10 Tips to Gather Business Requirements
| Category: Top 10 Tips | Date: 2003-08-06 |
Definition: Differentiate between client and customer: client is someone who would like your help in creating a product or service for someone; a customer is the person who pays for some service or product.
1. Audience of the document
Three types of recipients of your business proposal are: Organizations Management, client, customer, team members. Each of these has a different focus.
o Management: cost is the important factor - ROI in form of new customers, new projects from existing customers, profit from the project
o Client: how the project will help client gain market share; what you know about the market trends & competition; sharing of costs; time-frames; assumptions of inputs from client, discussions and dialogues between client and his customer(s); what client feels/knows about his market.
o Customer: Benefits possible - how & why the features will give the benefits
o Team members: very specific and detailed Requirements with a lot of technical details - list of assumptions made and why they are valid assumptions
2. Define your Customer profile
Start with image of customer: who he is -- what his needs are -- determine how u can do any of the following for your customer: (a) reduce his pain (b) increase his gain (c) fulfill some need - articulated or as yet unknown: describe the need and how your solution addresses this need; are there any side effects and benefits as a result of fulfilling this need?
3. Who is the product/service aimed at?
Select one of the following:(a) Direct to customer, (b) known client, (c) Unknown client ie. Proposal to be forwarded to a few potential clients - define characteristics of the client
4. Select one of the following (read product as product/service):
(a) Product already exists - to be enhanced (b) Competitor has a product with deficiencies (c) Competitor has an excellent product in the making (d) Competitor has an excellent product already in the market with same features (e) Unknown product - describe what the new product will do;what will it achieve for the customer, for the client.
5. In step 4, you have selected the product/service for which the proposal is being created. Next select one of the following:
(a) Features set well-defined and classified as mandatory, desirable and cosmetic
(b) Unknown features - it is the feature set which has to be composed & proposed
6. Whatever the combination of choices in Step 4 and 5, some basic research should be done. For article on how to complete your research fast read my article "How to research or Google a topic". Research: Technology - Market trends - Clients product portfolios- Competitors offerings and plans
7. Define System usage scenarios - include fault handling, administration, management; Software Requirement Specifications (SRS).
8. Industry Standards
Does the product need to adhere to industry standards: some defacto norms, some well-documented material like IEEE, IETF standards and drafts? Would you need to interact with proprietary components? E.g. Windows internals? Some interfaces not explicitly defined by IEEE, IETF standards or standards available in the industry?
9. Project details
What tools will you use during the project? What infrastructure is required for the project: lab equipment, software licenses, manpower resources with desired skill sets defined, management resources required. What are the escalation points for the project? What is the estimated schedule, cost and effort for execution of the project? What is the maximum variance of these factors? What is the guaranteed quality of the deliverables?
10. Marketing of the product/service
How will the project deliverable be marketed? Which features will be highlighted? How do the features translate to benefits? It is a good idea for the project team to have a copy of the marketing material in front of them while they develop the product. This will help the team focus on the important features and not the complex ones.
About the Author
Naseem Mariam is the editor of "Management that Soars" Newsletter & author of "Project Serenity - How to gain happiness and peace" . Her writings draw life from her 18 years experience managing software projects. Let her guide you towards Faster All Round Success and a Stress Free, Joyous Life. Her free ebook and Newsletter tell You How. Subscribe with mail to projectdioxide@sendfree.com Visit her at 123projectmanagement.com
naseemm@pm4all.com
http://www.123projectmanagement.com
1. Audience of the document
Three types of recipients of your business proposal are: Organizations Management, client, customer, team members. Each of these has a different focus.
o Management: cost is the important factor - ROI in form of new customers, new projects from existing customers, profit from the project
o Client: how the project will help client gain market share; what you know about the market trends & competition; sharing of costs; time-frames; assumptions of inputs from client, discussions and dialogues between client and his customer(s); what client feels/knows about his market.
o Customer: Benefits possible - how & why the features will give the benefits
o Team members: very specific and detailed Requirements with a lot of technical details - list of assumptions made and why they are valid assumptions
2. Define your Customer profile
Start with image of customer: who he is -- what his needs are -- determine how u can do any of the following for your customer: (a) reduce his pain (b) increase his gain (c) fulfill some need - articulated or as yet unknown: describe the need and how your solution addresses this need; are there any side effects and benefits as a result of fulfilling this need?
3. Who is the product/service aimed at?
Select one of the following:(a) Direct to customer, (b) known client, (c) Unknown client ie. Proposal to be forwarded to a few potential clients - define characteristics of the client
4. Select one of the following (read product as product/service):
(a) Product already exists - to be enhanced (b) Competitor has a product with deficiencies (c) Competitor has an excellent product in the making (d) Competitor has an excellent product already in the market with same features (e) Unknown product - describe what the new product will do;what will it achieve for the customer, for the client.
5. In step 4, you have selected the product/service for which the proposal is being created. Next select one of the following:
(a) Features set well-defined and classified as mandatory, desirable and cosmetic
(b) Unknown features - it is the feature set which has to be composed & proposed
6. Whatever the combination of choices in Step 4 and 5, some basic research should be done. For article on how to complete your research fast read my article "How to research or Google a topic". Research: Technology - Market trends - Clients product portfolios- Competitors offerings and plans
7. Define System usage scenarios - include fault handling, administration, management; Software Requirement Specifications (SRS).
8. Industry Standards
Does the product need to adhere to industry standards: some defacto norms, some well-documented material like IEEE, IETF standards and drafts? Would you need to interact with proprietary components? E.g. Windows internals? Some interfaces not explicitly defined by IEEE, IETF standards or standards available in the industry?
9. Project details
What tools will you use during the project? What infrastructure is required for the project: lab equipment, software licenses, manpower resources with desired skill sets defined, management resources required. What are the escalation points for the project? What is the estimated schedule, cost and effort for execution of the project? What is the maximum variance of these factors? What is the guaranteed quality of the deliverables?
10. Marketing of the product/service
How will the project deliverable be marketed? Which features will be highlighted? How do the features translate to benefits? It is a good idea for the project team to have a copy of the marketing material in front of them while they develop the product. This will help the team focus on the important features and not the complex ones.
About the Author
Naseem Mariam is the editor of "Management that Soars" Newsletter & author of "Project Serenity - How to gain happiness and peace" . Her writings draw life from her 18 years experience managing software projects. Let her guide you towards Faster All Round Success and a Stress Free, Joyous Life. Her free ebook and Newsletter tell You How. Subscribe with mail to projectdioxide@sendfree.com Visit her at 123projectmanagement.com
naseemm@pm4all.com
http://www.123projectmanagement.com
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