Karl Wiegers shares his lessons on requirements, project management, design, quality and more. Karl’s advice can make you significantly better at what you do.
Show Notes
Karl Wiegers started programming in 1970 and has collected 60 lessons he has learned in several areas of software development including requirements, design, project management, culture, teamwork, quality, and process improvement. Each of these lessons bring insights that can help you to and your organization to become significantly better at creating high quality, valuable solutions to your customers.
The Need to Iterate
Almost everything we do takes more than a single shot and design is a good example. The first lesson in the design category of Karl’s book is “design demands iteration”. There’s always more than one design solution for a software problem and seldom a single best solution.
The first design approach you come up with is unlikely to be the best option. A good rule of thumb is that you’re not done with design until you’ve created at least three designs, discard them, and take the best ideas from those three and build something better.
The same holds true for requirements. It will take a few iterations to get it right. These are cyclical things that you have to plan in your project management approach. You’re going to have to build in some reviews, get some feedback, prototype, and do some modeling to make sure we’re on the right track.
Icebergs are always larger than they first appear; that means that there’s going to be growth in the project. There’s going to be new information and new ideas that come along. You have to build in that growth and include contingency buffers into your plans. The bigger the project, the more unknowns and ambiguity and the more likely it is to change.
Understanding Stakeholders and Customers
Usage-centric development (as opposed to user-centric) is more likely to satisfy customer needs than product or feature-centered development. We shouldn’t care about features as much as you care about knowing what people need to do with the product. That’s the difference between the usage-centric approach and the product-centric approach.
That begins by understanding your stakeholders. Stakeholders are individuals, groups, or even systems who can shape or influence the direction of a project or who are affected by the project. To be successful, you need to identify your various user classes and identify who’s going to be the literal voice of the customer. Keep in mind that the customer isn’t always right, but they always have a point. Many times, the customer may ask for a solution, which may or may not be the right thing. To provide valuable solutions, we need to understand the underlying problem. If the solution they propose is the answer, what is the question?
Listen to the full episode for more lessons and advice on stakeholders, quality, applying what you’ve learned, and more.
YOUR HOMEWORK Pick two areas you want to get better at and vow to spend some of your time on the project learning about those areas. Look for opportunities to apply that new learning on your project and perform in those areas better than you would have before your commitment to learn and develop your skill in that focus area.
Karl Wiegers is an independent consultant, author, speaker, and thought leader in the project community. His books on software requirements are considered required reading for Business Analysts and Project Managers. As a consultant and trainer, Karl has worked with more than 100 companies and government organizations of all types, helping them improve the effectiveness and efficiency of their software development activities.
Thank you for listening to the program
To get more valuable content to enhance your skills and advance your career, you can subscribe on iTunes.
Also, reviews on iTunes are highly appreciated! I read each review and it helps keep me motivated to continue to bring you valuable content each week.
Ian Reynolds discusses how to discover the right solutions for your customers and then deliver them quickly.
Show Notes
Many organizations, especially as people are trying to work in more Lean and Agile ways, work towards producing a minimum viable product (MVP) and move on after achieving it. These organizations aren’t thinking about the value that could be delivered after the MVP.
They believe that if they put a minimum viable products in our customer’s hands, they know whether or not it’s a great product. Instead, people need to be working towards a minimum viable business as opposed to the minimum viable product. You could put a great product out there, but if you haven’t designed it to solve for the customer’s ultimate needs by testing it and getting early feedback
and created a degree of stickiness in a business model that will help you retain and add clients, you have a problem.
You don’t necessarily have a business and you haven’t necessarily solved the problem. Over optimization towards what you believe to be a viable product is not necessarily that MvP. It’s a business model that’s going to have sustainability.
What’s Valuable to Customers
When you’re developing a product, the easiest person to fool is yourself. You may believe that you have a great product, but you need to test it to validate that belief. That could be as simple as using a survey to check the validity of your idea. Building a product (even a scaled-down version of a working product) is a very expensive way to test an idea.
If you build the product first and then try to go out in the market and then make the adjustments, you’re going to have to build it again.
Faster Delivery
There are two major inhibitors to speed to market. One is trying to do everything yourself. The desire to understand exactly how the product is built and have too much control over the process of building that product is not efficient.
When you’re building a product, it’s not reasonable to be so in the weeds that you’re concerned about using a specific technology or growing to an understanding of how everything works. When starting your business or starting your MVP, don’t try to have one person do everything. Have people that are specialized in their given fields and fractionally use their time.
The other big impact to speed to market is if you don’t have a needed skill set in house. Training that skill and building competency can take a long time. You don’t necessarily have to hire for it as that could be much more expensive than using an outside party.
Listen to the full episode to understand how to test and discover the right solution and how approaches such as DevOps can help accelerate both discovery and delivery.
YOUR HOMEWORK First Tip: Look at what the biggest players in the market are doing in terms of their engineering culture and then figure out what is it that they’re doing efficiently that you can copy. Don’t try to invent things yourself or come up with a new process; figure out what they’re doing and just copy it. Second Tip: Analyze the opportunity cost of doing something in-house versus using a third party by looking at what an outside party can do for you and what specialization they have. If they could solve the problem for you quickly, maybe they can do it much more cheaply.
IAN Reynolds
Ian is the Chief Solutions Architect at Zibtek and Head of Venture Partners at Golden Section Studios. In his role as Solutions Architect, Ian matches business needs to technical solutions that solves the customer’s problem.
Thank you for listening to the program
To get more valuable content to enhance your skills and advance your career, you can subscribe on iTunes and other podcatchers.
Also, reviews on iTunes are highly appreciated! I read each review and it helps keep me motivated to continue to bring you valuable content each week.
MBALC: Elon Musk’s 5-Step Design Process
Oct 26, 2021
In this lightning cast, we explore the 5-step design process Elon Musk uses for SpaceX to innovate and get better results.
Show Notes
In a recent interview, Elon Musk shared the 5-step design process he uses at Space X to achieve better results. Below are the details of this design process.
Step 1: Make your requirements less dumb.
Make sure you start with high quality requirements and that you truly understand the ‘why’ behind each. Simply using requirements because someone told you that’s what they want makes your requirements dumb.
“It does not matter who gave them to you. It’s particularly dangerous if a smart person gave you the requirements because you might not question them enough. Everyone’s wrong. No matter who you are, everyone’s wrong some of the time.”
Elon recommends that for whatever requirement or constraint you have, it should come with a name, not a department. That’s because if there’s a question of concern, you can’t ask a department. You have to ask a person. The person who’s asking for the requirement or highlighting the constraint must agree that they will take responsibility for that requirement.
If you fail to do this, you may run into the situation where some random person who’s no longer with the company came up with the requirement off the top of their head with no foundation in a real need. That’s a dumb requirement.
Step 2: Delete the part or process
Look critically at the process or piece you’re developing and try to remove pieces instead of always adding new things. Work to understand the value that’s added by each part or each step in the process and reduce or eliminate those that don’t add value.
“If you’re not occasionally adding things back in, you are not deleting enough. The bias tends to be very strongly towards ‘Let’s add this part or process step in case we need it’. But you can basically make in-case arguments for so many things.”
Step 3: Simplify or optimize the design
Optimizing should only be done after you make your requirements less dumb and try to delete the part of process. The most common mistake you can make is to optimize something that shouldn’t exist in the first place.
Step 4: Accelerate cycle time
We want to reduce the amount of time from when we start working on something to when we finish. The easiest way to do that is to focus on one thing at a time and eliminate task switching. With that focus, you can get things done more quickly . . . just make sure they’re the right things.
“You’re moving too slowly. Go faster, but don’t go faster until you work on the other three things first.”
Step 5: Automate
Once you’re confident you have the right requirements with the right ownership, removed unneeded steps, optimized the design, and done things quickly, you can automate the process. Don’t spend the time and effort to automate the wrong thing or automate too soon.
