Category Archives: Requirements gathering

The benefits of using Storyboards to gather requirements

By | 14/05/2016

Reasons for using story boards To act as an inspiration for other requirements. To increase understanding of the requirements between all stakeholders and the consequences. The system has not existed before. The users have no experience of the system. The users have been doing their work for some time and are stuck in the way they are doing… Read More »

Are your stakeholders using different words when describing data to mean the same thing?

By | 06/05/2016

A entity relationship or class diagram can be used to resolve the problem when stakeholders are interchangeably using different words to mean the same thing. For the purposes of this article a conceptual model of a class diagram has been used.  A conceptual model is at class level.  A class is a group of data with similar characteristics.… Read More »

Why should a top down approach to requirements gathering be used?

By | 30/04/2016

The pyramid above is a reminder of the top down approach.  The goals need to be defined first, followed by an understanding of the business processes, the business requirements and then the system requirements.  It can be very tempting for the business stakeholders to feel like they already know the solution and jump straight to the system requirements.… Read More »

Using NLP to remove ambiguity from requirements

By | 22/04/2016

Below are a number of sentences extracted from requirements documents. The techniques in this article use a NLP technique called the Meta model which can be used to identify ambiguity and where information is missing. For an introduction to what NLP is please read the introduction in the following article – How NLP can be used to improve… Read More »

Using NLP to explain ambiguity from gathering and documenting requirements

By | 22/04/2016

The techniques in this article use a NLP technique called the Meta model which can be used to identify ambiguity and where information is missing. For an introduction to what NLP is please read the introduction in the following article – How NLP can be used to improve communication with stakeholders The Meta model was originally presented in… Read More »

Gathering Non Functional requirements and who to involve (Part 2)

By | 09/04/2016

This is part 2 of a previous article with the purpose of providing guidelines for gathering non-functional requirements (NFR’s).  Part 1 explained What are Non Functional requirements, why they are so important and common mishaps. See brainstorming diagram below.  This shows the different categories of non-functional requirements that need to be gathered and types of questions to ask. To… Read More »

What are Non Functional requirements, why they are important and common mishaps (part 1)

By | 06/04/2016

It is really important that non-functional requirements are gathered early on and aren’t missed out.  They are potentially more important than functional requirements. A non-functional requirement is a quality, constraint or behaviour that the system being built must meet. The consequences of missing these out are that the system being developed may not be adequate, has cost more… Read More »

The Importance of Diagrams in Business Analysis

By | 03/04/2016

Diagrams are essential to provide a clear, unambiguous picture.  They can be put together in meetings, can make discussions easier than lots of text and are quicker and easier to do iterations and re-work. It is very easy to be tempted to start writing a document.  However it will save time holding off until the diagrams are agreed.… Read More »