Why I am interested in emacs and org mode

Posted by 99quartzmarbles

One of my interests over the last few months is using the emacs editor and the org mode to change my work flow, keep my projects and todo lists sorted out and as the centre for all of my various writing projects : blogs, technical, fiction and emails. It felt difficult to work with but I have persevered, thanks to a few good blogs, I know use it everyday for more and more use cases and I have only scratched the surface of what it can do for me.

I intend to make my productiveplaybook.com blog a centre for getting started and developing the use of emacs but I will leave here a couple of links that helped me greatly. Check them out and maybe dip your toe in, the water is lovely.

http://emacslife.com/baby-steps-org.html

http://doc.norang.ca/org-mode.html

Swimlanes and BPMN

Posted by 99quartzmarbles

Swimlane – a definition – A swimlane is part of a process flow diagram to indicate where a process crosses a boundary. A boundary is defined as the intersection in a process where an action crosses from one entity to another entity. Process boundaries can indicate where a transition occurs from one system to another, from one person to another, or from one department to another. Swimlanes are a useful tool when more than an actor and step are needed to understand a complex process and to highlight gaps or duplications in a process.

BPMN – a definition- Business Process Modeling Notation BPMN is a graphical representation for specifying business processes in a business process model.

Here are some good articles on creating swimlanes:

http://blog.goodelearning.com/bpmn/common-bpmn-modeling-mistakes-swimlanes/

and

http://www.modernanalyst.com/Careers/InterviewQuestions/tabid/128/ID/1804/What-is-a-Swimlane-Diagram.aspx

Business Rules v Business Requirements

Posted by 99quartzmarbles

Part of my mission to explain why I am doing what I am doing at work… I have had to explain the difference between Business Rules and Business Requirements.

If you find yourself in the same situation these websites may be of some assistance with practical examples.

They also have the advantage that they show that it is not just ‘you’ being picky about the difference. THERE ARE solid differences between the two concepts.

http://www.brcommunity.com/b290.php

http://www.wordtipsandtricks.com/business-writing/business-rules-vs-business-requirements/1327/

http://www.techrepublic.com/article/documenting-your-business-rules-where-to-begin/

I think this one is the best:

http://www.allaboutrequirements.com/business-rules/

Now, should I document this using Use Cases or some other way?

Creating dashboards in Excel and Powerpoint

Posted by 99quartzmarbles

Wow. Microsoft have a great article here on creating dashboards

http://office.microsoft.com/en-gb/excel-help/interactive-dashboards-using-powerpoint-and-excel-HA102298884.aspx

Business Analysis : The Event Model

Posted by 99quartzmarbles

Have you heard about The Event Model?

On http://www.modernanalyst.com website I have noticed a ‘new to me’ model for business analysis called “The Event Model”.

It is new to me as it was only developed in the last couple of years and I have been out of the BA field for over 10 years.

It is interesting as it complements the other models that predate it such as the Relational Model and the Decision Model.

One problem with these paradigms is the ’emporers new clothes’ aspect of them as the intended readership either don’t buy into the idea or point out that the idea is just a lot of acronyms and diagrams to explain the obvious.

On the other hand they can prove useful to label and explain situations we find ourselves having to document in order to gain a baseline agreement of what is going on in the process before we can move on to why it isn’t working and what to do to fix it.

I found these article very clear to read and yet they didn’t leave me thinking the concept is a waste of time. I did however wonder why it took so long to codify the concept to the point where it was published.

I think this will certainly help in my current work where quite often I need to ‘explain’ the events and sequence of multiple parallel processes to ensure that adding or changing to these processes we are confident we understand the implications of a change on adjacent and downstream activities.

What do you think?

Part 1
http://www.modernanalyst.com/Resources/Articles/tabid/115/ID/3036/Introducing-the-Next-Horizon-The-Event-Model-TEM.aspx

Part 2
http://www.modernanalyst.com/Resources/Articles/tabid/115/ID/3059/The-Event-Model-TEM-in-Action.aspx

Another Article
http://www.modernanalyst.com/Resources/Articles/tabid/115/ID/2932/Modeling-System-Events.aspx