porque a la cara te caerá.
For those who don't speak Spanish, the saying goes, "don't spit at the sky, lest it land on your face." It's roughly equivalent to warning someone that karma has a funny way of getting back at people. And as of this week, I know all about this, from first-hand experience.
I have mentioned before that I am mostly a software developer at work. As such, my main focus is mostly to write code & develop applications that are at least mildly useful to my customers. Sure, I have to interact with my customers to tease out requirements from them, and I also have to be mindful of project deadlines and budgets. But, by and large, I consider those things as peripheral responsibilities. They're chores I have to get done in order to do my actual work, rather than my primary responsibility.
However, I have more than one friend whose primary job responsibility is to handle many of these very tasks. In many companies, these are all lumped under the category of "business analysis," so these people all get the fancy title of "Business Analyst."
One friend in particular has quite a bit of experience working in this role. She and I are pretty close, so I hear about it when the software developers she works with do a crappy job. Similarly, she gets to hear all about my frustrations with all of the "superfluous" stuff I have to do in order to get my work (read: coding) done. Of course, it's not uncommon for us to poke a little bit of fun at each other in the process (there's a reason we're good friends). There has been more than one occasion where something very similar to the following exchange has popped up in conversation:
Business Analyst: "Ugh, my developers aren't being very helpful."
Me: "Yeah, sounds like they're not being helpful."
Business Analyst: "This is all your fault. You and your kind are always making my life difficult"
Me: "Pft, whatever. At least we do real work. You guys just analyze what you want us to actually do."
Now I know that she does do actual work, and that she has a pretty important role in making sure that the application isn't useless. Things get very, very screwy when the programmer and the business analyst aren't on the same page (for proof, see the swings). Still, a little inconvenience like the truth isn't going to stop me from poking fun, especially if she started it.
So how does all of this lead to karma? Guess who is now filling in as a Business Analyst and Project Manager for an upcoming project. Yup, yours truly.
It wasn't exactly my idea, but they needed someone to help out. I have a little bit of time these days, so it makes some sense. And on some level, I get to develop my professional skillset.
Still, this means I am now going to have to bite my tongue the next time my friend complains about us developers. I have crossed over into the dark side, so I can't very well retort with my usual "programmers rule, and BA's drool" line. Similarly, I wouldn't want to go around making fun of myself in the process, would I? Even worse, I am bound to have questions that she can help with. I'm setting the over-under for how long it takes her to laugh at me at 3 seconds.
That karma sure does have a sense of humor.
For those who don't speak Spanish, the saying goes, "don't spit at the sky, lest it land on your face." It's roughly equivalent to warning someone that karma has a funny way of getting back at people. And as of this week, I know all about this, from first-hand experience.
I have mentioned before that I am mostly a software developer at work. As such, my main focus is mostly to write code & develop applications that are at least mildly useful to my customers. Sure, I have to interact with my customers to tease out requirements from them, and I also have to be mindful of project deadlines and budgets. But, by and large, I consider those things as peripheral responsibilities. They're chores I have to get done in order to do my actual work, rather than my primary responsibility.
However, I have more than one friend whose primary job responsibility is to handle many of these very tasks. In many companies, these are all lumped under the category of "business analysis," so these people all get the fancy title of "Business Analyst."
One friend in particular has quite a bit of experience working in this role. She and I are pretty close, so I hear about it when the software developers she works with do a crappy job. Similarly, she gets to hear all about my frustrations with all of the "superfluous" stuff I have to do in order to get my work (read: coding) done. Of course, it's not uncommon for us to poke a little bit of fun at each other in the process (there's a reason we're good friends). There has been more than one occasion where something very similar to the following exchange has popped up in conversation:
Business Analyst: "Ugh, my developers aren't being very helpful."
Me: "Yeah, sounds like they're not being helpful."
Business Analyst: "This is all your fault. You and your kind are always making my life difficult"
Me: "Pft, whatever. At least we do real work. You guys just analyze what you want us to actually do."
Now I know that she does do actual work, and that she has a pretty important role in making sure that the application isn't useless. Things get very, very screwy when the programmer and the business analyst aren't on the same page (for proof, see the swings). Still, a little inconvenience like the truth isn't going to stop me from poking fun, especially if she started it.
So how does all of this lead to karma? Guess who is now filling in as a Business Analyst and Project Manager for an upcoming project. Yup, yours truly.
It wasn't exactly my idea, but they needed someone to help out. I have a little bit of time these days, so it makes some sense. And on some level, I get to develop my professional skillset.
Still, this means I am now going to have to bite my tongue the next time my friend complains about us developers. I have crossed over into the dark side, so I can't very well retort with my usual "programmers rule, and BA's drool" line. Similarly, I wouldn't want to go around making fun of myself in the process, would I? Even worse, I am bound to have questions that she can help with. I'm setting the over-under for how long it takes her to laugh at me at 3 seconds.
That karma sure does have a sense of humor.
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