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Comment by Alex Kashko on January 28, 2013 at 6:01pm

To Melissa Ruth: why are employees not stakeholders?

To Paul Scheer:  Requirements gathering is hard. I recall doing this for a dental practice and it involved listening and asking questions then listening more

Comment by Alex Kashko on January 28, 2013 at 5:50pm

Hi there. I am new here.  As a freelance software contractor  I have to keep abreast of trends in the industry and, as I want to be more than a developer, and deal more with leading people and technology, I need to know a bit more about  business.  

What I can bring to the group is the view from the code-face in  a number of enterprises.  

For now here is  a link to my efforts to guess the likely trends for 2013. 

http://alexk2009.hubpages.com/_brandergy/hub/Information-Technology...

One thing that cane up since I wrote that was the security holes in Java leading some to recommend abandoning it, and  an interesting article saying that Javascript  cryptographs is basically useless. I am still looking at the implications for my livelihood. 

Comment by Melissa Ruth on May 10, 2012 at 1:49am

Hi all!!!  I'm new here and thought I would say hi.  My conversation starter today is:  

I sat at a local IT Day today sponsored by Lockheed Martin.  They brought up an interesting topic.  What is your driving factor for bringing new technology to your company?  

The focus group discussed the fact that one must carefully consider the use of funds to bring new technology to their company and compare it to the need and the cost savings that technology might provide.  They shared that employees and stakeholders will often focus on large cost for technology that is quickly rendered useless.  In this ever-changing field, this is a tough goal but a necessary one in my opinion.  What are your thoughts? 

Comment by Don Parris on March 29, 2012 at 3:05pm

Thanks Vincent, will be sure to check that out as well.

Comment by Vincent Wright on March 29, 2012 at 2:32pm

Don,

One final recommendation for today: I've long been a fan of http://AllPM.com and strongly recommend that community.  So, I'd also like to recommend that you check out their job board : http://allpm.com/index.php?module=PostWrap&page=careers.php

Comment by Don Parris on March 29, 2012 at 2:26pm

Thanks Vincent!  I have not done that yet.  I will certainly do so.

Comment by Vincent Wright on March 29, 2012 at 1:41pm

Quick question, Don:  Have you looked at the CIO Dashboard here on Linking IT? (There are hundreds upon hundreds of CIO's and CTO's with whom you may wish to network with via Twitter.)

Comment by Don Parris on March 29, 2012 at 1:23pm

I am looking for a junior, to mid-level admin position.  I have a well-rounded background in physical security, facility management and technology journalism.  I hold Linux+ and Facility Management Professional certifications, with plans to achieve LPIC-2 certification in the near future.  I have run a small LAN for years, variously configuring Apache, VOIP, MySQL, PostgreSQL, OpenVPN, NFS, CUPS and long-term desktop use including GNOME & KDE.  I have limited shell scripting experience (Bash), but am learning my way around that as well.  You can throw something at me that I have never encountered and I will generally figure it out.  I am in the Charlotte, NC area, and open to relocating or traveling, as well as telecommuting.

Comment by Paul Scheer on February 16, 2009 at 6:02pm

A friend currently engaged in job search for a technical position was hit during a recent interview with question for which she was unprepared: "How do you gather the needs of the users?" Since that's what I do, she asked me what answer I would give. After scratching my head for a couple of days, I wrote the following:



There is no simple answer to how one collects requirements. The most general answer is, it's like having a conversation with another person where that other person may want or need your help with something, but often times doesn't know exactly what (or they may know, or they may THINK they know but be mistaken).

The most general skills I have learned to use are how to listen actively to another person, understand when what they're saying may entail system development, and then finding ways to tell them or document for them what I understood their requirements to be. It's a long, convoluted process with no simple path from start to finish. Many different techniques may prove to be useful and a technique that works well in one case may be absolutely useless in another.

What differentiates the cases includes the user's personality (some prefer words, some prefer diagrams, some prefer that you would just leave them alone and come back with what they want after reading their mind -- since they won't tell you what's on their mind!); also, the nature of the project (example: invoice or other document approval usually demands work flow diagram before anything else; data warehouse demands ERD reflecting existing data relationships; etc.); also the budget (something with a large budget gets a lot more requirements documentation up front than something with very little budget); also the schedule (if something needs to be delivered in a month, the type and amount of documentation will be very different than something that won't be delivered for at least a year).

I don't think I've really answered your question, but maybe what I wrote above will give some idea why it's a very HARD question (and therefore, why some hiring managers like to ask it in an interview, to see if they can stump you).



How would YOU have answered my friend's question?

Comment by Robert R. LaPorta on December 10, 2008 at 6:00pm

Please note my availability for Management, Consulting, Presales, Operations, P&L, or Business Development positions; leveraging recent 10 years at Oracle and multiple Fortune 500 vertical industries. Open to relocation. robertlaporta@gmail.com / 847-854-0056 / www.linkedin.com/in/robertlaporta

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