EXECUTIVE: SPECIFY CORPORATION. User:EXECUTIVE is giving a quarterly report when THAD interrupts with questions about epicMegatrax_Foot THAD: EXECUTIVE, you're giving a quarterly report for Megatrax, right? EXECUTIVE: For the past quarter. THAD: And this is your first time giving a quarterly report? EXECUTIVE: Yes. THAD: And it's written in English, right? EXECUTIVE: Correct. THAD: So how does this compare to Megatrax? EXECUTIVE: I find them very difficult to use. You have to be precise, and you can't even get a simple thing like a capital M or small letter L right. THAD: That might explain it. Let me try to remember why we use this format for quarterly reports. EXECUTIVE: I don't know. It seems kind of bureaucratic, and it certainly doesn't make things easier. THAD: We used to use the traditional "business report" format. This was before computers were commonplace and we had to write everything by hand on paper. EXECUTIVE: I can imagine that being a pain. THAD: Yes, that's why we switched to computer software. But some companies still have people who know how to use the software from back in those days, so they don't want to change. They say it's "standardized." It seems like "standard" is their code word for "we can't figure out anything else". EXECUTIVE: You sound quite upset about this. THAD: I am upset, because the format they have decided on isn't conducive to writing a good report. It wastes paper and ink, it's confusing, and it's so full of redundancy that it's almost like a puzzle you need to solve before you can do anything. EXECUTIVE: A puzzle? THAD: Yes, the format is like an elaborate puzzle you have to solve in order to write a quarterly report. That's why I find them so difficult to use. EXECUTIVE: But it seems as if you can figure out how to do things with it, right? THAD: Yes, you just need to know what to look for and what not to look for. Like they say in a famous computer game from before computers were commonplace: "You don't get extra points for doing anything twice." In other words, we have redundant sections that ask the same question 50 times in slightly different ways. EXECUTIVE: So you are saying this format is not as good? THAD: No, I am saying it is far too complicated and needs to be rethought from the ground up! EXECUTIVE: That sounds like it would take a long time to make that change. THAD: There's no need to do that all at once. We should start with one section, say Current Profits. Let's see if we can't get rid of the redundant parts and add some new features to help us write better reports! EXECUTIVE: That sounds like a good idea! THAD: So I have an idea for you. We'll start with Current Profits, which is currently broken down into three different sections: \begin{itemize} \item Financial Information \item Business Performance Indicators \item Key Financials \end{itemize} EXECUTIVE: What are those? THAD: Financial information asks for the basic stuff, such as total sales and total costs. It also has some questions like "How many shares of stock do you own?" which is irrelevant to Current Profits and should be in a completely different section. EXECUTIVE: This format would have me writing about things that aren't relevant at all! THAD: Financial information can be useful for other sections, but we need to focus on the one we are working on right now. EXECUTIVE: Can you explain why Business Performance Indicators is so irrelevant? THAD: Because business performance isn't financial information at all! It has questions like "Are your customers happy with your products?" and "Has your product helped to save the environment by using less energy/water/paper/whatever?" EXECUTIVE: That doesn't sound too irrelevant. We do want to know about our customers, right? THAD: Correct! But business performance is something that comes from the way you run your company, not from your financials. If people in charge of running your company make bad decisions, then that can have a direct effect on your financial performance. It sounds like those parts are talking about what's going on inside your company and how you are performing as a company, rather than how you're doing financially. EXECUTIVE: Interesting! And what about Key Financials? THAD: This is the section where we ask questions like "How many people work for you?" because that information relates to the financial statements in the financial information section and might affect some of those questions there, even though it doesn't really have anything to do with your current profits. EXECUTIVE: So this section is about how many people are working at Megatrax? THAD: Yes! But that's also another question you should be asking in a different section. EXECUTIVE: Why would I want to know that information? THAD: It doesn't matter if it does or not - we have this format and we need to work within the constraints of what we are given, so let's start there! We can move Key Financials after Current Profits when we solve it! EXECUTIVE: So now we're back at Current Profits. How would you change it? THAD: I want to get rid of Financial Information and Business Performance Indicators, and put them in a separate section called "Other Things That Are Not Part of the Quarterly Report". And then I would move Key Financials so that it's right after Current Profits. EXECUTIVE: Why should we do this? THAD: Because it makes things clearer for the people who are using our quarterly reports! Business Performance Indicators does not have anything to do with financial information, and Key Financials is irrelevant for a Current Profit section. We can move that elsewhere and make things more clear at no cost. This is also easier to read, because now we're looking at something that relates directly to the subject, rather than having to wade through a bunch of questions about other stuff. EXECUTIVE: But what about Financial Information? THAD: We can just ask one or two more financial questions in Current Profits and make them relevant to the rest of the section! We can even have some questions that are purely financial, because now they will actually be about finances. Also Key Financials would be moved after Current Profits since we know it relates directly to Current Profits. EXECUTIVE: So how do you feel about our current quarterly report format? THAD: It has some nice features, like being able to save the results of each section at the end for easy retrieval and printing. EXECUTIVE: That's very handy! But I'm not sure it's worth keeping if this is how hard it is to use! THAD: The format was designed by humans, so that sounds about right.