Things I Think I Think…..

• Unless you were somehow REALLY lucky to live under a rock, OR experienced the original Star Wars trilogy as it was originally released… Chances are the biggest Star Wars secret was spoiled for you well before you ever actually saw “The Empire Strikes Back”.

• What if I told you that it’s not only possible, but EXTREMELY EASY to own guns AND still be supportive of reasonable regulations that can help save lives by making it more difficult for bad people to get guns?

• I support the public education system and intentions. I still believe that both a hard look at the status quo and potentially ground-breaking changes may need to occur to fix the issues that exist in that system.

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Career Choices You Will Regret In 20 Years

Originally posted on LinkedIn by Bernard Marr on Dec 15, 2014

Every day we are faced with choices in our careers that will affect us over the long term. Should I volunteer for that new project? Should I ask for a raise? Should I take a sabbatical? Should I say yes to overtime?

But sometimes we miss the biggest choices that will cause us to look back on our careers 20 years from now with pride and contentment — or regret.

Here are some of the career choices we often make but will regret deeply in 20 years’ time:

The Business Analyst and the Business Architect

The wilderness between IT and business is our realm.

We wrestle semantics and drive out definitions. We begin as Analysts and advance to Architects. We’re not strictly tech and we’re not strictly business. The definition of what we do is usually written in semi-tech language (we write requirements).

But how do we write those requirements, what makes us different? How do we see things and why do we see them in the way that we do? What is the potential of the Business Analyst profession? What do senior managers want that causes them to listen to us? How do we move from Business Analyst to Business Architect? How do we advance ourselves in our positions and advance the profession as a whole? Let me define the difference between an analyst and an architect.

The differences are subtle but I will try to define the three most critical as I see them.

 - A Business Analyst reports to developers or an IT project manager. A Business Architect reports to managers or senior managers who may be business or IT but are independent of the project.

 - A Business Analyst documents requirements as defined by users. A Business Architect documents and may define a business strategy using requirements provided by the users.

 - A Business Analyst operates within the confines of a predetermined technical architecture. A Business Architect is a part of the decision making process to define the technical architecture.

 A few more things:

 - An Architect is considered a neutral voice and because of that will make more critical decisions than an Analyst.

 - An Architect must have the ability to think in both a strategic and tactical manner whereas an Analyst is normally tactical.

 - An Architect must be cognizant of enterprise strategies whereas an Analyst is normally concerned with specific projects independent of enterprise strategy. So we see that each type of “BA” is necessary.

It's a musing for thinking...

(Major portions re-posted from http://www.businessanalyst.com/advance-from-business-analyst-to-business-architect/)

The Best Countdown in the World!

Countdown Widgets

Professionalism and the US Army.... I had to write an essay.

FOLLOWERS OF THE MUSINGS!!!!

I'm through Basic Training, and now 4 weeks into AIT. One of the tasks assigned to me was to write an essay on professionalism and the US Army. So I did. I will now share it here for all to see. Is it my best work? No, I had to omit most of my killer quips and sarcastic banter... but it's pretty good. A little "hoo-ah hoo-ah" but... you know... "know your audience!"

And now - the essay....

Professionalism and the United States Army

            Professionalism, according to the Merriam-Webster dictionary, is a noun. It is a tangible “thing” that can be measured and observed. The United States Army implements via tasks, conditions, and standards. Because of the highest standard expected by the Army, professionalism is an essential ingredient in the mixture of skills and talents required of every soldier, ensuring the quality of military force necessary to defend the Constitution of the United States of America against all enemies, foreign and domestic.

            Professionalism is much more than a direct concept however. It is an abstract idea, a value imbued into the essence of each of the Army Values. It is a promise, kept by every soldier to their peers, superiors, subordinates, and those we serve to protect. It is a promise that guarantees to all that the United States Army will perform its duties with the highest standard of ethic, with a well-tuned moral compass, and within the letter of our legal mandates. The world will know that the United States Army, without question, will perform in the best interests of liberty and freedom.

An Army that does not embrace professionalism as an ingrained element of the command and culture is nothing more than a gun club, with loose association of hierarchy and no commitment to the ideals it serves. An unprofessional Army uses non-combatants as human shields, tortures and kills indiscriminately, oppresses those they say they serve; in essence, they are the very forces the United States finds itself in militarized conflicts with. Because the United States has a professional Army, it has both tactical and strategic advantages over this enemy, making short work of their forces.

