Comments on: BAs are difficult people (and so is everyone else)

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Sat, 14 Jan 2012 17:42:34 +0000

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By: Laura Brandenburg

Laura Brandenburg — Thu, 07 Jul 2011 18:58:21 +0000

Michelle,
From our conversations, I would hardly classify you as a difficult person! You seem to be very engaged with your stakeholders and able to look at things from their perspective. Yet, as you point out, we can always find ways to improve, especially when it comes to communication. It’s interesting how our desire to do our best and have our best recognized does sometimes come in conflict with creating the most successful project for the company, isn’t it?

By: Michelle Swoboda

Michelle Swoboda — Thu, 07 Jul 2011 13:29:39 +0000

Laura, it was great to read this article and ouch – it hit a sore spot
Which only means that I have more work to do to understand myself and how I communicate with others.
It is a challenge when you are in the trees and the others are not and they are unwilling to even step into the trees.
Bottom line – I want the project to be successful and the company. I want to leave each project with everyone saying – yes I want to work with Michelle again!

By: Richard Lynn Paul

Richard Lynn Paul — Tue, 05 May 2009 20:48:37 +0000

Yup! The self-analysis isn’t pretty, despite having “the best interest of… that person at heart”.

I guess the way we got around this, is that our three Business Analysts were also three of the four people who really worked on a lot of our parties and potlucks. So it is a lot easier to be forgiving towards those who helped you have fun and a more fun-and-enjoyable job. It was easy to get along with those you spent non-work time with at said parties. The M&M’s and other candies on one BA’s desk didn’t hurt either. (BTW: Our monthly potluck was an idea or “Try This” that we came up with at the end of one interation meeting, though others might do this in some kind of retrospective meeting, depending on the “agile” methodology being used–ours was a hybrid.)

PS. Hope my numerous posts are not making me difficult for somebody out there, Laura included. Thanks for the blog!!

By: OnerousEthic

OnerousEthic — Wed, 01 Apr 2009 01:34:54 +0000

Brilliant, but as you said, just scratching the surface. My experience is full of poorly behaved individuals in dysfunctional organizations. Far too often, diplomacy is more important than insight. People naturally resist change, and presenting ideas can be dangerous, even self-destructive. Discretion is the better part of valor. Unfortunately, IMHO, much of the challenge of business analysis is understanding office politics and treading lightly. YMMV.