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Business Requirements
Analysis
Functional Requirements
Need to complete business requirements
analysis for an information management requirements specification and
want practical timesaving suggestions?
Do we
need requirements?
Yes, even data centric information management projects may have
requirements for things such as:
- Data steward interface, for data quality;
- Functional requirements for decision support
tools; and
- User requirements for business intelligence
reporting.
Are these
covered in reporting requirements?
Not
really! Business intelligence and decision support requirements will
define the data requirements. We may still need complete business
requirements analysis to define other
requirements.
What types
of
requirements might apply?
Consider things like:
- What data should the interface access?
- What functionality should the interface perform?
- What should happen to bad data that cannot be
corrected by the user interface?
- How will reference data be loaded for data
quality validation purposes?
- Should data be extracted to PC’s for off-line
analysis purposes?
- Should data be extracted to a spreadsheet
format and be down loadable?
- Are there report distribution requirements?
- If yes, who should receive the reports, when
should they be sent and how e.g. email?
- Are there requirements to create “master”
queries?
- If so, who should be allowed to create them?
- Who should be allowed to use them?
- Who needs to validate them?
- How many should be allowed for each user?
- What are purge requirements for master queries?
- Etc.
How do we
record requirements?
Requirements
must be stated in a non-ambiguous, understandable manner. They
must be in sufficient detail that a solution can be fully designed,
specified, assembled/built, tested and moved into production to the
satisfaction of end users and business owner.
All
requirements must be measurable/quantifiable, testable and in
sufficient detail to allow for independent and objective validation or
verification of compliance.
The method of measurement should
be agreed upon up-front. Each requirement must contribute,
even
if indirectly, to the project objectives stated in the business
case.
Requirements that cannot tie back to a project objective are
not relevant, and should be discarded.
Sign-off
indicates that the signers have reviewed, and agree to, requirements as
identified in the
requirements specification.
Each requirement must link back to a business objective stated in the
business case and should be:
- Unambiguous;
- Correct;
- Testable;
- Achievable;
- Design independent;
- Traceable;
- Necessary; and
- Documented.
A
completed requirements specification is an agreement between end users,
the business owner, the IT owner and the project manager.
Approval signifies that the end users and business owner agree that the
document specifies all functional requirements.
It
is important to include all requirements as any changes requested after
sign-off/approval must be treated as a change request and should be
handled by the change request process specified in the
requirements management plan.
Summary…
Information
management projects are data centric but may still have functional
requirements. It is essential that an experienced business intelligence
analyst work closely with the business team to complete business
requirements analysis early in the project.
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