Chapter 6
Requirements Analysis Meetings
In This Chapter:
Challenges
Business Modeling Workshops
Types of Analysis Meetings
Business Process Modeling Workshops
Prototype Review Meetings
Risk Management Workshops
Requirements are first stated in simple terms and are then analyzed and decomposed for clarity. Requirements analysis is the process of grouping requirements information into various categories, evaluating requirements for selected qualities, representing requirements in different forms, deriving detailed requirements from high-level requirements, and negotiating priorities. Requirements analysis also includes activities to determine required function and performance characteristics, the context of implementation, stakeholder constraints and measures of effectiveness, and validation criteria. Through the analysis process, requirements are decomposed and captured in a combination of text and graphical formats.
The purpose of analysis activities is to restate requirements in different forms to clarify and further define the nature and scope of the requirement. In addition, the feasibility of the requirements is analyzed and the risks are assessed.
Requirements analysis activities remove requirements gaps and ambiguities. Through analysis, requirements information is progressively elaborated to ensure completeness and accuracy.
Challenges
Over the past few decades, a bewildering array of business analysis techniques have been developed to describe business processes, policies, and systems. It is difficult for the business analyst to determine which techniques to use. In practice, just a few models and diagrams are used to provide a complete picture of the business need. Please refer to Getting it Right: Business Requirement Analysis Tools and Techniques for a discussion of the recommended business analysis models. Most analysis workshops involve modeling the business.
Business Modeling Workshops
Business modeling sessions restate requirements in the form of diagrams and structured text. Models include both text and drawings. A requirements model is a blueprint for a process, information flows, or solution components that can take the form of a diagram, list, or table, supplemented with descriptive text that depicts a business need from a particular point of view.
Purpose and Benefits
Requirements models facilitate communication and understanding among business and technical stakeholders. Through the process of creating the models, missing and incomplete requirements are often discovered.
Challenges
The biggest obstacle in business requirements modeling is knowing which models to create. When selecting the appropriate models, the business analyst must understand their basic purposes and what they are intended to communicate. Again, refer to Getting it Right: Business Requirements Analysis Tools and Techniques for a discussion of the recommended business analysis models.
Who Should Attend?
The business analyst plans and facilitates requirements analysis meetings. These meetings are usually small working sessions with key subject matter experts in the room, assisted by a scribe who is proficient in capturing models and diagrams in real time.
Meeting Strategy
The business analyst plans and facilitates the analysis meeting to complete the following activities:
Modeling requirements to restate and clarify them. Modeling is accomplished at the appropriate usage, process, or detailed structural level.- Studying requirements feasibility to determine whether the requirement is viable technically, operationally, and economically; trading off requirements to determine the most feasible requirement alternatives.
- Assessing requirement risks and constraints and modifying requirements to mitigate identified risks. The goal is to reduce requirement risks through early validation prototyping techniques.
- Deriving additional requirements as more is learned about the business need.
Inputs
- Business case
- Project charter
- Interview notes
- Draft business requirements document, requirements management plan, and other diagrams prepared from information gleaned during the interviews and workshops
- Stakeholder analysis
- Documented issues, risks, constraints, and action items
- Schedule of remaining requirements activities
Outputs
Examples of requirement models include:
- Updates to business requirements document and requirements management plan
- New and/or updated requirements understanding diagrams and models
- In/out of scope lists
- Event lists
- Business process flows
- Use cases
- Data models
- Class models
- Actor maps
- Prototypes
- Interface diagrams
- Application flows
Types of Analysis Meetings
The requirements analysis meetings discussed in detail in this chapter include:
- Business process modeling workshop
- Prototype review meeting
- Risk workshop
Business Process Modeling Workshops
The business process modeling workshop, shown in Figure 6-1, is a facilitated set of activities designed to guide stakeholders to define or make necessary changes to increase the efficiencies or effectiveness of a business process.
Purpose and Benefits
- Supports a clear process definition using industry best practices
- Bridges business areas, information technology, and external and internal stakeholders
- Improves efficiencies in business performance
- Provides a framework for discovery of areas that need improvement
- Supports resource planning and allocations
- Enhances effective communications
- Supports a consistent approach to work
Challenges
- Securing sufficient time and budget for advanced preparation and planning and workshop sessions
- Ensuring skilled facilitation
- Ensuring that the right stakeholders participate
- Building consensus on the process
Who Should Attend?
- Project team
- Key project stakeholders
- Project sponsor
- Business users and subject matter experts
Meeting Strategy
- Define the purpose and objectives of the workshop.
- Meet with the key stakeholders to build a preliminary model.
- Send an “as is” process model to workshop participants in advance to prepare for workshop activities.
