Article 4: Log-On(site) vs. Log-Off(shore)

Similar to logs maintained by the travelers during a voyage, offshore and onsite BA’s work is captured under various knowledge areas during project’s lifecycle. Hence in continuation of my previous articles, in this closing article about onsite vs. offshore BA, I will compare their exposure to various knowledge areas as mentioned in the BABOK. 

Previous articles:

Article 2: Offshore Business Analyst - 'Sanjaya' from Mahabhrata

Article 3: Underlying Competency Comparison for Onsite & Offshore Business Analyst

Analysis of Knowledge Areas being exposed to Onsite BA and Offshore BA

Following rating indicates chances of task being performed at onsite or offshore – 0% being no possibility to 100% indicating most certainty. Please note that this is not the division of work for onsite – offshore model. Hence 0% indicate that it is not possible to perform the respective task at onsite / offshore and 100% indicate that it is only possible to perform the respective task at onsite / offshore.

Highlights of the finding are:

• As you can see in the image, the least exposed knowledge area for offshore BA is ‘Enterprise Analysis’. 
• Also, probability of tasks performed under Elicitation and BA planning and monitoring is less. Please note that elicitation tasks are related with the actual elicitation and not the documentation of requirements. And the planning and monitoring is limited to business analysis tasks and activities.

Let’s go through each knowledge are one by one. I have mentioned my rationale behind the rating in the comments.

1. Knowledge Area: Enterprise Analysis

Tasks                                       Offshore BA    Onsite BA

Define Business Need                      25%               100%

Assess Capability Gaps                    25%               100%

Determine Solution Approach          25%               100%

Define Solution Scope                     25%               100%

Define Business Case                      25%                100%

Comments: It is very rare that enterprise analysis is done from offshore. These tasks require high level of interaction with various business stakeholders. Only thing that can be done from offshore in this case is secondary research, artifact analysis and documentation of analysis shared by onsite BA. However instead of helping, offshoring this task might waste lot of time explaining things to offshore and reviewing their work. Hence the higher probability rating is given to the onsite BA.

2. Knowledge Area: Business Analysis Planning & Monitoring

Tasks                                                       Offshore BA            Onsite BA

Plan Business Analysis Approach                      50%                       100%

Conduct Stakeholder Analysis                          10%                       100%

Plan Business Analysis Activities                      75%                       100%

Plan Business Analysis Communication             75%                       100%

Plan Requirements Management Process          100%                     100%

Manage Business Analysis Performance            100%                      100%

Comments: At onsite – this knowledge areas deals with planning of Business Analysis as a whole (end to end). Business Analysis Planning and Monitoring activities at the offshore, focus on the implementation side of the requirements i.e. w.r.t. development and testing of the solution and BA tasks related with them. Chances of conducting stakeholder analysis (majorly business stakeholders) happens only at onsite. Offshore might get involved in case of analyzing implementation stakeholders. There is fairly good amount of probability that an offshore analyst gets an opportunity to work on this knowledge areas from offshore. This is due to this knowledge areas doesn’t require high level of client interactions

3. Knowledge Area: Elicitation

Tasks                                      Offshore BA            Onsite BA

Prepare for Elicitation                   50%                        100%

Conduct Elicitation Activity           50%                        100%

Document Elicitation Results         50%                        100%

Confirm Elicitation Results            50%                        100%

Comments: There are very few and rare occasions when the requirements are being elicited from offshore. In those cases, offshore BA has to resort to options like telephonic interviews or video conferencing or desktop sharing. Only in those cases the chances of performing these activities offshore are there. In most of the cases, tasks under this knowledge area are performed at onsite. However due to indirect involvements, probability of this knowledge area being carried out at offshore is less (50-50)

