Software Requirements Engineering

Lecture # 4

Team Skill 2: Understanding User and

Stakeholder Needs
Requirements Elicitation Techniques - II

CIIT, Wah Cantt

 2

Interviews
Questionnaires
Background Reading
Introspection
Social Analysis
Requirements Workshops
Brainstorming and Idea Reduction
Story Boarding
Role Playing
Prototyping
Requirements Reuse
 3

Requirements Workshop
A requirements workshop is a structured, assisted and
collaborative event in which a selected group of stakeholders
work together to discover, create, verify and document
requirements, deliverables and work products

The requirements workshop is perhaps the most powerful

technique for eliciting requirements.

It gathers all key stakeholders together for a short but strongly

focused period.

The use of an outside facilitator experienced in requirements

management can ensure the success of the workshop.

Brainstorming is the most important part of the workshop.

 4

Participants of Requirements Workshop

Sponsor
May not attend each workshop but might kick off the initial workshop
Content Participants
Subject matter experts and user representatives
Facilitator
Neutral skilled person who designs and lead the workshop
Recorder
Neutral person experienced in documenting the specific work product
This role can be filled by an analyst, developer, tester, Project manager
Planning Team
A minimum of three people- a content participant, a technical member (can
be analyst) and facilitator
 5

Role of the Facilitator

Establish professional and objective tone to the meeting.
Start and stop the meeting on time.
Establish and enforce the rules for the meeting.
Introduce the goals and agenda for the meeting.
Manage the meeting and keep the team on track.
Facilitate a process of decision and consensus making, but avoid
participating in the content.
Make certain that all stakeholders participate and have their input
heard.
Control troublesome or unproductive behavior .
 6

What happens in Requirements Workshop

Team members create, review and complete important
requirements deliverables
The facilitator manages the groups process
The Recorder documents the groups work as its
proceeds
 7

Benefits of Requirements Workshop

20% to 50% reduction in overall product defects
Scope creep decrease from 80% to 10% or even 5% when workshops
are combined with prototyping
5-15% time and effort savings
You can get the inputs of all the stakeholders
The functionality of the application is decided between the
stakeholders and the manufacturers at early stage
 8

Preparing for the Workshop

Proper preparation for the workshop is
critical to success.

Selling the workshop concept to stakeholders

Ensuring the Participation of the Right

Stakeholders

Attending Logistics
Logistics involve everything from
structuring the proper invitation to
travel arrangements to the lighting in
the workshop meeting room.

Preparation of Warm-up materials

Project-specific information
Out-of-box thinking preparation
 9

Preparation of Warm-up materials

Project-specific information
This might include drafts of requirements
documents, suggested features, copies of
interviews, analyst's reports on industry
trends, bug reports from existing system,
new management orders, new marketing data,
and so on. Although it's important not to bury
the attendees in data, it's also important to
make sure they have the right data.

Out-of-box thinking preparation

Part of "getting their minds right" is
encouraging attendees to think "out of the
box." "Forget for a minute what you know and
what can't be done due to politics. Forget
that we haven't yet standardized our
development process. Simply bring your
insights on the features of this new project,
and be prepared to think 'out of the box.'"
 10

Workshop Agenda
Set an agenda before the workshop and publish it along
with the other pre-workshop documentation.

Balance is the key, try to stay on the agenda, but do

not strictly obey it, especially if good discussion is going
on.
 11

Running the Workshop

 12

Workshop Problems and Suggestions

 13

References
1. Managing Software Requirements: A Use Case Approach, Second Edition By
Dean Leffingwell, Don Widrig, Addison- Wesley
 14

For any query Feel Free to ask