Using Elon Musk’s five-step design process may help you and your organization to innovate faster and focus on customer value.
In this episode, we revisit Theory of Constraints, an approach to improving organizational performance by accelerating delivery. Author Clarke Ching shares his FOCCCUS Formula to address the system’s bottleneck.
Show Notes
In every process or value delivery system, there’s one constraint (bottleneck) that limits the flow of value of the entire system. If you want to deliver faster, you must identify and address the bottleneck. To improve the flow of value, we can apply the Theory of Constraints, a process improvement methodology that focuses on addressing the bottleneck.
Eli Goldratt’s famous book, The Goal, introduced readers to the Theory of Constraints and how to apply Goldratt’s Five Focusing Steps to address your constraint. However, many people are unaware of or confused by the Five Focusing Steps.
In you’re confused about how to address the bottleneck in your process, you can use Clarke Ching’s FOCCCUS Formula instead. FOCCCUS is an acronym that stands for the steps you can take to address the constraint and improve the system.
FOCCCUS
The first step in the FOCCCUS Formula is “F” for find the bottleneck. You can’t improve the bottleneck if you don’t know where it is. To find the bottleneck, look for work piling up of long queues in front of a step in the process. Work typically builds up in front of the constraint.
Once you find the bottleneck, the next step is “O” for optimize. You want to optimize the bottleneck so that it can get work done faster. You can do this by making sure the work that goes to the bottleneck resource is ready (has everything they need) and the bottleneck is focused only on value added work.
After you optimize, the next step is collaborate. Collaboration helps the bottleneck deliver faster because non-bottleneck resources may be able to off-load work that the bottleneck is doing.
In addition to collaboration, you can apply the second “C”, which is coordinate. This step involves finding ways to coordinate activities of both bottleneck and non-bottleneck resources to optimize delivery. This can include rearranging process steps or changing the timing of certain pieces of work to smooth the flow.
The third “C” in the FOCCCUS Formula is curate. When you curate, you decide what to put in a limited amount of space. Essentially, you prioritize work to maximize the value that can be delivered.
The “U” in the FOCCCUS Formula stands for upgrade. This can mean buying faster equipment, holding training to improve skills associated with the constrained task, or hiring more people. Upgrading can be expensive and you should only upgrade after completing the other steps.
The final step is “S”, which stands for start again. The FOCCCUS Formula is a continuous process. After you complete each step, you should validate that the bottleneck hasn’t moved. If it has, continuing to the next step with the same bottleneck won’t improve the flow of value through the system.
Check each time to ensure that you know where the bottleneck is and start with the simplest, cheapest intervention.
Listen to the full episode to understand how to use the FOCCCUS Formula to improve your process and accelerate value delivery.
Clarke Ching
Clarke has been powered by the Theory of Constraints for over 20 years and Agile since 2003. He wrote Rolling Rocks Downhill (the Agile business novel that never mentions Agile) and The Bottleneck Rules (which was featured in The Guardian newspaper, and was briefly the #2 best-selling leadership book on Amazon.com, just behind Steven Covey).
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MBA036: Psychology of Leadership – Interview with Cillín HearnsLeadership and performance coach Cillín Hearns helps us explore what it means to be a leader and will show you how to advance your leadership skills regardless of your current role or level.
MBA035: Active Listening – The Most Important SkillWhat is the single most important skill needed by every business analyst, product owner, and project manager? It’s a skill that allows you to build trust and ensure an accurate, shared understanding. That skill is active listening.
MBA034: Use Case 2.0 – Interview with Ian SpenceIn this episode, author Ian Spence introduces us to a different way to utilize Use Cases in agile environments – Use Cases 2.0. After listening to this episode, you will understand: The advantages of using use cases How to use cases can be used in an agile environment Why and how to create thin slices of use cases Show Notes […]
MBA033: Landing and Succeeding in Your First BA Role – Interview with Alex PapworthIn this episode, consultant and blogger Alex Papworth shares his advice for starting a career as a Business Analyst – how to get and succeed in your first role as a BA. After listening to this episode, you will know: How to find opportunities to advance your BA skills and experience How to target your job search […]
MBA032: Systems Thinking – Interview with Paula BellIn this episode, consultant and author Paula Bell shares her approach to Systems Thinking – a holistic analysis approach to understanding how the parts of an organizational system interrelate. After listening to this episode, you will understand: What Systems Think is and why it’s important How to begin How you can better understand your customers and build […]
MBA031: UX – Are you Experienced? Interview with Neil TurnerIn this episode, User Experience designer and researcher Neil Turner will share his thoughts on how and when to interact with UX professionals in your company as well as give you some practical tips and tools you can use to create a better experience for your customers. After listening to this episode, you will understand: What […]
MBA030: Myths and Patterns of Organizational Change – Interview with Linda RisingIn this episode, author, speaker, and consultant Linda Rising helps us to better understand resistance to change and some of the myths and patterns associated with leading organizational change. After listening to this episode, you will understand: The myths of organizational change that lead us down the wrong path Why simply stating facts doesn’t persuade people How […]
MBA029: Business Process Improvement – Keep it Simple – Interview with Brian HuntIn this episode, Business Process Consultant Brian Hunt shares with us his approach to starting a business process improvement initiative and some simple tools you can use to get started. After listening to this episode, you will understand: How to start a business improvement initiative The right people to talk to to discover improvement opportunities Simple […]
MBA028: Talking Techie and Presenting Complex Ideas with Melissa MarshallIn this episode, Melissa Marshall will help us to understand how to bridge the gap between technical terms and business terms and present information in a meaningful way. After listening to this episode, you will understand: Why it’s critical to be able to communicate complex information to a general audience How to use an audience […]
MBA027: Elicit User Requirements with Legos – Interview with Ellen GroveIn this episode, Ellen Grove speaks with us about how to use Legos (the building blocks for kids) to elicit user requirements. This requirements elicitation technique quickly surfaces areas where there is not a shared understanding and identifies gaps missed by other approaches.
MBA026: Guarding Against Scope CreepScope creep isn’t just the nickname of that weird guy with chronic bad breath down the hall. It also refers to uncontrolled changes or the continuous growth in a project’s scope. Often, this addition to scope comes without corresponding changes to the budget, resources, and schedule. Scope creep is also known as requirements creep and can occur when the project scope is poorly defined and as a result, requirements are added that do not align with the objective of the project.
