Ted Hardy

Irrationality's Upside (3 parts): A Sensible Project Bonus Structure

This post was originally 3 parts (part 1, part 2 and part 3) and appeared on BetterProjects.net the week of July 12, 2010. ***Part 1*** A few nights ago I started reading The Upside of Irrationality by Dan Ariely. If this sounds familiar, its because a few weeks ago

Process Speed (You Make The Call)

This was originally a two part post that appeared on July 6, 2010 and July 9, 2010 on Better Projects.net. Part 1 This is another entry in our semi-regular series You Make The Call. Below you will see a scenario that is based on a real situation that happened

Who wants to write this requirements document?

This post originally appeared on July 7, 2010 on BetterProjects.net. Al Pacino is a great actor. In 1992, he played a blind colonel in the movie Scent of a Woman. I won’t go into the plot details, namely because I’ve never seen the whole movie, but there

Uncertainty, Physics and Intuition

This post originally appeared on BetterProjects.net on July 1, 2010. “Yeah, that sounds about right.” “Those numbers are pretty accurate.” “Oh, no, I didn’t look at the data, that’s just what I know happens.” If you’re like me, statements like those above make you cringe in

Requirements Management

Project Irrationality

This post originally appeared on BetterProjects.net on June 28, 2010. Right now I’m reading a book entitled ‘Predictably Irrational’ by Dan Ariely. As a regular contributor to APM’s Marketplace, his opinion pieces have always intrigued me as they relate to the human side of economics. When I

Requirements Management

Processing your Requirements Document

This post originally appeared on BetterProjects.net on June 14, 2010. One of my very first posts about being a BA was about how much I hate the tools BAs have to work with in our jobs. One astute commenter pointed out that most of the tools I mentioned were

Resume

Building a Better Resume

This post originally appeared on BetterProjects.net on June 11, 2010. One of the most frustrating activities that I’ve ever had to do in my professional career is to make up a quality resume. Sure, anyone can lay out a listing of BA activities they have performed in a

Best Practice

What is Best Practice?

This post originally appeared on BetterProjects.net on June 4, 2010. In the first half of this post, we walked through the ways in which the phrase ‘best practice’ has been abused by different groups of people and discussed why what people refer to as 'best practice’ rarely lives

Best Practice

Best Practices Rarely Are That

This post originally appeared on BetterProjects.net on May 31, 2010. Call it a pet peeve. Call it an annoyance. Call it B.S. Call it lying. Call it what you will, but in my career, a ‘best practice’ rarely lives up to its label. If there is one phrase

Managing Stakeholder Sign-off

This post originally appeared on BetterProjects.net on May 24, 2010. It is Friday afternoon at 4pm on a holiday weekend. Your requirements document is finally finished, only two weeks late and twice the planned length. The process has been fraught with contention and divisiveness. Yet you, the masterful BA,

Resourcefulness

Resourcefulness

This post originally appeared on BetterProjects.net on May 21, 2010. I must admit, this is sheer genius and I am jealous this idea never occurred to me. This is a person who can find a way to make it happen. If I ever find myself in the job market

PowerPoint... Friend or Foe?

This post originally appeared at BetterProjects.net on May 18, 2010. A few weeks ago, an article from the New York Times website regarding the use of PowerPoint in military briefings began to circulate around the internet. I didn’t comment on it when it first came out, but would

Book Report

Leaks, Matches and Traps

This post originally appeared on BetterProjects.net on May 13, 2010. I’ve blogged about the book before, but I just have to keep going back to William Easterly’s book entitled The Elusive Quest for Growth. Even though the book’s subject is economics, it has so much that

Goodheart's Law and Projects

This post originally appeared on BetterProjects.net on May 9, 2010. An interesting phenomenon I’ve noticed during testing phases of projects is that the number of defect reasons tracked grows the longer the project drags on. It is as if in order to shift blame away from people and

Working with the Legal Department

This post originally appeared on BetterProjects.net on April 27, 2010. If there’s one word that inspires fear in the hearts of executives everywhere, its the word ‘lawsuit.’ If a company is in business long enough, it will almost undoubtedly end up either suing or being sued by another

Trouble in Service Land (You Make the Call)

The first half of this post was originally published on BetterProjects.net on April 16, 2010. This is another entry in our occasional series, You Make the Call. We will present a scenario from our past BA work, with the names changed to protect the guilty, and ask you to

Journalists acting a Business Analysts

This post originally appeared on April 20, 2010 on BetterProjects.net. One of the activities I think a senior BA should be doing, especially if the BA works in an IT division, is routinely investigating new tools to further collaboration within the ranks of BAs and with the organization as

Product Demos for Dummies

This post originally appeared on BetterProjects.net on April 14, 2010. Something I’ve been doing a lot of recently is giving product demos for a new packaged software application my company is considering for purchase. Because I was the lead in requirements elicitation for the project, I was kept

The BA and their Phone

This post originally appeared on BetterProjects.net on April 6, 2010. This picture, taken on my wedding day, says a lot about me. Yes, I am addicted to my iPhone. No, I don’t see that as a problem. In fact, I think that my obsession is actually a very

Up In The Air Consulting

This post originally appeared on the IIBA Community site on April 6, 2010. I loved being a business analyst consultant. It didn’t matter if I worked as an internal consultant for different areas in the same company or as an external consultant brought in for my specific industry or

iPad Killer App for the BA

This blog post originally appeared on BetterProjects.net on March 31, 2010. Earlier this month, I put up a post about ways in which the iPad could impact a BA. One of the things I really want on the iPad is a way to do easy process flow diagrams. Today

The BA and Social Media

This blog post originally appeared on BetterProjects.net on March 29, 2010. On March 18, I gave a presentation to the Louisville, Kentucky chapter of the IIBA about the ways in which Social Media impacts the BA. The audience really seemed to enjoy the conversation (and conversation is one of

What BAs can learn from Sports Fans

This post originally appeared on BetterProjects.net on March 22, 2010. Football season is done. Hockey is going strong and basketball is winding down. Golf has started and Baseball is not far away, either. Beyond the general outlines of the sports seasons, the basic rules for each sport and each

Requirements Documents in an iPad World

This blog was originally posted on BetterProjects.net on March 16, 2010. One of the items which I have intermittently struggled with as a BA is how to properly format requirements documents. It has always frustrated me that requirements documents created in a word processor are tied to the default

You Make The Call

Too Many Calls (Y.M.t.C.)

This was originally a two part post which appeared on BetterProjects.net on March 4, 2010 and March 8, 2010. Part 1 This is the start of an irregular (in more ways than one) series that we’re calling ‘You Make the Call!’ The idea is that we’ll present