Part one – What would you like sir
Part two – Requirements,tests, training, help files
Part three – Why no project exists onin isolation-whwat should be done
Part four – Business rules, Process rules, Process, Data, different viewpoints
Part five – Testing requirements is not optional
Part six -Requirements strategy can make or break your project
Yes you read it right. If you are one of those people who believes that testing begins when the supplier drops the system in your lap, then you have missed the point entirely. Testing starts when you build a business case and you test it to make sure that the solution is feasible and the figures are sound etc.
The next important test comes when the requirements are deemed to be complete.
Here’s the summary of a good requirements definition. Depending on the size of the project this could be one document or one per viewpoint. The thing that is important is that the right problems have been addressed and the problems have been identified and described clearly to the suppliers or developers in a way that makes it easy for them to get it right first time.
Business case — Tested via a Business case review, or Stage gate review.
User requirements – Tested via user and stakeholder review. (The problem)
Functional requirements – Describe the functionality that the system will provide in order to meet user requirements. (The solution)
Non Functional requirements – Describe all the constraints like speed of operation, reliability etc.
Data requirements – Describe in detail the inputs and outputs of the system and cover both the validation of human input and the specification of machine interfaces
Business Process – Describe the time phased rules that govern how the business goes about achieving it’s goal with the system.
Business case review
Has the scope expanded, or the costs changed, or has the timeline been impacted in such a way to negatively impact the business case?
Has the level of complexity shed any doubt on the organisation’s ability to deliver?
Does the business case still stack up?
Business process review
- Do the processes join up to deliver a result
- Does each process receive the required inputs
- Do they handle all exceptions sufficiently
- Are processes efficient
- Will new processes deliver the expected benefits
- Are the risks managed
- Are the assumptions sound
User requirement review
- The aim is to discover problems like ambiguous requirements, missing requirements, inconsistent requirements
- Check against process models to ensure that nothing has been missed.
- Check against the ten commandments
Functional requirement review
- Traceability to user requirements
- Design agnostic
- Achievable
- Complete
Non functional requirement review
- Measurable
- Explainable
- Traceable to a business requirement
Data requirements review
- Complete
- Clear definition of types, mandatory fields, sizes,
Prioritisation of functional requirements
Armed with best guess estimates of time, cost, risk and benefits, prioritise them on a numerical scale or a scale like MoSCoW
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