All Entries Tagged With: "Specification"
Be an Unselfish Business Analyst!
You may be a great facilitator, an excellent “elicitor” of requirements; your analytical skills may be second to none, but if you can’t package and present information in an easily usable form, then you’re not completing the job as a business analyst.
Quoteworthy: Cicero – Be Brief
When you wish to instruct, be brief; that men’s minds take in quickly what you say, learn its lesson, and retain it faithfully. Every word that is unnecessary only pours over the side of a brimming mind. – Marcus Tullius Cicero
Quoteworthy: William Strunk – Vigorous Writing is Concise
Vigorous writing is concise. A sentence should contain no unnecessary words, a paragraph no unnecessary sentences, for the same reason that a drawing should have no unnecessary lines and a machine no unnecessary parts. This requires not that the writer make all his sentences short, or that he avoid all detail and treat his subjects [...]
Quoteworthy: Aristotle – Rest satisfied with the degree of precision which the nature of the subject admits
It is the mark of an instructed mind to rest satisfied with the degree of precision which the nature of the subject admits and not to seek exactness when only an approximation of the truth is possible. – Aristotle
Quoteworthy: Paul Martin Lester – Words and Images Work Together
Words and pictures are intricately linked in journalism, advertising and educational contexts. Words printed under a photograph, the caption, signal the importance of the common sense representations portrayed in the image. Words beside a picture in an advertisement explain a product and its attributes clearly to a potential customer. Words spoken by an instructor give [...]
Seven Steps and a Nice Little Process Template
I recently read and highly recommend Barbara Carkenord’s book, Seven Steps to Mastering Business Analysis, and must admit it has quickly approached the top of my list of  favorite business analysis resources. It covers the basics needed to help get new analysts off to a productive start, but is also a nice handbook for the [...]
Don’t Forget the Constraints!
In addition to eliciting and specifying the requirements, an important part of the analyst’s value-add lies in helping business stakeholders and delivery teams identify and understand the constraints that will apply for the solution.
Begin with what you HAVE to do
The simple fact is, you can’t know all the details upfront. You can and should, however, be able to work with your stakeholders to identify the broader range of necessary capabilities and constraints, or “placeholders for conversations”.
Quoteworthy: George Orwell on “Scrupulous Writing”
“A scrupulous writer, in every sentence that he writes, will ask himself at least four questions, thus: 1. What am I trying to say? 2. What words will express it? 3. What image or idiom will make it clearer? 4. Is this image fresh enough to have an effect?” Politics and the English Language, 1946 [...]
Give ‘em Pictures!
One of the surest ways to ensure project success is to get “pictures” in front of the users/stakeholders as early in the process as possible.
Quoteworthy: Kulak & Guinney
An appropriate and complete requirements specification does nothing to ensure a successful implementation; however, it makes it possible. – Kulak & Guinney
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.
More on Separating Rules from Use Cases
Keeping business rules out of the flow of events makes a use case easier to maintain and reuse.
Use Case Basics: Keeping it Simple
A few simple tips for identifying and documenting use cases.
Could requirements analysis be automated?
Could systems and software be used to take the place of the requirements analyst?
Structured Analysis & Big, Thick Documents
Great book on modeling & systems analysis and yet another critique of “big, thick documents.”