Business Analyst Blog

I recently joined the incredible fraternity of Crocs - the funky looking shoe made of rubber.  I had "The Crocs Experience."  That is what my new found brotherhood calls it.  As I now wear my Crocs every where, I thought of my journey to "The Crocs Experience" similar to project teams getting to "The BA Experience."

For over a year, I have been seeing thousands of people wearing Crocs and laughing under my breath thinking how can these people wear that ugly shoe.  I would ask them why they bought them, and their reply was always the same.  "They are so comfortable and durable…there is no better shoe."

Last week I found myself at a shoe store staring at a Crocs display, and a woman approached me.  She stares in my eyes and asks if I have a pair.  I reply no, and my new friend was in a state of shock.  She composed herself and with unbridled passion she began a 5 minute speech about how wonderful the shoe is and that she hardly ever takes hers off.  I was so moved that I decided to drink the Kool-Aid.  I bought a pair and WOW!…they are awesome!  Last night I wore mine to bed!

Now to my point.  "The Crocs Experience" is just like "The BA Experience." Even with all the studies showing that a high percentage of projects fail due to a lack of excellent requirements, I have seen project teams laughing under their breath and thinking we don't need to spend the effort of getting excellent requirements.  Those teams like to start on the solution first and begin coding as soon as possible.  But, once they try the approach of getting excellent requirements they have "The BA Experience."  And of course, they never look back. 

Have you had "The BA Experience?"