SBDi Tips Q&A: When the Business Person’s Ideas Are Wrong

Pat:
I know the user is wrong on a specific business process, yet she insists that the process be defined in her way. What can I do politely to tell her she is wrong and have she give it up?
Sincerely,
Bruce

Hi Bruce:
Why do you think she is wrong? Is it because it is different from what has been done in the past? Is it because you have done it differently in the past? Try to stay open-minded with everything a business user suggests. Know that all requirements should be validated in two ways. First, what is your understanding of what the business user requested? Secondly, does everyone agree on the requirement and its priority? On the second level, requirements should be verified by at least one other person than the supplier. That could be the person’s boss and/or someone from a competing department. For example, have legal review the new process to ensure that it doesn’t break any laws or have someone from manufacturing say how expensive that would be to implement. The point is that all requirements need to be vetted by multiple people with different viewpoints. Make sure she understands this process and that you are just following the “quality first” approach to software development. If she is right or wrong doesn’t matter. What matters is that you stay out of any politics.
Cheers,
Pat

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Silly Season…Happy Holidays

Well, it’s that time of year that a friend of mine calls “The Silly Season.” All the pressures of work move to the sidelines and people are friendlier. Well…I decided to join in your festivities by providing a video of Christmas Carols…featuring Snowball, the dancing Cockatoo…Enjoy and HAPPY HOLIDAYS.

Committment

The new year is approaching. It’s a new decade. How was your last decade? How do you feel about your prospects during the next year and next decade?

This is the time of year to start looking at your past and make promises to improve yourself.

This is the time of year to ask for or purchase presents for yourself. Is anything that will help you improve your options on the list?

Let me make a recommendation. Beginning NOW (no need to wait for the calendar to flip to the new year), order the following books:

• Yes!Attitude by Jeffrey Gitomer
• Tribes by Seth Godin

Sign up for the following FREE ezines:

• Sales Caffine by Jeffrey Gitomer
• SBDiTips by Pat Ferdinandi

Set up your RSS feeds (replace the news ones…they aren’t helping you achieve greatness) with these blog feeds:

• Seth Godin
• CopyBlogger

Follow Tweets of those that Don’t Abuse Your Time by providing real thoughts and suggested actions. I set up a list of proven architects. I also have a page that lists the latest 20 tips from people that inspire me to be better. I have a twitter list of Architects with impact. What are you doing to keep in the loop?

Hey, you can start to improve any time. All it takes is commitment.

SBDi Tips Q&A: How Often To Update Non-Sponsor Business People

Hi Pat:
One of my users, who are not the project sponsor, wants a weekly update on the project’s progress. The time it takes to update the user takes time away from making any progress. Some weeks, we don’t have a lot of progress to report yet he still expects a report. How do I explain this problem to him?
Signed, Richard

Hi Richard,
If he’s part of the team that supplied requirements, he has a right to know where he stands as far as progress or the priority of his requirements among others. Weekly updates are not unheard of. You can issue a weekly update with the same “in-progress” message along with the same expected completion date. If you do not have an expected completion date for the high-level task, start adding it. They will see that they will not get any new news until you are close to that date. A standard template will save you time. The current trend is using a color stop-light to indicate if:

• the high-level task is on time (green)
• there are concerns that may cause delay (yellow),
• the task will not be completed on time (red).

Keep in mind that most business people don’t care about WHY the project is delayed or what caused the slippage. Business wants to plan around your delivery. Instead, tell them:

1. the new date,
2. what you need from them to meet that date, and
3. how you are going to ensure the new date is met.

Cheers, Pat

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Fundamentalist

Defined in Seth Godin’s book, Tribes: We Need You To Lead Us, he defines

“A fundamentalist is a person who considers whether a fact is acceptable to his religion before he explores it.”

Change the word religion to method or methodology and you will see why introducing a new way to approach development or analysis is difficult. People judge to eliminate before they explore and try a new approach. Even if the approach has caused pain and suffering. If you want anyone to try some new process, show them what is in common FIRST to allow entry into their thought process.

Questions are key to success.

Here is a video by my mentor, Jeffrey Gitomer about Asking Powerful Questions. 

 Though Mr. Gitomer is talking about salespeople…the same applies to any technology person that interacts with the business community.

Architecture versus Design

A blog post by Tom Graves that is worth reading on the difference between Architecture and Design…

This topic came up in a discussion on LinkedIn, in which Ron Segal asked “Why are we shy of ‘design’?“:

As an observation, the business and enterprise architecture communities seem remarkably reticent to use the word ‘design’ to describe what we do (e.g. see this group’s ‘what do you do’ discussion). Why is this, as although not all design is architecture, isn’t all architecture design?

There’s a lot of confusion between the two terms and the respective business-roles, so I thought throw in my own view on this, as follows:

Architecture and design are closely related; the main difference between them is really about which way we face.

Architecture faces towards strategy, structure and purpose, towards the abstract.

Design faces towards implementation and practice, towards the concrete.

Most designers and architects will do both types of work; but most will describe themselves as either a ‘designer’ or an ‘architect’ according to which way they most often face.

Continue reading the entire post…http://weblog.tomgraves.org/index.php/2009/10/09/architecture-versus-design/

Top Executive Concern…relationships

The top executive concern is customer relationships. After all, without customers, do you have a business?

What are YOU doing to improve customer relationships? It isn’t the project. It isn’t the technical knowledge you have. It isn’t the job you perform or the process you follow.

The way YOU can improve customer relationships is to understand how relationships are built. It requires a counter-intuitive thought process of thinking in terms of the other person and not YOU. It is changing the I:YOU ratio to be focused on the other person in the relationship first. It is continually adding value to the other person and becoming a trusted advisor.

Want to help your executive? Learn how to build personal relationships with everyone you meet. It takes time…it takes practice…yet you will do more for the company and yourself by mastering relationship-building skills. Once you mastered the skill, you will see (and be asked to participate in) many relationship building projects.

SBDi Tips Q&A: Where in the Organization does a BA sit

From the SBDi Tips bi-weekly ezine (issue #42). Click here to review the Rules of Engagement Article Archive.

Pat:

Should a business analyst report to the business side of the house or Information Technology?

Sincerely, James  

Hi James:

I’ve seen both organization structures. The success is tied to the scenario that the business analysts report to one manager as a support for all business units. This promotes the sharing of information across business departments. For very large organizations, I do see separate groups for each division. In these cases, the business analysts are part of the Information Technology group. If each corporate division has a separate Information Technology group, they each have an analyst group.

Cheers, Pat

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SBDi Tips Q&A: Getting Time With A Business Person

From the SBDi Tips bi-weekly ezine (issue #42). Click here to review the Rules of Engagement Article Archive.

Pat:

I’m dealing with a business person that won’t give me the time of day. I need him to validate requirements supplied by her staff. How do I get him to review them?

Thanks, Carol  

Carol:

Have you been copying him on all the meeting minutes with his people? If not, summarize the results at a high level and send that report. Offer him a chance to comment on higher-level requirements.  Also, offer him a chance to delve into detail on any section. If you still do not receive any response, have your manager approach him with a basic question: “Do you trust your people enough for them to approve the requirements?” Have your manager get that in writing. The reason for not getting back to you may simply be that he is swamped with making revenue-driven decisions. He may really trust his people completely. You do not know.

Cheers, Pat

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