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Whenever I read a really great book I like to share it.
Right now I'm reading, Writing Winning Business Proposals, Third Edition [^]
I really like books (and communicators) who cut through all the clouds and give me the facts in an interesting way.
I know many of you run your own software businesses and this one will be really great for those.
However, I'm finding that the basic structure they talk about with proposals directly relate to discussions I have with various stakeholders within the company I work at when they request enhancements, bug fixes, etc.
I really like the way the authors break the proposal down into what they call baseline logic:
Situation: What is the problem or the opportunity?
Objectives: Given the problem or opportunity, what are the objectives for solving or realizing it?
Methods: Given those objectives, how will you achieve them?
Qualifications: Given those methods, how are you qualified to perform them?
Costs: Given the methods and qualifications, how much will it cost?
Benefits: Given those costs, what benefits and/or value will accrue?
As a developer I love the way this logic flows and connects the entire thing together.
There's even more great stuff. Can't believe someone put this together so well.
Have any of you read this great book?
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You know how at Chinese restaurants someone has to make a joke by appending "in bed" to the fortune cookie?
Read those "baseline logic" bullet points the same way.
And...
raddevus wrote: Costs: Given the methods and qualifications, how much will it cost?
Benefits: Given those costs, what benefits and/or value will accrue?
I realize that we're talking about business proposals here, but it really annoys me that everything has to be reduced to a cost-benefit analysis. What about "my employees will be happier" even if there's a cost to the company and no direct benefit? What about "the environment will be better?" What about, how my bedroom life will be better? 
Marc
Latest Article - Create a Dockerized Python Fiddle Web App
Learning to code with python is like learning to swim with those little arm floaties. It gives you undeserved confidence and will eventually drown you. - DangerBunny
Artificial intelligence is the only remedy for natural stupidity. - CDP1802
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raddevus wrote: Work: nobody likes it.
Money: everybody wants more.
Actually, I very much disagree. For the most part, I enjoy work, it's money I hate. Working in the tech industry, I've achieved the first world luxury of making enough money at an hourly rate that I don't have to work full time. My work-life balance is actually more of a work-work balance, and not all of the work is income generating. That results in some weird behaviors -- the more I enjoy the work I'm doing, the less I tend to charge my clients. I guess you could say that my billing is based on suffering. 
Marc
Latest Article - Create a Dockerized Python Fiddle Web App
Learning to code with python is like learning to swim with those little arm floaties. It gives you undeserved confidence and will eventually drown you. - DangerBunny
Artificial intelligence is the only remedy for natural stupidity. - CDP1802
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That's not really work.
Work is the stuff that you don't want to do.
I'm guessing there are parts of the SDLC that you don't like and don't want to do as much.
That's not really money either.
Money is the ability to pay for what you want to do.
Ability to pay for what you want to do means freedom.
We all love freedom.
So
Work == Stuff You Don't Want To Do
Money == Freedom
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Marc Clifton wrote: You know how at Chinese restaurants someone has to make a joke by appending "in bed" to the fortune cookie?
Read those "baseline logic" bullet points the same way.
I think if you added "in bed" to each of those bullet points you're going to end up with a very different business proposition.
modified 20-Jul-17 4:34am.
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Al_Brown wrote: you're going to end up with a very different business proposition.
The difference being that, unlike being a corporate slave, the cost-benefit analysis is usually more equitable.
Marc
Latest Article - Create a Dockerized Python Fiddle Web App
Learning to code with python is like learning to swim with those little arm floaties. It gives you undeserved confidence and will eventually drown you. - DangerBunny
Artificial intelligence is the only remedy for natural stupidity. - CDP1802
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Unless the between-the-sheets activity leads to marriage. In that case the amount of work involved logically suggests you should just take the money equivalent.
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Marc Clifton wrote: What about "my employees will be happier" even if there's a cost to the company and no direct benefit
"My employees will be happier" should have measurable benefits in terms of productivity, reduced absenteeism, and retention. When a change to company policy looks like reducing the "bind the mouths of the kine" with no explicit improvement to the bottom line, it's a good idea to point these out. This is especially true for 'knowledge workers' like engineers, where the intangibles become more and more important as their career gets longer.
