Compared with studying, the material changes: requirements are not handed over ready-made, they are pulled out of people who have not formulated them themselves.
Do now
- I prepare questions for a meeting and leave it with decisions rather than with a retellingWhat is left after the meeting is a list of decisions and open questions.
- I separate the business goal, the scenario and the constraint in a statement of workOne item does not mix up what for, how, and what limits us.
- I draw the diagram in an agreed notation and test it on somebody who was not at the meetingThe person reads the diagram without my commentary.
- I hand the document to a developer before the work startsThey do not come back asking what was meant here.
Where next
Sideways out of the role
- Product manager sideways
- Backend developer sideways
- Data and machine learning sideways
- QA engineer sideways
- Architect deeper
What this step asks of you
I pull requirements out of people who cannot state them
What my meeting leaves behind is not a retelling but a list of decisions and open questions.I tell the kinds of requirements apart and do not mix them up
I do not blend a business goal, a user scenario and a technical constraint into one item.I write a document that gets read and worked from
The developer does not come back asking what was meant here.I draw diagrams in a commonly accepted notation, not with arbitrary boxes
My diagram is understood by a person who was not at the meeting.
Common mistakes
- Writing down everything that was said: the result is minutes you cannot build anything from.
- Asking what do you need and believing the answer: people name a solution, not a problem.
- Drawing boxes your own way: the diagram has to be explained again every time.
What to learn
- Product, process and peopleSystems and business analysis