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What Happens when Analysts have too much time on their hands

BugBash is awesome.

Has this ever happened to you? I'm not discounting use-case scenarios and the like, but sometimes analysts and managers go way too far trying to "describe" the environment about their needs instead of actually defining the need itself.

These people need training in elevator speeches. Maybe a similar approach would work for better analysis: if you can't describe the problem or solution in 30 seconds or less, then maybe you need to rethink the issue.

As I weed through my various emails outlining problems and solutions, I keep on coming back to it. And lo and behold, Guy just posted something similar about the Executive Summary - no it's not 30 seconds and it's really about "selling" the solution but when you've got analysts and developers living in separate "houses", "selling" does become part of the landscape.

"I have a potential solution - can I convince you that my way is the right way to resolve it, or not?"

Let's not waste time about drawing up sketches and ideas with pretty pictures - if you can describe it, sketch it or give me one thing that explains it in less than a minute, chances are it can be built the way you described.

(and no, I'm not even touch the idea that what you described may not be what you wanted - that's a topic for another day).

Hans' comics do a great job of explaining this in so many ways.

Bug Bash » Archive » Judging by the Diorama

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