MBA025: Don’t Just Make Software, Make an Impact – Interview with Gojko AdzicIn this episode, Gojko Adzic speaks with us about how to deliver solutions that the business truly needs to achieve their goals and avoid creating shelfware. He’ll also introduce us to a tool that he uses called Impact Mapping. After listening to this episode, you will understand: How to focus on creating an impact for your […]
MBA024: Lead with the Power of a Jedi – Interview with Heather Mylan-MainsIn this episode, we’re joined by Heather Mylan-Mains. Heather is going to share with us how to motivate and inspire as a leader based on her presentation entitled “BA Jedi Master Leadership Academy – Learn How to Lead with the BA Force”. After listening to this episode, you will understand: How Business Analysts can lead […]
MBA023: Using Behavior Driven Development for Better User Stories – Interview with Jeffrey DavidsonIn this episode, we’re joined by Jeffrey Davidson. Jeffrey will help us to better understand how to get better at user stories and how behavior driven development (BDD) helps create a shared understanding. We also discuss how to create the nirvana state of living requirements. Jeffrey Davidson is the past president of the IIBA Dallas […]
MBA022: How to Know Where to Focus Your Efforts – Interview with Chris MattsIn this episode, we’re joined by Chris Matts. Chris will introduce us to the Cynefin framework and how he uses it to understand where to focus business analysis activities and where the focus should be more product management driven. Chris also discusses Real Options, which is a decision-making process for managing uncertainty and risk that he developed. […]
MBA021: Is the Business Analyst Role Just Overhead? Interview with John Sextro“Let’s get rid of Business Analysts and ScrumMasters.” In this episode, we’re joined by John Sextro. John recently gave a provocative lightening talk at a conference about removing Business Analysts and ScrumMasters from agile teams. We’ll discuss what this would mean for the BA role. John Sextro has been in the software industry for 21 years and […]
MBA020: The Value of Certifications – Interview with David ManticaIn this episode, David Mantica, President of ASPE-SDLC, shares his views on the value of professional certifications – both to the individual and to the organization. David Mantica is president of the American Society of Professional Education Inc. (ASPE-SDLC) and has two decades of experience as a business leader in the training industry. David has participated […]
MBA019: Why Start with Why? Interview with Stephen ShedletzkyIn this episode, leadership speaker and Start With Why facilitator Stephen Shedletzky helps us understand how to apply the Start With Why concept to our role to help our organizations work on the right things and deliver value to customers. He’ll also share his thoughts on how to inspire others to take action. After listening […]
MBA018: Step Up to Leadership with the Five-Rule Framework – Interview with Scott StribrnyWhat makes a great leader? In this episode, Scott Stribrny begins to answer this question by presenting a business analyst relevant five-rule framework to apply in real life. Scott will discuss principles that guide effective leaders and will explore the short-term orientation of leadership with examples for day-to-day action as well as the long-term orientation […]
MBA017: Does Your Communications Engine Need a Tune-Up? Interview with David BarrettIn this episode, David Barrett speaks with us about what I feel is the most important skill for a Business analyst . . . communication. David is the National Program Director for the Centers of Excellence in Project Management and Business Analysis at the Schulich School of Business and is one of the founders of […]
MBA016: User Story Mapping with Jeff PattonIn this episode consultant, author, and agile thought leader Jeff Patton shows us how to use Story Maps to create a shared understanding of a feature and create thin slices that relate to the minimum viable product and additional releases. Jeff also shares his thoughts on the proper way to use User Stories and how to avoid […]
MBA015: Promise Theory for Team Cooperation – Interview with Mark BurgessIn this episode, Dr. Mark Burgess, creator of CFEngine, explains how he uses concepts from physics to explain how complex systems work. He uses his Promise Theory to not only develop better computer systems, but also to give us a better framework for individual and team interactions. After listening to this episode, you will understand: How we can use […]
MBA014: The Future of Business Analysis – Interview with David ManticaIn this episode, David Mantica, President of ASPE, shares his views on the future of the business analyst role and how we can open up new opportunities for career growth and drive valuable change in our organizations. After listening to this episode, you will understand: How different organizations are structured to manage business analysis activities The […]
MBA013: Trust is the New Workplace Currency – Interview with Nan RussellIn this episode, Nan Russell shares with us how to build trust and the effect increased trust (or the lack of trust) can have on your team and the organization. She’ll also help us to understand how the little things we do can hurt the bigger things we want to do and how to use […]
MBA012: Beyond Requirements – Interview with Kent McDonaldIn this episode, Kent McDonald shares his thoughts on requirements analysis in an agile environment and will give you tips on how to make your agile projects more successful. After listening to this episode, you will understand: The role of the agile analyst and how it differs from analysis on traditional projects The mindset and underlying […]
MBA011: Make Your Waterfall Projects More AgileIn this episode, we discuss practices from agile that you can implement in your traditional (waterfall) projects that will allow you to reduce risk, adapt to change, and accelerate project delivery. In this episode, you will understand: How to use some of the values, principles, and practices of agile to adapt to change and speed up […]
MBA010: Make Virtual Meetings More Effective – Interview with Angela WickIn this episode, we’re joined by Angela Wick of BA-Squared. Angela shares her tips and techniques for making virtual meetings more effective. You’ll learn the signs that people are multitasking and understand how to use virtual collaboration tools to keep people engaged and run a successful virtual meeting. In this episode, Angela shares with us: The […]
MBA008: How to Discover Product Requirements – Interview with Ellen GottesdienerIn this episode, Ellen Gottesdiener shares an effective approach to discovering product requirements. You will understand how to break out of being an order taker and become a product co-creator. Ellen’s holistic approach to requirements discovery includes a mindset shift that needs to take place to recast stakeholders as product partners, how to get everyone […]
MBA007: How to be a Badass Business Analyst – Interview with Bob PrentissWant to be the go-to person on projects, in high demand and highly regarded? In this episode, you’ll discover how to do exactly that. Bob Prentiss is the Founder and Principal Consultant at Bob the BA, Inc. He’s a trainer, mentor, consultant, major nerd, and all around badass Business Analyst. Become a badass BA and […]
MBA006: The Business Analyst Career Path – Interview with David DeWittWhere do I go from here and what are the career opportunities for a Business Analyst? David DeWitt, President of the Chicagoland chapter of the IIBA and IT Leadership Practice Director at NueVista Group, discusses the Business Analyst career path. In this episode, David shares with us: Career opportunities for a new Business […]
MBA005: Interview with Len Lagestee – How can a BA deliver value to an Agile Team?Today, author and agile coach Len Lagestee helps us to discover how a Business Analyst can bring value to an agile team. Len also discusses where a BA fits on an agile team and how to become a catalyst for positive change. In this episode, Len shares with us: What a Business Analyst can […]
MBA004: Defeat the Meeting Super VilliansIn this episode, you’ll discover the super villains that destroy meeting efficiency and learn how to defeat them. We’ll share with you the tools you can use to hold effective meetings and deliver project results. Check the bottom of this post to get your free guide to master your meetings. During this episode, you will find […]
MBA003: How can introverts work well on agile teams – Interview with Ken HowardIn this episode, consultant and author Ken Howard shares with us how to discover the right method to work with and communicate requirements to project team members. He also dispels some myths about introverts and helps us to understand how introverts can benefit agile teams. In this episode, Ken shares with us: A method for […]
MBA002: How to Elicit Non-Functional Requirements – Interview with Roxanne MillerToday’s episode is an interview with Roxanne Miller, consultant, speaker, and author. Roxanne shares with us a framework for holding effective stakeholder elicitation meetings and everything you ever wanted to know about non-functional requirements. In this episode, you’ll find out: How to hold effective stakeholder meetings How non-functional requirements differ from functional requirements The impact […]
MBA001: Introduction to the Mastering Business Analysis PodcastToday’s episode is a quick introduction to the podcast. I will share with you what this podcast is all about and why I created it. Have a question about Business Analysis or a suggestion for an upcoming episode? Leave me a voice mail using the widget at the side of the screen or send […]
Thank you for listening to the program
To get more valuable content to enhance your skills and advance your career, you can subscribe on iTunes and other podcatchers.
Also, reviews on iTunes are highly appreciated! I read each review and it helps keep me motivated to continue to bring you valuable content each week.
David Mantica helps us understand business models and helps us understand how to find new opportunities to create greater value.
Show Notes
Creating product requirements and delivering features is one thing. Understanding the business context and business models associated with your product and identifying different avenues to drive value is quite another.
Understanding your business model can help drive value for your organization and increase the value that you contribute as a Business Analyst, Product Owner, or Project Manager.
A business model incorporates how you package a product, how you sell it, how you market it, how you deliver it, and how you get paid for it. The packaging refers to the offer itself, not the box it comes in.
Your business model gives you insight into how you extract money or time from somebody for the product and understand the expense necessary that actually deliver it and the margins associated with it. You then tie in how you fit in the value chain of your organization and where you fit from a competitive standpoint.
Business Models for Internal Products
The first thing we have to remember with internal products is that revenue is considered with use and adoption of the product. Instead of revenue being much somebody paid for something, your internal customers pay for what you build based on their time; if they’re using it more, they’re paying a lot of money for it. Once you understand the use, you could tie value back to productivity.
