Life in Glasgow so far

I was prepared to write a long entry about a weekend in Paris but the internet in the apartment has not been cooperating with Flickr. A post about Paris without pictures seems wrong; sacrilegious, even. I'll find a solution soon, but in lieu of that I thought I'd let loose a little and just blog about what life here has been like so far.

A typical work week begins Monday when the alarm goes off at 7:10. I get ready, caffeinate myself as quickly as possible, tell the (colorblind) boy that his undershirt clashes with the shirt he picked out, and we aim to be out the door by 8. About once a week I forget something (usually my phone), stop mid-stair-descent, turn around and go back for it.

I venture outside; on any given day there seems to be about a 50% chance of drizzle. It's usually nothing that a hood can't take fend off, but it tends to dampen the spirit nonetheless. The flip side is that when the sun does make an appearance in Glasgow, it instantly puts the entire city, myself included, in a cheery mood. Sunshine is definitely not taken for granted round these parts.

Work is about a mile away. On the way there I pass through the city's bustling center which includes hordes of commuters pouring out of Glasgow's Central Station. If I get the timing right I usually pass a man who looks like Walter White walking in the opposite direction. I tug at the boy's sleeve and inform him of my W.W. sighting.

The boy and I get to the client site and settle into our respective seats. The day usually begins quietly - a few hellos and how were your weekends here and there - but the conversation doesn't linger because this early crowd knows that these quiet minutes in the morning are precious. Precious for mental calibration, for getting an early start to the day's work, for luxurious slow sips of coffee before the circus arrives.

And arrives it does. By 10:30 most of the team is here, many straight from the airport. Every time I see a fellow ThoughtWorker enter the team room and roll their suitcase into a corner on Monday morning I feel a wave of gratitude wash over me for not having to fly each week anymore. But I digress. We walk through our card wall (an array of index cards that capture chunks of functionality to develop or tasks to investigate) as a large group and we then break into smaller huddles which usually conclude with "Go team!" - a cheesy but effective motivator to start the day.

Here is where the daily narrative ends, for no day at work is the same and certainly no day is predictable. Usually it's a mixture of writing on white boards, kicking off or handing over user stories, talking with my product owner or business SME, and a random assortment of meetings/discussions/team Kumbayamylords. On average Monday through Wednesdays are fairly crazy and fast-paced whereas Thursdays and Fridays are a lot more relaxed. I'm still trying to find ways to plan ahead and flatline my cortisone levels.

Although the work can be challenging, it is also rewarding. We're working with a smart, willing client and the software we're building provides value in the short term and serves as a technological platform for further transformation down the line. Our culture at work encourages being honest with each other, challenging our own assumptions, failing fast, iterating quickly, speaking up for technological excellence, and cracking fart jokes. It's truly a fun and interesting place to be; most days I wake up excited to go in and do some cool stuff.

And as for working on the same project team with the boy - well, that's been surprisingly smooth. It helps that everything is out in the open and everyone is very laid back. Occasionally he and I will butt heads on something or another but that's bound to happen between any business analyst and developer. We work it out like big boys and girls.

The work day usually ends between 6:00 and 6:30. Sometimes I have to force myself to leave the office because the work can be so engaging and it's almost addictive to stay and do just a bit more. (This project/domain is BA crack, I tell ya.) Recently our weeknights have been a packed agenda as well; on Monday we go on a group run, Tuesdays and Thursdays are for rock climbing, Wednesdays usually involved a team outing of sorts, and Friday is for pub. On nights when we don't eat out (which is most of the time) we whip up something simple for dinner before spending the last few hours of the evening surfing the internet or watching something on Netflix together. Then it's time for bed.

The weekdays have been flying by in a frenzy of such activity and the weekend always descends upon us rather suddenly. We've been traveling roughly every other one. So far I've accomplished 40% of my goal to visit ten new countries (Scotland, England, France, and Netherlands) - not bad for two months' time. There are more planned ahead: over Easter weekend we'll be going to Barcelona, and at the end of April we'll take a full week off to see Turkey, Vienna and Prague. In May there's Wales with the boy's family, and after that, some talk of Portugal and Greek islands for the summertime...

On weekends when we stay in Glasgow, it's a nice mix between playing catch up non-work work (planning more trips), exploring more of what's in and around Glasgow, and generally enjoying some down time. As sexy as the travel can be, the stay-put weekends are sometimes just as wonderful and often more needed for sanity-restoring purposes.

