Information Technology Reference
In-Depth Information
1.
The requirements are incorrectly or incompletely specified.
2.
The requirements are interpreted wrongly by those building to the
requirements.
It is the joint responsibility of the customer and the analyst to identify
the requirements correctly and capture these in a requirements specifica-
tion, to minimize the chances of incorrect interpretation by themselves,
or by others. As discussed in Chapter 13 on communication, it is the
sender's responsibility, in a communication process, to ensure that the
message is “coded” in a way that reduces the probability of error. Proper
requirements are the cornerstone of successful development.
Requirements for Products and Projects
Successful delivery requires managing two sets of requirements: (1)
product requirements and (2) project requirements. One refers to the
product being delivered, and the other to the requirements of the project
that is delivering the product. Our SEE (Solution, Engineering, and
Execution) framework draws attention to the fact that one must identify
both sets of requirements. Requirements analysts deal with the first set
of requirements. For them, the requirements is about getting specifications
for the design and the development to begin. The bulk of these “business”
or “functional” requirements will come from a few stakeholders. In terms
of resource allocation, it makes sense to devote more time to these
stakeholders. The project manager has to deal with the second set of
requirements. These requirements may come from a wider range of
groups and persons. We can treat them as separate sets of requirements
but must recognize that any successful delivery requires managing both
sets of requirements.
Stakeholders
Who is a stakeholder? A stakeholder is anybody impacted by the appli-
cation when it is being built and when it is rolled out. This is a wide-
ranging definition that includes many parties. These go beyond the “cus-
tomers” who are funding the development, or the “business users” who
are specifying the requirements. The number (and types) of stakeholders
is often more than what a project manager or an analyst normally takes
into consideration while preparing requirements. This variety must be
recognized properly and, according to Ashby's law, be destroyed properly
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