We need to consider that there are different ways that you can deliver; all the different ways you can sell, all the different ways that you could generate revenue, ways that people engage with your product are different. You can commoditize the same solution but within two different business models and get two totally different results. You can understand the business model from an internal perspective by digging into how you deliver something.
How do you package that delivery? What’s the value proposition? What’s the internal marketing associated with it? How you judge success?
Increasing Value
To validate the value of a product, service, or feature, we don’t just need to test ideas. We also have to test how the idea is delivered, the information that is given, and how we monetize its use.
As Business Analysts, we’re a lynchpin between what can happen and who uses it. We have to start influencing the groups in the middle that deliver elements of the product to help them see the fact that their scale and repeat model is in need of an adjustment or needs to be replaced by something else.
By serving as internal management consultants, we can work to understand the changes in the business model and educate people on potential failures and view the business model together to enhance the product value.
One of the failures could be how we support someone when they have a problem or not delivering the service appropriately. Perhaps it’s the wrong platform. Perhaps there’s an external impact based on use that we have to incorporate because all of our customers are using a different software system and they have different experiences.
Understanding how business models change due to a digital transformation is critically important. Looking at options associated with the business model may help you to see different options. Perhaps you can license the product. You can sell the software, sell the data, or provide information online.
Understanding the concept of how a digital transformation starts to impact some of these production environments that we’ve been working on for quite some time is a good educational step to start getting yourself a better understanding of what may occur and then also being able to truly understand the market.
Listen to the full episode to get more advice and insights on using business models to bring more value to your organization and your customers.
HOMEWORK Review some case studies about different types of business models and take time out to thing about your business models and how you can apply what you’ve learned.
David Mantica
David Mantica believes leaders should be servants to their organizations and people. He is the Vice President and General Manager at SoftEd, a consultancy that offers advisory and education services to help organizations discover new ways of working for better business outcomes. David is a frequent speaker on Project Management, Business Analysis, and leadership.
Thank you for listening to the program
To get more valuable content to enhance your skills and advance your career, you can subscribe on iTunes and other podcatchers.
Also, reviews on iTunes are highly appreciated! I read each review and it helps keep me motivated to continue to bring you valuable content each week.
In this episode, Clarke Ching shares an innovative problem solving approach to help us solve tricky problems.
Show Notes
We’re often called upon to apply our problem solving skills and help organizations make better decisions. The challenge is when we face really tricky problems. To solve these, we need an innovating problem solving approach.
Corkscrew thinking is about how to come up with clever ideas when you’re facing what seems like an impossible situation.
This approach helps you to be creative and wander around to figure things out. You’re trying to invent something or discover something new. If you’re facing two choices and they conflict or directly oppose each other, corkscrew thinking can help you discover new solutions.
When we make decisions, we often make out a pros and cons list. What we’re trying to do with corkscrew thinking is to get the best of both options while eliminating the negative aspects. Start with the two options that are in conflict and figure out what to get the benefits out of each of those options and then solve a different problem, which is to come up with new options. It allows you to get a better solution than the options you started with.
One way of envisioning corkscrew thinking is to imagine that you’re holding two choices or options, one in each hand. Next, think about the benefits of each option and stack those on each shoulder. These are the requirements or the positive outcomes that each choice will help you to achieve.
Now imagine the higher purpose that you’re trying to achieve related to these two options. Imagine this overall mission on top of your head.
Finally, consider the benefits on your shoulders and the higher purpose above your head and search for options that combine the benefits of both while serving your higher purpose.
This exercise can best be done with a quick drawing or sticky notes.
Listen to the full episode to understand how to apply corkscrew thinking to solve your tricky problems.
HOMEWORK Start noticing when you have a dilemma and are torn between two choices. Every hour we’re faced with dozens of decisions and often we’re not actually making choices because we’re stuck with a dilemma and we don’t even notice it. Just start to notice when you’re torn between two options and then write them down and write the pros and cons. Then ask yourself how to get all of the pros / benefits.
Clarke has been powered by the Theory of Constraints for over 20 years and Agile since 2003. He wrote Rolling Rocks Downhill (the Agile business novel that never mentions Agile) and The Bottleneck Rules (which was featured in The Guardian newspaper, and was briefly the #2 best-selling leadership book on Amazon.com, just behind Steven Covey).
Thank you for listening to the program
To get more valuable content to enhance your skills and advance your career, you can subscribe on iTunes and other podcatchers.
Also, reviews on iTunes are highly appreciated! I read each review and it helps keep me motivated to continue to bring you valuable content each week.
David Mantica discusses the brain science behind some of the challenges knowledge workers face and helps you shift your mindset to enable you to thrive in a complex and chaotic environment.
Show Notes
As knowledge workers, we rely on our brains and relationships to get things done. That’s where some of the challenges lie. The hard skills of business analysis, project management, and product ownership are relatively easy to learn. But the soft skills . . . that’s the real challenge.
It’s amazing how little education knowledge workers get about how our brain impacts our ability to be successful. Our brains operate for two things; survival and efficiency. That efficiency word is very scary when it comes to complex cognition.
The survival aspect can be even more difficult because it ties back into the physical survival mechanisms of our body, because we really haven’t evolved yet to understand that we are an apex predator. A lot of the initial reactions that our brain drives in our system is protecting us from a physical perspective when fear occurs. So the manifestation of fear around losing your job becomes a physical manifestation similar to being chased by a saber tooth tiger. You lose a lot of the power of cognition in that.
The first step is not so much getting into the details of communication skills and emotional intelligence. It’s getting a better understanding of the fundamental workings of our brain and how you have to combat that to be healthy and to be able to thrive in constant change.
Cognitive Distortions One thing we do a very poor job of is feeding our brain to operate with high level of cognition over an extended period of time. Since our brain wants to be efficient, it will process and gather information and look at the information using its stereotypical heuristic patterns it’s used to. This is why you see yourself having a tendency to try to solve the same problem using the same tools and getting frustrated. You’re not realizing that you have to force yourself to think deeply about a problem to get your brain processing at the cerebral cortex level and to get into something called deep literacy.
And then on top of all that, it’s our society’s goal to pound this with sound bytes of information so that we’re always operating on that system. That’s important for us because the first technique you need to be thinking about is when analyzing a complex future state situation, taking a step back and doing some deep thinking and try to push away the emotional stimulus that’s around you to get your cognition going; it’s critically important because it doesn’t naturally occur.
We’re bombarded with data all the time and our brains want to operate efficiently, so we ignore a lot of the data that we see in our daily lives. That can lead to snap judgments and unconscious biases, leading us to thinking down the wrong path.
One such cognitive distortion is confirmation bias. It’s a tendency that we look for things that agree with what we’re thinking about and block the things that don’t agree with what we’re thinking about. It’s a preservation technique, it’s an efficiency technique, and it drives a lot of failure in the workplace. This can also lead to tensions in working relationships.
Another common cognitive distortion is loss regret. The concept of the loss regret is that I would rather do nothing and not have to lose then do something and have the potential to lose, even though when I do something there’s a chance I could win.
That fear of change is so scary for the brain because it wants efficiency and it wants survival. It’s going to force us to try to stay in the status quo. That’s why we all have that tendency to stay in our bubble and we don’t take certain risks.
These cognitive distortions and others affect how you interact with stakeholders and could be at the root of some of the challenges you face.
The Stress Response When faced with a stressful situation, our bodies release chemicals that often lead us to a freeze, fight or flight response. Our evolutionary biology predisposes us for pessimism, and that pessimism drives all of those cognitive distortions. But that pessimism also drives a lot of the emotional distortions and the emotional distortions we fear. Fear centers around two things; one is the limbic system of our brain processing that information, using the concept of the physical survival mechanism.
