Hippocrates on Clarity of Language

Hippocrates on Clarity of Language

by | Oct 28, 2015 | | 0 |

Apparently, even back in Hippocrates’ day (approximately 450 BC), business professionals had a tendency to confuse their stakeholders with acronyms, jargon, and odd colloquialisms, but one stands a far better chance of ensuring understanding with clear, simple, common language. Some things never change!

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The Book, The Movie, and the Business Document

The Book, The Movie, and the Business Document

by | Oct 5, 2015 | | 5 |

Communication using only words – whether verbal or written – leaves much to the imagination. Which is part of the appeal when it comes to reading for pleasure. Unlike a great book, most of us don’t read business documents such as a requirements specification for enjoyment. And unlike the book, there can be significant repercussions when one reader’s interpretation of the content varies widely from another’s. So, how can we improve the precision and clarity of documentation without getting too long?

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Interview with Ryland Leyton, author of “The Agile Business Analyst”

Interview with Ryland Leyton, author of “The Agile Business Analyst”

by | Oct 1, 2015 | , | 2 |

Ryland Leyton recently released his book, The Agile Business Analyst: Moving from Waterfall to Agile. Over the years, Ryland has provided training and mentoring for events and individual members of the Greater Atlanta Chapter of IIBA, so I was thrilled to see him take pen to paper and share his insights through a medium with broader reach. Ryland agreed to provide some additional information and background on the thought process behind the book for Practical Analyst readers.

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John Dewey on Starting with a Problem to be Solved

John Dewey on Starting with a Problem to be Solved

by | Sep 1, 2015 | , | 1 |

By starting with the problem, following up with objectives that articulate the definition of success, and then ensuring that requirements and subsequent solution artifacts and trace cleanly to, and support the original problem, we can avoid the confusion and wasted resources associated with deviating from or adding scope to the solution’s original problem and intent.

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Four Critical Components of a Meeting Invitation

Four Critical Components of a Meeting Invitation

by | Aug 24, 2015 | , | 0 |

While debates rage as to the effectiveness of meetings in general, and books have been written on meeting organization and management, I’ve found that often meetings go wrong before they even begin because the invitation is missing (or vague in) four critical components, without which the likelihood of full participation and effectiveness is diminished.

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Business Analysts and Grammar Police

Business Analysts and Grammar Police

by | Aug 19, 2015 | , , , | 0 |

Poor grammar and spelling that cause a requirements model to be inaccurate, or difficult to understand and use, are serious because they negatively affect the documentation’s ability to serve its purpose. An otherwise solid, easy to understand document with some errors in grammar and spelling, is not as serious. In either case, poor grammar and spelling should be included in the offending analyst’s professional development plan, and improvement should be encouraged and expected.

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