Effective communication of requirements requires more than documentation and broadcasting. Effective communication requires interaction and collaboration. Alistair Cockburn addresses this in his analysis of project successes and modes of communication.
Category Archives: Communication
Project Dashboard Icons
We create project dashboards all the time to show status, or to give upper management an update. Dashboards and scorecards are great for giving us a “quick view” into the health of a project – they give us a way to drill down. Many of us use the colors red / yellow / green, with a stoplight metaphor. The problem is that some of us are colorblind. Johanna Rothman gives us a GREAT tip.
Posted in Business Analysis, Product Management, Requirements, Writing
Tagged business requirements documentation, good requirements, managing data, product requirements, requirements documentation, software requirements, stylish requirements, writing business requirements, writing requirements
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Crossing The Desert With Bad Project Planning
Johanna Rothman recently wrote an article with a poignant introduction: “A project team focuses on an interim milestone, works like the devil to meet that milestone. They meet the milestone, look up, and realize they’re not at the end of the project–they still have to finish the darn thing. They’re living the Crossing the Desert syndrome.” Fixing it isn’t enough – how do we prevent it from happening?
Posted in Agile, Communication, Process Improvement, Project Management, Software development, Testing
Tagged CMMI, continuous integration, effort allocation, estimation, incremental delivery, iterative development, managing data, pm, scheduling, scope creep, testable requirements, timeboxing, use cases, verifiable requirements, writing requirements
1 Comment
Posted in Communication, Requirements, Writing
Tagged ambiguous requirements, complete requirements, correct requirements, documenting requirements, incomplete requirements, incorrect requirements, logical requirements, managing data, requirements writing, unambiguous requirements, writing good requirements, writing requirements
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Pairing Business Analysts
Pair programming is a bit of a foreign concept for many people in business. A few years ago, it was foreign to most programmers too. Pair programming is a powerful technique for software development because it allows two people to look at the same problem/solution from two different perspectives at the same time. Would that same approach work for business analysis?
Posted in Business Analysis, Requirements, Writing
Tagged business analysts, managing data, pair programming
3 Comments
Posted in Business Analysis, Product Management, Requirements, Writing
Tagged business requirements documentation, correct requirements, good requirements, managing data, product requirements, requirement correctness, requirements documentation, software requirements, writing business requirements, writing requirements
7 Comments
Posted in Communication, Requirements, Requirements gathering, Writing
Tagged ambiguous requirements, bugs, gathering requirements, holy grail, holy grail requirements, managing data, monty pythod, monty python, python, Requirements, requirements elicitation, software requirements, unambiguous requirements, writing requirements
1 Comment
Another Use For ‘Why?’
“Why?” The question is our inspiration and our muse. “Why?” is the justification for our requirements. The key to identifying “What?” and “When?”, which lead to “How?” and “How Much?” But there is another use for “Why?” – communication of intent (with stakeholders and implementers). Requirements documents are artifacts, but they are also dynamic documents. By documenting “Why?” a requirement is a requirement, we make it easier for future readers to understand.
Posted in Business Analysis, Communication, Requirements, Software requirements specification, Writing
Tagged asking why, documenting intent, documenting justifications, documenting requirements, justifying requirements, managing data, requirements documentation, requirements intent, requirements justification
5 Comments
Posted in Communication, Design, Prioritization, Product Management, ROI, Requirements, Software development, Usability, Writing
Tagged documentation, documenting upgrades, goal-driven documentation, managing data, passion threshold, prioritizing upgrades, software documentation, software upgrade, suck threshold, upgrade prioritization, upgrade priority, upgrades, user centric documentation
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