No, I'm not talking about a 60's rock band, who lost their front man way too early, although that might be one of the reasons for their legendary status.
Walking through the hallway of the building complex in which I work, I somehow got annoyed with the automatic doors which has been installed over the last couple of years.
Previously the doors were either manual or semi automatic, meaning you had to press a button to open them.
Many doors in the building complex are now equipped with sensors, so they open automatically. Very convenient in many situations, but in the upgrade process, the opening mechanism has also been made slower.
Previously the door would open at you command, either because you decided how hard to push a manual door, or when you pushed the button, it would open in a "yes sir" fashion. The "yes sir" refers to a swift quick opening, letting you pass through.
Now the door opens in more "let me see.....yes i'll open" way, resulting in, even though it is equipped with a sensor, you have to stop and wait for the door to open.
I don't know if this has been done because someone actually was hit by a fast opening door, but I have never heard of such an accident.
Now, I'm not on a mission with doors to attribute human feelings or decision making to the doors in the building, but they got me thinking about ways to think about decision making and especially how to react on request for decisions. See, now we are getting nearer to the business analysis world.
Because many might not know the doors in the building complex where i work, I will try to use a couple of more widely known examples from the world of movies. Especially science fiction movies have a thing about doors.
In the Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy, the doors in the spaceship were equipped with an especially pleasing sound, letting you know that they were happy to open for you. (Which annoyed Marvin the depressive robot immensely, but that's another story). Now that's the sort of business representative I would like to have as a BA. One who says, we are happy to help you with your decisions or issues.
Another great example is the Star Wars movies, where buildings and spaceships have many creative door solutions. Some of the them seems rather over-the-top and elaborate. This is not what I want from my business representative, I need them to help me make a decision, not to design an elaborate decisions process involving to many stakeholders. It might look fancy, but takes forever.
My favorite example from Star Wars is a door when Luke Skywalker and Han Solo enters cloud city (In the Empire Strikes Back) there is a control room, where the door opens and closes almost instantly. Now thats the kind of business representative I would like, especially in a case with a tight schedule. A "I'll get right on it" attitude.
I'll leave it up to the reader to interpret what the many blast doors in Star Wars would relate to in a business representative.
I'm sure that there are many other examples out there of good and not so good doors.
I guess the morale here is to make sure that you observe how your business representative or other decision making partner, is going about the way of getting the decisions made. And if it is not going as you would like, be sure to talk to them about your expectations.
Now, I'll go and see if a can tweak the opening mechanism a bit...
Oh, by the way. If you're interested in more about doors and their apparent human like characteristics, I can highly recommend reading Bruno Latour - Where are the Missing Masses? Sociology of a Door
Walking through the hallway of the building complex in which I work, I somehow got annoyed with the automatic doors which has been installed over the last couple of years.
Previously the doors were either manual or semi automatic, meaning you had to press a button to open them.
Many doors in the building complex are now equipped with sensors, so they open automatically. Very convenient in many situations, but in the upgrade process, the opening mechanism has also been made slower.
Previously the door would open at you command, either because you decided how hard to push a manual door, or when you pushed the button, it would open in a "yes sir" fashion. The "yes sir" refers to a swift quick opening, letting you pass through.
Now the door opens in more "let me see.....yes i'll open" way, resulting in, even though it is equipped with a sensor, you have to stop and wait for the door to open.
I don't know if this has been done because someone actually was hit by a fast opening door, but I have never heard of such an accident.
Now, I'm not on a mission with doors to attribute human feelings or decision making to the doors in the building, but they got me thinking about ways to think about decision making and especially how to react on request for decisions. See, now we are getting nearer to the business analysis world.
Because many might not know the doors in the building complex where i work, I will try to use a couple of more widely known examples from the world of movies. Especially science fiction movies have a thing about doors.
In the Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy, the doors in the spaceship were equipped with an especially pleasing sound, letting you know that they were happy to open for you. (Which annoyed Marvin the depressive robot immensely, but that's another story). Now that's the sort of business representative I would like to have as a BA. One who says, we are happy to help you with your decisions or issues.
Another great example is the Star Wars movies, where buildings and spaceships have many creative door solutions. Some of the them seems rather over-the-top and elaborate. This is not what I want from my business representative, I need them to help me make a decision, not to design an elaborate decisions process involving to many stakeholders. It might look fancy, but takes forever.
My favorite example from Star Wars is a door when Luke Skywalker and Han Solo enters cloud city (In the Empire Strikes Back) there is a control room, where the door opens and closes almost instantly. Now thats the kind of business representative I would like, especially in a case with a tight schedule. A "I'll get right on it" attitude.
I'll leave it up to the reader to interpret what the many blast doors in Star Wars would relate to in a business representative.
I'm sure that there are many other examples out there of good and not so good doors.
I guess the morale here is to make sure that you observe how your business representative or other decision making partner, is going about the way of getting the decisions made. And if it is not going as you would like, be sure to talk to them about your expectations.
Now, I'll go and see if a can tweak the opening mechanism a bit...
Oh, by the way. If you're interested in more about doors and their apparent human like characteristics, I can highly recommend reading Bruno Latour - Where are the Missing Masses? Sociology of a Door
