Jukebox Mentality

What happened to the jukebox mentality? I'm not really old enough to have been a member of the generation of poodle skirts and slick hair. I do remember a certain vintage diner where anyone could drop a coin in a machine and wait in queue for our favorite song to be shared with the entire place. And our excitement filled us with such joy, that we'd dance in the aisle and sing along with the tune.

My family always found music an important tool of expression, a form of communication, and therapy for what ails your soul. A few days ago, when my daughter informed me that she didn't like music, my heart ached for her. I held on to the hope that perhaps this wasn't real somehow. Has the proliferation of MP3s and cell phones, where music is a click away dulled her?

So my new personal project is to learn how to encourage an appreciation of music and help her find music that speaks to her. Perhaps I could rent a jukebox somewhere?

Recipe for Great Brainstorming

A very important tool in the toolbox for a Business Analyst is the brainstorming session. I typically have a framework for the session to provide some broad boundaries that allow me some leverage to reign in conversation, but usually don't enforce. These are just general rules such as "everyone has a voice," "rudeness is forbidden," "participation is mandatory." Don't worry about them. If you have professionals in your session, they often recognize when they are "out of bounds" and police themselves. I also like to have a children's toy, such as Legos, that offer some creative outlet. Often people aren't willing to open themselves up initially, but when you offer up some toys, it demonstrates that silliness is welcomed. You may have to start the silliness. Throwing Nerf toys at each other creates an atmosphere that promotes light-heartedness and opens people up to throwing out ideas freely. Additionally, if someone starts to close up, I'm very liberal with comments like "I think I know where you are going, so let's explore that." Try gently drawing them out and ask questions.

I don't know how to conduct a brainstorming session without sticky notes. Every idea is written on a sticky note and given a place on the "wall" of ideas. After we get lots of ideas and the audience starts to quiet down, then start organizing the ideas. Group them in whatever fashion makes sense for your topic. Then ask everyone to talk about their favorites and justify potentially exploring those ideas. But keep all ideas handy, in case you need to go back to them if your chosen ideas don't survive a few tests later on.

This approach to brainstorming may or may not work for you, it depends greatly on your personality to pull it off well. I believe wholeheartedly in developing your own style and techniques. But let me know about your experiences. I love to learn. Please share!

Laughing at Myself

As a BA Lead, I now have 4 analysts working for me. One of those is just like me when I was in my twenties. She's fiesty, funny, and does things her own way. All I needed was a template of a Traceability Matrix filled out with a small group of BRDs to help me track down where those BRDs are in the process. She went completely overboard and captured all kinds of additional information that was already documented elsewhere. She didn't know about the other documents, and it would have been great, except we had already done the work she decided to do on her own. If that had happened to anyone else, I would have lightheartedly joked about it, and moved on. But, because I know I would have done exactly the same thing at that age, I just laughed at myself. Was I really that ambitious? I'm sorry to say, YES! And if I get upset, I'm really just upset at how silly I looked when I started doing this kind of work.