There’s No Such Thing as a Requirement Tony Heap [email protected].

There’s No Such

Thing as a

RequirementTony Heap

[email protected]

About Me

~Freelance “Business Analyst Designer”

~Based in Yorkshire

~Clients include

~Morrisons, ASDA/Walmart, Arcadia, NHS,

BT, RWE Npower, Barclaycard, Egg, YBS

~In my spare time…

~www.its-all-design.com

~Agile trainer

http://www.its-all-design.com/

Two Agile Principles

~“Our highest priority is to satisfy the

customer through early and continuous

delivery of valuable software.”

~“Simplicity--the art of maximizing the

amount of work not done--is essential.”

Agenda

~Maximising the amount of work not

done

~Concepts

~There’s no such thing as a requirement

~Prioritization is really important

~Feature splitting

~Options Engineering

~A framework

~Business Analyst Designer Method

There’s No Such

Thing as a

Requirement

Business Change

As-is To-be

Agents of

business change

A User Story

~As a…~Shareholder in a national grocery

retailer

~What I want is…

~A better return on my investment

~So that…

~I can afford to buy a 2nd generation

Nexus 7 tablet

CEO

~How can I deliver

~a better return on investments?

~Options / components

1.Charge customers more

2.Pay suppliers less

3.Open more supermarkets

4.Expand into convenience stores

5.Go online

6.Do nothing

Head of Online

~How do I deliver

~Online grocery shopping?


1.Online platform (web)

2.Online platform (mobile)

3.Picking and packing capability

4.Home delivery capability

5.Click & collect capability

6.Customer service capability

7.Do nothing

Business Analyst

~How do I deliver

~Online platform (web)


1.Register

2.Log in

3.Browse products (not logged in)

4.Browse products (logged in)

5.Add product to trolley

6.Add product to wish list

7.…and so on

8.Do nothing

BA – Next Level of

Detail~How do I deliver

~Register


1.Capture customer name

2.Capture customer date of birth

3.Capture customer password

4.Password is at least 8 characters

5.Password contains non-alpha characters

6.Fingerprint authentication

7.…and so on

8.Do nothing

UX Designer

~How do I deliver

~Password is at least 8 characters


1.Display error after user submits

2.Display warning before user submits

3.Disable submit button until user enters 8

chars

4.Do nothing

Developer

~How do I deliver

~Display warning before user submits


1.Update the DOM with the warning text

2.Have a hidden DIV and make it

visible/invisible using CSS

3.…others?

4.Do nothing

Cascading Levels of

DetailWho What How

CEO Better return on investment

Go online

Head of Online

Go online Online platform (web)

Business Analyst

Online platform (web)

Register

Business Analyst

Register Password > 8 chars

UX Designer Password > 8 characters

Display warning before submit

Developer Display warning before submit

[tecchy stuff!!!]

Observations

~Everyone is making decisions

~Everyone is designing the business

change

~People work at different levels of detail

~One man’s requirement is actually the

previous man’s design

The Startling Truth

~There’s no such thing as a requirement!

~Nothing is truly required

~It’s all optional

~It’s all part of a business change design

~It’s all ideas…

~It’s all decisions…

It’s All Design

Business Needs

~There’s no such thing as a business

need

~Everything is optional

~Moving into online shopping is a

conscious business decision

~It is not a “need”

~This includes regulatory change!!!

Inferences

~Every “requirement” can, and should,

be challenged

~There are always options

~The “do nothing” option should always

be considered

~The “underlying business need” can,

and should, be challenged

~To save the business from a doomed

project

Problems with

Language

~If we call them “requirements” they are set

in stone

~If we distinguish between “requirements”

and “design” we end up arguing about

which is which and who does what

~Google “requirements versus design”

~Quotes:

~“Requirements are merely wishes” (Kent

Beck)

~“A requirement is a relationship to a

decision” (Alistair Cockburn)

A New Language~ In

~ Design~Business change design

~Business process design

~Functional design

~UX design

~Technical design

~ Options

~ “Deciding what to build” (Cockburn)

~ As-is and to-be

~ Business objectives

~ Ideas, proposals, suggestions (for business change)

~Out~ Requirement

~ Business need

~ Problem (there are only opportunities)

~ Solution (since there are no problems)

Prioritization is

Really Important

The Waterfall Cargo

Ship

HMS Waterfall

M

M

M

M

M

M

M

M

M

M

M

M

M

M

M

The 80:20 Rule

Things to Know About

Prioritization

1. Prioritization is really important

2. Prioritization is really hard

Why is Prioritization

So Difficult?

~People are idiots

~Apples and oranges

~Orange segments of varying value

~Oranges change into lemons

How Not to Prioritize

~Given that

~we have a bunch of apples and oranges

~…that are really hard to value individually

~most of which contain at least some really

important segments

~all of which have some value

~you’re really excited about getting this collection of

fruit~you aren’t paying it yourself…

~Which ones do you want to throw

mercilessly to the lions so they never see

the light of day?

A Better Way…

~What shall we do first?

~What shall we do next?

~Are we done yet?

~(looks you didn’t need those other

things after all…)

Incremental Delivery Saves

Projects From Doom

The Double Benefit of

Incremental Delivery

1. Deliver business value early

2. Maximise the amount of work not done

Feature Splitting

~Split features to

~Make them small enough to deliver in a

sprint

~Avoid delivering the low value 80%

Example – Log In

~Correct username and password (happy

path)

~Incorrect username or password

~Forgotten password (self service)

~Forgotten password (call centre)

~3 times lock-out

~Unlock account (self service)

~Unlock account (call centre)

~…

Options

Engineering

Options Engineering

~The customer is never right

~Who’s the IT expert anyway?

~So…~understand the underlying objective

~Identify as many options as possible

~Cost them

~Select the preferred option collaboratively

~Always include the “do nothing” option

BADM:

A Mini-Method

Business Analyst

Designer Method

Business Analyst

Designer Method

http://www.its-all-design.com/business-

analyst-designer-method/

Take Aways

~There’s no such thing as a requirement

~It’s all decisions

~It’s all design

~Prioritization is really important

~…and really hard

~Incremental delivery saves projects from doom

~Feature splitting is more important than you

think

~Consciously consider options

~Especially manual workarounds or “do nothing”

Maximise the amount of work not done

Discussion

www.its-all-design.com

[email protected]

There’s No Such Thing as a Requirement Tony Heap [email protected].

Documents

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