4. Knowledge Area: Requirements Analysis

Tasks                                                  Offshore BA    Onsite BA

Prioritize Requirements                              75%                100%

Organize Requirements                              75%                 100%

Specify and Model Requirements                100%               100%

Define Assumptions and Constraints           100%               100%

Verify Requirements                                  100%               100%

Validate Requirements                               75%                100%

Comments: Both offshore and onsite BA's get exposure to these tasks. However advantage to the onsite BA is that he mostly gets to work on Business requirements and Stakeholder requirements along with Solution requirements. Offshore BA mostly gets to work on Solution requirements. Onsite transition requirements mostly cover process / people related transition requirements while offshore one's might cover the technical aspects of transition requirements. At offshore the prioritization is mostly for already selected work items / requirements. Hence it is most of the time prioritization in terms of implementation (time and effort-wise).  Onsite prioritization happens mostly for business value delivered as a whole. Probability of other tasks happening at offshore is also on a higher side as the work can be carried out internally. Since validation checks that all requirements support the delivery of value to the business, fulfill its goals and objectives, and meet a stakeholder need; it happens intensely at the onsite. However validation is sort of quality check, the major focus lies at offshore.

5. Knowledge Area: Requirements Management and Communication

Tasks                                                    Offshore BA    Onsite BA

Manage Solution Scope & Requirements       100%               100%

Manage Requirements Traceability               100%               100%

Maintain Requirements for Re-use                100%               100%

Prepare Requirements Package                     75%                100%

Communicate Requirements                         50%                100%

Comments: Generally tasks under this knowledge area, can be carried out both at onsite and offshore. Tasks related to Requirement management can happen at offshore, however communication of requirement mostly happens from onsite. The communication package can be created onsite, however majorly the main communication happens through onsite BA. The offshore requirement management focuses from implementation side, where the development and testing team has traceability matrix to link requirements with implemented features. So the main solution scoping (from business / stakeholder requirement perspective) happens onsite and implementation related scoping happens from offshore in collaboration with onsite.

6. Knowledge Area: Solution Assessment and Validation

Tasks                                           Offshore BA    Onsite BA

Assess Proposed Solution                  100%                100%

Allocate Requirements                     100%                100%

Assess Organizational Readiness        25%                 100%

Define Transition Requirements        100%                100%

Validate Solution                              75%                 100%

Evaluate Solution Performance         100%                100%

Comments: Except the task of assessing organizational readiness, all the tasks can be carried out at offshore. This is because it requires knowledge about the client organizations, stakeholders and As-is state of the business. Other than that many tasks of this knowledge area can happen at offshore as well. Also, the transition requirements related with technology can be driven from offshore. Since validation checks that solution from delivered business value perspective, it happens intensely at the onsite.

---- END ----

Notes:
Types of Requirements:

As per BABOK 2.0, there are four types of requirements as follows:

Business Requirements- ‘Statements of goals, objectives, and outcomes that describe why a change has been initiated. They can apply to the whole of an enterprise, a business area, or a specific initiative.’ These are very high level requirements generally originated from CEO / top management. Their triggers are external factors like competition, expansion or launch of new product etc. E.g. if a banking CEO wants to increase customer servicing channels to improve customer loyalty.

Stakeholder Requirements: ‘(They) describe the needs of stakeholders that must be met in order to achieve the business requirements.’ These are specific to stakeholders. E.g. in above case, the mobile CoE head (stakeholder) can have a requirement to launch a banking app that can provide customers with self servicing options. This becomes a stakeholder requirement

Solution Requirements: ‘Describe the capabilities and qualities of a solution that meets the stakeholder requirements. They provide the appropriate level of detail to allow for the development and implementation of the solution.’ These are basically Functional and Non-Functional requirements. E.g. in above example features of the mobile app will become functional requirements like login feature, check bank balance feature etc. Security or performance features of the mobile app will become non-functional requirements.

