industry standard” type exams like the PMP, CBAP, and PMI-ACP require rigorous study because of their scope. Almost invariably those studying for these exams encounter many “aha” moments, paradigm shifts, and new understanding as they study and find gaps in their knowledge. Our research shows it takes 100 hours on average of study time to prepare for the CBAP, for instance.
Another type of credential requires less study. These exams are narrowly focused and usually relate to proprietary methodologies, like the CSM, IREB, PRINCE2, BRMP, and ITIL. These types of certifications rely on a training class focused on key concepts after which candidates take an exam, often at the end of class.

4. Demonstrates commitment to employees.

Leaders in most organizations would say they are committed to employees. Saying it is one thing, but demonstrating it is another. Pay is one way, but people would not work for you without it. Promotions? Same thing, but to a lesser extent. Choice projects? Not everyone can work on them.

Providing the professionals in our organizations with a path to a relevant credential is a practical and meaningful commitment. It is a demonstrable form that employees will appreciate and will contribute to their long-term loyalty. We know this from first-hand experience.

“If you look after your staff, they’ll look after your customers. It’s that simple.”
Sir Richard Branson

5. Better employee retention.

This last point may seem counter-intuitive if you fear that helping people gain a credential only helps them land a new job. Anecdotal evidence exists that if you don’t train people, and don’t support them in advancing their knowledge and skills, they will likely leave sooner1. The quote from Henry Ford sums up this point.

larson april ba

What do you think? Are there other reasons that organizations should support (or not support) certification? Please weigh in with your comments.

1. See Training Magazine, www.trainingmag.com/content/training-increases-employee-retention. April 2013.

Executive Leadership – These 2 Characteristics Will Take You to the Top

Written by Steve Blais on . Posted in Articles.

Organizations are looking to fill the upper management positions that lead to the executive level to groom the leaders of tomorrow.

What are they looking for?

They are primarily looking for two characteristics in the people in their organization. The problem for those who wish to advance to the higher-paying higher responsibility positions in the organization is not in possessing these two characteristics, but in demonstrating them, in other words, letting senior management know that you possess them.

Over the past eight or 10 years in my travels and conversations with senior-level people in companies around the world, a common issue has been voiced. There seems to be a lack of senior mid-level managers in the organizations. This layer of top mid-level management is important to organizations because that layer is where the executives of the future will be drawn from, and where the CEOs of the organization will arise.

Related Article: Six Things You Can Do Today to Prepare for Leadership Tomorrow

What the executives pointed out is that that particular hierarchical level seems to be populated by employees who have reached that level based on seniority, and do not have the characteristics necessary to rise to the executive level. Many of these companies are forced to go outside the organization for their executive-level talent.

That the executives are looking for candidates with “excellent communication skills” practically goes without saying because those not possessing the ability to communicate well would never be considered in the first place.

There are actually two other characteristics which are critical to rising in the corporation. And it turns out that these two characteristics are also key ingredients to success in business analysis.

What are these two essential characteristics?

I will not keep you in suspense. This isn’t a mystery novel where the two characteristics will be exposed in the last sentence. The two characteristics that executives are looking for in the people that they would like to see as executives of the next generation are problem-solving and decision-making.

The successful business executive can handle challenges,
make decisions, and solve problems at a remarkable clip.
– Zig Ziglar

In a recent survey of 3169 hiring managers by CareerBuilder, the number one skill listed as needed for advancement was problem-solving and decision-making (they combined the two into one skill). 50% of the responders listed it as a mandatory skill. This is ahead of oral and written communications, performance improvement, leadership, team building and technology expertise. The survey covered all industries. As an article on the survey says, “it is not surprising to see problem-solving skills at the top of the list. The ability to find a problem, analyze it, create potential solutions, pick a solution and implement the solution is part of everyday life in IT.” [1] (and, I might add, part of everyday life for a business analyst)

That is easy enough said. We simply need to be decisive problem-solvers. But there are two aspects to this. First, we need to make sure we understand what a problem-solver is and what it means to be decisive. Secondly, we need to know how to make sure those making the decisions about who joins them in the ranks of upper management see the fact that we are clearly decisive and able to solve problems.

The definition of problem-solver and the definition of decisiveness, or decision-maker, may surprise you. Normally people think of problem solvers as those who come up with the solution to a problem, and the way to prove that you’re a problem-solver is to quickly come up with a solution that will work.

Similarly, the measure of decisiveness or a good decision-maker is usually based on whether the decisions made are right or not. Someone who makes more right decisions is considered to be a good decision-maker.

Actually, both of these mindsets are not accurate. Upper-level management is looking for something different.

Leaders are problem solvers by talent and temperament, and by choice.
Harlan Cleveland

The Office of Personnel Management (OPM) in the United States is an agency that provides the guidelines for hiring, promoting, staffing, and assessing the employees of the United States Federal Government. The OPM has published definitions of the characteristics and skills necessary for high-level management positions in the US Federal Government. The OPM has defined five Executive Core Qualifications of leadership competencies and characteristics needed to be successful, serve customers, and build successful teams and coalitions both within and outside an organization. While three of the core qualifications are focused on leadership (leading change, leading people, building coalitions and communications), and one is on business acumen, the center of the core qualifications is one called “results-driven.”

The results-driven executive core qualification consists of six skills: accountability, customer service, entrepreneurship, technical credibility, and the two we are focused on here, decisiveness and problem-solving.

This is the way the Office of Personnel Management defines decisiveness: “makes well-informed, effective, and timely decisions, even when the data is limited or solutions produce unpleasant consequences; perceives the impact and implications of decisions”.