It's surreal to step back and think that we have been living on another continent for a little over two months. In that time we have basically started our lives anew - new apartment, new friends, new surroundings, new work. Yet it's all oddly familiar as well, like we're living in some sort of Scottish alternate reality where everything's the same but there's haggis instead of hotdogs.

I do feel pangs of homesickness for family and friends and Chipotle back in the US. But mostly I am happy and grateful for so many things: for the opportunity to see Europe, for the ability to have loved ones visit and experience Scotland themselves, for the fantastic project and team, and most of all, for being in the same place as the boy every night of the week. I am very lucky to be here in Glasgow.

Goodbye Texas

Thank you/holiday gifts I'm making for my team

This week is my last here in Dallas. I can't believe almost an entire year has gone by. Like always, it feels surreal to be packing my things, zipping up my documents, and saying goodbye.

I suddenly have a heightened awareness of the finality of everything I'm doing, even the most banal and routine things, such as "This is the last time I'll eat this delicious pizza from Cane Rosso" and "This is my last Wednesday night at this Residence Inn" and "This is the last time I'll hit the curb in this huge-ass rental car...hopefully."

At just a bit over 11 months, this will wrap up my longest project in my three-and-a-half years here at ThoughtWorks. Usually at around the six-month mark within any project - no matter how engaging - I find myself wondering about other assignments or roles and starting to feel the itch to roll off and try something else. This time I think that because I switched roles about six months in from BA to scrum master, the shake up was almost big enough that it seemed like a new project despite the fact that I was working with the exact same team, supporting the same technology, and sitting all of three feet away from my old desk.

I've learned so much here over the course of my assignment. Since our team supports no less than ten different applications - all of which are quite dissimilar - I've had to find a good balance of broad versus deep domain knowledge. We've delivered some pretty awesome software too, like a service for crew members to access their own security line, updates to be compliant with the latest FAA regulations, and a huge Websphere to Tomcat application overhaul (whose improved performance led one customer to exclaim, "Mikey likie!")

I've also learned that the airline industry is incredibly insane. Just getting crew on board safely and in a cost-effective way is complex enough to make my head spin sometimes. I've always thought flying was pretty neat. But now, having seen truly how much work goes into every little aspect of a flight, I view every takeoff and arrival as nothing short of a small miracle.

Beyond its intricate domain, this project was also unique in that I developed some pretty meaningful relationships with my team mates. I felt like I thrived within client's culture and was able to partake in many of the interesting and meaningful events on site. I feel grateful for having been on a team that has welcomed me and treated me as one of their own.

This team was also quite unique in that there was a strong female presence on it - a setup I'd never been lucky enough to have before. In our 11-person group, 7 of us are women. Women who hold full-time technical roles, who are mothers and wives, who juggle Cub Scouts meetings for their sons and volleyball games for their daughters, who make arts and crafts, who bring in baked goods for the team to enjoy, who volunteer their time to those less fortunate, who trade jokes and stories, who write beautiful code, who walk their dogs, who compare Candy Crush scores, who stay up all night caring after a sick toddler, who break the rules (when it makes sense), and whose yes-I-can-do-it-all-and-still-find-time-to-treat-myself-to-a-manicure confidence was truly fun and inspiring to be around. I'm going to miss being around these strong female role models.

Despite being reluctant to leave a wonderful team and an awesome client, I'd be lying if I said I wasn't excited for what's next. I don't want to jinx anything but so far things are looking - dare I say it? - awesome for my next assignment. As in going international awesome! But ThoughtWorks can have a tendency of being a place where no assignment is truly final until the last minute (and even then it can be iffy) so I'm trying not to get myself too excited yet :)  I keep having to remind myself that there are 12 full days of vacation to enjoy with loved ones before it's time to fret about work again.

So Dallas, for the second time, I bid you adieu after an extended stay here. So long, and thanks for all the breakfast tacos.

Harlem Shakin' at work

What [the hell] does a BA do?

I get asked this question a lot. Mostly from non-ThoughtWorkers - friends, family, potential ThoughtWorkers I’m interviewing, new clients, and the like. Here’s my attempt to answer the question as inspired by the subreddit “Explain Like I’m 5”.

Sometimes I think the real description for my job title should be "monkey in the middle."

At a high level, a business analyst at ThoughtWorks serves as the liaison between the product owner and the rest of the team (mostly testers and developers) who are building the product. Now that’s vague...really vague. So let’s use an analogy. Imagine that a building is being planned. An architect has the vision and domain expertise for what the building should look like. He or she puts that in a blueprint, which when finished, is passed onto construction workers to actually build the damn thing.