Our bodies release adrenaline and cortisol; both are great for muscles and running fast and getting your heart pumping so you can really handle something. But it’s horrible for cognition. It makes cognition more difficult. That pessimism also leads to negative self talk, which fuels a lot of the emotional distortions that become physical.
These situations can trigger a vicious cycle where get the stress response, you can’t think or behave properly, and then you do poor work. As a result, your boss yells at you and creates this cycle over again, creating a downward spiral.
Understanding the human work machine and the how our brain operates will help us to better deal with the emotional and cognitive distortions.
Addressing the Distortions The first thing you can do to address the impacts on these cognitive and emotional distortions is to do an analysis of your mindset by taking a step back and asking yourself “What are those things that you believe? What do you believe about work? What do you believe about people?”
From that, you can see how those beliefs would manifest itself in the behaviors and actions which then would start building up the stress response. Better understanding the mindsets that drive behaviors and actions is key to effectively dealing with the distortions we all experience.
In addition, we need to look at yourself to be more aware of what you’re feeling and where those emotions are coming from. This also helps you get a handle on your self talk. Meditation is also a powerful tool to be able to teach your brain to slow down and not be as reactive. Pause, take a deep breath, relax yourself, clear your mind for a moment and picture what you’re trying to do and the intended outcomes. Simply pausing for a second and mentally shifting your mindset or stance to curiosity changes your behavior.
Listen to the full episode to get David’s tips on how to make the mindset shift to better adapt to challenges.
YOUR HOMEWORK First, learn more about deep literacy. After that, set aside time in your schedule to think. Perhaps you’re going to think about the complex relationship that you’re trying to deal with, or think about a specific problem at work they haven’t quite been able to solve. Take half an hour and dig into it deeply so you can start pushing your brain to start getting into that deeper thinking process more readily. You may find that you’re more tired because this type of thinking is draining, so you have to start researching and learning about how you get the right nutrition for your brain.
Head Strong – a book on brain energy and thinking faster
David Mantica
David Mantica believes leaders should be servants to their organizations and people. He is the Vice President and General Manager at SoftEd, a consultancy that offers advisory and education services to help organizations discover new ways of working for better business outcomes. David is a frequent speaker on Project Management, Business Analysis, and leadership.
Thank you for listening to the program
To get more valuable content to enhance your skills and advance your career, you can subscribe on iTunes and other podcatchers.
Also, reviews on iTunes are highly appreciated! I read each review and it helps keep me motivated to continue to bring you valuable content each week.
David Bland discusses the importance of testing your business ideas and shares ways to dramatically reduce the risk and increase the likelihood of success for your product, initiative, or project.
Show Notes
Studies show that 7 out of 10 products fail to deliver on expectations. We often fall into the trap of moving forward with a project, product, or business idea without first validating it. This results in wasted time and money from solutions that don’t have a good market fit or aren’t solving the right problem.
The most expensive way to find out if you’re right or wrong is to build the whole thing.
David Bland
The Three Lenses
When testing your idea to reduce risk, look at the solution through three lenses; desirability, feasibility, and viability.
Desirability implies that customers want your solution. Feasibility means that we can build and support the solution. This is isn’t just technical feasibility; we also look need to look at overall regulatory, policy, and governance that would prevent you from making your solution a success.
While customers may want your solution (desirable) and you can build it (feasibility), perhaps there’s not enough of a market for it or people won’t pay enough for it. This is viability.
We want to unpack our risk and then test our way through it, going from no evidence to some evidence and then from some evidence to strong evidence that we’re on the right path.
Process to Validate Your Idea
If you have an idea that you want to validate, start by understanding the higher level risks. Who’s your customer? What’s your value proposition? What’s your revenue model and the cost it’s going to take to do this?
This information helps you map out desirability and viability. Then work to understand the big activities you need to do, the resources you need to have, and anything else related to feasibility.
A business model canvas may help you to understand the things that have to be true for your idea to succeed. From there, you can identify the things that have to be true that you have no evidence to support. You can then select experiments that would help generate evidence about those things.
Listen to the full episode to understand how to sequence your experiments, discover simple yet effective ways to test your business ideas before spending a lot of time and money, and more.
YOUR HOMEWORK Quite often, the biggest risk is desirability. Look for observable evidence that there are more people than just you or friends or family that have the problem you’re trying to solve with your project or product. Learn firsthand whether or not there’s a market for what you want to do. Find out if it is a problem that’s big enough to actually build something for before you spend a lot of time and money. The observable evidence in this scenario would be people searching for something. Google could show search trend analysis could help show how big of a problem you’re solving. Are people searching for it regularly? Is it seasonal? How many people are searching for it? Was a search volume look like weather related terms or to specific regions in the world where it’s popular?
David Bland is the founder of Precoil, an organization that helps companies find product market fit using lean startup, design thinking and business model innovation. David has helped validate new products and businesses at companies such as GE, Toyota, Adobe, HP, Behr and more.
David has also written several books and is the co-author of Testing Business Ideas: A Field Guide for Rapid Experimentation.
MBA221: Systems Thinking and Business Agility
May 25, 2021
Adrian Reed discusses systems thinking, how it enables business agility, and how it can help elevate the value you bring to your organization.
Show Notes
We live in a complex, rapidly changing world. In order to support our stakeholders and our organizations, we need to expand our view and adopt a systems thinking mindset. This allows you to see the whole and the interconnectedness between the parts, which in turn allows you to help stakeholders make the right decisions.
Systems thinking makes business agility possible. With business agility, your organization is able to sense its external environment, really work out what’s significant, and then respond to it.
To be really agile, your organization needs to see what’s changing. It needs to work out how it needs to change and then it needs to actually do it. Many organizations see that there is a strategic problem and something they really need to do, but they can’t quite configure themselves to respond to it. Business analysis is central to that because you think about sensing and seeing what’s coming.
There’s a huge amount of strategic business analysis that fits into that space. You think about assessing how to change and there’s a lot of solution evaluation, problem solving, and understanding that fits in that space.
Who’s Responsible for Strategic Systems Thinking?
There’s often a belief that the top c-level executives should be doing this analysis. In reality, systems thinking and strategic thinking should happen at all levels. Think about what might change out in the world and how it might have an impact on how this project runs or how this product will need to incrementally change.
Understanding what’s going on outside our organization or even internal – it can be “what if the priorities of this department change or what if we lose this key person” or some other event. That speaks to systems thinking; understanding the upstream and downstream impacts as well as all the pieces that are at work in a delivery system.
We may write process and procedure manuals, but nobody really thinks about how they can adapt. So when something unexpected happens or some competitive threat comes along, we haven’t built variety into the processes. We lean out all of the slack and there can be times when that’s necessary. Systems thinking would encourage us to look more holistically and to recognize the complexity and to think about how the environment might change. Business analysis is a big part of that.
Listen to the full episode for tools you can use to apply systems thinking and tips on providing next level value to your stakeholders and organization.
YOUR HOMEWORK Don’t be afraid to look outside of the box that the organization has put you in. There are times when you’re busy with projects or initiatives and you’re asked to do something that doesn’t feel right. You’re under pressure and that doesn’t feel like a good time to descent. Sometimes that’s the most important time to pause, have a deep breath and think about if you need to put your attention elsewhere or look outside of the department that’s currently focusing on this change. Pick your head up and share your concerns. We’re all interested in getting to the right outcome. Bringing your observations to the attention of stakeholders lightens their load because it’s something that they probably should do and they probably want to do, but they’ve don’t have time. This is another way we elevate the reputation of our role. People start to realize that we’re strategic thinkers, and we should have a place at every part of the conversation, not just at the delivery.
Adrian is a Principal Consultant and Director at Blackmetric Business Solutions where he provides business analysis consultancy and training solutions. He also speaks internationally on topics relating to business analysis and business change.
MBA220: Thoughtless Design with Karl Wiegers
May 18, 2021
Author and thought leader Karl Wiegers shares principles and lessons he has learned from poor designs and what you can do to develop solutions that create a great user experience.