Roles and Responsibilities
- Project sponsor: authorizes and funds the workshop
- Facilitator: designs, plans, and leads the workshop process using effective facilitation skills, tools, and techniques
- Project team: works with stakeholders to define and model the process
- Business users and subject matter experts: contribute to the business model being defined and modeled
- Scribe: captures and documents the work and results of the workshop
Inputs
- Current “as is” process
- Process vision and objectives
- Current process documentation
- Process modeling methods, standards, and tools
- List of affected stakeholders
Outputs
- New or improved business process
- Root cause analysis
- Updated stakeholder list
- Prioritized list of improvements to the process
Facilitator Agenda
A sample facilitator agenda for a business modeling workshop is shown in Figure 6-1.
Figure 6-1—Business Modeling Workshop Facilitator Agenda
Prototype Review Meetings
The prototype review meeting, shown in Figure 6-2, is a facilitated set of activities designed to guide key stakeholders as they review prototypes, identify prototype issues, and detail additional requirements needed to complete the product or solution.
Purpose and Benefits
- Confirm requirements by reviewing a prototype (a mock-up of a solution or a solution component)
- Reaches an agreement and/or consensus regarding the final solution
- Allows a shared work product between the business and technology teams
- Assesses the feasibility of quality requirements
- Reduces overall project risk
- Detects early unnecessary functionality
- Validates the scope of work
Challenges
- Ensuring that the right participants are present and actively participate
- Sufficient preparation and planning time for each prototype review
- Ensuring participation of stakeholders throughout prototype reviews
- Effectively managing timelines for each review period
Who Should Attend
- Project sponsor
- Prototype team
- Key sources for requirements, such as internal and external business users and subject matter experts
- Project team members
Meeting Strategy
Suggestions for meeting strategy include:
- Set expectations and establish a collaborative atmosphere.
- Provide a thorough overview of the business need.
- Set and accept scope boundaries.
- Summarize and document results.
- Plan for the next prototype review.
Roles and Responsibilities
- Project sponsor. Authorizes and funds the reviews.
- Facilitator. Designs, plans, and leads the review process using effective facilitation skills, tools, and techniques.
- Business analyst. Often acts as the facilitator. The business analyst is a core project team member who leads stakeholder representatives to elicit, analyze, specify, validate, and manage project requirements throughout the life cycle.
- Project team. Contribute to the discovery of requirements and begin building relationships with key stakeholders.
- Requirements team. Support the discovery, analysis, and documentation of requirements. These persons work closely with business users to evolve the prototype product.
- Business users and subject matter experts. Contribute to the discovery of requirements needed to solve the problem.
- Scribe. Captures and documents the work and results of the review.
Inputs
- Documented results of previous prototype reviews
- Business case and/or project charter
- Copies of requirement hard sources for use during review activities
- Current version of requirements document
- Prototype assessment guidelines
- Prototype to be reviewed
Outputs
- Updated business requirements document
- Updated stakeholder analysis document
- Documented issues, risks, constraints, and action items
- Evolution of design and development components
- Testing results
Facilitator Agenda
A sample facilitator agenda for a prototype review meeting is shown in Figure 6-2.
Figure 6-2—Prototype Review Meeting Facilitator Agenda
Risk Management Workshops
A risk management workshop is a facilitated set of activities designed to guide stakeholders as they work toward the identification and assessment of project risks. The purpose is to monitor and control risk events throughout the project life cycle. As Requirements begin to mature, it is wise for the project manager and business analyst to conduct a risk management workshop focusing on requirement risks and risks to the business.
Purpose and Benefits
- Collaboratively work as a team to identify and assess possible project risks
- Learn the risk management process and supporting tools and techniques
- Build stakeholder awareness of potential risks and risk response strategies
- Foster a proactive approach to risk management
Challenges
- Ensuring that the right participants are present and actively participate
- Securing sufficient preparation and planning time for the workshop
- Enlisting a skilled facilitator using appropriate facilitation tools and techniques
- Selling the benefits of proactive risk management to project stakeholders
Who Should Attend?
- Project team
- Key project stakeholders
- Project sponsor
- Business users and subject matter experts
Meeting Strategy
- Hands-on workshop to complete risk management activities
- Break-out sessions in small teams
- Completion of a risk register for high-priority risks
Roles and Responsibilities
- Project sponsor. Authorizes and funds the workshop.
- Facilitator. Designs, plans, and leads the workshop process using effective facilitation skills, tools, and techniques.
- Project team. Contribute to the identification and assessment of potential project risks.
- Business users and subject matter experts. Contribute to the discovery of risks in each area of expertise.
- Scribe. Captures and documents the work and results of the workshop.
- Project Manager. Leads and/or facilitates the risk management workshop.
Inputs
- Risk management process, tools, and techniques
- Risk management plan
- Workshop ground rules for team participation, decision-making, and brainstorming
- Sources for risk identification
Outputs
- Completed risk breakdown structure with identified risk sources and categories
- Updated risk register with assigned owner, priority, and risk statement
- Risk worksheet for each identified risk
Facilitator Agenda
A sample facilitator agenda for a risk management workshop is shown in Figure 6-3.
Figure 6-3—Risk Management Workshop Facilitator Agenda
