Requirements Inception

Based on Powerpoint slides by Gunter Mussbacher

with material from:
Wiegers: Software Requirements, Chapter 5
Leffingwell & Widrig: Managing Software Requirements…, Chapter 5
Table of Contents
• Problem Analysis
• Business Requirements
• Steps for Problem Analysis
• Vision and Scope Document
• Project Viability
• … Content covered in more detail in other courses, but
overviewed here as a starting point.
• The important thing is not to stop questioning. Curiosity has its own reason for existing.1

[1] Albert Einstein (1879 - 1955)

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Problem Analysis Business Requirements Agreement Root Causes Stakeholders Vision & Scope Constraints Document

Problem Analysis
• Goal: gain a better understanding of the problem being
solved before development begins
• Identify root cause
• Identify stakeholders and their needs (or problems)
• Identify solution boundary

• Uses business requirements obtained from stakeholders

• Results in Product Vision and Project Scope

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Problem Analysis Business Requirements Agreement Root Causes Stakeholders Vision & Scope Constraints Document

Business Requirements / Objectives (1)

• Business Opportunity
• Description of market opportunity, competing market, business
problem being solved or improved, advantage of proposed solution...
• Example: Exploit the poor security record of a competing product
• Business Objective and Success Criteria
• Important business benefits the product will provide in a quantitative
and measurable way, how success will be measured, factors that have
great impact on success...
• Examples: Achieve positive cash flow on the product within 6 months;
Get 50%+ of the market
• Business Risks
• Major risks associated with developing or not developing the product
(marketplace competition, timing, user acceptance, implementation
issues...)
• Can be modeled with GRL
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Problem Analysis Business Requirements Agreement Root Causes Stakeholders Vision & Scope Constraints Document

Business Requirements (2)

• Important for:
• Ensuring that all project participants work for the same reasons
• Getting stakeholders agreement on requirements

• User and software requirements must align with the context

and objective defined by business requirements

• Requirements that do not help achieve business objectives

should not be included

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Problem Analysis Business Requirements Agreement Root Causes Stakeholders Vision & Scope Constraints Document

Problem Analysis – Understand Root Causes (1)

• There is often a problem behind the problem
• Root cause analysis consists of finding underlying causes
that may not be immediately apparent
• Determine recursively what factors contribute to the problem

• Example: Our ecommerce site is not profitable

• Why is it not profitable?
• Poor site design?
• Bad pricing?
• Poor customer management after the sale?
• Some or all of the above?

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Problem Analysis Business Requirements Agreement Root Causes Stakeholders Vision & Scope Constraints Document

Problem Analysis – Understand Root Causes (2)

• Address Root Causes
• Root causes do not all have same impact
• Some may not be worth fixing, at least not now
• Estimate relative impact of root causes (e.g., with the help of
a Pareto (bar) chart):
20% of causes →
80% of problems…

• Create problem
statement for root
cause problem
identified as worth
solving (and with
computer solution)
Source: Leffingwell & Widrig
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Problem Analysis Business Requirements Agreement Root Causes Stakeholders Vision & Scope Constraints Document

“Low Hanging Fruits”

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Problem Analysis Business Requirements Agreement Root Causes Stakeholders Vision & Scope Constraints Document

Problem Analysis – Product Vision and Project Scope

• Product Vision: describes what the product is about and what
it could eventually become
• Aligns all stakeholders in a common direction

• Project Scope: identifies what portion of the ultimate long-

term product vision the current project will address
• Draws boundary between what is in and what is out

Product Vision

Project Scope Project Scope Project Scope

…..
for release 1.0 for release 1.1 for release n

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Problem Analysis Business Requirements Agreement Root Causes Stakeholders Vision & Scope Constraints Document

Vision Statement (1)

• Vision Statement template for Products (according to Moore)
• For [target customer]
• Who [statement of the need or opportunity]
• The [product name]
• Is [a product category]
• That [key benefit, compelling reason to buy or use]
• Unlike [primary competitive alternative, current system, or current
business process],
• Our product [statement of primary differentiation and advantages of
new product]

