| Creating good business requirements will
go a long way towards ensuring
the success of the project and
eliminate design and development
risks that result from poor business
requirements documentation. Here
are the Top 10 Tips for Writing
Good Business Requirements: 1.
Develop a clear understanding
of the problems that the proposed
software is being designed to
solve. This will ensure that the
subsequent business requirements
document addresses those problems
fully. 2. Identify all project
stakeholders and involve them
in the business requirements gathering
process from the start. Work to
build trust and establish credibility
early on so you can maintain stakeholder
support throughout the project.
Learn the individual personality
traits of each stakeholder in
order to be able to better manage
them during the requirements phase
of the project. 3. Clearly document
all business data including workflow,
current problems, anticipated
risks, and required performance
metrics. Use project-approved
tools and methodologies to ensure
that the documentation conforms
to the client's requirements.
4. Use approved templates for
all documentation. Ensure that
terms used throughout all documentation
either exist in the project dictionary
or are added as required. No one
reading the business requirements
document should encounter unfamiliar
terms that cannot be quickly resolved
by reviewing the project dictionary.
5. Identify potential privacy
and security issues early on so
these problems can be mitigated
to a level which satisfies the
stakeholders that these risks
have been managed properly. This
helps to build trust and ensures
that stakeholders remain committed
to the project. 6. Make a concerted
effort to identify and document
all risks, the impact of these
risks on the project's costs and
timetable. This will avoid unexpected
project delays as well as help
control runaway costs. 7. Conduct
both group and one-on-one meetings
to insure that all business requirements,
risks and concerns are identified.
8. Present a draft of the business
requirements document to key stakeholders
for preliminary review and tentative
approval. This helps to ensure
that the final business requirements
document will be more easily accepted
by all stakeholders when it is
presented. 9. Rewrite the draft
business requirements document
to address any issues discovered
during step #8. This may requires
repeating the stakeholder meeting
process until you are sure that
all issues have been identified
and documented. 10. Present the
completed business requirements
document to all stakeholders in
a formal meeting. Take notes in
order to maintain the collective
project memory and be ready to
address any issues or concerns
which may be raised. Niall Kennedy
is an internet marketing consultant.
Positive is a UK provider of professional
Business Analysis. Contact Positive
at http://www.Be-Positive.co.uk
for more information about Requirements
Documentation. All rights reserved.
This article may be reprinted
in full so long as the resource
box and the live links are included
intact. Copyright Be-Positive.co.uk
All rights reserved. This article
may be reprinted in full so long
as the resource box and the live
links are included intact. Copyright
Be-Positive.co.uk |
