BA World Archives

This week Jama headed to Toronto for ProjectWorld BA World. The event brought together nearly 1,000 business analysts and project managers from all over North America for a chance to connect with each other, attend professional development sessions and meet with vendors.

Two members of our team, Derwyn Harris and Will French, sat on panels and spoke during sessions. Jama co-founder Derwyn sat on a panel that discussed when to consider Agile, sharing from his years of experience as a developer and product manager. The panel provided a great follow up to Derywn’s recent webinar, A Modern Take on the Agile Manifesto which addresses why and how we should reconsider tenets of the Manifesto in light of new technology and resources.

Will, senior solutions architect for Jama, gave tips for engaging stakeholders and building stronger feedback loops in his talk, Owning the Collaboration Circle on All of Your Future Projects. If you missed Will’s talk, be sure to register for his June 18 webinar for an encore presentation.
After day one of sessions we enjoyed a night of drinks, snacks and a ping pong tournament with attendees at our party at SPiN Toronto. It was a great way to unwind after a busy conference day and see some impressive ping pong matches.

We were glad to meet so many of the attendees and hear about the “monsters” BAs and PMs are facing in their work and talk about ways to overcome those challenges. See more of our photos from BA World on our Facebook page. If you attended tell us about your experience in the comments.

As a Business Analyst or Project Manager, you are on the front lines of bringing products to market that build value for your business. If you’re like most BAs, however, you spend too much time reporting status, explaining context and tracking decisions. From listening to you over the years, we’ve started the list by identifying six of the biggest challenges—or monsters—that BAs and PMs face (see list, below) but many other monsters lurk out there, slowing down your project and throwing obstacles in your way. We want to hear about yours. Tell us about them in the comments below and if you’re headed to ProjectWorld – BusinessAnalystWorld Toronto June 9-12 be sure to come by our booth, say hello and enter to win an iPad Air.
Meet the Monsters

Swoop Monster

This executive monster comes to you at the last minute with critical feedback you asked for weeks ago. Right when you’re about to move forward, she’ll swoop in to mix things up; chances are, Swoop results in more work and less time to get it done.

Rework Monster
The Rework monster pops up months after you’ve made a decision and moved forward. He wants all the details, asking you to prove who decided what was decided, when and why. Guess what happens next? You get to redo something!

CYA Monster
The CYA monster has selective memory and doesn’t remember that conversation where you both agreed on a new direction. Do you have the backup necessary answer this monster’s detailed questions?

Missing Monster
This monster is an essential contributor to your project, with a long history on your team and an ironclad memory. This monster is great… until he suddenly disappears forever with all that intelligence.

Meh Monster
Your finished product lands with a resounding… “meh” from this monster. He was expecting x, y, and z, but you delivered q, r and s. All that work you did turns out to be based on mismatched expectations so the best you could deliver is disappointment.

Cog Monster
This monster blocks you from knowing the whole project, treating you like a task rabbit. She thinks as long as you and every other cog do your part, the whole product will hum, not understanding the importance of context so everyone knows what is being built and why.

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