The Requirements Process

 

At its simplest, the requirements process consists of ten steps :

  1. Identifying the stakeholders

 Who has a valid interest here?

Ian Alexander speaking about the Requirements Process

 

Requirements Process Templates

 

 

  1. Discovering their goals
     

 What do the stakeholders want?
This corresponds roughly to traditional "user requirements", which however are often far too full of solutions.

  1. Defining the system context

Where does this fit in?

  1. Describing wanted behaviour

 How do we want it to behave?

  1. Capturing required qualities and constraints

 How well must it perform? In what ways?

  1. Recording the rationale and assumptions

 Why have we decided on this?

  1. Defining the technical terms used

 What do these terms mean?

  1. Specifying verifiable measurements

 How will we know we have got what we asked for?
This corresponds to traditional "The system shall..." requirements written as individually testable "atomic" statements. It depends on knowledge from the other steps of the process.

  1. Trading-off solution options against goals

Which is the best solution?

  1. Setting practical priorities for the project.

 What do we need most or first?

Not all of these steps are necessary in every case. The process must always be tailored to the needs of the organisation, and the individual project. I aim to guide you to the simplest possible process that works for your business.

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It isn't that they can't see the solution. It is that they can't see the problem.
G. K. Chesterton