Diva Developer

What's a good Lead BA to do with a Diva Developer? He doesn't bother to participate in Scrum meetings, and avoids attending any meetings in person. Fortunately, he reports to our stakeholder. Yes, I said our stakeholder, which should throw a few flags for you as you read this. If not, allow me to explain. When our technical lead decided he had better things to be doing than working on this project, our stakeholder took over the role of technical lead. I can't say I understand that, since the technical lead role requires some technical skills.  I certainly didn't have any authority to point out the hazards of that arrangement. It was just done. So, one of our developers now takes his cues from our stakeholder. Today, that developer insisted that he couldn't attend our Scrum meetings because it interfered with taking his kids to school. So, I moved the meetings to 9:00am, 30 minutes later. Funny though, since school only just started, so I don't know why the 8:30am time slot was troublesome all summer long.

When our new Project Manager joined our team about 10 days ago, of course we discussed a list of things that should change and this Diva Developer's attitude was high on the list. She insists she'll whip this crew into shape. It should be interesting since the top two items she's already had to defer. It'll be interesting to see if this Diva Developer continues his diva-ness. (What is the masculine for "diva"?)

Hungry for IT Work

It just so happens that my current project has almost no IT involved now. I LOVE technology. So, I'm preparing to hand this project off and move on to the next project, which my current manager is already working on. The vast majority of the current project work is to be processed by other business areas, so the three web sites we've already built are now the only IT-associated requirements for the project. I feel like I've completed my part and can leave the rest to the other analysts. So what shall I do next? The world is my oyster!

The Website that Should Never Be

In the weirdest turn of events on my current project, we built a website that the stakeholder never wants anyone to actually use. Yes, you read that correctly. This web site was built to meet an external requirement, and warns any users to contact our stakeholder before using it. It produces a lovely list of information, so it actually functions, but I struggle with "why" anyone would ever build something like it. What questions would you ask of that stakeholder, to bring to light the risks of such an endeavor? Why would we hire expensive contract resources for 3 months to build such a ridiculous solution? Let's role play!