The last couple of years has seen a wholesale shift in development methodologies among the Fortune 1000 companies from Waterfall to Agile. It is not an exaggeration to say that the Agile revolution that has been brewing in small companies, startups and web companies for the last decade and a half has finally arrived in […]
Tag: requirements documentation
Agile Requirements Document
At ArgonDigital, on our Agile projects we have introduced a project artifact called the Agile Requirements Document or ARD that we create during the planning phase of a project. We have done this on several projects and have had good success with it. An ARD is conceptually similar in some ways to the classic Business […]
Email Effectiveness–Write Good Subject Lines
Email is a significant part of my business life, and probably yours as well. I really appreciate a well-written email. And, I’m frequently frustrated by a poorly written one. Janelle Estes’ recent post, Email Subject Lines: 5 Tips to Attract Readers is written with newsletters in mind, but I think most of the points generalize […]
Business Analyst Tip: Template Usability
Many of us produce document templates using Microsoft Word. In addition to the heavy lifting–the content–you should consider the usability of the templates. My basic approach with templates is that they should take care of the bells and whistles once so each user doesn’t have to. Applying the tips below really doesn’t take that long, […]
Arsonists in a Field of Straw Men: Elicitation from a Blank Slate
On a recent project, I was sitting in a room full of subject matter experts (SMEs), trying to document a business process using the trusty Process Flow model, when trouble struck. Before the meeting, the team was “lucky” enough to discover process flows for the very process we were focusing on; the only issue was […]
Cart before the Horse? Retrofitting Models to Requirements
Because incomplete requirements have led to many a failed IT project, it has become an article of faith around the halls of ArgonDigital that visual models must be created before any requirements statements can be drafted. But what happens when you inherit requirements as part of a past project, or in collaboration with another dependent […]
Telling a Story Through Your Requirements, Part II
In my previous post, I talked about how business analysts and product managers who are putting together requirements documentation can and should think of themselves as storytellers. By thinking of a Business Requirements Document (BRD) or a System Requirements Specification (SRS) as a narrative, with a beginning, middle and end, we can tell a story […]
Business Analyst Tip: Typography Resource
Perhaps I shouldn’t admit this, but I learned to type on a typewriter. One of the rules I learned in typing class was to put two spaces after the period ending each sentence. I still do it by habit, even though the standard seems to have changed to one space. I’ve always wondered if there […]
How Visual Models Help You Delegate
If you’ve read any posts in this blog, you’ve probably already picked up that visual models provide many benefits to any requirements elicitation and documentation project. I want to mention one you may have not thought about: visual models make delegation much easier. Delegation of work to junior business analysts can be really helpful, and […]
Everybody Loves Zombies!
My film-student daughter is currently working on her fourth movie gig – an indie zombie movie being shot here in Austin. While I admit to really not getting the whole zombie thing, I’m excited that she’s getting so many opportunities to do the work she loves. This time around she is the Production Designer/Art Director. […]
Business Analyst Guideline for Using Examples in Requirements and Business Rules
Have you ever written a requirement, or, more likely, business rule, that you know to be correct—but, you also know that many people will stumble over it? This usually happens when the language in the requirement/rule is not familiar to everyone or the concept is complex. In these situations, examples are usually more helpful than […]
Business Analyst Tip: Writing for Non-Native Speakers
One of David Reinhardt’s tips in Business Analyst Tip: Working with Overseas Stakeholders is that many non-native speakers are more comfortable with written language than with spoken language. I agree. Here are a few guidelines that you can apply to make written communication even more effective for non-native speakers. Use scenarios to clarify complex questions. We often […]