A timeline is a a graphical representation of a linear sequence of significant events which has occurred during the accomplishment of some activity. A timetable provides a corresponding, forward-looking series of pre-arranged events, organized as a tabular list, and is used to plan and track such activities for performing and reporting on future work. Each of the events associated with these timelines and timetables may be comprised of either top-level milestones or more detailed inchstones.  read more »

Concrete terms can also be specific or general. For example,

General terms and specific terms are not opposites, as abstract and concrete terms are; instead, they are the different ends of a range of terms. General terms refer to groups; specific terms refer to individuals—but there's room in between. Let's look at an example.

Furniture is a general term; it includes within it many different items. If I ask you to form an image of furniture, it won't be easy to do. Do you see a department store display room? a dining room? an office? Even if you can produce a distinct image in your mind, how likely is it that another reader will form a very similar image? Furniture is a concrete term (it refers to something we can see and feel), but its meaning is still hard to pin down, because the group is so large. Do you have positive or negative feelings toward furniture? Again, it's hard to develop much of a response, because the group represented by this general term is just too large.

We can make the group smaller with the less general term, chair. This is still pretty general (that is, it still refers to a group rather than an individual), but it's easier to picture a chair than it is to picture furniture.  read more »

To discuss the use of dialog-based decisions across stakeholders, and trade studies, in order to achieve strategic and tactical decision-making without bringing development to it's knees.

About how to elaborate requirements

This page will discuss the role that time plays in creating constraints on development.

People that are on a development project often use language whose meaning is ambiguous. Unravelling this lack of clarity be a tricky thing to do. Development relies upon effective communications, and achieving this foundational capability requires that all parties consistently understand the meaning behind the words that they are using. Such understanding usually requires careful listening, disciplined synthesis of concepts, and clear and written elaboration and allocation of derived details. Each of these steps involves conscientious and persistent attention in order to be successful.

 read more »

Tell the story of Fleming and Churchill.

Two Pulitzer Prize-winning journalists explore and explain how special interests and political games are played in modern-day politics, which, in turn, have caused the American government to fall into crises. Reprint. NYT. "

The System: The American Way of Politics at the Breaking Point author: Haynes Johnson David Broder rating: asin: 0316111457 binding: Paperback list price: $26.99 USD amazon price: $24.29 USD

The word process is an abstract concept. As a result, its meaning is often dependent upon the context in which it is used, and the mental models of those who are using the term. The dangerous part of this is that people can carry on conversations about them, and believe that they are talking about the same situations, even though they are actually discussing several, fundamentally different things. As a result, they each can think that they are communicating about the same 'process', and can go away from that conversation with the mistaken impression that they all agree on something meaningful, or all have a shared vision of what it will take to transform something. What is really going on is that consensus is typically achieved by adding ambiguity, rather than removing it.

As an example of these different 'mindsets', consider the following:  read more »

The scientific method is the basis of our modern world. The three steps of the method are to establish a hypothesis, perform an experiment, and evaluate the results. The method does not guarantee a successful outcome on the first try, but has the advantage of self-correction. As a result, over time, it will (through repeated application and follow-on action) converge on a solution, if a solution can be found.

However, if core disciplines are not used throughout this experimentation (for example, by not keeping good records, or controlling the variables of your experiments), this ultimate success is not assured. Additionally, if experimental evidence is not peer reviewed, history has shown that the results claimed may not be reliable!  read more »