As I move forward into each new year, I start thinking about goals–questioning the things I want to do better or differently.
This year, many of my goals stand under the umbrella of time. I’ve been thinking about how I use my time and questioning how to use it wisely. Instead of bending to the will of each day, how can I make time work for me?
For most people, the business side of BA (meetings, deliverables, action items, etc.) consumes most of their time. They try to schedule their day with intention and purpose, but long to do lists, deadlines and giant “fires” trample their good intentions. We do so much business, there is little or no time for analysis. Does this limit our value as BAs? Yes!
We need more time to think, to process and to digest. We need to time to connect the pieces of information that come flying at us all day. We need time to sit alone or in a small group and draw or build frameworks that pull all of our little pieces of information together.
As BAs, our best work is the “A” and that work often happens outside meetings when we make time to research, ask follow-up questions, doodle, and create diagrams. So many of us bounce from meeting to meeting without any thinking time in between. When we sacrifice that thinking time, we miss key connections, gaps, issues, risks, etc.
So, hit the pause button on the information tsunami that swells up between each iteration of elicitation and analysis! Schedule time to make everything stand still. Then, connect the dots, see things end-to-end, and figure out how information from different people fits together. Make time for analysis!