Category: Communication

Hippocrates on Clarity of Language

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

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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Business Analysts and Grammar Police

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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How Does Elicitation Feel to You?

There are a few essential questions we should always keep at top of mind during our discovery and solution definition efforts. I’d like to suggest an alternate way of phrasing them that may help you get more depth in the responses you receive and generate more meaningful discussion from your clients or stakeholders.

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