Mastering the Requirements Process

One of the joys of product development, whether it be software, service, or hardware, is getting it right. The way to get it right is to uncover the real business problem, and to write the requirements for the solution that best solves that problem. Without the right requirements it is impossible to build the right solution. Mastering the Requirements Process, Fourth Edition, gives you an industry-proven process for getting to the essence of the business problem and then writing unambiguous and testable requirements for its solution. This fourth edition is an almost complete rewrite that brings requirements discovery into today's world--it is the book for today's business analyst. Product owners and project leaders will also find it valuable as it explains how to discover precisely what the customer needs and wants, and to do it effectively in any business or project environment. The book tells you how to: - Use the Volere requirements process to discover requirements in both traditional and agile environments - Incorporate off-the-shelf (OTS) solutions into your requirements discovery - Use artificial intelligence (AI) as part of your requirements discovery, and as part of your business solution - Use quickly sketched prototypes to explore the problem space - Understand functional and non-functional requirements - Write better agile stories - Make your requirements and stories measurable and testable using fit criteria - Use business events as the heartbeat of business analysis - Discover requirements in agile, commercial, and milspec project environments - Find and prioritize your customer segments - Leverage systems thinking when discovering requirements - Use story maps and other requirements repository techniques - Know which trawling techniques are the most effective for requirements discovery - Synchronize your requirements discovery with agile development teams - Make better decisions in the early days of a project to increase your chances of success - Employ the Volere requirements specification template (downloaded 10,000+ times) as the basis for your own requirement specifications "One of the most valuable things about this book is that it provides a process to follow that will get people asking the right questions and expand their perspective on the problem." --Kevin Brennan Register your book for convenient access to downloads, updates, and/or corrections as they become available. See inside book for details.

James Robertson and Suzanne Robertson are two of the most respected names in business analysis and requirements discovery. During the Robertsons' careers, their books, templates, training, and consulting have helped hundreds of companies to upgrade their requirements discovery process. The Robertsons have written numerous books, among others the three previous editions of this book, Business Analysis Agility, and with their co-authors at the Atlantic Systems Guild, the acclaimed Adrenaline Junkies and Template Zombies. James and Suzanne live in London and France.

Foreword xxiii Preface xxv Acknowledgments xxvii About the Authors xxix Part I: Requirements Are the Root of Everything 1 Chapter 1: Requirements Fundamentals 3 Requirements Fundamental 1 3 Requirements Fundamental 2 3 Requirements Fundamental 3 4 Requirements Fundamental 4 5 Requirements Fundamental 5 5 Requirements Fundamental 6 6 Requirements Fundamental 7 6 Requirements Fundamental 8 7 Requirements Fundamental 9 7 Chapter 2: Your Requirements Arena 9 A Requirements Process 9 Review 16 Part II: Project Blastoff 19 Chapter 3: Understand the Real Problem 23 The Problem 24 The Real Business Problem 25 The Goal Statement 28 Review 30 Resources 31 Chapter 4: The Value of Solving the Problem 33 What Does Your Customer Value? 33 Receiving Value 37 Review 39 Resources 39 Chapter 5: Goals-Scope-Stakeholders 41 Goals 42 Scope 45 A Presumed Solution 52 The Context Diagram 53 Stakeholders 57 Review 63 Resources 64 Chapter 6: Customer Segments 65 Customers and Their Segments 65 Personas 68 Prioritizing the Customer Segments 71 Review 73 Resources 73 Chapter 7: Business Events 75 Understanding the Work 76 What Are Business Events? 