Requirements

Functional requirements: Functional requirements are those which are related to the technical functionality of the system.

-Formality guide:

Rabbit project:- 

• Have short duration
• Scenarios can be used to make decisions
• Needs detailed requirements

Horse project:- 

• Consistent requirements needed
• precise
• understanding functional requirements

Elephant project:- 

• complete specification
• requirement specification
• Long-term project

-Description and Rationale: So description is like a solution to the problem and rationale makes the need visible in a correct manner to indicate how much attention the requirement should get.

-Exceptions and alternatives: So the unwanted deviations caused due to errors are called exceptions and alternatives are like other options available rather than the one mentioned.

Non-Functional Requirements: It specifies the criteria that can be used to judge the operation of a system in particular condition rather than specific behavior.

-look and feel requirement: this requirement describes the intended mood, style and appearance of the product. A BA must consider the look and feel requirement. Typical look and feel requirement is simple to use, approachable, professional looking, attractive, consistent, innovative and cool.

-Usability and humanity requirement: usability means the ease of using the product or a product that should not be hard to use. In other words to make the product according to the users ability and expectation.

-Performance requirement: this requirement consider these aspects speed, accuracy, volumes, ranges, efficiency.

- Operational and environmental: operational requirement describes that what the product has to do in the environment where it will be used. this requirement cover issues like location of the product, setting for the user, collaborating system.

-Maintainability and support requirement: This requirement should consider organization, laws, business rules, environment, language and culture. It is like a contract to build the product.

-Security requirement: may need a security expert to help deal with protection from threats. Security can thought of having three aspects access, privacy, integrity, data confidentiality.

-Legal requirements: Be aware of any laws that apply to the product. The laws includes consumer protection, guarantee, consumer credit, privacy, freedom of information, data protection.

Tools and Techniques to Generate Requirements

Reusable Requirements

Reusable requirements are documentation or models that can be used for future references. Furthermore, some projects have a similar baseline when tackling each phase. Rather than creating new requirements. We can reuse the old data and saves us time and money.

Prototypes and Sketches

Prototyping and sketches are a well broad-spectrum. Testing multiple requirements is a part of a more detailed process for producing a product. Furthermore, stated in the book, a product can be sketched, and later be reversed, engineer. For a better product

Mind Maps

Mind maps is a diagram used to visually organize information. Normally it shows a relationship between the pieces of the whole idea. It is often created around a single concept and branches out giving information.

Six Thinking Hats

Is a designed system that allows six different perspectives associated with the product. These points of views can be managing, information, emotion, discernment, optimistic response and creativity.

The Murder Book

The murder book is a list of documents. That holds case studies of a previous project. The book may contain information on how a project failed or best practices that can be used. Moreover, the book encapsulates complete information, from the first documentation through the lessons learned.

Difference between Alternatives and Exceptions in Scenario template

Actually, the difference is very easy to explain

 An Exception is anything that leads to NOT achieving the use case’s goal rather unwanted variations in the business use case.

An Alternatives is a step or a sequence of steps that achieves the use case’s goal following different steps which ultimately leads to accomplishment of the goal.

In our IBM event which was more focused on giving information to all the participating stakeholders we discuss about the Cognitive era which was an alternate approach adopted by IBM

Brown cow model

It is a way of reducing the complexity of systems modelling by dividing the model’s viewpoints. For example, the business analyst needs to separate the current view of the system from the future. Additionally, he or she must be able to demonstrate a technological view of the system, along with the technologically-agnostic essential view. 

Brown Cow model gives us the clear view point of the system. Business Analyst will predict the future problems based on the current situation and then will make future business essential policies to improve the current scenario.

Trawling for business requirements

Scope, Stakeholders, Goals

The Scope basically includes the information the people who do it, influence it, or know about it; and the outcome that those people are trying to achieve.Most projects start with scope, but it is not obligatory—you use whatever information is to hand first.

The next part of three-folds is Stakeholders. Stakeholders include anyone with an interest in, or an effect on, the outcome of the product. The owner is the most obvious stakeholder, other than that the consumers of the product are also the stakeholders they have an interest in having a product that does their work correctly.

Then the Goal can be defined as anything that a company desires to achieve rather its monetary or a physical goal. It is also important for the employees of the company so that they know what they need to achieve.

Difference between Sponsor and a customer

Sponsor is the person who pays for the product. On the simple basis that “money talks,” the sponsor, by paying for the development, has the final say in what that product does, how it does it, and how elaborate or how sparse it must be. In other words, the sponsor is the ultimate arbiter of which product will yield the optimal value.

Customer is the person who buys the product once it is ready to use. company needs to produce something valuable for their customers so that they can buy the products for their own use or for others.

Business Use Case

It is basically an external view of the situation. It consists scenarios for discussing the current and future situations of the company with the stakeholders of the company. Also, the case includes the approach used in the project i.e. rabbit, horse or elephant approach. 

Product Use Case

To make the product use case we need to have the business use case first.Because product use case is derived through business use case, so they both are quiet similar. The PUC describes the functionality of the product. The part of the BUC that the customers or the stakeholders agree will be carried forward to make an end product.

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Scenarios
It is basically a written outline or template of the activities to be performed. A template may include:

• Business event
• BUC name and event
• Trigger
• Preconditions
• Interested stakeholders
• Active stakeholders
• Normal case
• Alternatives
• Exception steps
• Outcome.

Project Blastoff

Project Blastoff

Project Blastoff is basically how to start up a project from a Business Analyst perspective. 
Also known as the project kick off, initiation or launch.

What do needs relate to?
Needs relate to increasing revenue, minimizing costs or improvising service and processes.

Why is there a project Blastoff?
To start the process by meeting to identify the work area, the purpose of the project and the stakeholders.


Purpose of the Project

To determine the purpose of the project the Business Analyst must understand what the project will achieve.

Done so by determining the project scope, stakeholders, constraints, estimated costs and risks.


Formality Guide

To start a project you must take account of the size of the project, the different sizes are:

Rabbit Projects: The project is short and brief, led by a brief meeting with a project work that can even be pinned to the wall and the scope is clear and briefly documented.

Horse Projects: Projects that take more than 6 months and have multiple stakeholders. It would need a start up meeting with deliverables recorded, distributed and communicated to the right people.

Elephant Projects: Projects are complex that have lengthy formal meetings. The documentations is detailed and signed off, making a risk analyst to review all the deliverables is also important. Sometimes more than one meeting required.