First of all, Happy New Year!
Ok, I have decided to stop making excuses for not updating the blog as often as I had set out to do, so without further comments, here's a new post:
One of my hobbies, some might call it an obsession, but I don't think I'm quite there...yet anyway, is alpine skiing. Since I have been skiing for many years I prefer more challenging ski runs, either because they are steep or because they are off-piste or not prepared.
When you start skiing at higher speeds and in more difficult terrain, the more dependent you become on your equipment. Many focus on skis, boots and clothing, but a more overlooked aspect of the equipment is the ski goggles.
As long as you ski good conditions in good weather you can get away with a lot in the world of goggles, but when the weather turns worse and the runs turn more difficult, you become very dependent on what you can see, in order to react in time.
Thus you have to be careful with which pair of goggles you wear or what lens you fit your goggles with that particular day. Wearing a lens suited for good weather on a foggy or snowy days, means that you loose contrast, and are not able to see changes in the slope and in worst case obstacles, as they are white when covered with snow.
The solution is however not wearing a bad weather lens all the time, as wearing one i bright sunlight will blind you, and you are not able to see any contrast because everything is just white.
You can wear an intermediate lens, but it only does both things half way, but on an cloudy day with spots of sunshine, it's the preferred choice.
Now why all this talk of ski goggles...
Well, in the world of business analysis we also have to choose the goggles with which we see the world, out goggles in this case being the models and analysis methods we choose to use to understand our problem area.
Like ski goggles each model has it's strengths and weaknesses compared to what you wish to achieve.
Some models look at the big picture, like the business context of a project, but fail to shed any light on the more detailed specifics of the problem area. You can compare this to the good weather lens, which provides you with good (in)sight when the world is clearly illuminated, but fails when things get more muddy and you start to look for the details.
Other models look very much in detail on one or more specific areas. You can compare this to the bad weather lens. You are able to see details in a confined area of the world, but if you try to use them to look out at the world, when the sun comes out, you will get blinded by the level of detail.
Some models are equivalent to the intermediate lens, e.g. SWOT or Porters five forces. They are a good starting point, but they do not provide all the answers, and depending on what you are looking for, you probably have to change lenses during the day.
My point here is that we as business analysts need to be aware of which pair of goggles we put on. Are we in the bad weather looking for details or are we out in the sunshine, looking for the big lines?
The ability to make the right choice is highly dependent on experience. Do you know the area you are skiing in? Have you been there before? what does the weather look like? If you don't know, it is always a good idea to ask the locals...
Choose your goggles wisely, and if possible have a backup pair in the backpack, in case the weather changes...
