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**Mastering Business Analysis**

Your key to advancing your career as a Business Analyst and beyond

Latest Episodes:

Sample Story map — **MBA016: User Story Mapping with Jeff Patton** Apr 21, 2015
Show notes

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 some common pitfalls with User Story Mapping.

**After listening to this episode, you will understand:**

Why Jeff believes the word “requirements” means “shut up”

What User Story Maps are and how they can create a shared understanding within your team

How to use Story Maps to create slices of functionality and break a large effort into smaller pieces

How to avoid the common pitfalls with User Story Mapping

Why User Stories aren’t a different way of writing requirements

**Key Takeaways**

A User Story Map is a useful tool for the team to understand the big picture, giving them the ability to see the entire breadth of the system and the various users and uses. It arranges user stories into a holistic model to help understand the system functionality while allowing you to identify gaps and slice functionality into releases.

Keep in mind that User Stories get their name from how they’re supposed to be used. They’re a different way of working, not a different way of writing requirements.

Story mapping follows a narrative that supports slicing and trade-offs to get the most value for the money. Use the map to create a shared understanding.

There’s never enough time and money to build everything that people ask, but if you’re paying attention, there’s generally enough time to make people happy. Focus on what people really need to be successful and build just that – not build what they say they need. It’s all about managing the time and resources we have and making as many people happy as we can.

After you have made your initial story map and have been working on the project for a while, you can re-map the feature because often things may have changed or you may have learned something new.

Avoid the common traps of story mapping:

Making the maps too detailed (especially early on)

Thinking in terms of features (Instead, think in terms of use and customer experience – the steps people take to achieve a goal)

Mapping the whole product instead of only mapping the feature or capability you’re changing.

Two things you can do today:

Go to where your users are and talk to them

Stop writing stories and start telling stories. Have conversations . . . get to the whiteboard and start drawing pictures.

Click to view larger image

**Links mentioned in this episode**

Jeff Patton’s book, User Story Mapping: http://www.amazon.com/User-Story-Mapping-Discover-Product/dp/1491904909

Jeff’s Website: http://jpattonassociates.com/

Story Mapping Quick Reference from Jeff Patton: http://jpattonassociates.com/story-mapping-quick-ref/

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.

The post MBA016: User Story Mapping with Jeff Patton appeared first on Mastering Business Analysis.

MBA015: Promise Theory for Team Cooperation – Interview with Mark Burgess Apr 14, 2015

Show notes

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 concepts from different disciplines and apply it to our work
How an orchestra is like a highly distributed, cooperative system
The two ways to successfully create scale
How to use continuous delivery concepts to make sure they are aligned and on course

Key Takeaways

Physics is great at describing how stuff works. It shows how stable a system is (a question that computer science doesn’t answer). Mark showed us how to use other diciplines to get ideas and create new concepts as he did with Promise Theory.

Scaling has 2 aspects: Can I cope with the load (can I produce results fast enough) and can I produce the right results? That’s what we’re trying to get at with Promise Theory. While originally applied for complex computer systems, Promise Theory can be applied to human interaction.

Promises help us get away from commands and obligations. Obligations manifest themselves in teams, which are essentially distributed systems, by contradictions and unhealthy conflicts. With promises, the notion of contradiction goes away. It allows you to contextualize information and keep it local because that person is completely in control of what they’re promising.
Obligations are in line with a command and control approach while promises promote a cooperative approach.

There are two ways to scale teams (which are really highly distributed, cooperative systems): 1) Like an orchestra, with each independent agent working off the same sheet of music and with a light touch from a conductor to keep everyone in time, or 2) Act more like a jazz band and coordinate by listening and getting signals from one another.

In a highly coupled system (or team), things (both good and bad) get transmitted very quickly. With weakly coupled systems, you can stop some of the bad things being transmitted as efficiently. Complexity Theory helps to understand the impacts of highly coupled systems.

Links mentioned in this episode

Mark Burgess’ website: http://markburgess.org/index.html
Mark’s books and other publications: http://markburgess.org/writing.html
More about Promise Theory and how it applies to complex systems and teams: http://markburgess.org/blog_devops.html

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.