Transition Requirements: ‘Describe the capabilities that the solution must have and the conditions the solution must meet to facilitate transition from the current state to the future state, but which are not needed once the change is complete. They are differentiated from other requirements types because they are of a temporary nature.’ These requirements mostly cover anything that to be done to make the change happen from As-is state to To-be state. E.g. in above case, data migration for mobile app or trainings for the mobile app will become transition requirements

Article 3: Underlying Competency Comparison for Onsite & Offshore Business Analyst

In continuation from my previous article, I would like to compare the exposure for onsite BA against the offshore BA w.r.t. required underlying competencies.

Analysis of opportunity to display Underlying Competencies for Onsite BA and Offshore BA

Following rating indicates chances of displaying / gaining expertise in the mentioned competency at onsite or offshore – 0% being no possibility to 100% indicating most certainty. 

Please note that this is not the lack of competence at offshore, but it shows limited opportunity to display the competence. 

Each of the following competency group consists of few competencies and I have tried to rate these based on my knowledge.

Highlights of the finding are:

* As you can see in the image, the two competencies which are less utilized at offshore are Analytical Thinking & Problem Solving and Business Knowledge.

* However being an offshore BA, one needs to display Interaction Skills a bit more than that of onsite BA.

Let’s go through each competency one by one. I have mentioned my rationale behind the rating in the comments.

Summary:

• Competency Group - Offshore BA v/s Onsite BA
• Analytical Thinking & Problem Solving – 56% v/s 100%
• Behavioral Characteristics – 100% vs. 100%
• Business Knowledge – 80% vs. 100%
• Communication Skills – 87% vs. 93%
• Interaction Skills – 100% vs. 87%
• Software Applications – 100% vs. 100%

1.  Analytical Thinking & Problem Solving – Overall Rating Offshore 56% vs. Onsite 100%

1a. Creative Thinking

Offshore 80% vs. Onsite 100%   

Since the solution is generally decided onsite, offshore BA gets limited opportunity to display this competency

1b. Decision Making

Offshore 60% vs. Onsite 100%   

Offshore BA can only take decisions related with offshore implementation team’s (development and testing teams) queries or confusions. However opportunity to use this competency at offshore is very limited

1c. Learning

Offshore 60% vs. Onsite 100%

Since one is very close to client, client’s business and stakeholders at onsite, learning grows thousand folds.

1d. Problem Solving

Offshore 60% vs. Onsite 100%

Since the main solutioning happens at onsite, problem solving skills are very frequently used onsite. However offshore problem solving focuses majorly w.r.t. implementation teams’ problems.

1e. Systems Thinking

Offshore 20% vs. Onsite 100%

Offshore BA misses on the big picture. Onsite BA gets to know the complete picture and gets to know the patterns and relations to understand the problem better and suggest a complete / holistic solution.

2. Behavioral Characteristics – Overall Rating Offshore 100% vs. Onsite 100%

2a. Ethics            

Offshore 100% vs. Onsite 100%

There is no doubt that every professional should have strong ethical system and should know what is right and what is wrong

2b. Personal Organization

Offshore 100% vs. Onsite 100%

Be at onsite or offshore BA must have work ethics and personal organization.

2c. Trustworthiness

Offshore 100% vs. Onsite 100%

Onsite BA majorly works to gain trust of client, and Offshore BA works majorly to gain trust of onsite BA and offshore implementation team

3. Business Knowledge – Overall Rating Offshore 80% vs. Onsite 100%

3a. Business Principles & Practices

Offshore 100% vs. Onsite 100%

These characteristics are common to all organizations across industries and hence having their knowledge helps a BA to understand the problem better and to find appropriate solution

3b. Industry Knowledge

Offshore 80% vs. Onsite 100%   

This is the understanding of the industry that their client’s organization is in. Offshore BA, might not necessarily have detailed industry knowledge as the holistic solutions are generally provided by onsite BA and then the solution is passed on to the offshore

3c. Organization Knowledge

Offshore 60% vs. Onsite 100%   

Being at client’s site, onsite BA must have detailed client organization knowledge i.e. business architecture, business model, stakeholder influences etc. Offshore BA need not have that much knowledge about organization

