Bill Miller, who writes You Want it When?, a blog focused on improving the way you manage software development and I had a debate over email about outsourcing. We looked at pro’s and con’s, and our discussion centered around the best outsourcing model, and what the ramifications of outsourcing really […]
Business Analysis / Business Rules / Communication / Consulting / Requirements / Writing
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Why Separate Rules from Requirements
Separation of business rules from requirements is a good thing. Not because of semantic distinctions, but because it allows you to write better software, write it faster, and change it more easily. This article is a response to an excellent comment on our recent article about hidden business rules. Thanks […]
Communication / Consulting / Design / ROI / Software development
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Measuring the ROI of Design
Measuring the return on investments in design may be the hardest ROI calculation you can do. It certainly is one of the rarest. To measure ROI, you have to be able to determine what would happen without the investment, and what happens with the investment. The difference between them is […]
Communication / Consulting / Product Management / Project Management
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Failure To Deliver Is Not An Option
But sometimes, it happens anyway. The Cranky PM started a great thread of conversation asking how product managers deal with the job of telling customers (and sales folks) that a feature is not going to be available in the promised release.
Communication / Consulting / Project Management
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Planning for Effective Meetings
Jonathan Babcock has written a couple interesting articles on preparing for a review meeting. He touches on a couple generic “good ideas” and explores one critical idea in more detail. We focus on that detail – helping participants be prepared to participate – in this article. His articles, and this […]
Communication / Presentation / Slightly off-topic
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Brilliant Presentation on Identity 2.0
The material in the presentation is off-topic, but the presentation is so good that you just have to watch it. I found this when researching about openID (mine is http://tynerblain.com/scott.sehlhorst/ – check out myOpenID to set up yours). Consider the open ID thing to be a tangent you might be […]
Communication / Consulting / Lists / Requirements / Requirements gathering
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Ten Supercharged Active Listening Skills To Make You More Successful
Active listening is about more than gaining understanding. Active listening is about giving. Giving assurance that you understand someone’s needs. Giving confidence that you will address those needs. Giving feedback and acknowledgement that someone’s input is valuable. If you haven’t tried active listening, you may think it is a passive, receptive activity. Active listening skills will help you guide your customers and your team to do the right thing, and enjoy the experience.
Business Analysis / Communication / Consulting / Requirements / Requirements gathering / Requirements Models
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How To Visualize Stakeholder Analysis
The first step of gathering requirements is to identify who can give you the requirements. Business processes include communication between different people inside the organization. Communication also includes people outside the organization. When gathering requirements, it can be easy to overlook the people who don’t use the software directly. Those people may still be stakeholders. Read on to see how to approach stakeholder analysis.
Business Analysis / Communication / Consulting / Presentation / Requirements / Writing
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Effective Communication of Requirements
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.