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Crash course

Weeks ago I attended a course about requirements at a clients' premises, and spoke briefly as a "special guest" about my experiences in requirements gathering.
The audience was all senior people, from 10 to 30 years experience.

Which were my four cents ?

1. Be careful of the usual three pillars of chaos form the users: wrong facts, omissions and inconsistency,

2. Ask three times Why ? why ? and why ? (the first answer is never the right one),

3. The system needs 100, the users tells you he wants 90, you understand 80, you write 70 and the developer starts working on the 60 he understands,
4. There are things you do know and things you THINK you know but you don't, so
be respectful of the "monkey" user, he always know the business better than you. Be humble.
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Crash course - 2

Why ? The more I think about it, the more "why" is the word when it comes to requirements gathering. The question "Why ?" has two different meanings: THE PAST : you ask questions to understand the cause, what has happened in the past. THE FUTURE : we ask questions to understand what the user will need in the future, what he wants to do.
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3. Simple, Complicated, Complex... Chaos !

A few words about the different kind of systems, just so you know in which kind of trouble you are when you start gathering requirements :-) SIMPLE What it is: you can see clearly all the connections between cause and effect . How to handle it: it is usually easy. COMPLICATED What it is: there are cause - effect connections, but it's not easy to see them. There is never a unique solution. How to handle it: ask questions to the experts (if there is any). COMPLEX What it is: it is made of many pieces, and they are highly interconnected. The output is usually part of the system itself and influences it, so it's difficult even to ask yourself the right questions. How to handle it: test some small parts and see what it happens (someone calls it "dance with the system.") CHAOS What it is:  high uncertainty, no apparent cause and effect and ... when some rule seem to apply, it will probably change very rapidly. How to handle it: run away !
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