3d. Solution Knowledge

Offshore 80% vs. Onsite 100%   

Solution knowledge is majorly required to identify the most effective means of implementing a change. Since onsite BA is closer to business, solution knowledge is critical for him / her

4. Communication Skills – Overall Rating Offshore 87% vs. Onsite 93%

4a. Oral Communications

Offshore 60% vs. Onsite 100%   

Offshore BA majorly interacts with onsite BA and not the actual business owners. But the onsite BA interacts with multiple stakeholders on multiple fronts, hence the score is higher for onsite BA

4b. Teaching

Offshore 100% vs. Onsite 80%   

Generally offshore BA has to play a critical role explaining the requirements and solutions to the implementation team (development and QA team). Onsite BA has to have this competency to manage change instigated by the solution implementation

4c. Written Communication

Offshore 100% vs. Onsite 100%

Written communication is critical for every BA because eventually the major deliverables by a BA are nothing by artifacts like BRD (business requirements document), user stories, use cases etc.

5. Interaction Skills – Overall Rating Offshore 100% vs. Onsite 87%

5a. Facilitation and Negotiation

Offshore 100% vs. Onsite 100%

For onsite BA this competency focuses on assisting business to elicit or extract real business requirements. Also the negotiation skills are required to arrive at the right business solution. For offshore BA, majorly these skills come handy while discussing the implementation with project managers, development and testing teams because many times they want to implement an easier solution than implementing the right solution"

5b. Leadership and Influencing

Offshore 100% vs. Onsite 100%

There is no doubt that onsite or offshore BA’s have to display these competencies to get things done the right way. Consultative business analysis requires thought leadership and influencing skills

5c. Teamwork

Offshore 100% vs. Onsite 60%   

Since offshore BA has to work closely with the implementation team, this competency is majorly required for him / her. Even though onsite BA might work with onsite teams, his role is more of a individual contributor

6. Software Applications – Overall Rating Offshore 100% vs. Onsite 100%

6a. General-Purpose Applications

Offshore 100% vs. Onsite 100%

Since these tools are used to document and track requirements, onsite and offshore BA’s need to be proficient with these

6b. Specialized Applications

Offshore 100% vs. Onsite 100%

Since these tools are used to support the development of formal models, their validation and implementation onsite and offshore BA’s need to be proficient with these specialized applications

--- End ---

Notes:

Types of Requirements: As per BABOK 2.0, there are four types of requirements as follows:

Business Requirements:

‘Statements of goals, objectives, and outcomes that describe why a change has been initiated. They can apply to the whole of an enterprise, a business area, or a specific initiative.’ These are very high level requirements generally originated from CEO / top management. Their triggers are external factors like competition, expansion or launch of new product etc. E.g. if a banking CEO wants to increase customer servicing channels to improve customer loyalty.

Stakeholder Requirements:

‘(They) describe the needs of stakeholders that must be met in order to achieve the business requirements.’ These are specific to stakeholders. E.g. in above case, the mobile CoE head (stakeholder) can have a requirement to launch a banking app that can provide customers with self servicing options. This becomes a stakeholder requirement

Solution Requirements:

‘Describe the capabilities and qualities of a solution that meets the stakeholder requirements. They provide the appropriate level of detail to allow for the development and implementation of the solution.’ These are basically Functional and Non-Functional requirements. E.g. in above example features of the mobile app will become functional requirements like login feature, check bank balance feature etc. Security or performance features of the mobile app will become non-functional requirements.

Transition Requirements:

‘Describe the capabilities that the solution must have and the conditions the solution must meet to facilitate transition from the current state to the future state, but which are not needed once the change is complete. They are differentiated from other requirements types because they are of a temporary nature.’ These requirements mostly cover anything that to be done to make the change happen from As-is state to To-be state. E.g. in above case, data migration for mobile app or trainings for the mobile app will become transition requirements

Article 2: Offshore Business Analyst - 'Sanjaya' from Mahabhrata

About the Article:

This article series is dedicated to my profession of Business Analysis. Being a Certified Business Analysis Professional (CBAP), I feel it is my duty towards my profession to take it to the next level and help all the business analysts to perform their role better by sharing my knowledge. The article is based on my own experience and thought process.

