How can a BA consultant add value on the first day, first week, or first month? What are some key considerations for building rapport when you start a new BA assignment? Why do you need to be proactive about your career choices? Why is planning so essential to remain productive? How can you quickly adapt to the way organizations do things from a business analysis standpoint?
In this episode, it was my pleasure to interview David Morris, from Auckland, NZ. He brought forward some amazing insights into these questions and much more. In continuing with the tradition of learning from experienced and expert BA practitioners from around the globe, David and I discuss some key aspects of advancing your career.
There are a lot of valuable lessons to be learnt from his experience and insights. Here is David Morris:
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Why He Likes Being a BA?
“It’s all about the impact of change on people:
- what do customers need, how to ensure they are delighted with an organisation’s products and services
- what do shareholders and senior management need for their organisation to be a success
- what’s going to affect workers in an organisation, what’s going to make their working lives better”
Here Is a Sneak Peek of The Episode:
- His career moves starting from gaming computers to analysis side of things.
- The recognition of impact on what he did on the lives of people.
- Discussion around making business operations easier.
- Why people aspect of the role excites him.
- How being an NLP practitioners helps him.
- Being a team manager helps him bring additional perspectives.
- Discussion around “Pulse” a service offered by Redvespa (consultancy where he currently works).
- Importance of system process and training changes.
- His experience in domains such as Postal, Web Design, Real time reporting network, Communication, Financial Sector, Web Development and Banking / Insurance.
- How to deliver quick value on a new assignment.
- Proven ways to build rapport and the value in building a stakeholder map.
- Tips to get noticed in the first week.
- How to quickly adapt the way you are working to be appropriate to the organization you are working in.
- It demonstrates you are being proactive, and not waiting to be spoon fed.
- Tips for working on multiple projects.
- The importance of putting enough time aside.
- How to time box your day.
- The importance of micro breaks
- Why Enterprise Analysis (BABOK 5.0) is his favorite KA.
Insightful Quotes From This Episode:
”How to make your stakeholders care enough.” (Click to Tweet This)
“Always better to find a positive incentive than a negative one.”
“Understand where you want to get to… in rough terms.”
“Technology is part of the big picture and not the big picture.”
“Only work on elicitation and there is so much more we can offer.”
“One of the first things a BA is got to do is reverse engineer a BC.”
“Take control of your career yourself.”
“Thats not going to add value until the business case is proven.”
“If you don’t even have the owner or sponsor caring about an initiative, then nobody else is going to care.”
“One of the key challenges there is to influence them so that they care enough.”
“Sometimes you grab whatever you can to help feed a bit of fire under them so that they care.”
“Think forward 5 yrs.”
“People changes is often overlooked; it is almost an afterthought.”
“Be willing to invest your own time and money in developing your own skillets.”
“I really like org that recognize the value of a BA outside the project space.”
Links to His Profile and Blog:
- David’s LinkedIn profile
- His Blog and Website
- His Twitter Account
- Link with more details about “Pulse”
David Morris in Brief:
David is Enterprise Business Analyst at Redvespa, working with clients on their strategic business change initiatives and coaching BA teams on practice maturity and personal development. He has 27 years experience in consultancy, training, business analysis, and from 1999-2006 ran a successful boutique web agency. He holds Certified Business Analysis Professional (CBAP), Neuro-Linguistic Programming (NLP) Practitioner, Certified ScrumMaster (CSM), Microsoft Certified Professional (MCP) for Web Development, and the Diploma in Management (DipM). He is a board member for the NZ chapter of International Institute for Business Analysis (IIBA), where he organises events for Auckland BAs and has led work on the Agile Extension to the Business Analysis Body of Knowledge (BABOK).
If you have any comments or questions for this episode, please post them below.
Enjoy the show!
Yamo is a passionate and practicing business analyst, author, and blogger from Toronto, Canada. He hosts this blog, and podcast to help business analysts throughout the world, do analysis better, by providing educational, relevant, and inspiring content.
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@Yamo,
You are a consummate interviewer. Listening back to this now, I forgot how much information you teased out of me, and it felt less like an interview and more like a chat between friends or colleagues — which I feel we have now become. I’ve already had some very positive feedback about the interview and the topics we covered. I’m thrilled to support you in your outreach work in adding value back into the business analysis community, and it continues to be a pleasure to work with you.
David.
Thanks for the kind words, David. It was really great to have you on the show and I really appreciate your willingness to share all the valuable tips and info with the BA community.
Having a bit of informal tone is always nice to make the interviewee feel at ease; and I am really thankful to all my mentors who have taught me to be an effective interviewer.
Thanks again for being on the show!
Yamo
Excellent podcast Yamo and David. So much great information. I like your productivity tips David and the discussion on multi tasking.
Thanks Yamo and David.
Thanks, Katie. We are glad you liked the tips in this episode. David has some great insights on productivity for sure.
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