Life In Hell

I would like to apologize for the recent lack of productivity (at least from me), but you know what… I\’m too damn busy to feel sorry or to apologize. And really, without any actual feelings of guilt, what good is an apology.

I am living a life in hell lately as I am tasked with gathering requirements even though my title is \”Senior Project Manager\”.

For those of you not familiar with the typical corporate workings, especially IT, there is a position called \”Business Analyst\” who is generally tasked with the not-so-fun (IMHO) job of \”gather business requirements\”. A Project Manager is typically a know-nothing idiot who kicks off the project, secures resources to do the work, creates an impossible workplan to get the work done, and then takes all the credit when things go well. It\’s a great job really, outside of playing professional babysitter.

But gathering requirements? Gah! It sucks. Unlike being a Project Manager you (ideally) need to know something about what the people, whose requirements you are gathering, actually do. It\’s incredibly detailed work (to do it right), and the people you talk to often change their mind or open contradict themselves in the same meeting. As a BA you are forced into often arbitrary deadlines for gathering these requirements which are bound to change three or four times after everyone involved has signed off on them (I won\’t even get into \”Change Control Process\”).

At any rate, I\’ve been in BA-hell for that past few months, and currently I have a white light at the end of the tunnel that is dated July 13th. Now we\’ll see if that is really the end of the tunnel, or just a freight train coming my way.

I will continue to do my best in the meantime by providing some interesting and fun thoughts, but don\’t hold your breath… \’cuz I\’ve already tried holding my breath to force business people to make a decision and the outcome wasn\’t good. Just trust me on this.