In next 2 articles, I will be comparing an offshore Business Analyst with an onsite Business Analyst based on the BA knowledge areas and underlying competencies. Generally offshore BA’s are part of implementation of IT strategy / initiative which is being executed using onsite – offshore model. However whatever mentioned about onsite BA is applicable to all BA’s working onsite on various assignments like process improvement initiatives, strategy implementation initiatives. Also the BA in this article may be referred as a vendor to the client organization, but the article is applicable to internal BA’s as well.

There is a story in Mahabharata (one of the major epics of India) about a character who has the gift of divine vision (divya-drishti). His name was Sanjay and he was an advisor and charioteer of one of the kings. This king- King Dhritarashtra was blind and was a ruler for a place called as Hastinapur. During this epic's climatic end a war breaks between Dhritarashtra's sons and his brother's sons. At the time of war, due to his blindness he could neither take part in the war, nor witness it. That is when Sanjay plays a role of a narrator, and using his divya-drishti tells about the live events happening in battle field. The divine vision, instead of it being in the mind, is like seeing things in person. Also, the sounds are heard with the physical ear and not as a current of thought. Hence for Sanjay, it was like being present in the battle field physically. So basically, Sanjay was offshore analyst describing what's happening at onsite - the exact same role played by an offshore BA.

Obviously onsite BA gets more opportunities to learn and grow, however offshore BA needs to play Sanjay’s role to listen to onsite as if he / she is there. Now continuing reference from the above analogy, there are few more points to be remembered by an offshore BA: 

1. Sanjaya not only tells every incident of the Kurukshetra war but he also gives various descriptions of: Earth, the other planets, and focuses on the Indian subcontinent and gives an elaborate list of hundreds of kingdoms, tribes, provinces, cities, towns, villages, rivers, mountains, and forests of the (ancient) Indian Subcontinent (Bharata Varsha).

Point to remember: In the subsequent articles, I have compared various knowledge areas of onsite and offshore BA. The knowledge area which is hardly exposed to offshore BA is – ‘Enterprise Analysis’. This knowledge area majorly helps one to understand the business needs in larger context through systems thinking. Similar to Sanjay, offshore BA should know about onsite situation but his knowledge should not be limited to project scope. He / she should be aware about various departments, operations within client organization and try to get complete picture of client’s business instead of looking through small key hole. This helps one to gain holistic picture. This way offshore BA can compensate for limited exposure to Enterprise Analysis knowledge area. 

Tools that can be used:

- To Understand Business Landscape: 

* Value Chain Analysis or 

* Business Process Mapping

- To Understand System Landscape (from Business Analyst’s Perspective)

* Context Diagrams or

* Data Flow Diagrams

- To Understand Stakeholder Landscape

* The Stakeholder Wheel

* Power-Interest Grid

* RACI Matrix

Note: In all the above mentioned tools, one has to start from top to bottom. Hence high-level process diagram or context diagrams serve the purpose. If the project scope is limited to certain department, above extra work helps you to give better and right solutions. These solutions will long last and deliver more business value. 

2. Sanjay also explains about the military formations adopted by each side on each day. 

Point to remember: As per this line, offshore BA must know about the strategy of client organization and the external factors. This is very critical since onsite / offshore BA’s are not necessarily to be aware or exposed to the strategy and outside influencing factors for the client organization. This knowledge give a BA a sneak peek into the future – where does client want to be. This helps any BA to gain very important insights into the client organization and eventually help the project.

