People who already use Scrum will only find one new thing in this article – a way to communicate what happens inside a sprint that has proven effective for me. People who are new to Scrum who wonder “how do things work inside a sprint?” will see how things work […]
Foundation Series: Price Elasticity
When prices go up, demand goes down. But how much does it go down? Price elasticity of demand is the term economists use for the math that describes this behavior.
Foundation Series: SaaS Economics (Software as a Service)
There are a bunch of new* ways of selling software these days. SaaS (Software as a Service) has been in the consumer space for a while, and is making significant inroads into the enterprise software space today. If you’re considering purchasing or using software, you should understand what SaaS means […]
Flashback: A Year Ago This Week on Tyner Blain [2006-01-20]
A look back at the best from a year ago…
Foundation Series: JAD Sessions
JAD is an acronym that stands for Joint Application Design. JAD sessions are collaborative meetings where the customers meet with developers to determine what the product needs to be or do.
Foundation Series: Business Process Modeling
Business Process Modeling allows us to increase our understanding of business processes and improve communication with stakeholders and implementation teams. Business analysts will create diagrams that represent business processes. These diagrams can be used to elicit requirements, define scope, and improve communication within the team.
Foundation Series: Data Dictionary Definition
What is a data dictionary and how is it used when communicating and managing requirements?
Foundation Series: How To Read a Formal Use Case
Use cases represent the activities that people do when interacting with a system to achieve their goals. Use cases are a very effective tool for communicating and documenting what a system is intended to accomplish. Formal use cases are use cases that use a specific structure to represent the information. Knowing how to read a formal use case is important.
Foundation Series: Basic PERT Estimate Tutorial
PERT is a technique for providing definitive estimates of how long it will take to complete tasks. We often estimate, or scope, the amount of time it will take us to complete a task or tasks. PERT allows us to provide not only an estimate, but a measure of how good the estimate is. Good estimates are a critical element in any software planning strategy. In this post, we will present an introduction to using PERT, explain how it works and how to interpret PERT estimates.