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Template Request For Enhancement

This document provides a template for submitting a Request for Enhancement (RFE). The template includes sections for providing the headline, description, story, usage expectations, business impact, timeframe expectations, current workaround, customer information, account manager details, and revision history. Examples are also provided for how to fill out each section. The goal of the detailed template is to ensure a consistent RFE process and provide all necessary information for evaluating, scoping, and implementing the requested enhancement.

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Rose Ramirez
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© © All Rights Reserved
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Download as DOC, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
898 views

Template Request For Enhancement

This document provides a template for submitting a Request for Enhancement (RFE). The template includes sections for providing the headline, description, story, usage expectations, business impact, timeframe expectations, current workaround, customer information, account manager details, and revision history. Examples are also provided for how to fill out each section. The goal of the detailed template is to ensure a consistent RFE process and provide all necessary information for evaluating, scoping, and implementing the requested enhancement.

Uploaded by

Rose Ramirez
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
Available Formats
Download as DOC, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
You are on page 1/ 4

Request For Enhancement

PLEASE COPY AND PASTE THE HEADLINE OF THE RFE HERE

1.

Instructions for Use

Please fill out this RFE template to the best of your ability. Why? Because if you do (1) the Customer will have a more
reliable RFE process, (2) Account Managers will know that their RFEs are being evaluated using consistent data, (3) Product
Managers will have more information from which to make scoping decisions, and (4) Engineering will have a clearer idea of
what needs to be implemented.

2.

Information

Headline

Describe the RFE using a brief headline. (Examples)

Description

Provide a brief description for the RFE. (Examples)

Story

Pick a prototypical user (such as Clara the Customer Service Engineer). First, describe the
business problem s/he faces. Second, describe what s/he needs the system to do for him that is
new (within the context of the existing product functionality). (Example)

Usage Expectations

How frequently will the functionality be used?


Frequently (hourly)
Often (daily)
Occasionally (weekly)
One time
Other -- please specify: __________________________________
How intensely will the functionality be used?
Many Users Concurrently
Several Users Concurrently
Few Users Concurrently
Administrator only
Other -- please specify: __________________________________

Business Impact

What is the technical severity of this issue? (Examples)


Severity 1 Existing feature is unusable and no reasonable workaround exists
Severity 2 Existing feature is unusable but a reasonable workaround exists
Severity 3 Existing feature is usable as documented but does not perform additional
needed functions
Severity 4 Improvement to existing and usable feature
Severity 5 Cosmetic
What would be the impact on your business if this functionality were not implemented?
(Business processes can represent an application, internal process (e.g. deploying a new server),
external process (e.g. sale of a solution) or other general goal.)
Business processes can not move forward without this enhancement
Business processes are severely impacted by this enhancement, but continue to
operate albeit in a less than efficient manner
Business processes are moderately impacted by this enhancement. Processes move
forward at an expected but not exceptional rate
Business processes are slightly impacted by this enhancement. Processes move
forward at best possible rate, but could be further improved with this enhancement.
No impact to existing business processes. RFE may represent a possible future
direction or enhancement to existing products but without a definite business
justification.
Other -- please specify: __________________________________

Proprietary and Confidential

BMC Software, 2005

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Request For Enhancement


Other Comments /
Expectations

Provide additional customer expectations if they exist. This may include revenue
implications, competitive solutions, general reaction to the current situation, etc. (Examples)

Timeframe
Expectations

In what time frame is this enhancement needed?


"There is an immediate need for this enhancement"
"This enhancement is needed in the next 3-6 months"
"This enhancement is needed in the next 6-12 months"
"This enhancement is needed in the next 12-24 months"
"This enhancement is needed in the next 12-24 months "
"There is no specific timeframe needed for this enhancement "

Current
Implementation /
Workaround

3.

For Support Use Only.

Customer
Customer Contact
Customer Environment
Account Manager /
Support Representative
Support Issue ID
Additional Internal
Information

4.
Date
TBD

Describe an existing workaround, if one exists. (Examples)

Provide name(s) of the customer(s) making the request.


Provide name(s) of the customer contact(s) making the request. Also provide phone and/or email
information if the individual can be contacted directly to answer RFE related questions.
What products are deployed? What platforms are being used (database, OS, AD/LDAP)? How
many seats have been deployed? Is there a maintenance agreement in place?
Provide name of the account manager or support representative affiliated with the RFE.
Enter the support issue ID if one exists
Provide any additional information that would influence or justify this enhancement request.
(Examples)

Revision History
Version
0.1

Description
Describe what initiated the initial RFE (customer visit, support call,
etc.)

Proprietary and Confidential

BMC Software, 2005

Author
TBD

Page 2 of 4

Request For Enhancement


5.

