Month: March 2021

Requirements Analysis Using Event/Response And Use Cases – Business/Project Objectives

Professor of Project Management Uncategorized , , ,
Planning

If you search this site using the keyword “objectives”, you will see my prior posts on the importance of documenting your Business and Project Objectives, as well as how to properly define them. Those posts framed objectives in the context of the Project Management process. Having the objectives defined is also critical in the requirements analysis process.

Here are some of the key reasons for knowing your Business and Project objectives in advance of your requirements analysis:

  1. Ensure that everyone on the project team understands the project vision. There is a saying in the military that “no plan survives contact with the enemy”. That is also true for projects (where the “enemy” is usually time and resources). However, if everyone understands the commander’s intent (the “objectives”), then it is easier to change and adapt the plan. Conditions may make you unable to execute the original plan, but you are always responsible for achieving the commander’s intent.
  2. The Objectives guide everyone’s decision making. There are many decisions made each day on a project. They are made by everyone on the team, not just the management. Along with empowering people to make decisions, you must give them the tools to make the right decisions. Chief among those tools is making sure they know and understand the Business and Project Objectives.
  3. The Objectives are used to validate the Requirements Model. At the end of the first round of analysis, you will compare the results to the documented Project and Business Objectives. Do your requirements address all the deliverables in the Project Objectives? If not, another round of analysis is needed. Will the requirements achieve the Business Objectives? If not, understand why. Has your analysis revealed additional Project Objectives? If so, these must be addressed in your Change Management process in order to change your Project Charter.

In the next post I will define the Event Model, with subsequent posts addressing each element in detail.

Note: My Kindle book “Project Management For The Real World”, is available at

https://www.amazon.com/author/lettera

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Requirements Analysis Using Event/Response and Use Cases – Analysis Sequence

Professor of Project Management Uncategorized ,
Planning

Getting requirements right is a process. Your business stakeholders will rarely (if ever) be able to give you all of their requirements without some method of generating relevant questions to draw the requirements from them. What I am going to present in this and the following posts on this topic is NOT a new way to document your old thinking. It is a new way to think about requirements.

The deliverables created from this approach are:

  • Identification of all processes in scope
  • Documentation of the specific Use Cases for each process
  • Identification of all of the stakeholders that interact with the business processes
  • Creation of a framework with which you can generate and execute your test cases

Many analysts start and end their requirements elicitation with “functional requirements” (e.g. “I need to search by Last Name” or “Requests for time off need to be approved by the manager”). In the Event/Response/Use Case approach, functional requirements are derived from the Use Cases at the end of the analysis process.

The analysis sequence is as follows:

  • Business Objectives
  • Project Objectives (1st cut)
  • Event Model
  • Project Objectives (verified)
  • Use Cases
  • Functional Requirements

In the next post, I will discuss how the Business and Project Objectives are defined and used in the Event/Response methodology.

Note: My Kindle book “Project Management For The Real World”, is available at

https://www.amazon.com/author/lettera

Requirements Analysis Using Event/Response And Use Cases – Overview

Professor of Project Management Uncategorized , ,
Initiation

This is the start of a multi-part series on my favorite requirements elicitation technique: the Business Event/Response Analysis. Early versions of this methodology were developed in the late 1980’s by some of the great system development minds of that era. Since then it has evolved and I have adapted it to meet the needs of whatever organization for which I am working.

There are some that think you can gather requirements by just asking the sponsors and users “what do you want?”. Needless to say, this method will generate incomplete requirements and tends to start and end with functional requirements. In the latter half of the project when large requirements gaps are discovered, the sponsors/users blame the analyst and vice versa.

When I teach on this topic, I tell the analysts it is their responsibility to gather complete requirements. Given this, we need a method that will (1) generate the appropriate questions to ask, (2) ensure that we have the complete set of requirements, and (3) allow us to derive the functional requirements from the model.

