Sad Statement

This calms me down some days.

Like today, for example.

Being a better... BA/CM/PM/SM... anything, really

A few years ago around the time of my annual review, I started a series of posts about being a better business analyst and that quickly turned into needing to understand what my strengths and weaknesses were as a business analyst.

I don't want to go into that much in this post, you can read about my thoughts in the business analyst posts on this blog.

Since then, after discovering that I was in fact a strong business analyst, my career has ... expanded, if you will.

I am currently employed as a Project Manager/Business Analyst, and am actively working on picking up Change Management skills as well. In addition, I've renewed my Service Management (ITIL) training, and am remembering again things I thought long forgotten about Product Management and the Application Lifecycle.

This year, I was introduced to the concept of maturity models, and while they are primarily applied in measuring an organization's maturity level, I feel that they can be effectively applied to a personal/professional development plan as well.

Most maturity models I've found have 4-5 levels, and the one I relate to most (Kerzner's) looks like this:

1. Common Language
2. Common Processes
3. Singular Methodology
4. Benchmarking
5. Continuous Improvement

For further reading, Google any of the following:

• Kerzner's Project Management Maturity Model
• Organizational Maturity Model
• Project Management Maturity Model

Celiac Disease

Before I get into my rant about celiac disease and how I'm not handling it...

I'm really glad I have a blog called "Things I think about". It makes it really easy for me to just spill my guts about whatever is uppermost in my mind.

Ideally, no one reads what I write here, but if they do... meh. If it's helpful or interesting to me, it might be to someone else. And if it just puts a smile on someone's face when they come across it, that's fine by me too.

And now,  back to this really dumb thing that I'm struggling with right now.

Celiac (or Coeliac) Disease.

Argh.

And before I go much further, allow me to say that generally, I've become sort of okay with the idea, and I'm kind of glad that all these random things about my health that I've never been able to explain now have an explanation... but today, I'm just feeling mostly "ARGH!"

Also, I should clarify - I've had the blood test done, and it came back positive, but I did not go the next step and have an intestinal biopsy done to prove conclusively that I am celiac.

However.

The list of things that are explained by my intolerance/allergy to gluten is as follows:

• Scalp irritation/hair loss
• Acne (all-over, body acne... lovingly referred to as "chicken skin" which is thankfully?? somewhat hidden by my multitude of freckles)
• Migraines
• Leg cramps (largely explaining my intense dislike -- "hate" is a very strong word for me -- of running and very flat shoes)
• General digestive discomfort... bloating, irregular bowel movements, occasional bloody discharge... you get the picture. If you need/want more detail than that, google it.
• Also, I blame some of my weight, or at least my absolute inability to lose weight on it, although the jury is still out on that.

Since I finally decided to deal with my health, had the test done, and stopped (mostly) eating gluten, I have to admit there are a few good things that have happened:

• My scalp is not irritated.
• I rarely get headaches/migraines
• I have better skin (mostly, but hormones are also annoying...)
• I've lost 20 lbs (so far)

But today, when I'm sitting at my desk, having gotten to work 1/2 an hour late because of an unanticipatedly long session on the toilet this morning, a still recovering scalp, hair falling out as though I was shedding a winter coat, and having been sleeping restlessly from sore legs for 3 days now... all because of a gluten binge last Saturday... (4 days ago!!!)

I just feel very annoyed at it all. And at myself for binge-ing (having binged?) in the first place.

Argh.

Mrs. Beeton's Book of Household Management

I bought this book at a used bookstore a few years ago - it made me smile, and I have a serious weakness for random things that tickle my funny bone.

This year, being the first time in four longish years that me and all my stuff has been in the same place and has had room to be unpacked, I've begun an exercise in sorting. Even downsizing, although I'm not sure that what I'm accomplishing can really be called downsizing...

I did manage, this past weekend, to go through 4 of my bookshelves and take out a whole box of books. Plus I created a pile of "books to be reviewed" which is just a fancy way of saying...

"Read them in the next 6 months or they're gone next go-around." 

I have not yet managed to convince myself to get rid of any of my cookbooks, or any of my coffee table books, and it is truly debatable which pile Mrs. Beeton's instruction manual belongs in.

Originally published in 1861, it is now approximately 74 chapters and 2000 pages long.

Yesterday, staying home sick from work and taking the opportunity to attempt a monthly menu plan, I looked at all my cookbooks, and was distracted by a chapter on veal and how incredible a mother cow's instincts are...

