Process Models Bridge the Requirements Gap

Defining business requirements accurately is one of the most important success factors for technology projects.  Rather than focus on solutions that satisfy a list of requirements, we need to focus on solutions that satisfy desired business outcomes.

The best way to achieve this is by performing business process modeling.  Employing a visual model to capture people's roles and derive requirements produces much more effective requirements.  Furthermore, requirements based upon roles lead to higher quality user acceptance, testing and implementations.

Process modeling achieves this by providing a common language for the business and IT, creating a platform to:

• effectively capture requirements from business people in a way they understand
• document how each requirement relates to an actual business process
• communicate how each process relates to a desired business outcome.

A business model unifies requirements gathering into a coherent and managed process. The ability to relate each stage in the process with the stage before it or after it, gives us an auditable account of how technology has satisfied desired outcomes.

Building or buying software is a significant investment.  Tying requirements directly to desired business outcomes with a business process model shows much promise in improving project success rates.

Author: John Forrest, Holocentric Pty Ltd