Nov 16 2007
WCBA - Building BAs That Any Business Sponsor Would Fight To Have On Their Project
At the World Congress for Business Analysts (WCBA), Cynthia Sniezak from Disney Parks described how Disney Park’s IT Academy “Builds BAs and PMs That Any Business Sponsor Would Fight To Have On Their Project.”
First, I want to point that I love how Disney refers to all of their employees as Cast Members. It clearly demonstrates that everyone is part of the ’show.’
Disney views talent management as a business differentiator and the mission of the IT Academy is to “make our cast wildly successful.” Disney uses an approach they refer to as HILL which is an acronym for:
- Hire the very best
- Invest strategically
- Lease rising skills
- Lease setting skills
Cynthia also shared their “Leadership Framework At a Glance” which is a generic way to view all jobs on a consistent basis. The key elements of the framework are:
- Delivery and Action (delivery, initiative, organizational stewardship)
- Personal Dynamics (flexibility and adaptability, impact and influence, interpersonal understanding, relationship building)
- Managing Others (developing others, team leadership, teamwork)
- Thinking and Solving Problem (analytical thinking, conceptual thinking, technical expertise)
In terms of training, the IT Academy makes sure that their training is consistent for both the project managers (PMs) and business analysts (BAs). Their training is vendor-delivered (ACC Learning), aligned with the PMBOK and BABOK, and aligned with Disney business objectives. The core PM training is 11 days with 6 days of electives which is completed during an employee’s first 12 to 18 months with Disney. The BA training is a subset of the PM training.
Cynthia also shared some of the tips that they use to reinforce training which includes laminated cheat sheets, note cards and resources such as their internal BA group called BALOO and the external Catalyze community.