Show Notes
We’re all experienced products that are confusing, difficult to use, and cause frustration. Author Karl Wiegers has pulled together a collection of products with a thoughtless design and created a set of design principles and lessons to help us create solutions with the user in mind.
If the solutions that we create aren’t usable, they’re not valuable to our customers.
Design Lessons
Karl’s first design lesson is to focus the design on usage, not on product features. Studies show that a high percentage of the features that are included in software packages are rarely used.
Let’s think about what people want to do with the product and the environment in which they’re going to be using it. Then we can design the product to make it easier for users to get the job done. Let’s understand the disease before we come up with a cure.
A second lesson is that design demands iteration. You’re not going to get the design right on your first try. You have to iterate. You have to sneak up on approaching a better design with each cycle until you have a design that’s good enough to satisfy the requirements and usability.
You can iterate at multiple levels. You can iterate with each product release similar to the iPhone. When you iterate at that level, you may also get a lot of new bugs and increase complexity of the product.
Making a product, marketing it, then seeing how people like it and making another try in a year is an expensive way to iterate. We want to iterate as cheaply as possible as many times as we can, and that requires doing things with prototypes and mockups. We can have an incremental growth of the level of precision and detail with the prototypes.
The third lesson is we need to involve real users whenever possible. If you’re iterating on a design, how do you know what to change on your next cycle to make it better? Ideally, you’ll have some user representatives that are working with you; perhaps working with a prototype or a mockup under realistic usage conditions, as we can come up with a design. The users are going to show you things and tell you things that you just don’t get in the design lab.
Sometimes you may not have real users available. You might have to work with user surrogates, but whenever possible, there’s just no substitute for having real people work with something that’s similar to the real product and tell you all the reasons why you’re not there yet.
Fundamental Design Principles
There are nine design principles in Karl’s book that are fundamental to good design. The design principles include:
Make the product easy and obvious to use: The product should provide visual cues to the user to make the product easy and obvious to use.
Make it hard to make a mistake: The product should be designed in a way that makes it hard to make a mistake, or at least have the user verify their intentions before taking a step that potentially could be a mistake.
Design for the user’s convenience: Think about what the user is trying to do and create a design that allows them to get the job done. Avoid designing for the business’s convenience at the expense of the user.
Remember that thoughtful design is something that makes it hard for users to make mistakes, doesn’t waste the user’s time, and is for the user’s convenience. Let’s try to detect unsatisfied preconditions and erroneous inputs as early as possible in the test sequence so the user doesn’t waste time on a task they can’t complete.
Listen to the full episode to get more of Karl’s tips and advice on building products with the customer’s usability in mind.
Your Homework As a Business Analyst, Product Owner, or designer, let’s not make something and then have people tell us all the stuff we did wrong and why they hate it. Instead, try to satisfy the nine design principles from the outset. As a consumer, it helps us think more carefully about what features we’re looking for when we’re considering possible products that we might buy. What are the things that are important to me as a user before I buy it, take it home and saying that’s not what I was hoping was going to be? On a broader scale, we should all think more about the properties and characteristics and capabilities that we’re looking for before we put down our money.
Karl Wiegers is an independent consultant, author, speaker, and thought leader in the project community. His books on software requirements are considered required reading for Business Analysts and Project Managers. As a consultant and trainer, Karl has worked with more than 100 companies and government organizations of all types, helping them improve the effectiveness and efficiency of their software development activities.
Understanding the different levels of Agile planning and what they mean for you will help your team stay aligned and focused on achieving the right outcomes.
MBA213: Applying Theory of Constraints
Jul 28, 2020
If you want to accelerate and deliver with greater speed and flexibility that's critical to serving your customers, combine Agile with Theory of Constraints.
MBA212: Transforming Your Work with Modern Agile
Jul 07, 2020
Joshua Kerievsky shares the four principles of Modern Agile and how they can help you find better ways of working and achieve better business outcomes.
Lori Silverman helps us get real value from data by developing core competence and creating the culture needed to support collaborative data-informed decision making.
MBA201: Tips From an Accidental Product Owner
Nov 05, 2019
Richard Larson shares his experiences as an accidental Product Owner and provides tips and advice for others moving toward a role in Product Ownership.
Vince Mirabelli shares some practical, how-to approaches to developing empathy, mapping the customer journey, and finding business process improvement opportunities along the way.
Kent McDonald shares his thoughts about what you need to know about Agile and how to use Example Mapping; a technique to create a shared understanding.
Product debt can slow the delivery, erode customer value, and make it difficult to innovate. Here are the different types of product debt and what you can do about it.
Are you suffering from Product Debt? Product Debt erodes customer value, stifles innovation, and increases the time and cost it takes to deliver new functionality.
James Robertson shares some of the challenges associated with an Agile transformation and how Business Analysts can provide the most value to the organization.
MBA174: Product Management is the New Business Analysis
Dec 11, 2018
Agile and other changes in the way we work means that we need to change too. Here's how we can leverage our skills and competencies in a new way and grow our careers.
In this Lightning Cast, we'll explore the practice of using stage gates and a big design up front. Why do organizations use the BDUF approach and is there a better way?
Want to communicate in a compelling, memorable way? Storytelling allows you to connect with your audience at an emotional level and helps your ideas stick.
MBA162: The Business Analyst Role and its Real Value
Jul 10, 2018
Glenn Brule discusses the Business Analyst role, its real value proposition, and what you can do to increase the value you provide to your organization.
Want to take your skills and your career to the next level? A mentoring relationship can do just that. Discover how to find the right mentor and create an effective mentoring relationship.
Are you a hiring manager looking for great BA and PM candidates? Find out how to find the best candidates for your organization. Job seekers will discover how to best prepare for a job search.
Implementing change in an organization goes beyond requirements and change management. You need Change Leadership to help people adjust to the change. Here's how!
Powerful questions are a way to challenge our thinking, stimulating deeper conversations, and uncovering hidden truths. Here's how to ask more powerful questions.
A clear, well-ordered backlog leads to more focus, less time in refinement, and delivering the most important items first. Here's how to order your backlog.
Lightning Cast: Which Communications Channel Should You Use?
Mar 06, 2018
Which communications channel should you use? The right communications medium depends on your message. We'll explore different forms of communication and which to use in different contexts.
MBA146: The Full Stack Business Analyst
Jan 09, 2018
What does it take to become a Full-Stack Business Analyst? Similar to a Full-Stack Developer, a Business Analyst can broaden their skills to reduce waste and contribute more value to the organization.
Six thought leaders in the fields of business analysis, project management, and Agile share their predictions for 2018 and what you should do to be successful.
MBA138: Building a Believable Business Case
Oct 03, 2017
Randy Radic shares his process and tips for building a realistic business case to make sure your organization is moving forward with the right initiatives.
CEO and President of the International Institute for Business Analysis (IIBA), Ken Fulmer joins us to discuss some new initiatives at the IIBA and how the IIBA can help you advance your skills and grow in your career.
MBA129: Real Life Agile, UX, and Design Thinking
Jun 20, 2017
Brent Severson shares how he has successfully integrated Design Thinking, User Experience Design, and Agile into his BA practice to make himself valuable to teams working in the digital space.
MBA128: Where Should the Business Analyst Reside?
Jun 13, 2017
Lora McCoy shares her views on where business analysts should reside in an organization to enable better collaboration, growth, and prevent solution bias.
MBA127: Guiding Principles for the Business Analyst – part 2
Jun 06, 2017
We conclude our discussion with Steve Blais as he shares with us his 11 principles of the business analyst, which provides guidance as to what a business analyst should do to achieve success.
MBA126: Guiding Principles for the Business Analyst
May 30, 2017
Author and consultant Steve Blais shares with us his 11 principles of the business analyst, which provides guidance as to what a business analyst should do to achieve success.
