And I can’t either. You’ve got to face the facts – as a business analyst, no one is going to read your documentation because of your poetic commentary, your witty explanations or your inspired diagrams. At most, people might read it because they have to. So why do we get so attached to our masterpieces?
October, 2008
12
Oct 08
Run When It Gets Too Hard?
A month ago, a talented member of our project team (no, not me) got the business people, developers and everyone in between to agree to a simple, elegant solution to a business problem. This week, all that hard work was undone. We’ve now got signoff on a much more complex solution – we need to do four calculations and one of these calculations is not like the others. So why does this bother me so much? Not because it creates more work (this is one time where laziness cannot afford to win out), but because it sets alarm bells ringing in my head.
4
Oct 08
A World Without Patents: Part I (Death of the Middleman)
There are many who speak out against patents and copyright. At Business of Software 2008, Richard Stallman explained very effectively why they don’t work in the software industry. At Cambridge Business Lectures, Cory Doctorow talked about its effect on the music industry. So what would happen if we waved our magic wand and removed all patents and all copyrights from the world…?