I've been blogging lately about a couple of topics pertaining to 'agile' methods. Along those lines, I wanted to consider one suggested practice that I think is worth reflecting on, that is; the treatment of NFRs (non-functional requirements) as stories. Let's draw back for a moment. Regardless of process approach, be it traditional or agile, po...

I know you are going to call me crazy, but I just have to let everyone know.  Machines are controlling us.  Don’t say I didn’t warn you.  You don’t believe me?  Okay, I’ll explain. People come and go in organizations.  Systems tend to stay much longer.  Simple enough right?  Here is the kicker.  When that sy...

A lot of our clients bring us in to fix their requirements issues. Based on the literature a lot of what you see about requirements is geared towards making sure that you write a requirement in the correct way – measurable, testable, traceable and atomic.  Our experience with many Fortune 500 companies leads to a different issue being the most...

Its being held in Sydney Australia September 27th- October 1st 2010.If you are attending this conference don’t miss out on the  Requirements Engineering Education and Training Workshop that is taking place September 28th. Do you want to broaden your skills? Learn new techniques?  This is the workshop for you. This workshop will add...

A “What If” question for business analysts and IT professionals… What if it suddenly became very easy for someone to do both your job and their own, at the same time? If history provides any forecast for the future of IT, we are likely to see some interesting changes in the way human capital is managed – especially for those of us involved in the...

  This model is provided by Don Firesmith of SEI.  Note the lack of an NFR category. More

We have been struggling with what to include in a Business Requirements Document concerning reports. Because our BRD is more or less a contract between the client and our IT department, the greater the detail in this document the longer the time to obtain signoff. There are always modifications that are deemed necessary before signoff can happen. O...

Requirement Writing for Product Management

The 5th edition of the Carnival of Business Analysts has been published at Better Projects. This edition is focused on Requirements Analysis.   This is a series of blog posts that collect other blog posts on topics themed around the BABOK knowledge areas. Edition 5 is on Requirements Analysis.   Previous editions include Loo...