Rod Bell explains systems analysis
To the best of my knowledge, systems analysis is what was practiced by Richard Riehle in
Office Space.
I deal with the god damn customers so the engineers don't have to. I have people skills; I am good at dealing with people. Can't you understand that? What the hell is wrong with you people?
But we have to make sure we don't get the wrong idea about systems analysis from this movie. LOL
Enter
Rod Bell, who explains the science of systems analysis in a simple (though LONG) list:
- Analyst confers with and studies users.
- Analyst documents current practices/procedures.
- Users review analyst's documentation; questions/clarifications to ensure that users understand analyst's description of as-is.
- Users ask for changes/additions/etc. as necessary to produce as-is document that they can sign off on.
- Repeat analyst/user loop until users sign off on as-is description.
- Analyst produces draft will-be using same documentation style as the as-is.
- Analyst meets with IT *not* for detailed response, but for first-cut deal-killer objections on IT's part.
- Analyst revises proposed will-be if and only if s/he cannot gain conditional ok from IT.
- Analyst takes proposed will-be to users, with explanation that this is a "wish-list" will-be; there is no way to know if it will be technically feasible (though it appears to be) or too expensive or whatever, i.e., other stakeholders have not been consulted yet.
- Users give analyst feed-back, loop through revisions if necessary, until a users sign off on proposed will-be.
- Analyst modifies documentation, as necessary, to clarify for IT.
- Analyst presents to IT, clarifies as necessary to ensure IT's understanding of will-be.
- IT either accepts assignment or suggests/demands changes because it's too hard/expensive/time-consuming thus beyond anticipated scope.
- If IT considers will-be is beyond anticipated scope, other stakeholders are consulted to see if scope can be expanded *or*, if it cannot, what reductions from user wish-will-be should be made?
- May or may not be lots of negotiation/discussion here, if gap bewteen user-approved will-be and resource availability (or timetable) is too great. But here and only here is the place to get that straight, otherwise the PM or somebody gets blamed when it doesn't work out as expected.
- Assuming no insuperable barriers, analyst does shuttle diplomacy between users and IT until a mutually signed-off will-be document exists. Note that this document may include specific screens, reports, user interfaces, etc., as deemed necessary by analyst to ensure the user will-be is fully understood by IT, and if IT wants to change those items, that's part of the negotiations prior to sign-off.
- This document then drives the remainder of the project plan and schedule.
Labels: engineering, rhetoric
Dr. Ron gets his first lesson in podcasting
My current employer has students very interested in learning podcasting and coming to have their own voices on the Internet. I have long wanted this for myself, so we are all learning podcasting together. I hope within the next couple weeks we will finally start putting some stuff up there.
We're fortunate to have a guy like Jason van Orden out there, putting up
loads of podcast smarts -- written in very accessible language -- for us to study from. The high points are outlined here:
What should you talk about?- something that you love enough that you'd do it for nothing
- something that has an audience that you can define and you can find and will be interested
- something you can write a script for
Formatting considerations- length of individual program
- frequency of programs
- single or multiple voices
- background or other music
- segments or single subject
Hardware and software- microphone
- headphones
- "pop filter"
- recording software (like Audacity or Sound Forge)
- file conversion from MP3 (like LAME or -- again -- Sound Forge)
Preparation- outline/script (DO NOT IMPROV until/unless you are GOOD)
- select music
- advance reading/timing
Where to go to get content or new interview subjects- listeners
- current co-hosts and interview subjects
- advisors
- blog readers (text must be posted!)
I've written my first script, on "seven seconds to get to the point," and students James and Da'Jawn are writing on "why women are interested in guys who play games." Which of us will get there first? LOL
Labels: education
The search for a personal brand
I'm out to get a personal brand. This is the result of my reading of
Casnocha's My Start-Up Life -- see what happens? But I've got a gig coming up -- I wrote a paper for the Trenton Computer Festival and have to present it a week from today -- and I want to have a brand more-or-less in place by then. Turns out people have heard about this paper, a comparison of MySpace, Facebook and LinkedIn from the professional's point of view, and they think (for whatever reason) that it's pretty cool. I am getting some unexpected attention regionally. And after all these years of being used to being invisible. LOL
The brand thing has so far escaped me, at least as far as particular strategy is concerned. I will tell you a couple of general principles I have picked up and would like to apply:
- I might need a nickname. I say this because in this country my name is not as unique as I might like. Even if you Google me two mathematicians come up ahead of me. Who cares about mathematicians? LOL
- I need an online identity. This is kind of a shame because I have already been on the Internet longer than anyone else you know, young as you are. LOL It is easy enough to find my work on the Internet, but I have yet to identify myself with it, "advertise" it. As a result, I find I get discouraged about it sometimes and let it sit there.
- I need an answer to the question "what do you do?" And it has to be something other than the stuff I do on the job during the work day. If it's the same, I am branding my employer. And I assure you, my employer doesn't need it.
- I gotta have one defined, consuming passion. I have lots of areas I really like, but I have to pick one, get behind it, and use it to make a first impression that really IS an impression. You do not get a second chance to make a first impression.
- THEN I must get all that out there. I will probably have to reinvent my Web site and get business cards and stuff like that.
I'm working on the business cards even now. But the consuming passion stuff, that's always been the source of my fears. If I pick the wrong passion, do I close doors behind me? Do I have to give up the other stuff I like?
Labels: recommendations
Casnocha's "My Start-Up Life"
I finally finished off this book. (It's hard to get through a book while school is in, but I'm making a commitment not to stop reading any more.) I think it's brilliant.
Before I go into the details, let me give the caveat: I think it's a shame that, regardless of how hard
Ben Casnocha had to work to find funding, support, and customers for his start-up, he still found those things more easily than some who are older, much more experienced, and just as driven. There are a few things he's done that, despite his aptitude and positive outlook, came as a result of opportunities he would not have gotten if he weren't in high school at the time.
What a coup that is for young entrepreneurs everywhere! Before the breakthrough of the World Wide Web into the public consciousness, circa 1995, nobody would take most high-school or college students seriously when they would start a business. NOW, it looks like your chances of breaking in successfully are actually BETTER if you're young. Huh. Whodathunkit?
Now, regarding the book itself. I'm really partial to "lessons learned," which is why I like to read the exploits of real-life entrepreneurs. But those books are better when the writers actually label the lessons learned, call them out from the pages and don't bury them in text. Heck, if it were me -- and I've actually done this in "Rhetoric for Engineers," I would
- put the lessons in a list
- boldface the keywords
- put the list in a box
- put stars around the box -- big ones
- take the best lessons and put them out there as vivid pullquotes in bright colors.
(I'll have to start using stylesheets more aggressively for all that. LOL) Casnocha does pretty close to the same thing, which is a favor to all of us.
Here's an example. He puts a box up and labels it "Brainstorm: Creating and Projecting Brand "Me." Inside the box he defines the components of your personal brand:
- your name
- your physical appearance (or other characteristics most noticed in person)
- your work
- your affiliations
- your network
- your online identity
...don't you want to be known for who you are -- in all its wonderful diversity -- rather than what you do from nine to five?
Just as his argument for the personal brand is both accessible and compelling, he has similar things to say throughout the book, on topics such as hiring, fund-raising, and reeling in customers. That's why I like this book.
I wonder how he's going to follow it up. My guess is his next will be a travelogue of some sort, and he'll abandon the entrepreneurship message altogether. LOL
Labels: young entrepreneurs
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