Website design By BotEap.comThe intent of this section is to give you an idea of ​​the various requirements gathering tools available and the factors you should consider when choosing which one to use for your project. You will need to be trained in the use of these tools before becoming proficient in their use.

Website design By BotEap.comThe nature of the software application or website that will deliver your project will influence your decision about which requirements gathering tools to use. Other factors that will influence your decision are the number and type of business users, customer service representatives, and maintenance personnel and their locations. We will try to describe some of the tools available in this section and describe situations where it would be appropriate to use them.

Website design By BotEap.comThe contract or statement of work

Website design By BotEap.comIf your organization has contracted with a third-party vendor to develop the application, you will have a contract that sets out the features and functions that your application or website will have in general terms. If the contract is accompanied by a Statement of Work (SOW), the features and functions can be described in more detail. There will still be work to do to refine the statements in the contract or SOW into requirements, but you should use them to define the boundaries within which the requirements definition should stay.

Website design By BotEap.combrainstorm

Website design By BotEap.comBrainstorming is perhaps the most widely used tool for soliciting thoughts and ideas. It’s a technique that requires participants to meet in a room to work well (at least I haven’t heard of anyone having success brainstorming via audio or video conferencing). It also depends on the people involved having a common understanding of the problem or solution being discussed.

Website design By BotEap.comBrainstorming sessions should focus on the number of ideas, so you need to cultivate an atmosphere that is conducive to everyone in the session talking. If some of the ideas raised in the session are not viable or not covered by a contract or SOW, now is not the time to rule them out. Let the creativity flow. To set up the session, you’ll need to state the problem to trigger creative thinking before people come to the session. You will need a problem statement for each of the groups you are brainstorming with, and if the project has a contract or SOW, you will need to base your problem statements on these.

Website design By BotEap.comYou should encourage the team to combine ideas or requirements that have affinity with each other; there is no point in capturing the same feature or function in 10 different requirements. The last step in the exercise should be to prioritize the features, using cardinal or ordinal scores for this purpose. This is so that when it comes time to fit development into the available budget, you know which requirements to rule out first. You can try a variation of brainstorming called the nominal group technique to accomplish this.

Website design By BotEap.comBrainstorming and the nominal group technique are appropriate when you can bring several people with the same needs for the new application/website together in one room so that their creativity stimulates each other. It could be used when you have a team doing the same work with the app, or at least familiar with each other’s use of the app. It could also be used when you have several different functional groups (for example, sales, customer service, support, etc.) so that you can do one brainstorming session per functional group. Brainstorming is not appropriate when you have a small group of stakeholders with disparate needs, or your stakeholders are geographically dispersed.

Website design By BotEap.cominterview

Website design By BotEap.comThe interview allows you to meet with your stakeholders one-on-one and ask focused questions so that the requirements established during the interview are clear and adequately address the needs of the stakeholders. The interview technique will also allow you to scope out grandiose requirements when you are familiar with the nature of stakeholder needs and the cost of developing the functionality to meet a requirement. When you determine that a stated requirement would not be feasible due to the time and effort required for development, ask the stakeholder if “….is there an easier way to do it?”, or “….would be a feature that Did x, y, and z satisfy that need?”

Website design By BotEap.comYou will perform the analysis, combining similar requirements, and aligning the requirements with the contract or SOW, and you will need to send the results to the interviewees.

Website design By BotEap.comThis method can be used when you have a relatively small group of disparate stakeholders to request requirements. The advantage of this method is its control over the given requirements, its ability to influence expectations, and its ability to ensure that the requirements are accurately captured. It would not be appropriate for projects where you have a large number of stakeholders to solicit.

Website design By BotEap.comJoint Application Development (JAD)

Website design By BotEap.comJAD uses workshops to solicit requirements from stakeholders in much the same way as brainstorming. However, there are several key differences, the main difference being the involvement of systems analysts in the requirements gathering process. Workshops require a facilitator to keep discussions on track and focus the team’s efforts on the task of gathering requirements, and a recorder to capture requirements (this is similar to brainstorming). Analyst participation in the workshops ensures that the requirements collected will be feasible and will not cost unreasonably in terms of development time or effort. Another advantage of having the analysts on the shop floor will be their ability to offer alternatives that can address the same needs at a lower cost.

Website design By BotEap.comJAD will work in the same situations where brainstorming is appropriate, and like brainstorming, it will require the team to be co-located.

Website design By BotEap.comSurveys The survey is the same approach as the interview, except that the surveys can be conducted remotely. Information that requested stakeholders will need to enable them to express their needs for your project should be communicated early enough to allow them to respond intelligently. You must provide a response deadline to ensure that you receive responses by the planned completion date, and you will need to perform the analysis, collection, and alignment of responses yourself. The survey will also require you to communicate the results of the survey to your stakeholders (similar to the interview technique).

Website design By BotEap.comThis technique is appropriate when the stakeholder group being solicited is geographically dispersed, or the number of stakeholders being solicited is too large to employ the interview technique. The technical survey allows you to collect requirements from a large number of interested parties without the overhead of interviewing. Be careful: to achieve any degree of success with this method, you will need to impress upon your stakeholders the importance of your response.

Website design By BotEap.comGraphic script

Website design By BotEap.comStoryboarding is a means of capturing requirements on a graphic display rather than text. It borrows from the entertainment industry, where the technique was first used in the production of cartoons.

Website design By BotEap.comUsing storyboards to capture requirements involves the recorder drawing screens on an easel or whiteboard. The screens will contain all the information that will be displayed on the screen, as well as the input fields needed to collect information. The storyboard is used in a workshop setting with a facilitator and a recorder. The facilitator and recorder will begin the session by creating a screen to express the first major need. This could be a login screen or some other screen that captures a critical function. The original screen can trigger subsequent screens to complete the function. For example, the first order entry screen may capture information common to each order and require subsequent screens to capture information that is unique to different types of orders, for example, one screen for each software order, one computer order, and one order. operation manual request. . The storyboard will develop the screens as the group navigates through each feature or requirement.

Website design By BotEap.comSince the storyboard can only capture a few states for each screen, it is important that the recorder captures the different states each screen can be in and the behavior of the screen on different inputs (how errors are handled, how error information is checked). entrance, etc…).

Website design By BotEap.comAn advantage of storyboards is their ability to define the screens that will be a key feature of the application and gain consensus in a group setting for the appearance of each screen. This method is appropriate when the application being developed is GUI-based or for web sites. It is also appropriate to locate the requested stakeholders so that they can participate in the workshop. It will not be appropriate when the stakeholders are geographically dispersed or the application being developed is not based on a GUI.