            Ask any soldier how they display their professionalism on a day to day basis, and the list of examples would take quite some time to exhaust. Part of the second general order states that soldiers will “…perform all [their] duties in a military manner.” A “military manner” includes in a professional manner. From preparing a barracks room for inspection to planning a tactical assault, the United States Army is an army of professionals, displaying their skill and expertise in every aspect of their day to day lives. The crisp movements in drill and ceremony, the attention to detail in training, movement, paperwork, and discipline, all are windows into the professional soldier.

            A United States Army soldier is told from day one in the recruiting process that the work done by the Army is done by professionals. The Army is not a social club or a hangout, but a machine of national defense. The Army could not function if its elements did not embrace a professional approach to their work. If the Army does not function, the freedoms and liberties enjoyed by the American people are at great risk.

The United States was born out of conflict. General Washington and the leaders of the militarized revolution, took farmers, craftsmen, traders and tinkers, and trained them to be professional soldiers. Without this advantage, the British might have handily quelled freedom’s bells before they had a chance to ring across the globe. Today’s United States Army picks up that mantle, and ensures that anyone who would dare threaten our way of life will have to go through a formidable force of professional soldiers, the greatest force for freedom on Earth. 

Basic Training and AIT – An Army Adventure Begins…

Hello followers of the Musings! It’s been a while! Heck, it’s been about 10 and a half weeks since I’ve even seen or felt or touched the magic of the interwebs! Well, where the heck have you been (you may ask…. Go ahead… ask…. Good)?

Basic Combat Training. Yes, it was EXACTLY like in Full Metal Jacket. Or Stripes. Or Major Payne. Or that one episode of Family Guy where Stewie and Brian join the Army. Exactly like that. Just except for everything.

Basic Training is split into 3 (and a half) “Phases.” Red Phase, White Phase, Blue Phase, and “Graduation Prep Phase You’ve Come This Far Don’t F It Up”

Red Phase included a lot of yelling and push-ups. White Phase had SLIGHTLY less yelling, the same amount of push-ups, but we were getting stronger, so the Drill Sergeants added V-Ups and 8-Count Push-Ups (like burpees without the jump) to help motivate us. Blue Phase consisted of a lot less yelling, a lot of PT to prep us for the final Physical Fitness Test, and a lot of student-leadership owning what we were doing.

There’s a lot to talk about in all of that, and over the next several weeks as I have time, I may go ahead and do just that… dig into the details. We were in a tough company, and a tough platoon. Specifically, the Drill Sergeants I had in my platoon were (in my estimation) the strictest and toughest we came across in the entire Cycle (10 week period). That’s a good thing because it meant we were the best trained as well.

Between us SIT’s (Soldiers In Training), friendships were forged, we all got on each other’s nerves by the end, we briefly hated each other, and then we all came together to push to graduation. With the exception of a couple d-nozzles who got themselves in so much hot water over the course of the cycle, they were beyond helping. Pro-Tip, self-inflicted wounds are preventable.

Now I’ve graduated and am in AIT, (Advanced Individual Training) where I’ll spend the next couple months learning how to fix things. After that, back to Milwaukee to resume my planning to rule the known universe. Currently, I’m scheduled to return at or about 9/10 or so. But between now and then, I’ll be here in Virginia.

The differences between Basic and AIT are already astounding. I’ll get into those as I go along as well. But for starters, the release from “total control” that the Army maintains throughout Basic to the “NEAR independence” we have at AIT is enough of a shock that it actually will take a couple days to get used to…

Onward and Upward!!!!!!

PS – I’ll TRY to inject a hint of humor along the way as well… we shall see how that works out…. Note the picture atop the posting....

Musings: The Stories

The Musings of BradK was always intended to be both fiction and non-fiction. I will be posting my stories at the following URL (the fiction). Don't read into anything. All people, events, scenarios are based only on the things that come out of my head. If you think a character is YOU or someone YOU KNOW, it's not. Thanks for reading.

http://thestoriesofbradk.blogspot.com/