Many requirements analysis specialists have little or no development or testing experience and this can lead them to forget what the real deliverable is.
The purpose of requirements analysis is to provide a robust and unambiguous requirement so that architects and developers know what to build and testers know what to test.
However, spending too long producing “perfect” requirements artefacts can delay the project and delays cost money.
It is important to get design started as soon as possible on those high risk areas of the project so that the risks are mitigated and problems dealt with early.
In order to achieve this, design work should be allowed as soon as the requirements are deemed “good enough to proceed”. The analysts can come back and perfect them later and pass updates on to the designers and testers or feed back changes based on design constraints. Flexibility and collaboration across disciplines are key.
Too many analysts still think: “I have produced the requirements specification – my work here is done.”
Takeway:
- Analysts, don’t lose sight of your real goal: producing working software – your customer cannot run their business with beautiful documents alone.
Kind regards,
Declan Chellar
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