Ted Hardy

Information Cost

Information has a Cost

This post originally appeared December 27, 2010 on BetterProjects.net How many of you have heard Stewart Brand’s quote that ‘Information wants to be free.’ How many of you have herd it in its full context? If you’re like me, you haven’t, but you need to: Information

Beer

Dogfish Head on Projects

This post originally appeared December 24, 2010 on BetterProjects.net There is a new TV show on the Discovery channel called Brew Masters. It follows the founder of Dogfish Head Brewery as he makes some outrageous brews. When I heard about the show, I figured it would be worth a

Clutter

Cluttered Projects

This post originally appeared December 20, 2010 on BetterProjects.net. photo © 2006 karl sinfield | more info (via: Wylio)The below quote popped up in my news feed a few days ago and I felt I just had to share: In fact, human behavior tells us that this is a more

Quality

Quality Work v/s Business Value

This post originally appeared December 16, 2010 on BetterProjects.net. I love Laura Brandenburg’s blog Bridging the Gap. If you’re not a follower of it, get over there now as she and her fellow bloggers delivery quality every single time. One of her recent articles tackled the subject

Experimentation

Data from Experimentation

This post originally appeared December 14, 2010 on BetterProjects.net. photo © 2008 Beck Gusler | more info (via: Wylio)It has happened to almost all of us. We’ve ordered something online, or we’ve shipped a gift to a friend or maybe even had a critical item mailed to our

Visualization

BAs and Visualizing Information

This post originally appeared December 10, 2010 on BetterProjects.net. One of my favorite websites is InformationIsBeautiful.net. If I had any visual artistic skill (my sketches make stick figures look ashamed), this would be what I was doing instead of blogging. One of the latest items from the site

Performance Management

Fixing Employee Performance Problems

This post originally appeared December 6, 2010 on BetterProjects.net photo © 2007 Alex L | more info (via: Wylio)A post this morning on the seilevel.com blog regarding how to deal with teams that resist change got me to thinking about how to deal with individual team members with performance

Objectives

Evaluating Performance for Project Professionals

This post originally appeared December 3, 2010 on BetterProjects.net. Being a business analyst in the service sector, its always been slightly amusing to me the ways in which my bonus has been structured versus the company’s performance. My main job has always been to design processes and develop

Simplicity

The Simple Enterprise

This post originally appeared November 29, 2010 on BetterProjects.net I’ll admit, in my 9 years as a project team member, I’ve been guilty of this sin many times… I’ve added complexity needlessly to applications when it would have been much better if I had given my

Failure

Projects Fail

This post originally appeared November 26, 2010 on BetterProjects.net A few months ago I took a look at the popular whipping boy for failed projects, not to try and clear the good name of requirements but with the intent of making sure we all looked deeper at the causes

Simplicity

How Complexity Leads to Simplicity

This post originally appeared November 22, 2010 on BetterProjects.net If you’re unfamiliar with TedTalks, I highly recommend checking them out as there is a lot of great material there. This recent mini-chat with Eric Berlow is no exception. This talk illustrates very well a principle that I try

Development

The Problem with Applications

This post originally appeared November 19, 2010 on BetterProjects.net photo © 2005 Jared Klett | more info(via: Wylio)About 10 years ago, I was one of the new hire trainers in my technical support department. It wasn’t a full time job, I still spent most of my time answering

Requirements

The Class I'd Like to Teach

This post originally appeared November 15, 2010 on BetterProjects.net photo © 2009 stuartpilbrow | more info(via: Wylio)My college English Composition teach was fabulous. Dr. Dennis O'Brien is a man I will never forget, not for his ability to teach the English language, but for his hilariously quirky

Duration

Chevrolet uses IBM's Rational platform for the new Volt Vehicle

This post originally appeared November 12, 2010 on BetterProjects.net photo © 2007 Neal | more info(via: Wylio)According to a report at TechCrunch, US car maker Chevrolet has been using IBM’s Rational platform during the development of the new Chevy Volt. As explained in Monday’s press release, GM

Risk Management

Richard Branson on Calculated Risk

This post originally appeared on November 8, 2010 on BetterProjects.net. photo © 2008 TechShowNetwork | more info(via: Wylio)It really blows my mind when I read an article by a very successful business person and realize that what they’re talking about is something that I’ve done without even

Simplicity

Taco Bell... Analysis?

This post originally appeared on November 5, 2010 on BetterProjects.net Recently I read an article entitled Taco Bell Programming (link contains some rough language at the end, but excellent concepts throughout) in which the author, Ted Dziuba, has some interesting thoughts on development tasks that apply to business analysis

Business Analysis

Business Analysis through Improvisation - part 4

This post originally appeared on November 1, 2010 on BetterProjects.net Here is part 4 of Jonathan ‘Kupe’ Kupersmith’s Business Analysis through Improvisation session during the September 2010 chapter meeting of the Louisville IIBA. Check out part 1, part 2 and part 3 before viewing the below clip!

Business Analysis

Business Analysis through Improvisation - part 3

This post originally appeared on October 25, 2010 on BetterProjects.net Here is part 3 of Jonathan ‘Kupe’ Kupersmith’s Business Analysis through Improvisation session during the September 2010 chapter meeting of the Louisville IIBA. Check out part 1 and part 2 before viewing the below clip!

Google

The Requirements Doc for Gmail

This post originally appeared on October 22, 2010 on BetterProjects.net Huge email inboxes, lots of fancy features, minimalist interface… these are things that we Gmail users seem to take for granted anymore. Considering that it was produced by what was at the time primarily a search and ad serving

Business Analysis

Business Analysis through Improvisation - part 2

This post originally appeared on October 20, 2010 on BetterProjects.net Here is part 2 of Jonathan ‘Kupe’ Kupersmith’s Business Analysis through Improvisation session during the September 2010 chapter meeting of the Louisville IIBA. Check out part 1 before viewing the below clip!

Business Analysis

'Kupe' on Business Analysis through Improvisation - part 1

This post originally appeared on October 22, 2010 on BetterProjects.net Jonathan ‘Kupe’ Kupersmith of B2T Training presented his discussion of Business Analysis through Improvisation at the Louisville IIBA's September Chapter meeting. When I’m not at my day job or writing here for BetterProjects, I moonlight as

Methodology

The A3 Report

This post originally appeared on October 8, 2010 on BetterProjects.net TPS reports, courtesy of the movie Office Space, have become nearly a cultural in-joke about useless paperwork for those of us who work in office environments. I recently saw an article that described the A3 technique, which is far

Toastmasters

I Think, Therefore I Hybrid (Toastmaster's Speech #9)

I gave this speech a couple weeks ago, but never remembered to actually put it up here. I wish I had more time to prepare on this one because I realized only after my speech that it had a fundamental flaw… namely that everyone in the room thought I was

Leadership

Traits Great Business Analysts Share

This post originally appeared on October 6, 2010 on BetterProjects.net Quora recently asked What innate traits do great Internet product leaders share? As I read the list, I realized that these are the same traits shared by great business analysts. I highly recommend reading the response by Chris Wetherel,

Lessons

Lessons Learned in Projects

This post originally appeared on October 1, 2010 on BetterProjects.net. While Kevin Kelly’s opinions and mine tend to differ on the merits of homeschooling, I have to give the man kudos for the lessons he taught his 8th grade son during a year of homeschooling. The list of