RE: Business Requirements

["Sandi Castle" <sandi -at- siberlogic -dot- com>]

Hi Jim, maybe you should take a quick look at SiberSafe Definer, a
collaborative tool for integrated requirements management.  It lets you link
and trace product requirements *back* to customer and/or market
requirements, and also *forward* into the design docs, user manuals, and
even marketing collateral.  This means that Definer can automatically
generate all your draft documentation, and then alert you if a change in
product requirements means you need to update it.

You can see if requirements are not being met by the product, and also see
if the product has redundant functionality.  Might save you a lot of time
and headaches. 

More at www.productdefiner.com/rt.asp

Best,
Sandi
(at SiberLogic)

-----Original Message-----
From: techwr-l-bounces+sandi=siberlogic -dot- com -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com
[mailto:techwr-l-bounces+sandi=siberlogic -dot- com -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com] On Behalf
Of Jim Barrow
Sent: Thursday, April 05, 2007 1:23 PM
To: techwr-l -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com
Subject: Re: Business Requirements

Thanks, Mary.

The situation is convoluted.  A consulting firm came in over a year ago to
develop the business and functional requirements for the A2 system.  I don't
know if there was a gas leak at the time, but the documents that I read were
of little value.  The "requirements" that the firm listed were not
requirements at all and I was able to reduce the list of 680 down to 120.
For political reasons, that list was thrown out and another firm was hired
to start at square one (the developers are supposed to start working on
6/1).

There are three items that I can clarify.

First, I'm not a gun-slinger who decided that these requirements (for both
the legacy app and A2) needed to be written.  I was given that assignment.  

Second, the legacy app documentation is mostly for the stakeholders so that
heads *don't* roll if they ask to see the current documentation.  The
emphasis was on generating this first.

Third - and I say this with respect - John was incorrect when he said that I
had been shot down once before regarding this.  That incident/post referred
to a completely different project.  And again, I'm not playing Cowboy Bob
shooting my way into board rooms trying to sell my agenda.  My manager tells
me what he'd like and I do it.

From: Mary Arrotti <mary_arrotti -at- yahoo -dot- com>

I think it's fine & actually your responsibility to raise the issue if the
lack of bus reqs adversely affects your job or your ability to produce
documentation. Not sure if that's the case here. As I understand it - you're
not even working on the legacy app. If you think there is a need for
documentation for that product & anticipate problems if your org doesn't
include docs - then I'd recommend bringing that to everyone's attention. But
if you're not working on the product & not protesting that - then pushing
for bus reqs may seem a bit presumptuous. 
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