Tools that can be used:

* PESTAL Analysis or 

* Porter’s Five Forces Analysis 

Both the above points help a business analyst to rise to become a ‘Consultative Business Analyst’ than being just a ‘Business Analyst’. The tools also help offshore BA to maximize his / her exposure and acquire invaluable experience of holistic Business Analysis.

In the next article: My next article will compare various underlying competencies and knowledge areas exposed to onsite BA and offshore BA.

As a heads-up about next article, I would share following teasers:

Analysis of opportunity to display Underlying Competencies for Onsite BA and Offshore BA

Following rating indicates chances of displaying / gaining expertise in the mentioned competency at onsite or offshore – 0% being no possibility to 100% indicating most certainty. Please note that this is not the lack of competence at offshore, but it shows limited opportunity to display the competence.

Competency Group - Offshore BA v/s Onsite BA

Analytical Thinking & Problem Solving – 56% v/s 100%

Behavioral Characteristics – 100% v/s 100%

Business Knowledge – 80% v/s 100%

Communication Skills – 87% v/s 93%

Interaction Skills – 100% v/s 87%

Software Applications – 100% v/s 100% 

Analysis of Knowledge Areas being exposed to Onsite BA and Offshore BA

Following rating indicates chances of task being performed at onsite or offshore – 0% being no possibility to 100% indicating most certainty. Please note that this is not the division of work for onsite – offshore model. Hence 0% indicate that it is not possible to perform the respective task at onsite / offshore and 100% indicate that it is only possible to perform the respective task at onsite / offshore.

Knowledge Area - Offshore BA v/s Onsite BA

Enterprise Analysis – 25% v/s 100%

Business Analysis Planning & Monitoring – 68% v/s 100%

Elicitation – 50% v/s 100%

Requirements Analysis – 88% v/s 93%

Requirements Management & Communication – 85% v/s 100%

Solution Assessment & Validation – 83% v/s 100% 

In a nutshell, onsite BA and offshore BA should always work as a team to get the right solution implemented. Both onsite and offshore has their own unique characteristics and challenges, but being part of both of them, I personally can say that both are enriching experiences.

Article 1: To BA or not to BA - Words from Business Analyst (or Consultant?)

This article series is dedicated to my profession of Business Analysis. Being a Certified Business Analysis Professional (CBAP), I feel it is my duty towards my profession to take it to the next level and help all the business analysts to perform their role better by sharing my knowledge. Following article is based on my own experience and thought process.

I feel many times business analyst’s role is undervalued and misunderstood in an organization. I would like to take this opportunity to dwell upon one of the most common debate across industries about difference between Business Consultant and Business Analyst (BA). 

Personally I feel that all Business Analysts are Business Consultants; however, all Business Consultants are not necessarily be Business Analysts…

Typically a Business Consultant is supposed to be functioning at Strategic level in organization, and needs to understand the bigger picture and business strategy. However one of the knowledge areas for business analysis is – ‘Enterprise Analysis’ which covers the understanding of business strategy and holistic thinking / systems thinking. Hence I think the closest analogy would be- the traditional Business Consultant role is most closely aligned with the business analyst working on ‘Enterprise Analysis’ knowledge area along with all the other knowledge areas. (Please refer the notes section to check the other knowledge are for a Business Analyst) 

Typical Business Analyst work in an IT (Information Technology) domain most of the times, but he needs to possess business / domain knowledge. The domain for a software solution can be horizontal or vertical. A horizontal domain is applicable across industries, like workflow automation. Vertical domains are specific to a particular industry, like telecommunications. This makes him a business analyst working as a consultant for providing IT solutions in vertical / horizontal business domain.

Business Consultants play more of an ‘Advisory’ role whereas the Business Analysts are playing a ‘Liaising’ role. Obviously consultants need to possess liaising skills and analyst should be able to show advisory skills to business. Hence they are nothing but two sides of the same coin.

