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Leslie

Eliminating Software Documentation

Not a suggestion for eliminating the process of documenting a software application, but rather a proposed for replacement of the documenting activity and manually produced documents with something more manageable and less likely to frighten the development team. Initiative for this work comes from a number of discussions I have been following and ...

1 Responses

This entry was published on Mar 22, 2010 / Leslie. Posted in Requirements Management and Communication (BABOK KA), Functional Specifications, SDLC, Process, and Methodologies. Bookmark the Permalink or E-mail it to a friend.

Leslie

Best Practices - Ad Hoc Procedures

Ad Hoc Procedures My belief is that software development should be more of a science and contain as little artistry as necessary. It is great to come up with ingenious processes and guidelines for developing your software, but if they impact your colleagues you must get buy-in from everyone who is impacted before you start using them. Some people...

1 Responses

This entry was published on Mar 18, 2010 / Leslie. Posted in Requirements Management and Communication (BABOK KA). Bookmark the Permalink or E-mail it to a friend.

Leslie

Best Practices - Document Content

Unnecessary Documentation The first section that I look for in a document, is the paragraph that describes ‘who this document is written for’ and ‘what benefit they can expect to gain by reading this document’. If I do not see my role, or I do not see any benefit from me spending time reading the document, then I have to ask myself the question, ‘...

1 Responses

This entry was published on Mar 15, 2010 / Leslie. Posted in Requirements Management and Communication (BABOK KA). Bookmark the Permalink or E-mail it to a friend.

Leslie

Best Practices - Inconsistent Documentation

If you are writing a letter to your mother, it is fine to create a new a new blank document, type your random thoughts, add highlighting, colors and emphasized text where you want to make and get a point across, and basically format the document with any creative ideas that you feel appropriate. When working with documents in the workplace, ad hoc...

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This entry was published on Mar 13, 2010 / Leslie. Posted in Requirements Management and Communication (BABOK KA). Bookmark the Permalink or E-mail it to a friend.

Marc Thibault

Quantitative Risk Analysis

I may be overreaching but I include risk analysis as a proper subject of systems analysis. I've done enough TRAs to justify that position—at least to myself. So here's a risk analysis topic. Toying with the idea of getting some certification I took a look at the CISSP and ISC Common Body of Knowledge. One thing I found odd enough to exchan...

4 Responses

This entry was published on Mar 07, 2010 / Marc Thibault. Posted in Analytical and Problem Solving Skills. Bookmark the Permalink or E-mail it to a friend.

Marc Thibault

SAP OnDemand BI

SAP has announced a SaaS BI service that looks ideal for SMBs. It seems to have all the tricks you'd expect, so it's worth learning about. Problem: SAP is being cute about their pricing and I don't want to waste a lot of time on this if it turns out to be another overpriced SAP product. Has anyone got any idea what SAP intends t...

0 Responses

This entry was published on Feb 25, 2010 / Marc Thibault. Posted in Business Analysis, Tools. Bookmark the Permalink or E-mail it to a friend.

Leslie

Best Practices - Ambiguity

How many times have you experienced a disagreement between colleagues, only find out later in the project that they were both correct. Chances are that they were using the same word, but both had different ideas of its meaning. [1] I can derive hours of entertainment by playing word games with my friends, by picking a word they are using and purpo...

1 Responses

This entry was published on Feb 13, 2010 / Leslie. Posted in Requirements Management and Communication (BABOK KA). Bookmark the Permalink or E-mail it to a friend.

Leslie

Best Practices - Duplication

How often do you see the same piece of information documented in 2 places? I am used to seeing requirements information copied into design documents; whole sets of requirements being copied into a test repository and diagrams copied from one document to another. Unless you employ a strict change management control system that includes a traceabilit...

1 Responses

This entry was published on Feb 12, 2010 / Leslie. Posted in Requirements Management and Communication (BABOK KA). Bookmark the Permalink or E-mail it to a friend.

Leslie

Best Practices

This following blogs contain rants and recommendations for good practices, useful not only for when delivering software, but that can also be used any time organization is required. The most common improvements that can be leveraged on any (some on every) development process it has been my experience to be involved with, are the following: ...

0 Responses

This entry was published on Feb 12, 2010 / Leslie. Posted in Requirements Management and Communication (BABOK KA), Business Analysis. Bookmark the Permalink or E-mail it to a friend.

Leslie

Thoughts on Specifying Requirements

Requirements I have been working with requirements for more than 20 years. To be honest, it was several years before I understood the true purpose of requirements. The enlightenment came about when I was tasked with documenting a presentation to my colleagues that described the characteristics of a ‘good’ requirement. The characteristics that the ...

0 Responses

This entry was published on Feb 12, 2010 / Leslie. Posted in Requirements Management and Communication (BABOK KA). Bookmark the Permalink or E-mail it to a friend.

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As we start a new year many of us will take the time to reflect on our accomplishments from 2012 and plan our goals for 2013. We can set small or large goals. goals that will be accomplished quickly or could take several years. For 2013, I think Business Analysts should look to go beyond our traditional boundaries and set audacious goals. Merriam-...

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