From the category archives:

Requirements Planning and Management

Explore requirements management plans, planning the requirements process, and analyzing stakeholders.

Exploring new software development tool sets: Interview with John Simpson of Jama Software

October 15, 2009 by Laura (Brandau) Brandenburg

John Simpson is director of customer outreach and marketing at Jama Software.  John is a contributor for Business Analyst Times. At Jama, he represents the voice of the customer in their product strategy and communications.  He has over 14 years experience working at software technology companies including Microsoft, WebTrends and Omniture. In his spare time, [...]

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Do you have the key business stakeholders involved in your project?

September 23, 2009 by DougGtheBA

If customers are not receiving what they ask for in a project deliverable, what causes that? Where would everything fall apart to the point that requirements were not being carried out through implementation? Chances are the analyst may have had an incorrect or partially incorrect set of key stakeholders providing input to the requirements.
When regarding [...]

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Requirements specifications: what to do when you must start from scratch

September 7, 2009 by Laura (Brandau) Brandenburg

In my recent post on requirements templates, I found that many of you fall into two very different camps. While some of you have formalized processes and sets of documentation requirements for your software projects (this can be helpful or hurtful), others have nothing. Those of you in the latter category feel you need to [...]

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Reverse engineering requirements: Create a Work Plan

January 7, 2009 by Laura (Brandau) Brandenburg

By now you are probably ready to start meeting with stakeholders to elicit requirements.  You’ve found a business sponsor, scoped your project, and learned a lot exploring the system.  It’s valuable to pause and create a plan of attack before diving into your stakeholder meetings.  Having a plan will keep you organized and make the [...]

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Leading through transparency: the value of a requirements management plan

December 8, 2008 by Laura (Brandau) Brandenburg

Being a leader within your organization requires a consistent commitment to results and continuous improvement. It’s also about establishing transparency into what you are doing, why you are doing it, and how your activities drive value within your organization.  A solid requirements management plan can help you achieve many of these leadership goals.
Although I’m a [...]

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Reverse Engineering Requirements: Select a Business Owner and Identify Scope

November 26, 2008 by Laura (Brandau) Brandenburg

If you are given license to start reverse engineering a legacy system into requirements, also known as a “current capabilities assessment”, it’s often tempting to jump right in and start documenting. But before you do that it’s important to lay the groundwork for your task.  You’ll want to identify a business owner and define scope [...]

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Using an Issues List to drive software requirements to completion

September 12, 2008 by Laura (Brandau) Brandenburg

Why use an issues list?
The Issues List is one of the most simple and most effective tools you’ll ever use as a business analyst. It has power when you use it proactively and effectively.  The list itself is simple.  The ability to maximize its impact is the sign of a great business analyst.  We’ll briefly [...]

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