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New Post 3/9/2009 1:07 PM
User is offline David Wright
141 posts
www.iag.biz
7th Level Poster




Re: Business Requirements vs Functional Requirements 

 

"Shouldn't I be eliciting and documenting these specifics?"

Yes, absolutely.

These specifics will be needed, they are specifics about the business, and will be part of Requirements, so capture it all at the beginning so the SME doesn't have to meet with two people to tell about his business twice (that tends to annoy them).

Also, this is prime opportunity to identify business rules separate from other requirements, allowing you the chance to use a BRMS. If coders are asked to get these details, the rules will end up in code (yuchh).

"Are they Business Requirements or are they Functional or System?"

I would class them as Functional Requirements.  Business and System requirements also have varying definitions, but Functionals mean the same thing to most everybody.

"High Level Requirements"

That statement of 'Calculate Sales Tax' is valid requirement statement which, if you call it high or medium level, can be sufficient in certain types of projects;it may be enough, for example, to evaluate software packages. You may also create a set of Requirements at this level of detail to help in scoping or estimating, before heading down to the specifics/details.

 

There you go...

Dave Wright

www.iag.biz

 


David Wright
 
New Post 3/10/2009 4:49 AM
User is offline Craig Brown
560 posts
www.betterprojects.net
4th Level Poster




Re: Business Requirements vs Functional Requirements 
Modified By Craig Brown  on 3/10/2009 6:51:28 AM)

Consider this;

  • To what degree does further analysis save the project team time and money? 
  • Is it more effective for you to do the detailed analysis or would you be a barrier to a clearer conversaton between the developer and the business owner/user?
  • Does the business owner/user have a balanced and holistic view of the requirement or do they need analysis support?
  • Can the developer work this one out without much more documentation?  (Eg there is a set of business rules already published somewhere that you can simply refer to)

In my expereince a comprehensive approach to the high-level requirements goes a lot further towards project success than dwelling too much on the details.  (That's not to say the details don't matter, just that getting the big picture right should be your first priority.)

 
New Post 3/11/2009 9:29 AM
User is offline Tony Markos
493 posts
5th Level Poster


Re: Business Requirements vs Functional Requirements 

Christy:

Craig Brown stated that:

"In my expereince a comprehensive approach to the high-level requirements goes a lot further towards project success than dwelling too much on the details.  (That's not to say the details don't matter, just that getting the big picture right should be your first priority.)"

I agree with him.  As (I think) Yourdon used to say "Analysis should proceed in as top-down-a-fashion as possible - else the analyst will drown in an ocean of detail".  If the analyst first captures all the higher level requirements (and especially their interrelationships), then drilling down into the more detailed requirements is a fairly straight-forward process.   But, without this high-level understanding, requirements gathering tends to be very hit-and-miss, as the analyst will have s a hard time seeing the scope of the system.   So go after the details as needed, just proceed as top-down as possible.

Tony

 

 

 

 

 

 
New Post 8/5/2009 2:46 AM
User is offline Khomotso Komane
2 posts
No Ranking


Re: Business Requirements vs Functional Requirements 

 

Hi there
Your role as a BA is to perform a liaison function between the business side and the technology or service providers to the business. Therefore, your business requirements document must represent the business and it should converse business use(s) requirements to the respective service provider. In essence, it should constitute specification of what the business wants, the purpose of initialising a specific project, what the needed achievement will be and the quality measures. Whilst your functional requirements depict what the system, process, or product must do in order to fulfil the business requirements. In summary, the business requirements document describe what the business requires, and the functional specification document describe detailed  functions for which the system will/may perform.
 
Hope this help!
thanks
K

 

 
New Post 8/6/2009 12:33 AM
User is offline Khomotso Komane
2 posts
No Ranking


Re: Business Requirements vs Functional Requirements 

 

Hi there
Your role as a BA is to perform a liaison function between the business side and the technology or service providers to the business. Therefore, your business requirements document must represent the business and it should converse business use(s) requirements to the respective service provider. In essence, it should constitute specification of what the business wants, the purpose of initialising a specific project, what the needed achievement will be and the quality measures. Whilst your functional requirements depict what the system, process, or product must do in order to fulfil the business requirements. In summary, the business requirements document describe what the business requires, and the functional specification document describe detailed  functions for which the system will/may perform.
 
Hope this help !
thanks
K
 
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