Cats and Lassos

Peer Reviews: not just institutionalized hazing

Peer reviews can improve the practice of Business Analysis by helping your team to share and reinforce learning and best practices. Peer reviews can promote standards by presenting team members an opportunity to see how others interpret and apply them (if you're implementing a new methodology or looking to leverage recent BA training, now's a great time to give peer reviews a try). And peer reviews bolster the "networking and managing relationships" component of BA soft skills.

Deciding how to decide

In July 1838, contemplating marriage to Emma Wedgwood, Charles Darwin made a list of pros and cons on a sheet of paper subdivided "Marry/Not Marry". There's something hilariously pragmatic and leftbrained about this approach; clearly Darwin had the heart of a programmer. Decision-by-list can work, provided each item is roughly comparable to each other item...add up the yeses and nos, and the longer list gets it. But in the real world, the quality of reasons plays into the equation, as do murky/political motivations. What's a BA to do?

Scrum has a lot to say. (I'd add: Act fast on decisions; in fact, the more important or potentially controversial the decision, the faster you want to move on it. Here's why: you want to get down the path and away from the debate as soon as possible, and make the Sunk Cost Fallacy work in your favor.)

BTW, after mulling it over for four months, Darwin evidently decided that the pros outweighed the cons; he proposed and was accepted in November of the same year.