What do seven Y’s spell??

REQUIREMENTS! When someone tells you they have a need, you should be able to investigate that original statement with about seven (7) Why’s before they get bored or frustrated with your interest. I need a daily spending report! Why Daily? Why only spending? Why only ONE day? Why not a Rolling Daily Report of 5Continue reading “What do seven Y’s spell??”

What Users Say Translated to Software Engineering!

I need a report that shows me how much I spent yesterday! Not an atypical ‘requirement’ from a business users’ point of view, huh?  What do you as a Software Engineer DO with this and similar statements? Let’s start with a couple of questions that we can use to expand and clarify on a statementContinue reading “What Users Say Translated to Software Engineering!”

Let’s CLOUD the Issue..

I just read an article about the word “CLOUD” being more of a verb than a noun so I thought I would add my two cents to this discussion and Cloud the issue some more. This article was written by someone in a networking group that I have attended in the past and I will,Continue reading “Let’s CLOUD the Issue..”

Input – Process – Output

What exactly should a computer program do?  How will you know if the program you have written or requested to be written for you does what you need it to do? It’s really a whole lot simpler than you might think. If you, as a business user, can define what information is available to accomplishContinue reading “Input – Process – Output”

Syntax of an ERD – Entity Relationship Diagram

Syntax Rules for an Entity Relationship Diagram: An Entity Relationship Diagram Sample: Use this link: https://docs.google.com/drawings/d/1keA4BzVCJXcUoNWDw7-0pIrQ7AsB5CgavjWR7P5Wyrg/edit?hl=en_US (may have to paste into a browser) Business Rules derived from this sample are: It is also interesting to note that since there is no relationship between Customer and Product there are no Business Rules that can be derived betweenContinue reading “Syntax of an ERD – Entity Relationship Diagram”

Process Modeling

Flowcharts, Data Flow Diagrams, Swim Lane diagrams, Use Cases and other constructs have been used to reflect what a Business or Systems Analyst thinks the client is describing when they talk about Business Process and the use of information in the conduct of their business. These diagrams have structure, syntax, and rules that have beenContinue reading “Process Modeling”

Modeling for Money!

One of the basic principles of Software Engineering is the creation of visual models to demonstrate the project team’s understanding of the discoveries we are collecting from the users who are driving our discussions. The type of drawings were proscribed by several authors of the time but regardless of the style of the drawing, theyContinue reading “Modeling for Money!”