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Problem Analysis Business Requirements Agreement Root Causes Stakeholders Vision & Scope Constraints Document

Vision Statement (2)

• Example
• For scientists who need to request containers of chemicals, the
Chemical Tracking System is an information system that will provide a
single point of access to the chemical stockroom and vendors. The
system will store the location of every chemical container within the
company, the quantity of material remaining in it and the complete
history of each container's location and usage. This system will save
the company 25% on chemical costs in the first year of use by allowing
the company to fully exploit chemicals that are already available within
the company, dispose of fewer partially used or expired containers and
use a single standard chemical purchasing process. Unlike the current
manual ordering processes, our product will generate all reports
required to comply with government regulations that require the
reporting of chemical usage, storage, and disposal.

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Problem Analysis Business Requirements Agreement Root Causes Stakeholders Vision & Scope Constraints Document

Vision Statement (Enterprise Level) (3)

• uOttawa Vision (2010)
• We aspire to be, among universities, the essential reference on what
Canada represents: a university that is an integral part of its
community, open to the world, and distinguished by its search for
excellence in research, its high-quality learning environment, its
passion for knowledge and innovation, its leadership on language
issues, and its openness to diversity. Every member of our institution
will take part in our educational mission.

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Problem Analysis Business Requirements Agreement Root Causes Stakeholders Vision & Scope Constraints Document

Vision Statement (Enterprise Level) (4)

• uOttawa Vision (Today)
• The University of Ottawa will offer an unparalleled university
experience and, through outstanding teaching and research, play a
vital role in defining the world of tomorrow. We will instil in each of our
graduates an ethic of service, a culture of engagement and an
awareness of shared responsibility that will prepare them for global
citizenship.
• http://destination2020.uottawa.ca/documents/destination-2020-
strategic-plan.pdf

• Vision at The Ottawa Hospital

• Provide each patient with the world-class care, exceptional service
and compassion we would want for our loved ones.

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Problem Analysis Business Requirements Agreement Root Causes Stakeholders Vision & Scope Constraints Document

Dynamic Vision, Scope and Requirements…

• The product vision may apply to many projects
• Views of the customer, of the enterprise
• Evolves rather slowly (e.g., in years)

• The product scope focuses on one project

• Important to the project manager
• More dynamic than the vision
• Can be part of a requirements document

• Requirements focus on what is needed in order for the

product to meet business objectives
• Many and rapid changes!

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Problem Analysis Business Requirements Agreement Root Causes Stakeholders Vision & Scope Constraints Document

Project Viability – Scope

• Scope: product's purpose and the system's boundaries
• How much of the work will be done by the system-to-be-developed?
• How much of the work will be done by interacting systems?
• Information needed for cost and time estimates
• Define more precisely the problem to solve
• List all the things the system should have to do
• Exclude as much as possible to reduce the complexity of the problem
• Establish broader goals if the problem is too simple
• Example: an automated system for university registration
Initial list of wide problems Reduced scope For other systems

Course Browser Course Browser Room Allocation

Room Allocation
Registration Registration Exam Schedule
Exam Schedule
Payment Payment
Later stage
Problem Analysis Business Requirements Agreement Root Causes Stakeholders Vision & Scope Constraints Document

Vision and Scope Document

• Business requirements

• Vision of the solution

• Including major features and dependencies

• Scope and limitation

• For initial and subsequent releases

• Business context
• Including priorities and operating environment

• Risks!!!

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Problem Analysis Business Requirements Agreement Root Causes Stakeholders Vision & Scope Constraints Document

In Summary…

“The idea is to do just enough investigation to form a

rational, justifiable opinion of the overall purpose and
feasibility of the potential new system, and decide if it
is worthwhile to invest in deeper exploration”

[Craig Larman]

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