Midnight is a dark time, like a looming deadline which you’re pretty sure you can’t meet. No one is ever sure exactly how they got into the position of running up against midnight, but it usually means long hours late at night – and lots of caffeine. Perhaps it also includes a dose of wistful thinking and wondering about the project plan that seems to be growing like David Banner in a snit. Sometimes it happens, the work load just got misjudged, or the magic of juggling priorities and fate landed a few choice lemons in your lap. Maybe it’s a different problem altogether.
I’ve noticed lots of analysts have trouble with estimating the amount of time it will take to complete business analysis and the elicitation and documentation of requirements for a project. I remember evaluating a team where the most forgiving management stakeholder I interviewed stated they were currently at 300% of the expected time needed to get requirements – and that was just her personal time… not elapsed time (which was months over schedule). Estimating analyst effort is tough because business analysis is inherently about taking a concept that is airy-fairy-fluffy, and turning it into something that is concrete-with-dimension. Here are some ideas to think about late at night – hopefully some of these will prevent you from burning the midnight oil on your next project.