Project Manager's Toolkit: Practical Checklists for Systems Development
Offering practical and easy to apply checklists, this quick reference provides a fast way to reduce an insolvable problem/issue to a set of smaller solvable ones.
TABLE OF CONTENTS Project Manager's Toolkit: Practical Checklists for Systems Development
Chapter 4: Business Requirements Checklists
4.1 Prototyping for Requirements The Big Issues
Type: Analysis
Checklist Description
A real risk of business requirements capture is that it can be an extremely lengthy exercise to cross all the t's and dot all the i's. The risk is that users may be persuaded to accept that they want the set of proposed requirements through exhaustion. Business people don't know what they want until they can see they can have it then they can't live without it.
Prototyping is a method for showing what a system will look like very early on in the development process. However, it is not without some potential for disaster.
This checklist can be used to determine whether prototyping would be a suitable technique for requirements gathering.
Checklist
What can a Prototype Be used for?
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simulation
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to understand the implications of the system
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identifies conflicts
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allows alternatives to be tried
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requirements gathering
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generates previously unforeseen needs
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enables discussion about what the system should and should not do
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tests desirability
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user involvement
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encourages enthusiasm and interest
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builds user commitment
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establishes a confirmed starting point for development (e.g. screens, queries, reports can be fixed ).
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When to use Prototyping
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look and feel of system is difficult for business users to imagine
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data input/output requirements can be captured
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system is simple and straightforward
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to test a new software tool.
When not to use Prototyping
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system is highly complex and needs extensive analysis
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user is too...
Copyright David M. Shailer 2001 under license agreement with Books24x7
