May
23
Requirements Analysis and Documentation, Take 1.6
May 23, 2006 |
In the next version of the BA BoK, we’re planning some changes to the Requirements Analysis and Documentation KA.
One task will probably move to Requirements Planning and Management (Structuring Requirements for Traceability). The rationale for that is that tracing requirements is almost purely a requirements management technique, not an analysis technique. Many projects don’t even require it, and if they do, it’s often because of the particulars of their change control process.
The only completely new task is one to analyse the current state of the business. We’re documenting it as a separate task from the various requirements analysis tasks because, well, a description of an existing thing can’t be a requirement. A requirement must describe a desired future state of affairs (in some cases, you might have a requirement to preserve the current state, I suppose).
Finally, we’re dividing the current Validate Requirements task into two: one for validation (ensuring that requirements fulfill the business need) and one for verification (ensuring that the requirements are properly written). I’m doing this, honestly, because I think most current texts on requirements focus far too much on verification and far too little on verification. When verification does come into the picture, authors rarely go past the issues involved in verifying the solution requirements against stated user requirements. The business requirements are somehow expected to take care themselves.
Adding a task specifically for it in the BoK isn’t going to fix that problem, of course. However, I’m hoping that in a small way, it might encourage people to think about the topic a little more.
UPDATE: Looks like I’ll have to add Analyse User Requirements to the list.
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So, when is the next version dropping? The iiBA website mentions version 1.4 (came out quite awhile ago) and how the next version (1.5) coming out a couple months ago. What’s the real scoop on the date for the release?
Expect an announcement (through the IIBA) very soon.