Ideally all the business analysts are supposed to perform a role of a Business Consultant. They are the ones who should:

* stand up for business and tell implementation team (say, technology team) that this solution is right for business and we have to make it happen

* at the same time, he / she should also stand up for the implementation team and tell business 'vices and virtues' i.e. advantages and disadvantages of a particular implementation in objective way

It's a tricky balancing act a Business Analyst has to perform. If a business analyst doesn't perform the consultative role, he/she continues to be a documentation person. I feel that is one the major reasons why it is an undervalued role in organizations. Most of the BA's perform mediator's role, than playing a consultative role. 

I agree that in most of the cases, BA's projects involve technological implementation of strategy, however that does not limit oneself from playing a consultant role. Since it is much undervalued profession, organizations think he / she is just a bridge between business and IT teams – making a BA just a courier delivery person or a documentation fellow. But the real business value that can be delivered through business analysis is tremendous.

Based on my reading, research and experience, I have reached a conclusion that in reality there is a great overlap between these two roles in terms of performed functions and required knowledge. Whichever way you define a role (Business Consultant or Business Analyst); it’s a fact that the same job title vary greatly from organization to organization and project to project. The bottom line is –

It's not what you're CALLED, it's what you DO!

---- End ----

Notes: 
About Certified Business Analysis Professional (CBAP):
The Certified Business Analysis Professional (CBAP) designation is a professional certification and registered trademark from International Institute of Business Analysis (IIBA), for individuals with at least 7,500 hours of business analysis experience during the last 10 years. Qualified individuals are awarded the designation "Certified Business Analysis Professional" upon passing a three and half hour exam based on the Business Analysis Body of Knowledge (BABOK).

About Business Analysis Knowledge Areas:
Business analysis knowledge areas which are outlined in the Business Analyst Body of Knowledge (BABOK) published by International Institute of Business Analysis (IIBA) are- 

* Business Analysis Planning and Monitoring

* Requirements Elicitation

* Requirements Management and Communication

* Enterprise Analysis

* Requirements Analysis

* Solution Assessment and Validation

About me: 
Being a business analyst for more than 09 years, I had to rise to play a consultative role. I was fortunate enough to get exposure to all knowledge areas of business analysis, onsite-offshore exposure and complete software development life-cycles (SDLC). I was involved at various stages of strategy formulation and execution. Implementing the same strategies through various initiatives ranging across People, Process, and Technology. I have also worked on IT strategy alignment initiatives, along with playing key role in change and knowledge management (e.g. trainings, mentoring, communications plans, and business hand-holding).

The Curious Case of Motivation

When I was thinking about motivation level of an employee over a period of time, I couldn't stop myself from comparing it with 'The Curious Case of Benjamin Button'...

When an employee joins an organization, he /she is very excited and motivated. So similar to Benjamin Button's age, we start our job at the maximum level of motivation...

We venture into various adventures through out our career, learn so many things on the job. Same as those adventures of Benjamin Button. These new adventure help us to keep the motivation levels high.

Eventually our motivation level starts to decline. We get bored of routine work, same policies, same procedures, same people and same challenges. Obviously the saturation level to lose the motivation is very individualistic. But everyone, some day or the other, faces the similar emotions.

Organizations must try to prolong this tipping point through various strategies to address 3 basic necessities of job satisfaction - independence, competence and linkage between efforts and rewards (Malcolm Gladwell) . These initiatives can include job rotation, scope for ideation (something like providing dedicated time to generate new ideas, work on them and also reward the failed ideas along with successful ones), relevant trainings, consideration for employee's career aspirations, provide independence to work, guide and direct employee rather than pushing him /her etc.

Organizations should never demotivate the already self motivated employees (Jim Collins). That's the worst thing one can do. Most of the times, other than actual work, the hygiene at work impacts this most. Over complicated processes, unjust policies, interrupting but non cooperating management, basic infrastructure can speed up the process of de-motivation.

Otherwise, as Benjamin Button's age starts reducing, our motivation starts diminishing.

