Understanding Requirements - Requirements Engineering and Management for Software Development Projects - page 25

In a new product—non-existent in the market—This is a scenario in which a
completely new product, the type which is not existing in the market is contem-
plated. In this scenario, the requirements are evolved as follows:
1. Idea germination—Here, the entrepreneur or the product manager germinates
an idea based on his/her observations of the needs of the target market and
perceives a need for a product that can fulfill the unfulfilled needs of target
customers. In a large organization, there could be a few product managers and
all of them could come up with new product ideas. It is stated that it takes about
eight serious ideas to get one product idea to be approved and built. Not all
approved ideas are successful and not all dropped ideas are bad ideas.
Remember Chester Carlson was turned down for 5 years by organizations such
as IBM and GE when he approached them for his idea on Xerox machines?
This approved idea is the first phase in the evolution of requirements for
developing new product the kind of which is non-existent in the market.
2. Brainstorming—Brainstorming is a technique in which experts in the subject
at hand gather in an informal meeting and give a free rein to their imagination.
All ideas expressed are recorded for later analysis which would shortlist ideas
that are worthy of pursuing. In requirements management, all desirable product
features are enumerated by the brainstorming, which are then sifted and feasible
ones are culled. These form the initial requirements for the product.
3. Market/customer/consultant surveys—Now the initial requirements are tes-
ted using a market survey. Various methods of market survey are available and
an appropriate one would be selected and used. The market survey would
validate the initial requirements and usually adds a few more requirements.
These requirements would be further validated by experts drawn from the
market, consultants or academia using personal interviews.
4. Personal interviews—Personal interviews are conducted with selected experts
who may be marketers, product designers, support staff, consumers, consultants
or academics. The requirements finalized by the market surveys would be
discussed with them for two purposes. One—to validate the requirements;
two—to add to the requirements. This is the final step before attempting to
design a prototype and go to market again to validate the product.
5. Prototype and demos—After the requirements are validated through personal
interviews, normally a prototype of the product would be built. Prototypes are
discussed in greater detail in Chap. 3 . Now these prototypes are shown to
prospective customers, and experts in the field. Their feedback is taken, eval-
uated and requirements are updated. This is the final step in the evolution of
requirements.
6. Freeze requirements—Freezing the requirements involves documenting the
requirements conforming to organizations standards and subjecting further
changes to the rigor of configuration control and change management. The
frozen requirements are then used to carry out full scale product design and
development of the product and introducing it into the market. Normally, the