What’s a Go/No Go meeting?
“What’s a Go/No Go meeting? Do we need it?”
“We Don’t Need No Success Criteria.” 🙈
“Governance? We’ll just Go With The Flow.” 😱
I’ve seen a few headless chicken projects 😬
Projects that either have people with the title “Project Manager” at the helm.
Supposedly.
Or those that have Nobody at the helm, where the organisation is hoping for everyone to “pull together” and “get to the finish line” “because we know what needs to be done.” 🤦🏻♀️
Oof I have so many quotes I think I’d run out of characters in this post.
#Leadership is so important.
In particular, #ProjectLeadership – not just #ProjectManagement.
While I’m on this soapbox… can I just say…
Booking meetings, scheduling things, taking notes, following up on action points is actually just
The #RealProjectManagers work on messy human relationships.
Conflict.
Change.
Resistance.
Chaos.
Negotiation.
Bribery.
Donuts/Chocolates/Bobatea/PreferredPoisin 🍩🍫🧋
😆 (Whatever works you know?)
Don’t hide in the busyness of action points, follow ups, getting % done on tasks, writing status reports blablabla.
Get stuck in the pulse of the project, which is the emotional state of your people.
Are they excited digging into the code and figuring out solutions?
Are they frustrated with technical obstacles and pushing their comfort zone?
Are they stressed, anxious and overwhelmed with impossible demands?
And are they talking to you about it?
So that you can figure out how to steer this project away from icebergs?
If not, why not?
Step up and step into the leadership role.
I’m putting together something that will clarify what this means for those who aren’t sure. Stay tuned by signing up to my newsletter 👇🏻
What’s your horror story about a headless chicken project??
I’d love to hear!
Some people may pooh-pooh participation trophies. 😐
Some people may pooh-pooh participation trophies. 😐
However I think sometimes it’s just as important to show up.
Especially when you’re tired.
And depleted.
Especially when you’ve battled so many obstacles that people can’t see.
Especially when it feels utterly impossible.
I was particularly proud of myself for turning up to training yesterday during the height of stupidhotweather that I dashed off the doodle to my little community. ☺️
And then had a few more opportunities to share it with those who needed to see it.
Be proud of yourself for showing up.
Be proud of yourself if you choose self care.
Shame does not elevate us, or help us move forward.
We need community.
We need people who care.
We need kindness.
Wherever you are right now, I’m proud of you, for still fighting the fight. ❤️
However if you’re struggling, please reach out to people around you. You can call #Samaritans freephone from the UK at 116 123.
If you’re not, please look out for those who might have been a bit quieter and maybe showing up a bit less.
Be there for them.
Be present.
Make it your turn to show up for others.
Life is hard but no one has to do it alone. 🌹
1️⃣Does system function well in busines scenario?
2️⃣Does system function as specified (in requirements)?
3️⃣Did we miss anything important?!? 😱
Well, if you missed our last #BadAssBA
#BusinesAnalyst trailblazer session Vanessa Grant and I run, then too bad.
You missed a whole lotta valuable info, that’s what happened.
Here’s my (probably unpopulat) opinion: UAT needs to be boring. No argument, no unhealthy conflict. 🙅🏻♀️
I led the bit on Test Strategy – here are a few tips from the other day:
🍩 Test strategy is a contract between delivery team and client – it’s really important to pin down what success actually looks like upfront
🍩 Shift-left testing 👈🏻means involving testers in requirements gathering, not just at the pointy end. Early visibility = de-risked interfaces
🍩 Definition of Done (DoD) matters at every status – not just “it’s built,” but “metadata documented, click paths logged, tested as the actual user”
And I think Anh Phuong Ta said this best: Perfection is the enemy of Completion. (Thank you for fielding questions in the chat area! Youre the bestest MostBadAssBA we know and love 🫶🏻)
Things won’t always go to plan. 📉
Development runs late. ⏰
Deployments slip. 🍌
Your job as a BA is to stay flexible, prioritise agggressively (rar), and advocate for what actually matters to your users.
If you’re navigating a messy UAT phase right now, you’re not alone.
Our video will be up when we get a moment.