The Business Event/Response method meets these desired outcomes. The advantages are:

  • It helps the Business Analyst create the questions needed to draw the requirements from the Business Owner, even if the Analyst has no knowledge of the business area.
  • It organizes the requirements in the context of Business Processes and Usage to promote better understanding.
  • The output serves as a significant starting point for defining the testing scope and scenarios.

In the upcoming posts I will describe this method in detail.

Note: My Kindle book “Project Management For The Real World”, is available at

https://www.amazon.com/author/lettera

Setting Up A Project SharePoint Site Part 7 – Security

Professor of Project Management Uncategorized ,
Executing Monitoring and Controlling

You can setup your SharePoint site security at a variety of levels. You will need to be the site administrator to do this. Here are some of the key ways you can secure your site:

  • Site Level – Control access to the entire site. You can deny access to individuals or groups. You can also define large groups of people as visitors (read only). You may assign the appropriate individuals the ability to create content or design content. You can also assign others to be site administrators but I advise you to limit this to one backup person.
  • Library/List level – by default all libraries and lists inherit the site level security. If you want different security for some libraries and lists, you need to break the inheritance and custom define the security for that library/list. This is useful for private or sensitive documents such as contracts and individual performance evaluations. If you secure a library/list, it will not appear in the navigation or the site map for those in which access is denied.
  • Document level – by default all documents in a library inherit the document library security. You may break this inheritance for individual documents within the library. This is useful if you have a very small number of documents to secure and don’t want to establish a new library.

You need to pay close attention to how you setup security so the site will be useful to all stakeholders while simultaneously protecting sensitive information. I suggest you consult with your project sponsor and establish a security access process before allowing access to the site.

For more on SharePoint and other Project Management topics, my Kindle book “Project Management For The Real World” is available at

https://www.amazon.com/author/lettera

Setting Up A Project SharePoint Site Part 6 – Project Status Dashboard

Professor of Project Management Uncategorized
Executing Monitoring and Controlling

Assembling a Project Status Dashboard is a powerful way to use the capabilities of SharePoint. Instead of having to create a weekly status report manually, SharePoint can do it for you using information you are already updating on the site. This can be a big time saver. The page is updated in real-time as you update the component parts that are shown on the page so the sponsor or other stakeholders can always see the latest status instead of having to wait for you to send it.

Another advantage of the dashboard is that it acts like “mission control” for the project manager. I would always start my day on the dashboard to help determine on what I need to focus. In one place you have your upcoming milestones, high impact issues and risks, and action items due in the next 7 days. You can drill into the details of each item right from that page. This beats looking for each piece individually in documents on a network drive.

I use the SharePoint “web part page” to set up the Project Status Dashboard. A “web part page” allows you to assemble a page from existing lists, libraries and other SharePoint components you have already built on your project site. I like the 3-column format for fitting all of the important information.

Here is the information I include and how I format it:

First Row, across all 3 columns:

The Project Information Announcement – contains basic project information such as the name, number, description and benefits, sponsor name and project manager name.

Second Row, across all 3 columns:

The Project Status Announcement – contains a few sentences from the Project Manager and Lead Business Analyst on the state of the project. I like to update this weekly or whenever an important milestone is reached.

Third Row:

Column 1: The Project Health Scorecard

Column 2: A view on the Issues list containing only high impact Issues, and under that, a view on the risks list containing only high exposure Risks

Column 3: Upcoming Milestones (current month and next month)

Fourth Row, across all columns:

Time Off Calendar for key project team members and stakeholders

Fifth and Sixth Rows, across all columns:

Action Items Due in the next 7 Days – I use a view over the Action Items List.

Action Items Completed in the last 7 Days – I use a view over the Action Items List.

Seventh Row, across all columns:

Key project documents from the document libraries.

You may need to educate and train your users to come here first for information but it will be well worth your time to do so.

For more on SharePoint and other Project Management topics, my Kindle book “Project Management For The Real World” is available at

https://www.amazon.com/author/lettera