The post MBA015: Promise Theory for Team Cooperation – Interview with Mark Burgess appeared first on Mastering Business Analysis.

MBA014: The Future of Business Analysis – Interview with David Mantica Apr 07, 2015

Show notes

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 trajectory of the Business Analyst role and why there’s now some confusion about the role
The spectrum of business analysis and how to climb the value ladder to grow your career
How to create new opportunities for yourself and help build the future of your organization
Why being uncomfortable may be the best thing for your career

Key Takeaways

Career growth and new opportunities are often not planned for in your development path. It’s based on the skill and success of that individual, and when you climb the value ladder to bring more and more value to your organization, you may be given opportunities to have a seat at the table and shape the future of the organization.

The work we’re doing as project professionals is a linchpin for competitive advantage and it enables the long term success of the organization. If you can build a group of analysts who rise above the end project work and note taking, you’ll build a group of management consultants who have domain knowledge and understand the operation of the organization and can therefore help plan the future of the organization. The opportunity to grow the Business Analyst role is moving out of the project world and into the world of defining where the company is going in terms of its systems, processes, and products.

If you can show your value in being a business adviser (even on your current projects) and show the extent of what you can do, that may cause your organization to create a role in which you can add even more value and help shape the future of your company.

As you move up and have the opportunity to set direction, the details become more ambiguous and we need to build top level skills – your ability to deal with conflict, ability to problem solve, ability to negotiate in a way that seeks balance, and strong presentation skills. If you have a great idea but can’t present it in a compelling way, no one will listen.

The way to build those skills is by forcing yourself to get into situations that require you to develop your presentation skills or deal with conflict and negotiation. Put yourself in uncomfortable situations that will allow you to stretch and grow – even if you’re bad at it as first. Understand conflict and cognitive diversity and be able to embrace it in order to move forward. Take action and speak with your manager about stretch assignments.

Of course, it’s always helpful to find a good mentor on the business side who can help you to understand the motivations of your customers.

Links mentioned in this episode

ASPE website: http://www.aspe-sdlc.com/
Free resources (webinars, templates, and more) from ASPE: http://www.aspe-sdlc.com/offers/
Toastmasters: http://www.toastmasters.org/

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.

The post MBA014: The Future of Business Analysis – Interview with David Mantica appeared first on Mastering Business Analysis.

MBA013: Trust is the New Workplace Currency – Interview with Nan Russell Mar 31, 2015

Show notes

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 behavioral integrity and elevated communication to grow trust.

After listening to this episode, you will understand:

How to use behavioral integrity and elevated communication to grow trust
The impact trust or a lack of trust can have on your team
Why trust is never earned
How to be worthy of another person’s trust
What you can do to expand trust across the organization

Key Takeaways

The lack of trust in an organization leads to increased bureaucracy and the hording of information. With trust, there’s less overhead and people are free to innovate and do more great work.

Most people get it backwards when building trust and start with someone else. Start with yourself. Be worthy of another person’s trust. Building trust is a skill and you must make a conscious decision to create it. We can do this by:

Having competence in our role. Competence is the first parameter people need to demonstrate.
Create an alignment between your words and your actions. This means acting with behavioral integrity.
Manage and clarify expectations so that there is a clear understanding as to what is expected.
Use elevated communication by making a decision about whether the relationships matters more than any single outcome. This includes everything from thoughtful transparency to the understanding of self-behavior.
Extend trust to others.

Remember that trust is never earned, trust must always be given. Create a winning culture in your team or organization. It’s hard not to build trust when you show up as authentic people doing great work.

Links mentioned in this episode

Nan Russell’s Website – http://www.nanrussell.com/
Nan’s books: http://www.nanrussell.com/index.php/books/
Nan’s articles in Psychology Today: https://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/trust-the-new-workplace-currency

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.

The post MBA013: Trust is the New Workplace Currency – Interview with Nan Russell appeared first on Mastering Business Analysis.