847. THE COW GOES WITH YOUNG FOR NINE MONTHS, and the affection and solicitude she evinces for her offspring is more human in its tenderness mid intensity than is displayed by any other animal; and her distress when she hears its bleating, and is not allowed to reach it with her distended udders, is often painful to witness, and when the calf has died, or been accidentally killed, her grief frequently makes her refuse to give down her milk. At such times, the breeder has adopted the expedient of flaying the dead carcase, and, distending the skin with hay, lays the effigy before her, and then taking advantage of her solicitude, milks her while she is caressing the skin with her tongue.

The Book of Household Management, Mrs. Isabella Beeton

Also, there is a whole section that has meal plans (including table setting layouts for each course) for a variety of meals - casual family dinners up to 12-course meals... for a whole year!!! The more I think about it, the more it becomes a coffee table book.

Thoughts on deli meat

I'm refocusing on my  diet yet again, and contemplating doing an almost whole30, but while I get ready for that I bought sliced turkey and a Kale salad mix for lunch today.

Imagine my consternation when I noticed that the turkey is 21% meat protein.

This led me to examine the packaging in more detail, and this is what it boils down to: a 53g serving (3 slices) equals 12g of protein and 1g of fat.

My instinctive reaction is that I should never eat deli meat again because it's almost as bad as lettuce for filler vs substance.

Before I commit to that, my second I stint is that I need to do more research. Because maybe, just maybe, a turkey weighing
5lbs only contains 1.5lbs of protein...

I'm a little sceptical, but very curious now about meat packaging processes!!

Daily Journaling Tips

I am very impatiently waiting for my invitation to join the Grid, 

(they have started inviting 100+ members to join every day as of October 2015... based on the average users signed up every day since they started and my member number of ~14900, I should have access by February 2016)

and found myself randomly looking at what other people have done since they started their web sites.

While doing to, I found a site that had/has some tips on daily journaling. Essentially, it goes like this: Use a template. Simple, right? And the recommended template she used was Michael Hyatt's.

I think this is a good idea that I want to remember.

Yesterday

What did I do yesterday?

[I don’t chronicle everything, of course. I just hit the highs and the lows—those activities or events I want to remember later.]

What lessons did I learn?

[I try to distill my experience down into a couple of lessons I want to remember. It’s not what happens to us but what we *learn* from what happens to us.]

Now

What am I thankful for right now?

[I journal in the morning, and this is one practical way I can begin my day with a sense of abundance and gratitude.]

How am I feeling right now?

[Feelings aren’t the be-all-end-all, but they are an important clue. In the past, I just ignored or suppressed my them. This gives me an opportunity to check in on myself.]

Today

What did I read today?

[I record a list of anything I’ve read since I last journaled, including Bible passages. Occasionally, I record a lesson or insight.]

What are my plans for today?

[I preview my schedule and my major tasks for the day, mostly to get focused on what needs to be done.]

What one thing must I accomplish today?

[I like to know the one thing I must get done, even if I don’t accomplish anything else. This helps me prioritize.]

Question of the Day Podcast

Not sure I have a whole lot to say about this, but I'm really enjoying these podcasts. A couple of guys sitting in a room, talking about stuff, not pretending to know everything about everything, but always offering up opinions...

Makes for interesting listening. And prompts me to think about things I don't always think about, which is a good thing, in my opinion.

Update:

I just learnt that this particular podcast is/was #1 on iTunes... apparently, I'm not the only person that enjoys it!

Loving my job today!

I mean, it's got to be great when you are sitting in a room full of health care providers from multiple provinces, patients, and system vendors talking about how we can move to a future state of a complete, accessible health record.

"What's going to happen?"

"Something wonderful."

2010

BABOK v3 - Got my copy!!

I'm very excited about this, as it happens; for the last three years, I have been getting pressure to become a CBAP (Certified Business Analyst Professional) through the IIBA, and I am more than a little resistant to the idea. Part of the pressure has been due to the fact becoming certified will slot me very firmly in the Senior Business Analyst category, which is good for both me and my consulting company, and the rest of the pressure is due to the fact that a new version of the BABOK was in the works, and "everyone should really get certified before it changes because it will be much more difficult afterwards" blah blah blah.

I get it, change is scary. And I should probably be more focused on the advancement of my career than I actually am.

At any rate, I renewed my IIBA membership yesterday, and downloaded my copy of the BABOK v3.0 today. All I have done is look through the table of contents and skim the "Summary of Changes from BABOK Guide v 2.0" and I am very excited.