Examples

Headline

Description

Story

Examples:
Enable administrators to design interfaces for color blind users
Add ability to limit user-entered date input to a specified range of dates (min/max)
Users need a way to include graphics when submitting a ticket
(Return to Headline)
Examples:
There are some users within our company who are red/green color blind or blue/yellow color
blind. They have a difficult time distinguishing alerts, tables or other graphical elements that use
these colors close to each other. Please add a method to enable administrators to control the
colors used throughout the application.
When gathering date information from end users, many times typically by accident users
will enter a date that is not within a ranged expected by the application. While we can today
create active links or filters to catch this situation, we would prefer to make this a property of the
field rather than requiring another workflow object. This should include both absolute and
relative date formats (e.g. either March 19th, 2007 or 3 months from the current date.
Many times, users want to include a screenshot or other graphic when submitting a ticket.
Right now, this is accomplished by using an attachment. However, other technologies (e.g.
Microsoft Outlook) allow graphics to be embedded within a standard text field. Please add the
ability for users to include a graphic within traditionally textual fields (e.g. Character, Diary).
(Return to Description)
Tips: Use a narrative story or a series of numbered steps. Talk about the end-to-end experience
and keep a black-box orientation. Make no assumptions about how the system will work and
explain what will happen instead. Recommendations for implementation can be included if
desired, but should be called out as such.

Example:
1. Dave the AR Developer creates an application to track vacation requests within the
company. To reduce user errors, Dave wants to limit the vacation requests to have a
minimum value of one month prior to todays date and a maximum value of 3 years in the
future.
a. The minimum value is less than todays date to enable vacation requests to be
entered after the vacation actually happens in emergency situations.
2. Dave creates a form that contains two date fields that accepts input from the user. The fields
represent the first day of the vacation request (naming it Beginning Date) and the last day
of the vacation request (naming it Ending Date).
3. Dave sets the properties of the date fields to limit the dates to one month prior or 3 years
after todays date.
a. Recommendation: These properties should restrict users from selecting a date
outside the range in the first place rather than generating an error for an invalid date
entered.
4. Once the form is made available to users, Amy Admin uses the application to request a
vacation for herself
5. Todays date is March 12th, 2006. She wishes to request a vacation from November 20th,
2007 to November 27th, 2007.
6. She is restricted from entering a date more than 30 days prior or 3 years after todays date.
Since her dates fall within this range, she is allowed to enter the date information.
a. Recommendation: If for some reason, the date cannot be restricted from being
entered, a date entered outside the range should be automatically changed to the
minimum or maximum values
(Return to Story)
Proprietary and Confidential
Page 3 of 4
BMC Software, 2005

Request For Enhancement

Business Impact

Severity 1 Existing feature is unusable and no reasonable workaround exists


Example: Product does not support Solaris 10, not integrated with other BMC product, cannot
manage well known 3rd party vendor products, etc.
Severity 2 Existing feature is unusable but a reasonable workaround exists
Example: No integration between event management systems in Patrol and Remedy, but ID can be
cut and pasted into field, no existing query for customer data but an external SQL query can be done
on the DB, etc.
Severity 3 Existing feature is usable as documented but does not perform additional needed
functions
Example: Files can be copied from one system to another but permissions cannot be set differently
than the originated files, notifications can be sent to E-mail but not automatically updated to a web
page, etc.
Severity 4 Improvement to existing and usable feature
Example: Commonly used keyword $NULL$ is not available in advanced search, no current way
to save the answers to a wizard (adding such an ability would help repetitive processes), etc.
Severity 5 Cosmetic
Example: Documentation has several misspelled words, graphs include the numeric job ID in their
title, etc

Other comments /
expectations

Current
implementation /
workaround

Additional Internal
Information

(Return to Business Impact)


Examples:
We feel this would reduce overall cost of operations by 20% which translates to a savings of
over $300,000
Acme Software has this capability in their Product XYZ (datasheet attached) and we feel BMC
is at a competitive disadvantage not to have this capability as well
This enhancement is needed to fulfill our SOX compliance initiative.
This enhancement would help overcome the final sales barrier to a $1.5M new license deal
(Return to Other Comments / Expectations)
Examples:
A workaround is to use word based labels for status rather than colors.
Weve implemented active links and filters to ensure that the date field is entered correctly.
Today, all screenshots are submitted as attachments to the ticket.
(Return to Current implementation / workaround)
Examples:
Current maintenance contract for this customer is $2.8M
Customer is a reference site for BSM 2.0
Customer is part of the Customer Advisory Board and has raised this issue to executive
management several times
(Return to Additional Internal Information)

Proprietary and Confidential

BMC Software, 2005

Page 4 of 4

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