Re: talking good

[glen e. p. ropella]

At 02:43 PM 1/19/00 -0500, you wrote:
>     I dunno what the most basic feasible shared language is.

You're right, of course.  I tried to say that when I said
that "What it takes is a well-defined and complete method
for extracting well-formed requirements from them" whatever
that method may be.  Having a common language is best.

However, I don't actually *teach* these people the common
language of systems engineering.  That can't be done in
less than a year, I suspect.  The point is that "systems
engineering" is semantically correct.  Anyone who has
successfully engineered a few systems... i.e. designed
things that solve a problems ... is conversant in
systems engineering.  They know what it takes to go from
scratch to a finished product when there's no textbook
algorithm that a technician could apply.

So, *if* they are that type of person, I can hammer out
some requirements within 2 days time.  If, however, I
have to *teach* them anything, it takes longer.

As to a basic shared language, I have no clue what that
might be either.  All I know is that I have remarkable
success in getting a well-formed model from people in
different domains as long as they have experience in
designing purposeful systems.  This means that I pretty
much fail with marketers, advertisers, spin doctors,
and even facilitators.  I suspect that it's because their
foci are outward looking, where a system or ontology already
exists and what they need to do is *place* the system or
configure the system, rather than design it.

This could have something to do with the difference between
usage and creation.  I have more fun creating something than
I do using it.

glen

--
glen e. p. ropella =><= Feeding the hamster wheel.  Hail Eris!
Home: http://www.swarm.com/gepr                (505) 424-0448
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