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Requirements

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Inspiration, with some elements of Science
Market Driven Data Quality (Data Darwinism)

By ⋅ February 19, 2011 ⋅ One comment

Just trying a little contrarian thought this week … Have you ever noticed how much time and energy goes in to data validation? I think it stems from visual forms development and the wide variety of clever data entry controls that are available – everyone wants to write an app that gets the oooo, cool! [...]

Science, with some elements of Art
News for Wombats: Taming Unreasonable Requirements

By ⋅ January 26, 2009 ⋅ Post a comment

I’ve heard from a couple of friends about some “classic” project requests – dilemmas they have recently faced. These unreasonable requests can be turned into something achievable and, potentially, more relevant / meaningful to the requestor, by approaching the problem from a different direction. Request for Data: the Analytics Project Classic scenario #1 arrives courtesy [...]

Science
Best Practices for Requirements Gathering Sessions

By ⋅ December 7, 2008 ⋅ Post a comment

It’s been a while since I’ve led an interactive requirements session for an interactive application – but it’s kind of like riding a bike. After a few minutes, the old habits come back, and the iterative ideas and cascading creativity starts to flow. What has changed, however, is the application platform, the office environment, and [...]

Science, with some elements of Execution
Do you want it good or fast? Prioritizing Time-to-Value over Requirements

By ⋅ February 10, 2008 ⋅ Post a comment

I have a background in software product development, iterative “methodologies”, and the sort of fast-twitch life cycle that characterizes entrepreneurial startups, high-growing businesses, and “lean” process improvement projects. Unfortunately, this style is also favored by departmental developer wannabes, sloppy coders, and impatient Gen-Y newbies that want to apply a consumer products mentality to corporate IT. [...]

Execution, with some elements of Inspiration
Hand writing recognition – harder than colored bubbles

By ⋅ November 19, 2005 ⋅ Post a comment

As I sit in meetings, I find myself thinking through “process” of what we are doing at this moment, as much as I think about what the meeting is about. Then I am writing these short notes to myself for future blog items. Good? Bad? Psychotic? It makes me wish for easier tools to convert [...]

Execution, with some elements of Science
Your Outlook schedule looks like a game of Tetris

By ⋅ July 5, 2005 ⋅ Post a comment

Interesting meetings, discussions from last week; as a former consulting partner once noticed, my calendar in Outlook usually looks like a game of Tetris, with back-to-back meetings, double bookings, etc. It was actually quite energizing for me last week, because the meetings were on wildly divergent topics covering lots of areas. Side note: This scheduling [...]

Science, with some elements of Execution
Things for the DIY programmer to consider

By ⋅ March 14, 2005 ⋅ Post a comment

Another thought-provoking post on Thinking Faster – he sounds like my business doppelganger … When considering the option to build vs. buy, or at least involve corporate IT and/or experienced developers, most folks with a business background miss some key considerations about their approach: Is robust multi-user required? Excel spreadsheets deal with this challenge rather [...]

Science, with some elements of Art
Does IT make you productive (or, are you an existentialist or a fatalist)?

By ⋅ February 26, 2005 ⋅ Post a comment

Interesting article in Thinking Faster, just getting around to capturing my comments … On Requirements “The first reason that business folks don’t get what they need from IT is because they aren’t sure what they want” The fundamental challenge of capturing and managing knowledge – it’s much easier to understand something than it is to [...]

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