Thank you, WI BADD

Posted by Robert Merrill on October 6, 2010 under Agile Methods, Estimation, Project Set-Up, Waterfall (SDLC) | Be the First to Comment

Thank You to the three Wisconsin IIBA chapters who hosted the fourth annual WI BADD™ on Tuesday, 10/5/2010, and the firms that sponsored it. I met some new people and learned some new things, and I know that was a lot of work to put on.

Thanks also to the enthusiastic audience for my talk, “Room To Breathe: The Role of the BA in Shaping Early Project Expectations.” If you would like me to speak with your software sponsors or development group about the project target, estimation, and commitment problem, please contact me and we’ll set something up.

Several of you requested additional material on the estimation problem. Here are a few things:

• If Software Estimators Ran the National Hurricane Center (blog post)
• Software Sanity: Accurate Estimates and Other Myths (WTN, the Wisconsin Technology Network)
• A Tale of Two Processes (WTN, the Wisconsin Technology Network)
• If You’re Always Late, A Faster Car Won’t Help (blog post)

Thanks again, everybody at WI BADD™, for a great day. I hope to see you again on Tuesday, 10/11/11.

Estimation Talk at WI BADD, October 5, Madison WI

Posted by Robert Merrill on August 9, 2010 under Estimation, Project Set-Up | Be the First to Comment

Robert spoke on “Room to Breathe: The Vital Role of the BA in Shaping Early Project Effort Expectations” at WI BADD™, the Wisconsin Business Analysis Development Day, on Tuesday 10/5/2010 in Madison, WI.

If you’re always late, a faster car won’t help

Posted by Robert Merrill on March 2, 2010 under Estimation, Project Set-Up, Software-Intensive Businesses | Be the First to Comment

Q: Why were they late for the meeting?

A: They didn’t leave soon enough.

But…they got stopped by a train, and they remembered that they needed to pick up a loaf of bread, and…they have a slow car!

Details like speed limits and the police aside, what do the car, and the bread, and the train have to do with it? The trip took 25 minutes, five of it spent waiting for the train, and five of it in the convenience store, and fifteen of it driving. They left 20 minutes before the meeting, and they were five minutes late.

Well, they didn’t plan on the train or the bread.

Do they ever plan on the train or the bread? Read more of this article »