Benjamin Button dies infant, similarly our motivation dies and we either keep on doing the same job over and over again, just to get the pay cheque at the month end or switch the jobs to open a new curious case of Benjamin Button.

Hence I think, 

it's not about retaining the employees, but it's all about retaining their motivation level...

Create audio books for free....

Following are the few pain areas of most of the people who love to read:

• I love reading, but I don't get time to read
• How am I supposed to carry such a big book with me?
• The books are expensive and require space to store
• I have many pdf's / e-books but I hate reading on computer
• Is there anyone who can read out loud for me?

I faced similar questions and was always wondering how can I make use of few softwares to resolve / eliminate or at least reduce these pain areas. And few weeks back I had that 'Eureka' moment...

This blog elaborates a way through which one can read as many books as possible with no expense and within limited time while multitasking as well. This idea can be used if you have soft-copy of the book and you can copy the text from the file (.pdf, .doc etc.)

The idea is to convert e-books into audio (.mp3) and storing them on one's mobile / i-pod / mp3 player and then listening to them whenever you are free, driving, cleaning the house, watering the plants, waiting for someone, while sleeping or anytime you prefer.

Following is the elaborated idea.

Prerequisite: you need to have soft-copy of the book you want to read and you should be able to copy the text from that file i.e. it is not password protected

Step 1: Download this software - Spesoft Text To MP3 Speaker. This programme is freeware and is for personal entertainment use only

Step 2: Either copy and paste the text from e-book or load text from file

Step 3: To convert the text to mp3, you might require to install another software named 'Lame-3.99.3'. This is also a freeware

Step 4: Save the audio at desired location of your computer

Step 5: Once the text is converted to MP3, you get your audio book for FREE... 

For the free version of Spesoft Text To MP3 Speaker, only one voice is available - Microsoft Anna - English (United States)

You can control Output Format, Output Quality, Sample Rate, Speed, Pitch and Volume of conversion as well.

One you convert the book into audio, you can transfer it to your mobile or ipod or mp3 player and listen to it at your own convenience.

I am not saying that my solution is unique or best or I am the first person to use this but for me the above idea has worked brilliantly and I have read / listened to many e-books in very short duration of time.

Keep reading... 

Theory of Job Selection for a Fresher

Introduction:

This theory proposes that the selection of a job for a fresher depends on various factors/variables. A fresher sub-consciously thinks on these parameters, but if he/she thinks over them objectively then it will be easier for him/her to take the decision. Hence I am proposing those variables along with the methodology to measure them. You can find out the overall final score of the offer and then take the decision to accept the offer or not.

The common phenomenon I have observed during my college days is the ‘Confusion’ in the minds of a fresher. This theory will help him to take the decision properly.

Theory:

Following are the variables on which a fresher takes the decision of accepting the offer or not-

Job Profile: It is the kind of work offered by the company

Brand of the company: This is the brand perceived by the fresher. This can be influenced by the comments by others

Location: This is the location given by the company

Salary: This is the salary offered by the company

These variables guide a fresher to take the decision.

Methodology:

Now we know the influencing variables in the decision, but how to calculate them and the overall score of the offer?

To get the final score fresher should answer a questionnaire. He/she should answer the questions on the scale of – V. low, Low, Moderate, High, V. high. Following is the first draft of the questionnaire:

1. Rate your Job Profile:

Rate the learning involved

Rate the growth opportunities in future

Rate the current value of the same profile in the corporate world

Rate the future value of the same profile in the corporate world

2. Rate the brand you will be working for:

Rate the perceive the brand value of the company

3. Rate the location offered to you:

Rate the convenience regarding the location of the company (This convenience is regarding the relocation costs, convenience regarding travel, proximity to the home town etc.)

4. Rate the salary offered by the company:

Rate the offered salary as compared to your expected salary

I will be posting the final questionnaire soon. Hope this theory will help a fresher to choose a job objectively. I want to conduct a survey regarding this search. Hope you will give your feedback.