This is the way the office of personnel management defines problem solving: “identifies and analyzes problems; weighs relevance and accuracy of information; generates and evaluates alternative solutions; it makes recommendations”.

What does that mean?

Leadership is all about problem-solving
– Colin Powell

In terms of problem solving, note that the definition does not mention actually solving the problem. A problem-solver is one who make sure that the real problem is being solved, that appropriate investigation and analysis has been done of the problem, and multiple potential solutions are identified (not just one), and recommendations are made, not solutions.

Does that mean you are a problem-solver if you don’t actually solve the problem?

Yes, that is what it means. Here is a scenario that illustrates this.

You are in a meeting with your peers and your boss. Your boss brings up a problem facing the organization. The boss is looking for a solution. In a few seconds, someone across the table offers a fairly decent solution to the problem. Then another person at the end of the table provides a solution. Someone else on your side of the table voices an agreement with one of those solutions. After a short discussion on the merits of each potential solution, you speak. You ask questions of the boss about the problem. You ask questions of the others in the meeting to make sure that the right problem is being discussed. You engender a short discussion on the cause of the problem. Then you suggest several solutions which include those already voiced. You do not state that any particular one is the solution, but accompany the alternatives with the benefits and risks of each solution. You leave it up to the boss to decide on the solution and “solve” the problem. Which of the three speakers does the boss consider a problem-solver? Cognitive studies have shown that the boss will leave the meeting thinking that you are the premier problem-solver of the group even though you didn’t actually present the solution.

The first step of solving any problem is trying to understand it by creating a mental model.
– Luke Hohman, [2]

Interestingly, if there were no need for an immediate response in this scenario, suppose you were to instigate the conversation about problem definition and root causes and prompt a discussion of alternative solutions, then suggest that time is necessary to consider the situation before coming up with a solution. Even if you did not spend the time thinking about the problem and potential solutions, the boss would consider that you were an excellent problem-solver.

That “pause” between the request for a solution and the response with multiple alternatives gives the impression that processing time has been taken to generate a better potential solution. Cognitive studies have shown that the act of taking time before answering a question or, in this case, producing a solution, elevates the quality of the response in the mind of the person with the problem or the one asking the question.

In any case, the person who focuses on defining what the real problem is, asking questions about the problem and the conditions that cause the problem, analyzing for root causes, and offering more than one alternative solution, is the one who is perceived to be the problem-solver. Again, it sounds like the typical business analyst response to being given a business problem to grapple with.

Again and again, the impossible decision is solved
when we see that the problem is only a tough decision
waiting to be made.
— Dr. Robert Schuller

Turning our attention to decisiveness, notice that nowhere in the definition of decisiveness is there any mention of whether a decision is right or wrong. There is a simple reason for this. You can never know whether a decision is right or wrong until after the decision has been made and actions have been taken to implement the decision. Sometimes you don’t know whether a decision is right or wrong for years afterward. How can an evaluator determine whether someone is a good decision-maker, someone is decisive, based on whether their decisions are right or wrong?

What is important in the evaluation of decisiveness is seeing that the decision-maker has a consistent and considered process when making a decision.

Informed decision-making comes from a long tradition of guessing and then blaming others for inadequate results.
Scott Adams

A study was done about 10 years ago of executives of US corporations, with a focus on chief executive officers. I don’t know how the study was done, but the results indicated that the typical CEO of an organization (the person making millions a year for their ability to lead, which includes making decisions) made the right decision only 33% of the time. I thought that was an interesting bit of trivia, but then another study was done just recently which produced the same results: executives of organizations make the right decisions only 33% of the time.

So why are they paid the big bucks? Of course, it’s their overall leadership abilities and business acumen, and so forth. In terms of their decision-making, they consistently follow a decision-making process.

Does this mean that you could be considered as decisive, a top-notch decision-maker, even if your decisions were right a small percentage of the time?

Well, in a word, yes.

And we have a cognitive basis for that conclusion. Human beings tend to try to justify their decisions and make them right once the decisions are made. If you have ever had a conversation with someone, a friend, relationship, team member or fellow employee about a decision that was made, and the conversation was all about why it was a great decision and the right decision for the situation, then you have participated in trying to make that decision right. For a number of psychological reasons – ego, pride, cognitive equilibrium – we have the need to try to make our decisions right – after they have been made.

Don’t worry about making the right decision;
worry about making the decision right.

So the key factor in being perceived as a decision-maker is to have a process for making decisions: ask questions about the alternatives, analyze to make sure that you understand the problem underlying the decision that needs to be made, ask for advice and counsel from those who are familiar with the conditions of the decision, review the impact of each alternative on those affected by the decision, and make the decision in a timely manner (not so quickly that it is a knee-jerk reaction, and not so long that the decision is not effective, or taken out of your hands).

Decision-making and problem-solving: two skills which, when mastered, will lead to the executive suite. Both skills can be learned, and both skills can be improved with practice. The important and necessary ingredient in the improvement of each of these two skills is to be aware of your decision-making and problem-solving processes. If you kept a daily list of the problems you solved or the decisions you made (business, personal, social, etc.), that alone would raise your awareness of how you solve problems and make decisions, and that alone will improve the skills.

And the really neat thing is that the OPM definitions of problem-solving and decisiveness sound like the US Office of Personnel Management was describing the actions of a business analyst. As I’ve said before, the CEOs and business leaders of tomorrow will come from the ranks of today’s business analysts.

[1] http://itmanagersinbox.com/390/the-9-most-desired-skills-of-hiring-managers/
[2] The Journey of the Software Professional, Prentice-Hall, 1997