Shake Your BA... The Importance of Understanding the POBAFATA

Shake Your BA... The Importance of Understanding the POBAFATA Day 1 of the PMBA Toronto Conference! I am certain it will be AMAZING! What does a BA do and why are they the most important part of the POBAFATA. How to connect with AgileDad: - [website] ⁠https://www.agiledad.com/⁠ https://www.agiledad.com/ - [instagram] ⁠https://www.instagram.com/agile_coach/⁠ https://www.instagram.com/agile_coach/ - [facebook] ⁠https://www.facebook.com/RealAgileDad/⁠ https://www.facebook.com/RealAgileDad/ - [Linkedin] ⁠https://www.linkedin.com/in/leehenson/ https://www.linkedin.com/in/leehenson/

• 0:16Speaker 00

  Hey everyone. So I decided to do something a little bit different today. It is Monday and I am currently at the conference in Toronto, Canada. So I am at the PMBA conference in Toronto. I'm certain it's going to be an amazing time for everyone. And each day that I'm there, I've been asked to do a special presentation. So I thought I would share with you what the presentation was for today. And I was going to give you a little bit of background about it. So that way you can be at the conference with me without actually having to be there. So I thought that would be kind of cool. So the first presentation that I'll be giving on today, the 11th, is Shake, Shake, Shake, Shake, Shake, Shake, Shake Your BA, Shake Your BA.

• 0:57Speaker 00

  Any Casey in a Sunshine Band fans out there would know that one pretty well. Now, full transparency, it is Casey in a Sunshine Band, but I'm guessing that most of the audience won't even know who they are. So that's going to make things a little bit interesting, right? Because I'm dealing with a younger crowd. So with that being said, I said, all right, I said, how am I going to make this connection with everyone? And the whole story about shaking your BA is to help them understand the importance of acknowledging what a Po Ba Fatah is and why it should exist and should they be part of it. Now, for those of you who've taken my class before, you'll remember Po Ba Fatah is when you go to an Indian restaurant and they bring you butter chicken and garlic naan. But that's not really what it is because it doesn't mean anything in Hindi.

• 1:42Speaker 00

  Po Ba Fatah is product owner, business analyst, functional analyst and technical analyst. And one of the things that people get all wound up about is that the product owner should be a single omnipotent, all-knowing creature. And I can tell you now, for the years that I've been doing Agile, I haven't found very many people who could do all the accountabilities of a product owner. So. The other place where people get hung up is they look for people with certain titles. So they want someone who has the title business analyst or the title functional analyst. And sometimes organizations don't hire people with those titles. So the challenge becomes, how do we acknowledge that these roles exist? How do we, once we acknowledge these roles exist? How do we engage with these roles?

• 2:25Speaker 00

  And what do we do to make sure that a business analyst, most importantly, understands their accountabilities? Because out of the whole batch, I feel like the business analyst is probably the one who has the highest level of accountability inside of this group. And since this is a PMBA conference, I thought it would be important for us to talk about the role of BA. Now, the BA, out of the batch, the BA is the only one that's full-time. The BA is the only one who has his thumb on the pulse of the voice of the consumer. And I say his, it could be a her. This person is keeping track of all the customers' wants, needs, whims, and desires. They're making sure they're doing focus groups. They're interviewing people with support to find out things the customer is struggling with. They're interviewing trainers to find out things the customer is clamoring for, updates that they're looking for.

• 3:11Speaker 00

  This individual is heads-on, full-time. I don't want to say proxy, but they're, they're working very closely with the product owner to make sure that every single sprint, we're delivering things that have value and that are in line with our strategic vision and in line with our customer-facing vision. They want to make sure everything aligns. And I feel like this is the most overlooked position out of all the different positions inside of the organization. So I just think it's incredibly important for you to really dig in and understand that while a single product owner should find, make all the final calls and final decisions, I don't disagree with that. They shouldn't do it without consultation with people who understand strategically what direction we're trying to go.

• 3:54Speaker 00

  With someone representing the technology group to talk about technological feasibility and timelines, without someone who represents the customer's best interest to make sure that we're walking in the same direction as the customer and that we're moving in a way that's going to make sense to us. So there's just so many little intricacies that people don't take time to consider. In the case, this presentation was designed, it's a one hour presentation. And it's designed to help people understand how the business analyst can work more closely with the product owner and stakeholders and others to help bring to pass better products and services through empathy, trust, and a willingness to really be in the right place, the right time.

• 4:36Speaker 00

  And to understand that their contributions do matter and how they can uplift and support the things that are necessary in order for product owners to make the call and do the things that are important to them. So there you go. So that kind of gives you a little bit of a heads up of what's going on. And that's what's happening on Monday. Now, we've got all kinds of exciting things going on, and I said 11th, I meant the 12th. Gosh, my, no 11th, I said it right, on the 11th.

• 5:04Speaker 00

  My goodness, it's been one of those weeks. But that is a session that's going to be rocking and rolling. We'll have a different session on the 12th. We're going to have a session on the 12th on a different topic. And then on the 13th, we're going to be doing an Agile Fundamentals workshop. And finally, on the 14th, a C-suite engagement workshop. So there's lots of wonderful things happening, and I wish that you could all be there. If you can be there, I'd love to see you. Come by and say hi. If you can't be there, know that we're thinking about you. But this is just a really strong topic, and I have a feeling we'll be talking more about it later. So until next time, I'll give you a recap of day one on day two. And until next time, I encourage you to stay healthy, stay well, and stay agile, my friends. Do take care. We'll talk soon. Bye bye for now.