The Second “R” of Reporting – Research

by

OK last week I gave you the first “R” of my Seven “R”‘s of reporting – Report. In short, your first step when you take over a project is to just keep the reporting running no matter how backward, confusing, inaccurate, or bizarre it is. Doing that is important for many reasons, not the least of which is you may be terribly wrong that it’s got problems – that crappy, terrible report may actually work.

Face it, as smart as you are (and you do read my writings so I assume you’re smart) you may just be wrong.

But anyway, with the reporting running, we get to the next “R” – Research.

You need to start looking into how the reporting works. You do this of course so you, the Program or Project Manager, really know what’s going on, what’s being done, and what you have to douse that’s on fire. Hopefully it reveals, as previously, that all is marvelous but I’m not going to count on it.

So you need to do your second R, “Research.” Here’s the basics you need to look into:

  • What is the report supposed to do anyway?
  • Where does the data come from and what does it mean?
  • How is it transformed, analyzed, and understood?
  • Who does it go through and to?
  • Why was it included anyway?

If you can name all these things, even abstractly, about your current reporting structure, kudos. You are lucky, talented, or a complete liar. OK, no kudos for the last one.

The reason you do this research is simple, you want to know what all of this actually means. Not what people say it means, what it actually means. If some form is not filled out by calculations but by hand, you know there’s human meaning. If some date is reported but it’s not really what it means (“well it’s live but not tested” is one of my favorites) then you know.

You want to know what all of this information is supposed to tell you and really tells you.

Of course your urge may be “wait now I understand the data and it’s wrong” and go fix it. Nope, not ready yet.

Or it could seem the data is fine. Awesome. But it may still not be right.

See once you have done research and know what it’s all supposed to mean, you have to figure out how it hooks together, and that’s the next R . . .

– Steven Savage

Steven Savage is a Geek 2.0 writer, speaker, blogger, and job coach.  He blogs on careers at http://www.musehack.com/, nerd and geek culture at http://www.nerdcaliber.com/, and does a site of creative tools at http://www.seventhsanctum.com/. He can be reached at https://www.stevensavage.com/.

Links Of The Day 10/8/2013

by

What’s up today?

Let’s get depressed in looking at how . . . well dumb Americans are compared to other people.  The computer skills part flips me out, frankly.  Well this tells you about your audience – and maybe some opportunities to train or help people.

Speaking about training, here’s an excerpt that trashes crap advice books fro 1909.  NOTHING has changed, has it?  No.  Worth reading – and a warning on the advice you may be getting from various sources, it may have been crap for 100 years.

I just found out about this evolving writing site, Describli.  Keep an eye on it . . .

Games-wise news: SquareEnix is porting some Dragon Quest games to smartphones.  Well you’ve got my attention – and this is a beloved series which has it’s mobile series as well.  Smart move – and a reminder again that phones are a great way to re-release games.

Amazon wants to lure in Kindle developers and is offering rewards.  They want this pretty damn bad apparently – if you want to take advantage of it is another question.

The BBC has gotten into its own store for downloading and keeping shows.  Interesting move.  So who’s next – and how will this affect media alliances?

– Steven “Now Available On Mobile” Savage

White Bean Vegetarian Chili

by

This is a delightfully different, light, vegetarian chili.  It has a mild but pleasing spicy-sweet taste that is satisfying without being the same old chili flavor.

Makes 6 250 calorie servings or 5 300 calorie servings.

  • 2 Tbsp Olive Oil, divided
  • 1 large, white onion, chopped
  • 1 Tbsp crushed garlic
  • 3 cans (14 oz ea) low-no sodium white beans, about 5 cups
  • 1 1//2 cups low sodium vegetable broth
  • 1 medium chopped seeded green chili (about 1/4 a cup not packed).
  • 2 Tbsps Soy sauce
  • 1 tsp ground cumin
  • 1/2 tsp dried oregano
  • 1/8 tsp ground red pepper
  • 1/4 tsp ground black pepper
  • 1 Tbsp dried cilantro
  • 1 Tbsp lemon juice
  1. Sautee the onion in one Tbsp Olive oil until it softened.
  2. Add garlic to onion, stir regularly until onion and garlic begin to brown.
  3. Add all other ingredients except remaining olive oil’ lemon juice, and dried cilantro. Mix thoroughly.
  4. Bring to simmer, and simmer covered for 10 minutes, stirring occasionally.
  5. Add olive oil, cilantro, lemon juice, stir thoroughly. Bring to simmer.
  6. Remove from heat and serve.

Thats it.  Pretty simple – which is another thing I like about it!

You can freeze it pretty easily.  To unthaw it I’d let it unfreeze in a frigde or use microwave defrost a bit then cook it up to a light boil.

As for side dishes I’ve found it goes best with corn, corn chips, steamed broccoli with lemon juice, and (oddly) cherry tomatoes.  I don’t think it’d go good with rice, potatoes, or refritos.  It would probably be an excellent game day chili or event chili, and its thick, creamy broth would also be satisfying in winter – though it’s not too heavy.

– Steven Savage

Steven Savage is a Geek 2.0 writer, speaker, blogger, and job coach.  He blogs on careers at http://www.musehack.com/, nerd and geek culture at http://www.nerdcaliber.com/, and does a site of creative tools at http://www.seventhsanctum.com/. He can be reached at https://www.stevensavage.com/.