Based on what I've read so far, this update has addressed a few key things that were missing (in my opinion) from the previous version, namely:

• How business analysts are involved in the design phase of an initiative
• Requirements Life Cycle Management, as opposed to just Requirements Analysis
• Strategy Analysis instead of Enterprise Analysis

There are a few others, but those are the ones I'm really excited about at first glance. 

In addition to those changes, there are updates to the underlying competencies that a business analyst should have, and some more very useful techniques have been described - for example:

• Backlog Management
• Business Case
• Prioritization
• Process Analysis
• Roles and Permissions Matrix

... I'm telling you, this is VERY exciting stuff!!!

And now you have a better glimpse of my geeky side. In case it was missing before.

It's THAT time of year again

<< Becoming a better business Analyst - Part 2

And by "THAT" I mean the time of year when I am forced to undergo an annual peer-, self- and supervisor/manager performance review.

On top of which, I have been asked to perform a peer review of a co-worker's business analysis artifacts.

All of which has brought back with emphasis the series of posts that I started last year about becoming a better business analyst.

I have had occasion this year (more so than most) to notice when someone's skill is not quite up to par, and now that I find myself needing to perform a formal self-review, here is my feedback about how I actually rank when looking at those underlying skills (as identified in the BABOK® Guide, Version 2.0) that all business analysts should have.

I just signed up for Snapchat

Sigh.

I really thought I had found all my social media outlets, and was done.

Facebook is good for me - I live very far from my family, and in some ways I can stay connected with them that way; Instagram, also good - I can take pictures, post them there automatically and have that add to my Facebook feed. Twitter I am taking a break from; haven't quite had the "aha" moment that some people get that causes them to become regular tweeters...

Snapchat, though?? I had absolutely no use for that in my social media repertoire.

Until today, when I read an article that led me to the Snapchat blog where I found "Discover".

And so now, I am a Snapchat user.

Anatidaephobia

The pervasive, irrational fear that, somewhere in the world, a duck is watching you.

Nellie Bly - a new-found personal hero

I am not quite sure how, but I managed to reach the age of 38 and never hear of Nellie Bly.

Now that I know about her, I feel this to have been a serious gap in my education.

Once again, I owe this expansion in my knowledge to Google, who today, May 5, 2015, featured a doodle honoring Nellie Bly, about whom a Google search returns the following descriptions:

• Daring Journalist
• Victorian Sensation
• Daredevil Reporter
• All-around Feminist Bad-Ass
• Trailblazing Journalist

And so, at a very high-level, here is what I know (and appreciate) about Elizabeth Jane Cochran/Cochrane, who wrote under the pseudonym of Nellie Bly for Joseph Pulitzer at New York World.

1. Her nickname as a girl was "Pinky" because she wore the color so much.
2. She rejected the idea that a women's place was only in the home, and her response argued how important it was for women to be independent and self-reliant.
3. Becoming a journalist, she rejected the traditional roles of fashion, society, and gardening, and under her own initiative, became a foreign correspondent from Mexico. Eventually, she had to leave the country to avoid arrest for criticizing the government.
4. She went undercover in an insane asylum in order to shed light on reports of abuse and neglect within the system, leading to a grand jury investigation and an overhaul of the system.
5. She set the first world record for traveling around the world in just over 72 days.
6. She married a millionaire manufacturer 42 years her senior, became the president of his company, and invented the stacking garbage can and a milk can. The company eventually went bankrupt due to embezzlement by employees.
7. She returned to journalism, became a war correspondent on Europe's East Front, and covered the Woman Suffrage Parade of 1913.

* All of the above points are from Wikipedia.

For future reading, here is a website with links to her articles: http://www.nellieblyonline.com/herwriting

Constraints

We should probably talk about constraints, and how they affect certain aspects of business analysis, namely requirements documents. The context of this discussion will be software application development.

A constraint is “a limitation or restriction.”

Typically, as a business analyst, there is a section of each document that is called “Constraints” and it has a list of items that the audience of the document needs to remember as they read it because they have a direct impact on the application that will be developed. This article is not about those constraints.

I do believe there are some constraints that get forgotten about, and those are the ones around the documents themselves.

In my opinion, which I invite you to counter, certain documents have constraints which are necessary to ensure that the document fulfills its purpose. As an example, a constraint of a requirements document is that it is not a “living” document. Design, by comparison, is a “living” document.