For today’s post, I’m reaching out to the Bridging the Gap community to share some insight on a situation that I’ve encountered: a business analyst “bully” in the workplace.
How would you handle a BA bully?
This person seemingly breaks all of the rules that we try to follow:
- Listen to the business
- Ask the business what they want
- Hear what they say
- Build what they want
Here’s a little background to help you to understand the situation. As I checked my work email one weekend, I was surprised to read an email with an ultimatum. This BA had taken it upon themselves to become judge and jury in a decision that will critically affect the business – and one they know nothing about, as yet.
We are implementing a global CRM into a manufacturing company. One of the countries has their own CRM which they are using successfully. We have done a lot of work with them to understand how their CRM tool works, what benefits they gain from it, what, if any negatives they have. In order to implement the new CRM tool and achieve 100% buy in, this country must be a part of the decisions.
A month ago, the project team realized that a portion of this country’s data would not be needed for the front end tool for the CRM until their second phase. This concerned us all as we had several ways to decide to move. We sat down as a project team and worked out what would be the best way to go and how to proceed. We came out with four ways to move forward, but only one was going to be chosen. Usually, the decision document is then presented to the business, in a meeting format, to discuss the background and the decisions. They should make the choice themselves, since they will own the CRM tool.
This business analyst felt that some of the project team (read: me and the business representative) were taking a 'soft' stand on ensuring that the business sponsor knew of the decision document prior to it being presented to the business. Now, I always feel that it is critically important that the business be involved in decisions such as these. This is the way that I work and how I ensure that any decision that’s made has been presented in the right way. It seems only fitting that the business sponsor would be consulted when a critical data migration piece is being delayed until the next phase.
The BA is determined to send the document out to the business by email. No meeting, no discussion – just bulldoze the business. The BA has the backing of the program manager. So, why the bully tactics? What is really going on? Will we win the business over with this methodology? I keep asking myself all of these questions. And why do I feel that the bully is winning?
I will have to wait for another time to let you know this plays out, but I’d love to hear your thoughts and suggestions in the meantime.
What would you do? What would your approach be? How have you handled a bully in the workplace? Please share in the comments below.
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