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On Mon, 6 Dec 2004 13:04:59 -0700, Sherry Michaels
<sherry -dot- michaels -at- docntrain -dot- com> wrote, first quoting Tony Markos
quoting Tom DeMarco:
> > Tom says, "Produre [sic] is like dance, it defies written description."
>
> Don't the dance studios have guides? Unless you want to count those little
> feet on the floor as a DFD! :)
As someone who has been making desultory efforts to learn to tango, I
can say with authority that while improvisational flair becomes very
important as you get better, you really must internalize the Basic
Tango Algorithms (which I suppose could even be flowcharted, though I
don't think DFDs would do much good) before you can make any progress.
Said BTAs are not remotely hard to describe or reduce to simple (even
written) instructions.
Also, to get even more ridiculously pedantic, there are many systems
of choreographic notation that, combined with plain old text, have
been used to describe dance for centuries.
To veer back on topic, the work-related book that I just finished
reading (and enjoyed very much) was Max Ammerman's "The Root Cause
Analysis Handbook." We're updating our incident reporting and problem
management procedures in my shop, and doing formal Root Cause Analysis
reporting is part of the new regime. This is a short book, loaded
with useful examples, that would be helpful to any documentation team
looking to support an internal quality initiative with better incident
reporting.
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