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New Post 3/31/2008 10:48 PM
User is offline Craig Brown
560 posts
www.betterprojects.net
4th Level Poster




Hiring staff - mistakes and blunders 
Modified By Craig Brown  on 4/1/2008 12:50:52 AM)

Tim Bryce recently published an article on what makes good and bad analysts.  It struck a chord with me. I have seen and been in some of the situations he describes.

Anyone esle here want to share a story on good and bad hires?  Are there early warning signs you have a dud?

 

Tim's article is posted in the MA articles section here;

http://www.modernanalyst.com/Resources/Articles/tabid/115/articleType/ArticleView/articleId/307/Who-Makes-the-Best-Systems-Analysts.aspx

 
New Post 5/8/2008 12:13 PM
User is offline Guy Beauchamp
257 posts
www.smart-ba.com
5th Level Poster




Re: Hiring staff - mistakes and blunders 

Craig,

2 stories spring to mind of when I was hiring BAs.

The first is the BA who I asked to prove a 3 entity data model was in 3rd normal form and he said "easy! I normally prove them to 4th normal form!". I don't know what 4th normal form is but asked him to go ahead and he started out by saying he would need another entity as there were only 3 which would only allow him to get to 3rd normal form...

The second is the BA who I asked to critique a 3 step process model. He said there was nothing wrong with it and challenged me to show him where it was wrong. When I did the first error (it had no exit route!) he told me to get a life!

To be fair, I don't know if they were duds as I never hired them!

Guy

 
New Post 6/9/2008 8:58 AM
User is offline mooselogic
7 posts
www.mooselogic.net
10th Level Poster


Re: Hiring staff - mistakes and blunders 

A valuable lesson that I have learnt when interviewing someone is to ask them to walk me through a process that they do in an everyday life. It is amazing how this demonstrates their ability to break a simple process into a series of logical steps. The most common one that I have used is the boiling of an egg. When I ask potential BA's to break this down into logical steps, the one step they always seem to miss is the adding water or turning on the stove top.

It is not a make or break deal, but it is interesting to see their reaction as they delve into the steps. Some throw in full decision based processes like "is the electricity bill paid" and "is the pot suitable for boiling water". Another one is putting on a pair of shoes in the morning, you would be amazed at how many poor BA's are running around with no socks on :D

I always go back to the KISS principle as it works...

As for horror stories, it seems to be the generation of "I want it all and I want it now" (I am on the cuss of this generation so I am more than qualified to comment), or otherwise known as the "Gold/silver Platter" generation that I have had in interviews of late. I had to shake my head when I interviewed a recent candidate, when I asked "so if selected what attributes can you offer into our team of Business Analyst's", her response back (and she was serious), "what are they going to do for me?"

Nathan

 
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