Use a No Brown M&M’s Clause

Apr 17, 2013 by Jim Harris

There is a popular story about David Lee Roth exemplifying the insane demands of a power-mad celebrity by insisting that Van Halen’s contracts with concert promoters contain a clause that a bowl of M&M’s has to be provided backstage with every single brown candy removed, upon pain of forfeiture of the show, with full compensation to the band.

Stop Tapping and Start Talking

Feb 13, 2013 by Jim Harris

In my previous post, I pondered how the inevitable lag time between the definition of requirements and the delivery of solutions is exacerbated by the business world fluctuating dramatically in short periods of time.  Today’s business requirements may not only be different than yesterday’s business requirements, but today’s business requirements might be different before we even get to tomorrow.

Requirements Flux

Feb 06, 2013 by Jim Harris

As Steve Jobs once said:

“You can’t just ask customers what they want and then try to give that to them.  By the time you get it built, they’ll want something new.”

The inevitable lag time between the definition of requirements and the delivery of solutions is perhaps the primary reason for the perpetual strife between the Business and IT.  I have…

2012 Quarterly Review (Part 4)

Jan 02, 2013 by Jim Harris

Welcome to the unofficial 2012 quarterly review that I have decided to perform on the Data Roundtable. In this four-part series, I will select and summarize my favorite posts published on this blog during each quarter of this year, selecting one post per contributor per month.

Part 1 of this series covered blog…

2012 Quarterly Review (Part 3)

Dec 19, 2012 by Jim Harris

Welcome to the unofficial 2012 quarterly review that I have decided to perform on the Data Roundtable. In this four-part series, I will select and summarize my favorite posts published on this blog during each quarter of this year, selecting one post per contributor per month.

2012 Quarterly Review (Part 2)

Dec 12, 2012 by Jim Harris

Welcome to the unofficial 2012 quarterly review that I have decided to perform on the Data Roundtable. In this four-part series, I will select and summarize my favorite posts published on this blog during each quarter of this year, selecting one post per contributor per month.

Part 1 of this series covered blog…

2012 Quarterly Review (Part 1)

Dec 05, 2012 by Jim Harris

Welcome to the unofficial 2012 quarterly review that I have decided to perform on the Data Roundtable. In this four-part series, I will select and summarize my favorite posts published on this blog during each quarter of this year, selecting one post per contributor per month.

Part 1 covers blog posts from January,

Small Data and VRM

Oct 17, 2012 by Jim Harris

At last week’s IDEAS 2012 closing panel discussion, moderated by Gavin Day, panelists Rich Murnane, Phil Simon, Joyce Norris-Montanari and I were asked to predict trends for 2013. In this blog post, I explain the prediction I made about Small Data and VRM.

The Hindrance of Hindsight Bias

Oct 03, 2012 by Jim Harris

It’s that time of year when we look back at the 2012 predictions we made in 2011, and then make our 2013 predictions. Before I shake the dust off of my Magic 8 Ball and peer into the future with the crystal ball I bought at the Dollar Store, let’s revisit my 2012 prediction.