What i learned about business analysis by watching the matrix movie

What I learned about Business Analysis by watching the Matrix movie

Copyrights (c) 2012 Pragmatic Cohesion Consulting

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The Matrix Business Analysis

The Question: What is the Matrix? Why do IT Projects often fail?

The Truth: an enduring conflict; Man and

Machines are at war.

The Truth: People tend to have great belief

in stories that have very little evidence to

support them.

The Dream World (the Matrix): an

illusion/simulation placed in our minds to

blind us from the Truth.

A peculiarity of the human mind: the

confidence that people have in their

beliefs is a judgment of the coherence of

the story that the mind manages to

construct with little or no sensitivity to the

information it does not have. The image of

reality that we keep in our minds can be

severely biased and can ultimately blind us

from the truth.



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The Agents: Gate Keepers totally

dedicated to keeping humans enslaved

inside the Matrix by making sure that

they totally believe that the simulation is

real.

Each individual’s: background, personality,

goals, opinions, and expectations. These

characteristics work relentlessly to

maintain an individual’s confidence in his

current beliefs.



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Becoming the One: The One battled the

Agents to death and through this painful

process he gained intimate awareness of

the artificiality of the Matrix.

The impact of effective Business Analysis:

Business analysts must face and overcome

the natural predispositions of stakeholders

that hold them hostage to their individual

‘dream worlds’. Business Analysts must

bring to the surface all discrepancies

between stakeholders’ goals, opinions, and

expectations. Then it must skillfully lead

them to a proper consensus on what they

should be and what an acceptable solution

is.



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The Power of the one: because of his

intimate awareness of the artificiality of

the matrix, the one could exert

unparalleled control over it.

Like the one, the Business Analyst (BA) must

have a keen awareness of the natural tendency

of stakeholders to build somewhat ‘artificial’

stories in their minds that may not incorporate

accurate and pertinent information. The BA

must scrutinize any information provided to him

from stakeholders and facilitate an open

discussion around them to reach consensus. It is

such keen awareness from the BA that allows

him/her to guide Business Requirements

elicitation meetings to satisfactory conclusions.

It also allows him to later analyze, validate and

verify all information gathered.



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The power of the One also allowed him to

influence machines outside of the Matrix.

Furthermore, the BA’s awareness must

include a substantial amount of Empathy

for each Stakeholder to really understand

them and accurately capture their

opinions. This also contributes to earning

long lasting trust from stakeholders that

spans beyond Business elicitation meetings

into other phases of the SDLC.



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The One sees the future: the One evolved

to the point where he could see future

events with remarkable accuracy inside

and outside the Matrix

When Business Analysis is properly

performed its artifacts become powerful

planning tools. For example, by correctly

and timely specifying the Requirements of

an acceptable solution (a.k.a. scoping-the

first piece of the Project Management Iron

Triangle), it greatly improves accurately

planning delivery dates and cost (the other

two components of the Project

Management Iron Triangle).



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The Architect: the Ultimate Agent and the

Embodiment of Control

The Architect represents a situation where

a Stakeholder is so deeply entrenched in

his/her dream world that the best Business

Analyst (and many before him) could not

reach out to him/her.

The Merovingian: when the One breaks

bad

When Business Analysis goes horribly

wrong -no further comments!

Déjà vu: When unexpected changes are

made to the Matrix by Agents to fight the

Truth

Déjà vu is the Resistance to change

Business Analysts face.

Cypher: embodiment of betrayal A stakeholder too afraid to embrace the

Truth for very questionable reasons



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Morpheus: Faithful believer in the

prophecy of the return of the One

Pragmatic Cohesion among other Business

Analysis consulting organizations.

Trinity: the One’s true love Outstanding Business Analysts are Saints:

yes I said it!

Déjà vu: When unexpected changes are

made to the Matrix by Agents to fight the

Truth

Déjà vu is the Resistance to change

Business Analysts face.

Zion: Hope for redemption IAG, IIBA, PMI, INCOSE


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What i learned about business analysis by watching the matrix movie

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