Requirements

GUIDELINES - How to use this forum!

ModernAnalyst.com — 2007-06-22T18:01:02Z

Use this forum for discussions of topics related to requirements, including but not limited to: - skills and techniques for gathering requirements, - methods, tools, and templates for documenting and organizing requirements, - skills and best practices for analyzing and verifying requirements.

Essential Skills and Tools for Effective Business Analysis

Daw22 — 2024-07-30T08:53:28Z

Business analysis is a crucial field that helps organizations improve processes, make informed decisions, and drive growth. As businesses increasingly rely on data and technology, the skills and tools used by business analysts have become more sophisticated. Here’s a look at some essential skills and tools that are currently trending in top search results. Key Skills for Business Analysts Analytical Thinking: The ability to interpret and analyze data to make informed decisions is fundamental. Business analysts must be adept at identifying trends, patterns, and insights from various data sources. Communication Skills: Clear and effective communication is essential for conveying findings and recommendations to stakeholders. Business analysts must be able to present complex information in a comprehensible manner. Problem-Solving Abilities: Business analysts often face complex problems that require innovative solutions. Strong problem-solving skills help in identifying the root cause of issues and developing actionable solutions. Technical Proficiency: Familiarity with technical tools and software is crucial. This includes knowledge of databases, programming languages, and data visualization tools. Top Tools for Business Analysis Microsoft Excel: A staple in data analysis, Excel offers powerful functions for data manipulation, analysis, and visualization. Its versatility makes it a top search tool for business analysts. Tableau: Known for its data visualization capabilities, Tableau helps analysts create interactive and shareable dashboards. It’s frequently searched by those looking to present data insights effectively. Power BI: Microsoft’s Power BI provides robust business analytics and visualization features. It integrates with various data sources and is popular for generating comprehensive reports. SQL: Structured Query Language (SQL) is essential for managing and querying databases. Proficiency in SQL is highly sought after and commonly featured in top search results related to business analysis tools. JIRA: Used for project management and tracking, JIRA helps business analysts manage and track project requirements and progress, making it a valuable tool in the business analysis toolkit. The field of business analysis is constantly evolving, and staying updated with the latest skills and tools is crucial for success. As demonstrated by their frequent appearance in top search results, tools like Microsoft Excel, Tableau, Power BI, SQL, and JIRA are essential for business analysts looking to enhance their capabilities and deliver impactful results. By mastering these skills and leveraging these tools, business analysts can effectively drive organizational success and stay ahead in a competitive landscape.

Acceptance Criteria in User Stories

pramodh555 — 2023-07-24T02:06:53Z

What's the best format to use when writing Acceptance Criteria in User stories that suit both Devs and testers?

Difference between a Testing Acceptance Criteria and Requirement Acceptance Criteria

MadiMo — 2019-05-01T07:31:19Z

Hello, I am having a confusion between the practical definition of a Requirement, Requirement Acceptance Criteria and the Testing Acceptance Criteria. I understand what each definition means, however, an acceptance criteria to me re-states the workflow that must be followed to consider a user story done, for example: This is a user story that says As a content editor, I would like to update the content of my product, so that I keep the customers aware of the latest special offers. The Requirement Acceptance Criteria could be: Ensure the content owner is able to : Log in to the Content Management System Edit the current price Set up the offer timeframe However, such acceptance criteria does re-instate the Functionality Workflow, does not it? In that case what is the difference between this and a Requirement? Other people would say that an acceptance criteria for this feature is simply as this: Ensure that 8 out of 10 users are capable to edit the product details in less 4 click interaction. So which one is the best written acceptance criteria? Do you write it based on the Testing View or the Requirement View? Many Thanks for your kind advice

So much focus on use cases & user stories

boliver228 — 2024-04-09T07:27:26Z

Something I have been struggling to wrap my head around is a conceptual structure for all the different kinds of requirements that could feature on a software project. Go to any renowned resource on BA skills and you will typically see the discussion of business requirements, user requirements, functional non-functional requirements. To understand document the user requirements, it is almost ubiqitously recommended to use techniques such as process modelling, use cases or user stories. This makes sense,to a degree, because an obvious place to start is what do the users actually need to be able to do with the solution. But where this falls down in my mind is that systems may need to do many things that are not a user 'doing something' via a user interface. For example it may need to send a 'leave a review' email to customers one month after their order dispatch date. In fact, I've worked on multiple projects where there are no human users at all, and the system just exchanges data with other software systems and executes workflow (and I refuse to go down the semantic rabbit hole of saying systems are people, or the people the pay for the system are still users etc.). I guess what I'm driving at is that a lot of the existing resources/literature seems to focus so heavily on what the user needs to do - considering their processes and the tasks they perform. But that's only part of the reality of building software. I'm keen to understand where people start or what conceptual framework they use to approach requirements which have nothing to do with a user actuallly doing something. Or where they'd start on a project for a system which didn't even have human users. Also a side question - given the rise of agile, how do people reconcile use cases with user stories. Has anyone had success using use case approach on a scrum project, for example? The two seem to be wildly different techniques in terms of scope, but people often talk about them as though they are achieving the same thing.

