Collaboration Techniques

Remove the Competition

Remove the Competition

We hear those words constantly: We need to be more competitive.  Competition is good and competition is bad.  When it’s your company’s product against another companies’ product it’s good.  When competition is within the team things go bad and teams become less than productive.  Team Members are so busy trying to sabotage and undermine each other they forget the reason they were all brought together in the first place – to make things happen. 

Is Bias Destroying Our Decisions?

Is Bias Destroying Our Decisions?

Bias is a business analyst’s and organization’s worst nightmare.  It leads to a decrease in product quality and creates a bad environment in which to make decisions and leads the project team to see the entire world through rose colored glasses.  Bias can cause a chain reaction of bad decisions and miscommunications causing all sorts of problems on your project.  Bias also creates a world in which change and innovation becomes nearly impossible.

We Learn Best By Doing

We Learn Best By Doing

Remember when you first learned to bake cookies?  How about when your dad showed you how to use a hand saw?  I’m confident you didn’t learn those lessons by reading a book or having you sit in a classroom.  You learned them – and always remembered them – because you got to see how to do it in the real world.  You got to apply what you learned right way. 

Being a Life Saver - Onboarding New Project Team Members

Being a Life Saver - Onboarding New Project Team Members

In general, when the new shiny project appears - we forget to on board ourselves with other roles such as the project manager and other team members.  We assume we all know what our roles are and what we are going to deliver but most of time we aren’t quite singing the same song.  That's why when someone new joins the team that on boarding is so important to the project.  The best time to set expectations of activities that are to be performed by each team member is best.

Strategy: Define Roles and Responsibilities

Strategy: Define Roles and Responsibilities

Congratulations lucky Business Analyst a career opportunity of a lifetime has just been assigned to you!  Ah the smell of a used car salesmen that is coming off your manager is so refreshing in the morning.  Whether you are being “volun-told” or volunteer, understanding roles and responsibilities for any project help avoid conflict.