Alan Klement shows us how Jobs to be Done can help you design better products and spur innovation. Jobs to be Done (JTBD) is a mixture of design thinking, lean startup, and agile to help you make great products that people will love.
MBA113: Problem Solving – The RIGHT Stuff
Feb 28, 2017
Learn a problem solving approach that takes you through incovering the right problem, finding the right solution, and putting the right plan into action.
MBA107: Backlog Refinement – From Misunderstanding to Collaborative Discovery
Jan 17, 2017
Richard Dolman helps us take backlog refinement from an underutilized meeting that doesn't get the respect it deserves to a powerful forum for collaborative discovery.
MBA102: Product Management – Build the Right Thing
Dec 13, 2016
Rich Mironov helps us to better understand the Product Manager role and what we can do to make sure we build a solution that drives success for our organization.
Eight business analysis leaders share personal stories of their biggest mistakes and what they learned along the way so you don't make the same mistakes.
MBA098: The Art and Science of Influence
Nov 15, 2016
David Mantica talks to us about influence and how to successfully navigate any organization to move projects to execution. He also shares several approaches and techniques to improve your ability to influence.
MBA096: The Standard for Business Analysis
Nov 01, 2016
David Bieg, Business Analysis & Requirements Program Manager for the PMI, tells us about PMI's development of a foundational standard in Business Analysis.
Look beyond typical in-project risks and adopt a systems thinking approach by identifying organizational risks that may come up as a result of your project.
MBA089: Agile Manifesto – What it Means to Business Analysts
Sep 13, 2016
What do the principles behind the Agile Manifesto mean in the context of Business Analysis? Same skills as traditional approaches, but applied differently.
MBA073: Agile Requirements – What’s Different
May 24, 2016
What's different about requirements in an agile environment vs. requirements in waterfall? Success with agile requirements requires a shift in mindset from big design upfront to continuous small, valuable pieces as well as an understanding of when to dive into the details and when to keep the information at a high level.
MBA055: The Agile BA – Interview with Ryland Leyton
Jan 19, 2016
Ryland Leyton, author of The Agile Business Analyst: Moving from Waterfall to Agile, joins us to talk about what it means to be an agile business analyst and how to be successful in an agile environment.
MBA053: Use Cases and Beyond – with Ivar Jacobson
Jan 05, 2016
The father of Use Cases, Dr. Ivar Jacobson, joins us to discuss how he came up with the idea for Use Cases, how to use them in an agile environment, and what lies beyond Use Cases.
MBA049: The First Line of Defense Against a Security Breach
Dec 08, 2015
Hans Eckman helps us to understand how the Business Analyst is perfectly suited to be the first line of defense in preventing security breaches. Hans also shares some approaches and advice for handling security related requirements.
MBA041: What’s the Second Best User Story?
Oct 13, 2015
James Robertson helps us decompose user stories into smaller, more manageable pieces and look critically at stories so that they don't specify a solution.
MBA037: The Key to Better Collaboration
Sep 15, 2015
Jim Tamm shares some essential skills for effective collaboration and practical tools designed to help you manage your own defensiveness, build trust, reduce conflict and create a more collaborative working environment.
MBA036: Psychology of Leadership – Interview with Cillín Hearns
Sep 08, 2015
Leadership and performance coach Cillín Hearns helps us explore what it means to be a leader and will show you how to advance your leadership skills regardless of your current role or level.
MBA035: Active Listening – The Most Important Skill
Sep 01, 2015
What is the single most important skill needed by every business analyst, product owner, and project manager? It's a skill that allows you to build trust and ensure an accurate, shared understanding. That skill is active listening.
MBA034: Use Case 2.0 – Interview with Ian Spence
Aug 25, 2015
In this episode, author Ian Spence introduces us to a different way to utilize Use Cases in agile environments – Use Cases 2.0. After listening to this episode, you will understand: The advantages of using use cases How to use cases can be used in an agile environment Why and how to create thin slices of use cases Show Notes […]
MBA033: Landing and Succeeding in Your First BA Role – Interview with Alex Papworth
Aug 18, 2015
In this episode, consultant and blogger Alex Papworth shares his advice for starting a career as a Business Analyst – how to get and succeed in your first role as a BA. After listening to this episode, you will know: How to find opportunities to advance your BA skills and experience How to target your job search […]
MBA032: Systems Thinking – Interview with Paula Bell
Aug 11, 2015
In this episode, consultant and author Paula Bell shares her approach to Systems Thinking – a holistic analysis approach to understanding how the parts of an organizational system interrelate. After listening to this episode, you will understand: What Systems Think is and why it’s important How to begin How you can better understand your customers and build […]
MBA031: UX – Are you Experienced? Interview with Neil Turner
Aug 04, 2015
In this episode, User Experience designer and researcher Neil Turner will share his thoughts on how and when to interact with UX professionals in your company as well as give you some practical tips and tools you can use to create a better experience for your customers. After listening to this episode, you will understand: What […]
MBA030: Myths and Patterns of Organizational Change – Interview with Linda Rising
Jul 28, 2015
In this episode, author, speaker, and consultant Linda Rising helps us to better understand resistance to change and some of the myths and patterns associated with leading organizational change. After listening to this episode, you will understand: The myths of organizational change that lead us down the wrong path Why simply stating facts doesn’t persuade people How […]
MBA029: Business Process Improvement – Keep it Simple – Interview with Brian Hunt
Jul 21, 2015
In this episode, Business Process Consultant Brian Hunt shares with us his approach to starting a business process improvement initiative and some simple tools you can use to get started. After listening to this episode, you will understand: How to start a business improvement initiative The right people to talk to to discover improvement opportunities Simple […]
MBA028: Talking Techie and Presenting Complex Ideas with Melissa Marshall
Jul 14, 2015
In this episode, Melissa Marshall will help us to understand how to bridge the gap between technical terms and business terms and present information in a meaningful way. After listening to this episode, you will understand: Why it’s critical to be able to communicate complex information to a general audience How to use an audience […]
MBA027: Elicit User Requirements with Legos – Interview with Ellen Grove
Jul 07, 2015
In this episode, Ellen Grove speaks with us about how to use Legos (the building blocks for kids) to elicit user requirements. This requirements elicitation technique quickly surfaces areas where there is not a shared understanding and identifies gaps missed by other approaches.
Scope creep isn’t just the nickname of that weird guy with chronic bad breath down the hall. It also refers to uncontrolled changes or the continuous growth in a project’s scope. Often, this addition to scope comes without corresponding changes to the budget, resources, and schedule. Scope creep is also known as requirements creep and can occur when the project scope is poorly defined and as a result, requirements are added that do not align with the objective of the project.