Market Research on Business Analysis - Focus on Requirements Engineering

indykaurbansal — 2024-04-30T12:30:43Z

Hello All, I'm currently conducting some market research on Business Analysis with a focus on Requirements Engineering to assist me with my studies. It's a short 7 question anonymous questionnaire. Link to the questionnaire: https://bit.ly/4aWexoM Thank You

Compare CRM vs new development

Dirk D — 2010-03-31T13:50:37Z

Hi, For a new requirement, my boss is convinced that we can use MS CRM. I'm not so convinced, and think that a custom development can better suit the needs. What document templates exists that I can professionaly score both options to my managemnet? Thanks

Requirements Capture and Organisation

M Singh — 2016-08-17T13:47:19Z

Hi I am starting off as a BA, and a core part of my role (initially) will be capturing requirements and documenting them. I was just wondering if there are any templates which can be used to document these requirements in a logical manner which can then be used within a RTM (Requirements Traceability Matrix). Secondly, I will be doing some As-Is and To-Be diagrams, what is the best way to document these? Any document templates to highlight key points for discussion Thanks

Lean Software Development Methodology and Principles

Baliar — 2022-12-14T09:48:59Z

The success of an IT project depends on the approach you select when developing it. Companies that prefer conservative methods are more likely to fail. The first reason is that they try to keep the project within boundaries agreed upon and avoid changes during the working process. The second is centralized decision-making. Both make tasks slow and inflexible. Is there any alternative? Implementing lean software development (LSD) accelerates the achievement of goals set. In this article, we will look at the features of this approach and its benefits.

Requirements management tools

opposer — 2023-08-24T13:16:06Z

Hi. We use simple confluence pages for requirements documenting - create a page for each jira story and write requirements on it, put anchors on pages, link them to each other. It's very hard to get a requirements baseline this way or to determine behavior of the latest version of the product. We want to integrate requirements management tool into our working process. I was surprise when found out that there is super-little information about these tools on the internet, youtube etc. What tool would we better consider? Is there a way to get some description of its features, try some trial access etc? It would be great to try the demo version of this tool before purchasing it. thank you

Requirements engineering survey

kfregene — 2023-08-17T13:41:14Z

I'm currently working on a research project in the Ubiversity of Plymouth and need some input on a short survey. Its completely anonymous and won't take more than a few minutes. I'll really value your input. Please follow link to take survey on Google forms: https://forms.gle/auvgBgiZWdVRHKDM9

Agile Requirements Mystery

MadiMo — 2023-06-26T17:37:57Z

Dear Experts. I'm new to the Agile approach, I only had one small project using agile. I started to look into materials but I got confused by one fact and I hope if someone can help. It says the requirements approach during agie is that you only care for the what you need for each sprint and you define the requirements for that sprint, which is fine. But for the development phase, we all know that user stories are not enough, so for you to ';Define Requirements'; for that sprint you basically will have no time to break down the user story into detailed functional requirement because to do this you need to go back to your stakeholders to define what they need exactly from that requirement, for both functional or nonfunctional.. The question here how will you find time to do those requirements definitions sessions when you are actually heading into a sprint? especially when you don't need to do requirements catalouge before the development in Agile like what you do in Waterfall. I appreciate your opinions. Madi

Health plans prepare edge servers for HIX

JSmith — 2013-06-21T02:31:51Z

Hello, I just jooined an Insurance Company as a Business System Analyst. I am new in the field so I seek an advice from experts here. Most of you will be aware that health plans have to set up edge servers for data sharing with the Centers for Medicare Medicaid Services. I have been given the responsibility to gather requirements, prepare BRD and FRD for this project. As this is my first project as a Business Analyst, I am very confused on how to start on this. Please help me..... JSmith

Role Modelling for an RBAC Project

Ged Dunn — 2023-02-03T16:59:24Z

I am currently planning a RBAC implementation and in particular want to start designing my approach to engage with the business to gather requirements. I was planning on using 'https://csrc.nist.gov/publications/detail/sp/800-171/rev-2/final' rel='noopener' target='_blank'>SP 800-171 Rev. 2, Protecting CUI in Nonfederal Systems and Organizations | CSRC (nist.gov) but would be interested in any community views on driving strong engagement from the business, promoting understanding and ownership and what templates or best practices might be available to capture the data. Questions that occurr: 1. I can imagine that the natural tendency would be to align roles to current organisation and people: HR Manager/HR User etc. However, I wonder if there can be any more innovative approaches with using a core: Standard User + Standard Manager + HR Overlay type approaches 2. Has anyone any experience with setting up central Active Directory groups representing roles and using that to inherit access to multiple appliations. So HR Manager gets you HR privs in Dynamics, and Power BI etc. Can anyone point me at any alternative perspectives or taxonomies that could help us explore other options? All observations welcome! Thanks! Gerald

