I love reading Thomas Sowell’s articles on economics and its social and political ramifications. His “Basic Economics” book broke down the basics of supply and demand as well as other economic principles in a way even I could understand! Today, however, his article was a rant on how hard today’s electronic gadgets are to use.

I recently posted about the need for accuracy and precision in requirements. In that post, I mentioned that natural language requirements are probably the least precise format for expressing requirements. Many BA’s, myself included, write specs composed of natural language requirements and a few flow diagrams for clarification and context. So, given that natural language is not inherently precise, how do we at least make them as precise as possible?

The business analyst’s job is not complete if the requirements are written and accurate but not precise. The key is to find a way of articulating requirements that is as precise and as easy to read by the target audience as possible. I’ve found that as my requirements become more precise, the churn around language and semantics decreases significantly. I suspect that many BA’s may find the same to be true.

Presentation tips, ten ways to screw up requirements, how to speed up your meetings and more.

Language, productivity, a NASA dissertation on requirements specs, and a few funnys.