Chapter 13

Eliciting Supplemental Requirements

In This Chapter:

• Benefits of Eliciting Supplemental Requirements

• Rules for Effective Elicitation of Supplemental Requirements

• Tailoring Supplemental Requirements Elicitation

Eliciting supplemental requirements involves compiling a list of solution-quality expectations. These expectations impose constraints on the requirements.

Benefits of Eliciting Supplemental Requirements

Table 13-1 shows the benefits versus the disadvantages of eliciting supplemental requirements.

Many organizations have standards for drafting supplemental requirements. If standards do not exist, the business analyst will need to create them for the project level. If the performing organization has standards for drafting supplemental requirements, the business analyst only documents exceptions to the standards that the project will follow.

Table 13-1—Benefits versus Disadvantages of Eliciting Supplemental Requirements

Rules for Effective Elicitation of Supplemental Requirements

Key rules for effective supplemental requirements reviews are:

Document the source of supplemental requirements. Resources change quickly and documenting the source will improve stability of requirements.

Supplemental requirements are also formal requirements, and should be reviewed and approved by key stakeholders.

Tailoring Supplemental Requirements

Eliciting supplemental requirements is necessary and valuable for any initiative size. The business analyst scales activities to the project environment. Table 13-2 shows the variances scaled to the project profile.

Table 13-2—Supplemental Requirements Elicitation Scaled to Project Size, Risk, Complexity