Archive for 2009

Quotable: Arnold Toynbee

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Apathy can be overcome by enthusiasm, and enthusiasm can be aroused by two things: first, an idea which takes [...]

Quoteworthy: The bitterness of poor quality

The bitterness of poor quality remains long after the sweetness of meeting the schedule has been forgotten.
– Anonymous

Agile Teamwork – what BA’s need to know (Guest Post)

Agile team members must know something about teamwork and this means understanding a lot about human behavior and why people do the things they do!

Quoteworthy: Karl Popper

It is impossible to speak in such a way that you cannot be misunderstood.
- Karl Popper

Quoteworthy: Kulak & Guinney

An appropriate and complete requirements specification does nothing to ensure a successful implementation; however, it makes it possible.
- Kulak & Guinney

Quoteworthy: Joseph Joubert

Words, like eyeglasses, blur everything that they do not make more clear.
- Joseph Joubert

“Cascade”: Q&A with David Wright

Cascade: Better practices for effective delivery of information systems in a multi-project environment.

The Business Analyst Balancing Act

BA’s must balance the risk of missing requirements against that of paralyzing the project until “everything” is known.

Quotable: Whitney Young

It’s better to be prepared for an opportunity and not have one than to have an opportunity and not be prepared.
- Whitney Young

Time Travel for Context-free Use Cases

Yes, sometimes we BA’s need to think of creative ways to help us withhold the technology and implementation detail from our requirements.

Bookmarks & New Favorites (09-38)

a few of the articles I found “bookmark-worthy” over the past week.

Quoteworthy: Jim Brosseau

There will never be “the right approach” for all projects. Software projects come in too many shapes and sizes. There are too many cultures, and just too many reasons for developing software, even within individual organizations. There is no Holy Grail, but many approaches can be “a reasonable approach,” depending on the situation.
- Jim Brosseau [...]

Classic Business Analysis Articles

I was sorting through some of my bookmarks and articles I’ve accumulated over time via the Web, and found that there are a few articles that I seem to refer back to time and again.

Quoteworthy: Alistair Cockburn

Agile …  is an attitude, not a technique with boundaries. An attitude has no boundaries, so we wouldn’t ask “can I use agile here”, but rather “how would I act in the agile way here?” or “how agile can we be, here?”
- Alistair Cockburn

Quotable: Herbert Kaufman

Failure is only postponed success as long as courage ‘coaches’ ambition. The habit of persistence is the habit of victory.
- Herbert Kaufman

Quoteworthy: H.L. Mencken on Simple Solutions to Complex Problems

For every complex problem, there is a solution that is simple, neat, and wrong.
- H.L. Mencken

Quoteworthy: Leadership

A good leader inspires others with confidence in him; a great leader inspires them with confidence in themselves.
- Unknown

Quoteworthy: Douglas Adams

I love deadlines. I especially like the whooshing sound they make as they go flying by.
- Douglas Adams

Quoteworthy: Margaret Fuller

If you have knowledge, let others light their candles at it.
- Margaret Fuller

Quoteworthy: Margot Fonteyn

The most important thing I have learned over the years is the difference between taking one’s work seriously and taking one’s self seriously. The first is imperative, and the second disastrous.
- Margot Fonteyn

Quoteworthy: Erik Christopher Zeeman

Technical skill is mastery of complexity while creativity is mastery of simplicity.
- Erik Christopher Zeeman

Quoteworthy: Abraham Lincoln

If we could first know where we are, and whither we are tending, we could then better judge what to do, and how to do it.
- Abraham Lincoln

Quoteworthy: Seymour Papert

Anything is easy, if you can assimilate it to your collection of models.
- Seymour Papert

Business Analysis Can Kill a Project (In a Good Way)

Scrapping an ill-fated project before it gets started can be as valuable as seeing a project through to successful implementation.

Quoteworthy: Thomas Edison

There is a better way to do it; find it.
- Thomas Edison

Quoteworthy: Gustavus F. Swift

Don’t let the best you have done so far be the standard for the rest of your life.
- Gustavus F. Swift