77 Why Business Events Are a Good Idea 82 Finding the Business Events 82 Ready-made Solutions 84 Review 86 Resources 86 Chapter 8: Prioritizing the Business Events 87 Priority, Priority, Priority 87 Estimating Effort 89 Prioritization Factors 91 Approval Voting 93 Business Analysis Planning 93 Review 94 Resources 95 Chapter 9: To Go or Not to Go? 97 The Likelihood of a Successful Project 98 Ready-made Solutions 101 Develop the Business Case 101 To Go or Not to Go 106 An Agile Approach to Blastoff 107 Review 109 Resources 109 Part III: Prototyping for Requirements 111 Chapter 10: Generating Sacrificial Candidate Solutions 115 Multiple Candidates 115 Review 118 Resources 118 Chapter 11: Prototypes, Prototypes, Prototypes 119 Types of Prototypes 119 Review 130 Resources 130 Chapter 12: Ready-Made Solutions 131 Prototyping with Ready-Made Solutions 131 Choosing Ready-Made Solutions 136 Review 139 Resources 140 Chapter 13: Creative Candidate Solutions 141 Creative Triggers 141 Lateral Thinking 148 Removing Constraints 148 Combination 150 Review 150 Resources 150 Chapter 14: Probing and Exploring the Candidates 153 Probing 153 Exploring 157 Double-Loop Learning 161 Review 164 Resources 165 Chapter 15: Using Prototypes as the Specification 167 The Prototype as the Specification 168 What to Do with the Prototype 169 Evolutionary and Sacrificial Prototypes 171 Review 172 Part IV: Trawling for Requirements 173 Chapter 16: The Essence of the Problem 177 The Problem 177 Abstraction 178 Essence 178 Ask Why-Again, and Again, and Again 180 Referred Pain 182 Disguised Problems 183 Review 184 Resources 185 Chapter 17: Business Events and Business Use Cases 187 Business Events 187 The Business Use Case 190 Trawling the BUCs 191 The Desired Future BUC 192 Prototyping and BUCs 193 Describing the BUCs 193 Review 194 Resources 194 Chapter 18: The Brown Cow Model 195 How Now, Brown Cow? 195 How to Use the Brown Cow Model 198 Review 200 Resources 200 Chapter 19: Workshops 201 BUC Workshops 201 Mechanics of a Successful Workshop 203 Review 206 Resources 206 Chapter 20: Scenarios 207 What Is a Scenario? 207 The Essence of the Business 212 Alternatives 215 Exceptions 216 Misuse Cases and Negative Scenarios 218 Review 218 Resources 219 Chapter 21: Stories 221 The Business Event Story 221 Review 230 Resources 230 Chapter 22: Business Process Models 231 Notation 232 Activity Diagrams 233 Data Flow Diagrams 234 Business Events and BUCs 236 When to Use Process Models 238 Review 240 Resources 241 Chapter 23: Stored Data 243 Data Models 243 CRUD Check 250 Review 252 Resources 252 Chapter 24: Other Trawling Techniques 253 Apprenticing 254 Interviewing 255 Business Rules 258 Rich Pictures 260 Creativity Workshops 261 Document Archeology 262 Customer Experience Analysis 264 Review 266 Resources 267 Part V: Writing Good Requirements and Stories 269 Chapter 25: Functional Requirements 271 Uncovering the Functional Requirements 272 Deciding the Solution's Functionality 273 Writing the Requirements 275 The Snow Card 278 Technological Requirements 281 Level of Granularity 281 Conditional Requirements 282 Avoiding Ambiguity 282 Grouping Requirements in Your Specification 284 Requirements for Ready-Made Products 284 Review 285 Resources 285 Chapter 26: Non-functional Requirements 287 PUCs and NFRs 289 Non-functional Requirement Types 290 Look and Feel Requirements: Type 10 291 Usability and Humanity Requirements: Type 11 293 Performance Requirements: Type 12 297 Operational and Environmental Requirements: Type 13 299 Maintainability and Support Requirements: Type 14 300 Security Requirements: Type 15 302 Cultural Requirements: Type 16 306 Compliance Requirements: Type 17 308 Finding the Non-functional Requirements 309 Don't Write a Solution 313 Review 314 Resources 315 Chapter 27: Fit Criteria and Rationale 317 Why Does Fit Need a Criterion? 