MBA025: Don’t Just Make Software, Make an Impact – Interview with Gojko Adzic
Jun 23, 2015
In this episode, Gojko Adzic speaks with us about how to deliver solutions that the business truly needs to achieve their goals and avoid creating shelfware. He’ll also introduce us to a tool that he uses called Impact Mapping. After listening to this episode, you will understand: How to focus on creating an impact for your […]
MBA024: Lead with the Power of a Jedi – Interview with Heather Mylan-Mains
Jun 16, 2015
In this episode, we’re joined by Heather Mylan-Mains. Heather is going to share with us how to motivate and inspire as a leader based on her presentation entitled “BA Jedi Master Leadership Academy – Learn How to Lead with the BA Force”. After listening to this episode, you will understand: How Business Analysts can lead […]
MBA023: Using Behavior Driven Development for Better User Stories – Interview with Jeffrey Davidson
Jun 09, 2015
In this episode, we’re joined by Jeffrey Davidson. Jeffrey will help us to better understand how to get better at user stories and how behavior driven development (BDD) helps create a shared understanding. We also discuss how to create the nirvana state of living requirements. Jeffrey Davidson is the past president of the IIBA Dallas […]
MBA022: How to Know Where to Focus Your Efforts – Interview with Chris Matts
Jun 02, 2015
In this episode, we’re joined by Chris Matts. Chris will introduce us to the Cynefin framework and how he uses it to understand where to focus business analysis activities and where the focus should be more product management driven. Chris also discusses Real Options, which is a decision-making process for managing uncertainty and risk that he developed. […]
MBA021: Is the Business Analyst Role Just Overhead? Interview with John Sextro
May 26, 2015
“Let’s get rid of Business Analysts and ScrumMasters.” In this episode, we’re joined by John Sextro. John recently gave a provocative lightening talk at a conference about removing Business Analysts and ScrumMasters from agile teams. We’ll discuss what this would mean for the BA role. John Sextro has been in the software industry for 21 years and […]
MBA020: The Value of Certifications – Interview with David Mantica
May 19, 2015
In this episode, David Mantica, President of ASPE-SDLC, shares his views on the value of professional certifications – both to the individual and to the organization. David Mantica is president of the American Society of Professional Education Inc. (ASPE-SDLC) and has two decades of experience as a business leader in the training industry. David has participated […]
MBA019: Why Start with Why? Interview with Stephen Shedletzky
May 12, 2015
In this episode, leadership speaker and Start With Why facilitator Stephen Shedletzky helps us understand how to apply the Start With Why concept to our role to help our organizations work on the right things and deliver value to customers. He’ll also share his thoughts on how to inspire others to take action. After listening […]
MBA018: Step Up to Leadership with the Five-Rule Framework – Interview with Scott Stribrny
May 05, 2015
What makes a great leader? In this episode, Scott Stribrny begins to answer this question by presenting a business analyst relevant five-rule framework to apply in real life. Scott will discuss principles that guide effective leaders and will explore the short-term orientation of leadership with examples for day-to-day action as well as the long-term orientation […]
MBA017: Does Your Communications Engine Need a Tune-Up? Interview with David Barrett
Apr 28, 2015
In this episode, David Barrett speaks with us about what I feel is the most important skill for a Business analyst . . . communication. David is the National Program Director for the Centers of Excellence in Project Management and Business Analysis at the Schulich School of Business and is one of the founders of […]
MBA016: User Story Mapping with Jeff Patton
Apr 21, 2015
In this episode consultant, author, and agile thought leader Jeff Patton shows us how to use Story Maps to create a shared understanding of a feature and create thin slices that relate to the minimum viable product and additional releases. Jeff also shares his thoughts on the proper way to use User Stories and how to avoid […]
MBA015: Promise Theory for Team Cooperation – Interview with Mark Burgess
Apr 14, 2015
In this episode, Dr. Mark Burgess, creator of CFEngine, explains how he uses concepts from physics to explain how complex systems work. He uses his Promise Theory to not only develop better computer systems, but also to give us a better framework for individual and team interactions. After listening to this episode, you will understand: How we can use […]
MBA014: The Future of Business Analysis – Interview with David Mantica
Apr 07, 2015
In this episode, David Mantica, President of ASPE, shares his views on the future of the business analyst role and how we can open up new opportunities for career growth and drive valuable change in our organizations. After listening to this episode, you will understand: How different organizations are structured to manage business analysis activities The […]
MBA013: Trust is the New Workplace Currency – Interview with Nan Russell
Mar 31, 2015
In this episode, Nan Russell shares with us how to build trust and the effect increased trust (or the lack of trust) can have on your team and the organization. She’ll also help us to understand how the little things we do can hurt the bigger things we want to do and how to use […]
MBA012: Beyond Requirements – Interview with Kent McDonald
Mar 24, 2015
In this episode, Kent McDonald shares his thoughts on requirements analysis in an agile environment and will give you tips on how to make your agile projects more successful. After listening to this episode, you will understand: The role of the agile analyst and how it differs from analysis on traditional projects The mindset and underlying […]
MBA011: Make Your Waterfall Projects More Agile
Mar 17, 2015
In this episode, we discuss practices from agile that you can implement in your traditional (waterfall) projects that will allow you to reduce risk, adapt to change, and accelerate project delivery. In this episode, you will understand: How to use some of the values, principles, and practices of agile to adapt to change and speed up […]
MBA010: Make Virtual Meetings More Effective – Interview with Angela Wick
Mar 10, 2015
In this episode, we’re joined by Angela Wick of BA-Squared. Angela shares her tips and techniques for making virtual meetings more effective. You’ll learn the signs that people are multitasking and understand how to use virtual collaboration tools to keep people engaged and run a successful virtual meeting. In this episode, Angela shares with us: The […]
MBA009: Exploring the 7 Product Dimensions for Better Requirements Discovery – Interview with Mary Gorman
Mar 01, 2015
In this episode, we’re joined by Mary Gorman, co-author of Discover to Deliver. Mary will take us on a deep dive into a holistic framework to discover product requirements, the 7 Product Dimensions. She will also share with us models to use as you move through the 7 Product Dimensions that will allow you to […]
MBA008: How to Discover Product Requirements – Interview with Ellen Gottesdiener
Feb 24, 2015
In this episode, Ellen Gottesdiener shares an effective approach to discovering product requirements. You will understand how to break out of being an order taker and become a product co-creator. Ellen’s holistic approach to requirements discovery includes a mindset shift that needs to take place to recast stakeholders as product partners, how to get everyone […]
MBA007: How to be a Badass Business Analyst – Interview with Bob Prentiss
Feb 17, 2015
Want to be the go-to person on projects, in high demand and highly regarded? In this episode, you’ll discover how to do exactly that. Bob Prentiss is the Founder and Principal Consultant at Bob the BA, Inc. He’s a trainer, mentor, consultant, major nerd, and all around badass Business Analyst. Become a badass BA and […]
MBA006: The Business Analyst Career Path – Interview with David DeWitt
Feb 10, 2015
Where do I go from here and what are the career opportunities for a Business Analyst? David DeWitt, President of the Chicagoland chapter of the IIBA and IT Leadership Practice Director at NueVista Group, discusses the Business Analyst career path. In this episode, David shares with us: Career opportunities for a new Business […]
MBA005: Interview with Len Lagestee – How can a BA deliver value to an Agile Team?
Feb 03, 2015
Today, author and agile coach Len Lagestee helps us to discover how a Business Analyst can bring value to an agile team. Len also discusses where a BA fits on an agile team and how to become a catalyst for positive change. In this episode, Len shares with us: What a Business Analyst can […]
MBA004: Defeat the Meeting Super Villians
Jan 27, 2015
In this episode, you’ll discover the super villains that destroy meeting efficiency and learn how to defeat them. We’ll share with you the tools you can use to hold effective meetings and deliver project results. Check the bottom of this post to get your free guide to master your meetings. During this episode, you will find […]
MBA003: How can introverts work well on agile teams – Interview with Ken Howard
Jan 27, 2015
In this episode, consultant and author Ken Howard shares with us how to discover the right method to work with and communicate requirements to project team members. He also dispels some myths about introverts and helps us to understand how introverts can benefit agile teams. In this episode, Ken shares with us: A method for […]
MBA002: How to Elicit Non-Functional Requirements – Interview with Roxanne Miller
Jan 25, 2015
Today’s episode is an interview with Roxanne Miller, consultant, speaker, and author. Roxanne shares with us a framework for holding effective stakeholder elicitation meetings and everything you ever wanted to know about non-functional requirements. In this episode, you’ll find out: How to hold effective stakeholder meetings How non-functional requirements differ from functional requirements The impact […]
MBA001: Introduction to the Mastering Business Analysis Podcast
Jan 25, 2015
Today’s episode is a quick introduction to the podcast. I will share with you what this podcast is all about and why I created it. Have a question about Business Analysis or a suggestion for an upcoming episode? Leave me a voice mail using the widget at the side of the screen or send […]
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