Software Zen: delete this;
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The baseline logic is easily remembered with the handy acronym: SOMQCB
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to inspire you to go ahead with the suicide plan: [^].
i ain't seen this incredible since Jimi ... yeah, you might bring up Tommy Emmanuel as rebuttal, but that cat's, imho, a god on another plane.
while this type of music is not to my tastes in this period of my life (old, cantankerous), fifty years ago, this would have had me up and dancing ! 
cheers, Bill
«Differences between Big-Endians, who broke eggs at the larger end, and Little-Endians gave rise to six rebellions: one Emperor lost his life, another his crown. The Lilliputian religion says an egg should be broken on the convenient end, which is now interpreted by the Lilliputians as the smaller end. Big-Endians gained favor in Blefuscu.» J. Swift, 'Gulliver's Travels,' 1726CE
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 Now, that imho was entertainment! Thanks for sharing! I wouldn't call this exactly my style, but I can respect talent whatever the genre...and besides, being able to shift to another genre, (the zeppelin medley was awesome!) and even add to such classics is to be applauded! I will definitely keep that name in mind...if his live playing is that good, I can't wait to find some studio cuts.
If I had been just listening, I would have sworn it was Steve Morse.
On a side note, if you're looking for an audio adventure and like prog/opera rock, I'm on my third listen through of Dream Theater's latest 34 track concept album and highly recommend it for coding. Cheers!
"Go forth into the source" - Neal Morse
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Quote: I would have sworn it was Steve Morse.
Thats what I thought!
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Just a suggestion have a look for some Oli Brown stuff, I think his latest stuff is metally but the early stuff was Blues...
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I wish you best of luck
I can play "baby, I'm gonna leave you" - Led Zeppelin, fairly well, just as some other pieces, but that took me quite some time practising.
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Funny, mine worked fine a few hours ago.
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Mine worked about two hours ago, no problem.
- I would love to change the world, but they won’t give me the source code.
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No, just a sign that we, as an industry, have made some bad "best practices" choices. Like the one to get modifications into production as quickly as possible, a.k.a. devops. Very high probability that's what happened to BofA.
Sorry, I never drank the KoolAid.
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Winding things up yesterday, I noticed that Windows needed a restart, so I chose to update and shutdown. The first thing this morning on boot was the expected second part of the update, interrupted by an automatic reboot and then finishing out...downtime so far...around 10 minutes...I'm not really bothered at this point.
15 minutes into finally getting some things done and I am prompted again that windows needs to restart...and that this update may take a while!  (I'm assuming it's the much touted Fall CU which probably has nothing of value for me...maybe I'm wrong) At this point, I mildly irritated, but really, how long could this take...it's a fairly speedy machine.
35 minutes later, and stuck on 85% for the time it's taken me to type this on the laptop, and I'm pissed!  The little balls are still spinning, so I guess there's still hope.
So, consider yourself warned. If you have work to do, do not let windows restart until you have the time to spare...or perhaps another workstation/laptop and cant' wait.
...and still stuck at 85%.
Edit: About 2 minutes after I posted, the spell was broken and the update finished only to restart and is now again 'working on updates'. The note at the bottom states that 'Your PC will restart several times'.  Also, it has switched screens and appears to have screwed with the resoluion settings.  'This will take a while' appears to be true...at 14% after 20 minutes.
Edit #2: I gave up and walked away. I've come back after 20 minutes to see that at least the resolution issue was fixed (nice crisp text now) but it seems to be stuck at 61%.  Wait, it's just gone to 63! Total time lost today so far...around 90 minutes.
Edit #3: The last update took nearly 45 minutes to complete. When I finally logged in, I was greeted by this: 'Hi We have some updates for you...and This may take a while'. Nevermind, it just finished and I see that yes, I have the creators update. Hip Hip Hooray! Now, after almost two and a half hours, I might be able to get back to work!
"Go forth into the source" - Neal Morse
modified 19-Jul-17 11:48am.
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Come on, come on! It's been nearly 40 minutes since your last update... We can't hold our breath any longer! 
- I would love to change the world, but they won’t give me the source code.
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Well, it's called patch Tuesday, not patch 5 minutes.
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