Remember that us Community Group Leaders (and all organisers of community events) are VOLUNTEERS, and we also have lives and family and work and clients and UAT to manage.. so don’t nag. Ok Nag but softlysoftly so you don’t step on our Guilt Button 😬
Big thanks to my amazing and awesome co-leader Vanessa Grant for the deep-dive on writing UAT scripts with AI ❤️.
I am so lucky I get to do such fun stuff with Utterly Stupendous #HumanBeans like her 🥰
ps: by the way – pic below (along with many other super doodles) is from my book Successful Salesforce Projects – get yours from your nearest Amazon store! 💗
Dancing CongaPimba Line?
Winning Swag by guessing Miguel Carvalho‘s brain?!
SuperGrannies (and Grandads) rocking the stage?!? 👵🏼👴🏼
#ThisISPortugal…Dreamin baybeh!! 😎😆
Having been to quite a few of these amazing conferences, I can say that they all have their own vibe … and PORTUGAL DREAMIN’® absolutely had it in spades!
Connecting with friends and meeting people and learning… that’s what all this is about (but also dancing, singing and partying!!) 🎶 🎤🎹
Deep thanks to OneMerge redk – CRM & CX Transformation and @titan for sponsoring and supporting community events – we appreciate you all more than you know ❤️
And to Miguel Carvalho and Daniel Baptista – you both show what the intersection of deep friendship, music and tech can achieve!! 👏🏻
I hope the video is able to showcase the vibe and magic of the event.
Have you been to your local community conference yet?🧐
If not – go!
The learnings, the people, the conversations… you don’t want to miss out on any of those things.
Ah what a great event!
See you at the next one?! 🥰
OK I lied. 😬
I did not “just come off a call” with Vanessa Grant because obviously I’m still in Lisbon … Shattered from a magnificent day at PORTUGAL DREAMIN’® (will post about this another time)
I did make this video last week when I actually got off the call because I was so excited about the topic! 😅
I mean, only geeks like us can get excited over UAT right?!
Join us next #BadAssBA Business Analyst Trailblazer meetup to get the lowdown on this as we are both in the thick of it.
I mean, soon as I get home this weekend we are in prod deployment mode… And there’ll be smoke testing and what not-ing.
Fun stuff!
This will be real stuff from real projects.
Allllll the messy things Trailhead doesn’t prepare you for.
Come one come all!
Especially if you care about delivering that project into a successful go-live!
Link to join in the comments below – make sure to set it to “Most Recent” as LinkedIn hides URLs. 😑
Ps I could not get the actual song as a sound ack because you know, copyright and all that.
But it wouoda been cool, no?! 😆
🚨 Interrupting your news feed on the London Salesforce World Tour and PORTUGAL DREAMIN’® posts with…
🚨 Interrupting your news feed on the London Salesforce World Tour and PORTUGAL DREAMIN’® posts with…
A bit of whim 🧚
A bit of see 😈
A dash of insightful postereeeee 🎶
So I was listening to the Curiosity Shop podcast with Brene Brown and Adam Grant and the topic of
#DecisionMaking came up so I thought I had to dash out a sketch.
Here it is.
Irreversible + Inconsequential = 💩
Reversible + Inconsequential = 🤷🏻♀️ whatevs
Irreversible + Consequential = 🤔 real hard
Reversible + Consequential = 🙋🏻♀️ no brainer
That was the tl;dr summary of Jeff Bezos decision making framework.
Like him or not, he does make decisions pretty… decisively.
And they do generally pan out…
Business-wise.
So.
A tattoo is… In the top left quadrant*.
Marrying the wrong partner is kinda in the middle to right above the x-axis.
Having kids with the wrong partner is very much in the corner of the top left quadrant.
🙁
Dyed punk hair is in the Whatevs dept.
Something I need to keep in mind. 😁
I think I’ll print this out or tattoo it in my eyeballs as the teen sprogs push my buttons with their wanton teenageriness. 😬
Sigh.
Parents of teens, you are a hero.
I see you. ❤️
* I think the tattoo location on the four quadrant will depend on what the tattoo is and which body part 😬
I mean a 💩 tattoo on the forehead is different than a ❤️ tattoo between the toes.
