Part of the problem is that talking about the analysis process is like writing a textbook on romance. How do you fall in love? Is there a set of best practices and a six-sigma process? Well, no. It's an art. It depends entirely on the situation and on the parties involved. You get better at it with practice. There are rules of thumb that are definitely helpful, but you have to know when to break them. Unfortunately, there's also a great deal at stake: If you screw it up it can ruin your life, but if you get it right you can be happy for decades.
The literature on the subject tends to gravitate towards formal techniques: Dance instruction, sex education, grooming, fashion. Not so much because these are the essence of romance, but because they're much easier to describe in print. And because the people who turn to books are not the ones whose relationships are going well, but the ones who need help -- and when the going gets tough, formalism can be a very useful tool. Nobody consults a lawyer on a first date, but when you need a divorce formal procedures come in really handy.
"How do you fall in love? Is there a set of best practices and a six-sigma process?"
I don't know, but "The Six-sigma Process for Romance; Taking the Guesswork out of Finding Love" sounds like the title of a New York Times Bestseller to me.
Seven-Sigma dating. It's like six sigma only we don't know what we're talking about.
I'm with several of the commenters. There's a big difference between books and reality. I'm not going as far as edw with his "modeling controls the discussion" (e-gads! Get this man a UML primer and be quick about it!) but there's a long, long way from a guy peddling a book to a guy you'd actually want helping you to do anything.
I'm not throwing books out. Not by any means. Lots of my friends have written software books and I'm peddling one myself nowadays. Got a bookcase full of some good and some not-so-good books. But it's a medium, and the medium has its quirks.
The literature on the subject tends to gravitate towards formal techniques: Dance instruction, sex education, grooming, fashion. Not so much because these are the essence of romance, but because they're much easier to describe in print. And because the people who turn to books are not the ones whose relationships are going well, but the ones who need help -- and when the going gets tough, formalism can be a very useful tool. Nobody consults a lawyer on a first date, but when you need a divorce formal procedures come in really handy.