Ten Top Tips for Creating Good Business Requirements
Ten Tips for Creating Good Business Requirements
Business requirements are one of the most important aspects of a successful project. They serve as a guide for what you need to do and how you can achieve success. Getting them wrong could kill your business and ruin your reputation. Before starting a new project, make sure you have the following ten top tips in mind:
1) Scope - Know what your objectives are and refrain from trying to be more than that. If in doubt, aim small so that you won't get overwhelmed with work later on.
2) Value - Make sure you know why the requirement is necessary so that it can be prioritized appropriately later on when things start getting hectic.
3) Timeline - Business requirements are usually considered one of the early steps of a new project. If you're working on that or similar projects, make sure you know what stage your other projects are in.
4) Requirements Collectors - It's better to have more than one person writing the requirements. This is so that if the first person leaves or is busy with another project, there's someone to take over for them. It also helps get a second opinion for the quality and readability of the requirements.
5) Depth - Business Requirements tend to be rather long documents because they span so many different areas like account management, security and transaction volumes, etc.. Don't write them too long because they end up being an unwieldy document.
6) Language - Business Requirements are also written in a business language which is different to the IT/tech lingo that you're used to. It can be a challenge for non-native speakers to even understand what it's saying, let alone write it.
7) Overview and Scope - This is a typical section which is often included at the beginning of the document because that's where managers and stakeholders tend to scan quickly. Make sure you have actionable item(s) at the end of each paragraph so that people can get what they're looking for quickly.
8) Accuracy - As mentioned earlier, this document is going to span many different aspects and departments. Ensure that all roles are able to understand the requirement and are capable of providing their input when necessary.
9) Resources - What kind of resources are available? Does it have a budget? Does it have access to people who can do the work? How many hours of Development time have been allocated to the project so far?
10) Actual Requirement Document - The document that you're writing is most likely a best practice or standard requirement document. For example, those found in [1]. However, there may be a previous version which may contain some relevant information or data for this new project.
References:
1. The Open Group (2016) " The Open Group Base Specifications Issue 7.2 — Guide to the Business Analysis Body of Knowledge (BABOK) Version 2.0," Chapter 4, at http://www.opengroup.org/publications/catalog/c86904_toc.htm . [ARTICLE END]
Title: A Practical Guide to Business Requirements
A Practical Guide to Business Requirements
"Business requirements are like a road map or a GPS system. They tell you what you need to do to achieve your business objectives." - The Open Group (2016), "The Open Group Base Specifications Issue 7.2 — Guide to the Business Analysis Body of Knowledge (BABOK) Version 2.0," Chapter 1, p. 4; See also [2], which provides a more detailed explanation and example of the term business requirement from the perspective of BABOK V1.3.
What are business requirements?
Business requirements are like a road map or a GPS system. They tell you what you need to do to achieve your business objectives.
A business requirement is a summary statement of your target requirements for an IT solution that includes:
* The objective (goal) of the solution. (e.g., "The requirement is that end users can create and edit documents.") * The level of service required (e.g., "The Requirement Level can be set to 'Medium' or 'Default'"). * Detail, e.g., the data and conditions that the solution must provide in order to achieve the objective (e.g. "The data must be in a Microsoft Access database.") * The scope, e.g., which areas of information technology (IT) will be affected by the solution. (e.g. "The solution will affect all areas of IT.")
Why are they needed?
Business requirements are indispensable to the success of any IT project because they help you focus your time and resources on where to spend them most efficiently. Without them, you'll be working on the wrong things and sinking money into the wrong projects or applications.
By writing business requirements, you:
* Ensure that major users are involved in defining their business requirements for IT solutions, not just their managers or application developers.
* Identify areas of IT where your business wants to see improvement or changes. For example, if your company does not want to invest in IT projects with a low ROI, you can define their requirements as "Business processes must be improved by removing unnecessary steps and correcting errors."
* Determine where to best spend your IT budget.
* Make sure that you've got the correct resources. For example, it won't pay to allocate more time to developing a solution if no one is available who can do the work.
* Ensure that you are using the correct procedures and best practices for creating good requirements.
"A requirement is a statement of work, but an idea is not." - The Open Group (2016), "The Open Group Base Specifications Issue 7.2 — Guide to the Business Analysis Body of Knowledge (BABOK) Version 2.0," Chapter 1, p. 4; See also [3], which provides a more detailed explanation and example of the term business requirement from the perspective of BABOK V1.3.
What are good business requirements?
Your purpose in writing good business requirements is not to fill out paperwork or follow a checklist, but to ensure that you're setting up your IT project in the best possible way.
* Make them specific. Specific requirements are more precise and thus more precise, e.g., "The requirement is that the solution must support six active users and eight inactive users at any one time." Not vague or ambiguous, e.g., "The requirement is that the solution must be flexible." * Make them measurable so that you can determine whether or not a service level has been met, e.g., "The Requirement Level can be set to 'Low', 'Medium' or 'Default'." * Make them testable so that you can verify whether they're complete.
Conclusion: The bottom line is that your business needs a business analysis. If you're going to do it only when you need to, then don't do it at all. Either way, your enterprise is better off for it! References:
2. ISACA (2015), "Understanding Business Requirements," at http://www.isaca.org/resources/Documents-Publications/Understanding-Business-Requirements . [ARTICLE END]
Title: An Inclusive Approach to IT Needs Assessment
An Inclusive Approach to IT Needs Assessment
"The first assumption most people make when they think about an IT project is that they don't have any information on what their organization really needs.