Let's Talk Shop...

I don't know if you're this way, but I rarely talk about what I do at work. I mean, why should I? When I'm away from work, I need to be totally away... right?

Well, today was something a bit different... so I guess I'll share.

Some of you know this, but about a month after I returned to work, I changed roles. I wasn't too thrilled anymore with the path I was heading in my previous role, and I definitely wanted a change.

In the IT world, there is a role called "Business Analyst." That term is used rather loosely... you have to wear a lot of hats and deal with a variety of issues.

As a B.A., my job is to be the middleman between the business and the developers (programmers) in terms of projects... i.e. "Project Manager."

Typically in my world, a B.A. will manage multiple projects during a period of time. These projects could last a few months to over a year. And, a "project" is usually someone on the business side wanting a new addition to our web-based application... be it screens, reports, etc... that the developer would need to program.

Am I boring you yet??? See... that's why I don't talk about this crap... :-)

So for the developer to program, the B.A. needs to have dozens (if not more) of meetings with the business to understand exactly what they want/expect when their project goes "live." We then design, spec out, write up, document, and flow just about everything in a manner that the developer will understand. Specifically, mapping everything to the table/field the item is stored at in our massive database.

I can see you getting "Tired Head" right now... hang with me!!!

OK, so as I said, I usually have several projects. Well, one project started last April (right before the knee exploded!) and finally went live last Friday. The project was to redesign an external website... the site which is currently being used by our Borrowers to track their payments, transactions, documents, etc.

Well, not to toot my own horn (because I was just a piece of a larger group of people who contributed), but it went off without a hitch. The site looks great, we're going to continue to enhance it this year, and hopefully it will help the company save money in the long run.

Which brings me to today... Hello? Is this thing on? Hello???

Every other month, our office has an "All Staff." In our environment, that means "everyone" comes to a meeting and different people stand up and talk about different things. Usually the people speaking are Vice Presidents and Directors. (Now you know where this is going)

I was asked last week to present this new website... and oh, by the way, keep it to about 10 minutes.

Now I'm not typically prone to nervousness when it comes to public speaking. I was a teacher. I used to also teach Sunday School to a large class each week. In the company, I typically speak in small to medium sized meetings... and I've trained trained trained throughout my career. I can speak with the best of them...

But, this was my first "Big Meeting." When everyone shows up, we're approaching the 200-person mark... especially if we have out of towners.

So today was my day. Yippee.

Do you ever get that feeling of "can't catch my breath/why is my heart racing" just before you're introduced? Well, that happened to me. Uugh.

Just as I stood up and turned to face the SEA of eyeballs glaring at me, I said to myself "Do NOT produce shakey-voice, OK! Self... are you listening!!!???"

However, some tricks of the trade I've learned is to stare directly at people near you and when you have to "go the distance," look at the back wall. That way, you're just talking to a person or a wall, right?

Anyhoo... after I got started, things were fine. The only thing I noticed was that I became very aware of how dry my throat was! Note to self: Drink some water about an hour before speaking! In my preparation, I hadn't consumed any fluids in at least 3 hours before the meeting. Not good.

I got a lot of compliments afterwards, both regarding the project and the fact that I can stand up in front of a group like that and complete my sentences. Who knew?

I guess it's a lot easier when you know the subject matter... and you know what? I had almost a year of preparation if you think about it!

Well, our story doesn't really end just yet... tomorrow the company is splitting up into different meetings, and I will have to speak to 2 different groups of roughly 50 or so people in the room. And it won't be just about this project... it will be about an additional one that they will use internally.

Piece of cake...