How to give Nonfunctional Requirements the right mark

MadiMo — 2021-07-12T07:03:55Z

Hi all I was just thinking in the development world, most of the focus I see goes to the functionla requirements, I understand the nonfunctional ones are important. I had an example of a cash machine, for example a nonfunctional requirement would be further to the approval of a cash withdrawal, the machine shall dispense cash in 5 seconds. As this is a nonfunctional requirement, I see it needs to be highlighted with a main focus to the developers, because it is integral to the client satisfaction, but is there a way to keep a bigger influence of these nonfunctional requirements, maybe to shape it as an acceptance criteria? if so, how will you re-write it? Many thanks, Madi

What Comes First - Requirements or UX/UI Design?

Stewart F — 2022-02-07T22:10:59Z

I am a Head of a BA Team and we are working with a new client. The client wants us to work their way, which is different to how we normally do. Thats not a problem, as every now and then Clients ask for this. The project is to design a new digital website for an eCommerce platform. Again we have done plenty of these. Normally we work in a triangle where you work in this order: 1. High level requirements - User Stories have enough information for Designers to understand what is requried but NOT solutionising. User Stories are not at this stage enough for developers to beuld from as they will require all CTA buttons/links etc to be lsited and where they go to or data is retrieved from (these will be listed out in the third stage). 2. Design start work - They build the design and I get that signed off by the stakeholders 3 User Stories are completed - based on the lower level more precise detail - inlcuding listing out all CTA buttons, linksand any shown data etc. The client though wants us to work with requirements being gathered in full first, but not solutionising (i.e.saying exactly how the design should look). The Design team of UX/Ui designers then create the design of how it will actually look and work based on all of the detail in the User Story. Developers will then work from those User Stories. It's a subtle difference but how do you write the User Story requirements/Acceptence Criteria without solutionising? If you don't get Design invovled at that stage (which we aren't allowed to) then I dont see how you can write your User Stories without solutionising?

Effective ways to write complex business rules.

Carl3000 — 2023-03-10T22:57:19Z

In our org, we have a bunch of systems with business rules but are so complex and documented as a set of conditionals and endless if conditions. What are some effecttive ways to write better, more effective and readable business rules? Will, for instance, decision tables be a better way? Thank you in advance!

How to manage large numbers of requirements?

Rick22 — 2023-02-10T09:21:36Z

Hello, I am new to analysis and i'm reading about requirements. At the moment i am working on a video game for a friend and want to formalize the processes a bit so that we can manage it more effectively. The problem we have is that, for the game, there are potentially hundreds of requirements to do with gameplay, scenes, storylines.etc. Does anyone know how I can go about organizing the requirements so that we can handle them easier? Thanks, - R

Software Development Methodology and Principles

Harsh78 — 2023-01-05T05:57:31Z

Software development is a methodology based on the principles of the Lean manufacturing process, which Toyota developed. Poor software development aims to maximize value and minimize waste in the software development process. Several principles underpin Lean software development: Respect for people: All team members should be treated with respect and allowed to contribute their ideas and knowledge. Continuous improvement: Lean software development involves continuously looking for ways to improve the software development process and the software itself. Just-in-time delivery: Lean software development focuses on delivering value to the customer as quickly as possible rather than working on long-term projects that may provide little value. Elimination of waste: Lean software development aims to eliminate waste in all forms, including overproduction, unnecessary steps in the process, and defects in the software. Focus on value: Lean software development focuses on delivering value to the customer and maximizing the value of the software to the user. Flow: Lean software development aims to create a smooth flow of work through the development process, with minimal disruptions or delays. Pull-based development: Rather than pushing work through the development process, Lean software development uses a pull-based approach, where work is started only when needed. By following these principles, organizations can improve the efficiency and effectiveness of their software development process and deliver higher-quality software to their customers.

What's the correct term for 'dependent selections'?

JK34 — 2022-10-12T13:39:05Z

Apologies, that's a poor description. But what's the correct term for specifying that when a user has selected the correct option at one level, the sub level options that are displayed are only those that are relevant for what has been selected. So, if there are two selections to be made: Food type and food item (say), and the structure is like this: Food type Food item Meat Beef Lamb Fish Cod Plaice Vegetables Potatoes Cabbage And the user should be able to select the food type and then only be shown the food item relevant for that selection...... what is the term / description for that, please?