- A process by which analysts gather information on what the system should do, from as many sources as possible.
- All methods are effective but some are more efficient than others.
- Different methods can be combined for more comprehensive fact-finding.
Characteristics of good Analysts
Impertinence ⇒ question everything, assume nothing Impartiality ⇒ find the best solution to the business problem Relax ⇒ constraints assume anything is possible but eliminate the infeasible Attention ⇒ to detail be precise, comprehensive, and consistent ReFraming ⇒ be creative and “think outside the box”
Stakeholders
- Internal stakeholders — people within the organisation, e.g., employees, volunteers, ….
- External stakeholders — people outside the organisation, e.g., suppliers or shipping companies.
- Operational stakeholders — people who regularly interact with the system, e.g., accountants, factory supervisors, customers, ….
- Executive stakeholders — people who don’t directly interact, but use the information or have a financial interest, e.g., senior managers, board of directors, regulatory authorities, ….
Information Gathering
- Existing Information
- Interview and discussions
- Observew and document business process
- Prototypes
- Questoinnaires
- Vendor Solutions
Validation of Requirements
- Make sure gathered information is correct.
- Structured walk-through:
- effective way to implement quality control early in project
- verify and validate system requirements
- review of findings from investigation
- review of models based on findings
- Project manager responsible for system quality.
- Schedule review soon after document creation.
- Review conducted by experienced analyst and stakeholders, presented by analyst.
Requirements in Agile Methodologies
- Requirements should be decoupled:
- must be as independent as possible
- identify which requirements to implement not when to implement them
- Every iteration includes a requirements collection and prioritisation activity: