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Archive for July, 2007

The Customer May Be Wrong

Monday, July 30th, 2007

In business there comes a time when you might look across the table at your client and suddenly realise that what they just said is wrong. Not a little wrong - plain WRONG. But what do you do? How do you react to a statement that the project will include some feature or aspect you know to be wrong?

It depends on the wrongness and the degree to which that wrongness impinges on the way the site will operate, the revenue it might or might not attract, or the legality of providing that wrong. In short you need to be prepared when you walk into the room for that statement of wrongness and be ready to turn a bad thing into an educated reversal in your favour. Its not going to be easy but if you let them walk away with the idea they are not wrong then your battle will be all the harder when you revisit the subject.

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Currently Reading

Information and Data Modelling (Second Edition) by David Benyon (Cover)With an eye toward implementing another web interface database solution from the ground up I'm casually revisiting David Benyon's Information and Data Modelling (Second Edition). Its critical to have a solid understanding of conceptual data modelling and knowing how to identify various things like fan traps and three way traps very early in the process. To that end, while its fine to have a basic understanding of third normal form and general ideas about relations (that which relational databases rely on), its also a great idea to spend time exploring the theory and case studies that lead to a higher understanding.

Often people I deal with just snuff their nose and say they can design a database - but often its a very naive approach. Having read this book about four years ago its time for a quick refresher over my holiday period. No, I doubt few will envy me.