Following me so far? Good, because here’s where my analogy starts to fall apart. You see, software is hard to build in just one blueprint (that’s what we at ThoughtWorks refer to as waterfall development. We’re not big fans of it). Object models and test suites are often more fickle and volatile than good old brick and mortar. As a result of code constantly evolving and changing, there’s lots of STUFF that can get very lost in translation along the way. That’s where BAs like myself come in. We are responsible for minimizing that STUFF. We do so by capturing bite-sized blueprints for one piece of functionality at a time. We call these small blueprints “user stories.” Itty-bitty blueprints are advantageous over one huge ass document because a.) we write them for the very near future, so big changes that happen do not result in a buttload of lost work and b.) we shorten the feedback loop with our customer by developing in small bites. There are c.)’s and d.)’s that I could go on and on about, but that’s for another post.

So, a business analyst’s job is to make these bite-sized stories. In doing so we must work very closely with the product owner, or the visionary, and we’re also in constant communication with the development and testing team. A business analyst thrives in that dichotomy between the panned out, high level, hallelujah! vision of the application and the zoomed-in nitty-gritty of what data needs to be displayed in what div after what click. It’s a role that frequently overlaps with those of Project Managers, Experience Designers, Product Owners, and Testers. Sometimes I feel like my brain is a revolving spice rack in a kitchen of many cooks - during one conversation, my knowledge about X and Y might be brought out to the counter, but as soon as I turn around they will get replaced and instead I’ll need to pull out some M and N instead.

You’re probably thinking, “Ok, all of this is nice. But what do you actually do on a day-to-day basis?” The answer, as many ThoughtWorksian answers end up being, is “It depends.” It depends on the project, on the team, on the client, on the time within the iteration, and on what impending crisis our team is facing (just kidding! Mostly). My first experience as a BA was completely different from what I did on my second project - and not completely out of ineptness, I’d like to add. The role just changes. *shrug*

I can however, answer that question in the context of my current project. I probably spend 75% of my time in the team space. A lot of that consists of talking to the tech lead and product owner about requirements - soliciting them, nitpicking at them, trying to figure out how to frame them smartly and capture them in right-sized portions. A lot of other times I am working with developers and testers - playing with new functionality on their local machines, estimating new stories, or doing kick-offs on existing ones that are about to get picked up. And of course there’s the time spent at my desk actually writing the stories. For this project I am using a tool called Rally to write stories and my favorite med-fi wireframing tool, Balsamiq, for pretty pictures and diagrams.

What I look like when I'm writing a user story.

As for the 25% of the time when I’m not in our team space, it’s usually in a meeting of some sort. Most of these meetings are good/productive, like our check-ins with users and community BA meet-ups. For the few where I don’t get a lot out of the meeting or do not contribute much to them, I make an effort to un-invite myself. Based on what previous experience has taught me, the longer you are on a team, especially in a BA or Product Owner capacity, the more meetings you will gradually be invited to or expected to attend as a representative of your team or application. It’s dangerous to fall into this rut of what an colleague once joked as “MDD” - meeting driven development. Therefore it’s important to turn a scrutinizing eye to new meeting invitations. Ask yourself: do I really really really need to be there? Is this the best use of my time? Will the world end if I don’t? If the answer is no to all of the above, skip it. Politely make yourself available for answering questions afterwards and then decline the invitation. It feels like a small miracle every time that happens, but it really shouldn’t.

No truer words to live by than these. Source: Zazzle

I like being a BA - I really do. I have my bad days and my good days, just as all jobs do. But on the whole I find it rewarding and challenging. It lines up well with my skillsets and interests. It’s also a great gateway role into other ones; as a BA you get to get a taste for so many flavors for the type of work that needs to come together to create working software.

It’s hard to believe that my three-year review at ThoughtWorks is coming up and that I’ve been in this BA gig for three years. At this point I definitely feel that I have a strong “BA arsenal” of tools and experiences that I can bring to new project teams, whatever they may need of me. But I also relish the feeling of being a complete noob to the domain and technology whenever I show up on the first day of a project. The challenge is accepted - always!

On the road again + really recent pictures

I am back in the world of hotels, upgrades, travel-sized deodorants, and finding crafty ways to maximize my Marriott points balance. Briefly.

This time I find myself in the suburb of Blue Ash, about twenty miles outside of Cincinnati, Ohio. The stint for me here is only three weeks long and I am starting week two tomorrow - time sure flies by when you're livin' la vida loca up here in Blue Ash!

