Passion

Today I had an interesting conversation with a BA. He was showing me his Requirements Document, called a PRD, asking for help with his Qualities. I stopped to ask him "Why?". Not a small why but a big why. "Why are you doing the project?" His response was that he was told to do the project. I explained that I understood the work was assigned to him, and that I meant more than that. It is difficult to have passion about what you are writing if you don't know why the business is doing the project. Why is it important to them? That should be the first question. In my 6 months at Optum the projects are mostly about selling something, or getting more revenue (when I worked in M&R - Medicare & Retirement) it was a little different - more about that later), and that is not enough of an answer, either. Why is the business doing this and not something else? Why do they care how many hits there are to this database? Why does it matter to them? It is this knowledge I crave. This is where my passion comes from; I want to believe in the reason for doing the project and write with desire. It is then that I feel fulfilled as a BA and it is then that I do my best work.