318 The Rationale for the Rationale 320 Finding Fit Criteria 322 Scale of Measurement 323 Fit Criteria for Non-functional Requirements 324 Fit Criteria for Stories 333 Fit Criteria for Functional Requirements 333 Fit Criterion for Project Purpose 336 Fit Criteria for Solution Constraints 336 Review 337 Resources 338 Chapter 28: Writing Good Stories 339 Business Event Stories 339 Properties of Good Stories 341 INVEST 345 Non-functional Properties 346 Review 347 Resources 348 Chapter 29: Acceptance Criteria 349 Given/When/Then 349 Who Writes the ACs, and When? 352 Review 352 Resources 353 Part VI: Designing Business Solutions 355 Chapter 30: Business Solutions 359 Business Outcomes 360 Review 363 Resources 364 Chapter 31: Determine the Extent of the Automation 365 What Should You Automate? 365 Iterative and Evolutionary Design 367 Prototypes Can Help 368 Architecture 370 Review 371 Resources 372 Chapter 32: Designing Information and Functionality 373 User Experience = Information + Functionality 374 Review 376 Resources 377 Chapter 33: Designing Using Ready-Mades 379 The Request for Proposal 379 Selecting the Best Ready-Made 383 Review 390 Resources 390 Part VII: Requirements Repository 391 Chapter 34: Requirements Specification 395 Structure of the Specification 396 Resources 398 Chapter 35: Story Map 399 The Story Map 399 Growing the Map 403 Enhancing the Map 405 Adding Non-functional Requirements to the Map 406 Prioritizing the Map 408 Using the Map Iteratively 410 Review 411 Resources 412 Chapter 36: Quality Thinking 413 Within Scope? 413 Relevancy 415 Completeness of a Requirement 417 Testing the Fit Criteria 419 Consistent Terminology 420 Viability 421 Requirement or Solution? 422 Value of the Requirement 423 Gold Plating 423 Scope Creep and Your Project 424 Review 426 Resources 427 Chapter 37: Completeness Check 429 Have All Business Events Been Discovered? 430 Define the Business Data 431 CRUD Check 434 Review 436 Resources 436 Chapter 38: Managing Requirements 437 Traceability 437 Tracking Status of Requirements 441 Change Management 443 Review 446 Resources 446 Part VIII: The Conduct of Business Analysis 449 Chapter 39: Your Process 451 Serial or Agile? 451 A Common Language 452 Making It Your Process 453 Review 457 Resources 458 Chapter 40: The Importance of the Early Days 459 Why Do Things Go Wrong? 459 Resources 462 Chapter 41: People 463 Drivers of Human Behavior 463 Review 466 Resources 466 Chapter 42: Systems Thinking 467 Thinking About Systems 467 Ripple Effects 469 External Influences 470 The Wider View 471 Using Data to Find Missing Connections 472 Review 472 Resources 473 Chapter 43: Artificial Intelligence (AI) 475 Using AI for Requirements Discovery 475 AI in Business Processes 478 Review 480 Resources 480 Chapter 44: Learning as You Go 481 Lessons Learned 481 Review 483 Resources 484 Chapter 45: Requirements and Innovation 485 The Value of Innovative Requirements 486 An Innovation Process and Requirements 486 A Culture for Innovation 488 The Sanctity of the Incomplete Idea 490 Innovation and Requirements 491 Resources 492 Appendix A: The Volere Requirements Specification Template 495 Volere 499 Requirement Types 499 Testing Requirements 499 The Snow Card 500 1. The Purpose of the Project 500 2. The Stakeholders 503 3. Constraints 508 4. Naming Conventions and Terminology 515 5. Relevant Facts, Business Rules, and Assumptions 516 6. The Scope of the Work 519 7. Business Data Model and Data Dictionary 524 8. The Scope of the Product 528 9. Functional Requirements 532 Non-functional Requirements 535 10. Look and Feel Requirements 535 11. Usability and Humanity Requirements 536 12. Performance Requirements 542 13. Operational and Environmental Requirements 547 14. Maintainability and Support Requirements 551 15. Security Requirements 553 16. Cultural Requirements 556 17. Compliance Requirements 558 Project Issues 560 18. Open Issues 560 19. Ready-Made Solutions 561 20. New Problems 563 21. Tasks 565 22. Migration to the New Product 566 23. Risks 568 24. Costs 569 25. User Documentation and Training 570 26. Waiting Room 572 27. Ideas for Solutions 572 Appendix B: Stakeholder Management Templates 575 Stakeholder Map 575 Stakeholder Template 577 Appendix C: Volere Requirements Knowledge Model 579 Using the Model 579 Interpreting the Model 579 Example Requirements Knowledge Model 580 Dictionary for Requirements Knowledge Model 581 Knowledge Model Annotated with Template Section Numbers 594 Glossary 595 Bibliography 601 Index 607