Ahem. Didn't mean for that to come out so sarcastically. I actually quite enjoy being in the suburbs/in a low-key place as opposed to a bustling and busy city like NYC or San Francisco. Don't get me wrong - I'd travel to either of those cities before you could say "flim flam!" - but I've also learned to really appreciate quiet weeknights filled with such adventures of granny Rose as grocery shopping, going to the gym, Skyping with the boy, and maybe even purchasing a small thing of ice cream from the hotel lobby if I'm feeling particularly reckless. You know. Yolo and all that.

Chicago from afar. I've been playing a lot of Katamari Damancy lately and this looks like it'd be a fun city to roll through.

Thundercat hanging out in one of her favorite spots on the couch

She's fuzzy and she knows it.

The 7 PM ORD to CVG flight is short and sweet and optimal for gazing out of the plane window.

Not a bad sunset. A++ would watch again.

The glamorous life of a consultant. Ta-da.

One quick last note - thank you for reading my blog. I'm always pleased and surprised (pleasantly surprised, one might say) when somebody tells me in person that they liked a certain post or that I should update more often. Which I should. Which I always, always should. Anyhow, I appreciate the encouragement and it really does make me want to write more. Thank you.

Five days and counting...

I've been thinking (read: worrying, panicking, and wildly flapping my hands) about this week for about three months straight. And now it's finally within reach; tangible; at bay - the week of Away Day. In exactly five days, I will be in St. Charles, IL with 500 of my fellow ThoughtWorkers. Sipping on a gin and topic. Eyes scanning the crowd for anything on fire. Mind teetering between the edges of experiencing sheer pride and wonderment at what's going around me...and of collapsing into a nervous breakdown.

It's funny - when I first began this planning gig and was telling folks around the office of what I'd be doing, they'd get all wide-eyed and whisper "Oh my God, you poor thing, you have no idea what you're in for" and douse me in sympathetic looks, as if I'd just announced I was going to raft across the Pacific or take up the black a la Jon Snow or something equally insane. And at the time I would secretly roll my eyes and think, "How hard could it be? It's just an event." Everything I had to do was well mapped out in my head - it was just a long list of tasks that would keep me busy for three months - no big deal, right?

Wrong. Dreadfully wrong. I quickly learned that planning an event like this is not black-and-white. It is grey with uncertainty, red with impatience, orange with indecision, green with budget expectations, yellow with soft skills, blue with disappointment, and purple with surprises from leadership. 500 people is a lot of people to begin with. 500 smart and opinionated people from all over the country - and a hefty handful from across the world - start to feel like thousands, each with their own requests and hopes and plans for the weekend. Never in the beginning did I think about having to accommodate those who were vegan. Or breastfeeding. Or the credit-cardless, or the hearing-impaired, or those who begged for extensions on deadlines or submissions. Never did I plan on sending upwards of a hundred e-mails a day. Of negotiating cab fares for volunteers, or offering prizes for good registrants whilst glaring at procrastinators and non-responders alike. Never did I plan on meeting so many of my colleagues through virtual conversations - always ending with "I'm excited to meet you in person come June 22nd!". And never did I really, in the course of planning this, plan on the event sneaking up on me so quickly.

Now that the big weekend is looming on the horizon, I think I'm going through all the emotional cycles of a pregnant woman - anxiety, excitement, fear, impatience, dread, happiness, pride, and a craving for pickles. All the big pieces have fallen in place and it's just the small things to worry about now, the last minute bits of the puzzle that quickly assemble themselves under the last few ticks of the timer that ends  the afternoon of June 22nd.

I know the job is far from over - in fact, this week will likely draw itself to feel as long as the past three months have combined - but I've already learned one thing about myself on this project, and it's that I relish the feeling of doing rewarding work. At every step of this process, my work, no matter how small or seemingly significant, can be justified as helping this event come together, inch by inch. The end goal is at the end of the tunnel, and instead of walking in circles or taking steps in the dark, most everything I have been doing has been a linear progression towards that goal. That tangible feeing of pure, clear accomplishment has been new and incredible for me - and whenever I am thanked for my work, or encouraged to keep on doing what I am doing from my peers, it truly lifts my spirits and makes me grateful to have had this chance to do something that my coworkers can appreciate from afar.

I'll stop the sappiness here - I don't want to jinx how good and how rewarding this role has been or the impending outcome of the weekend, wherein success is *not* guaranteed. One thing for sure is that in exactly a week from today, when the whole thing is over, I'll be exhausted from the event and hopefully asleep by now with yet another project's worth of learnings - both the good and the bad - tucked away in my mental toolbox. I can't wait I can't wait ooooh I am so nervous.