Methods I would use to gather requirements for writing a sales software where the two
partners could not agree on what exactly the software should do:
1. I would do research on the current system and business. l The first thing I
would do is understand the business mission statement to understand the
business goal and what is important to the business. Next, I would research to
see what sales software they are using. In doing this I would look to understand
the pros and cons of the current system and why an upgrade is needed.
2. I would conduct an interview with both partners together. I would start the
interview off with verifying the business mission statement to help align the two
partners in what they want the new software to be. I would then review the
current system with them and understand what they like, don’t like and why
they want a new program. I would ask each partner to take turns on what they
want the new software program using the Moscow method. This would help me
understand where the common ground is and build off that. In the interview I
would use the 5 Ws and the 1H.
Projects face risks of failure quite often. There are many reasons to classify a project
as risky. The two I will highlight are the lack of appropriate funding and stakeholders
not giving the project proper support. First, funding a project can sometimes be
extremely complicated. Even if a business believes they have funded a project fully,
there are many costs that can creep up unexpectedly. One of the major ones are change
orders. For example, a company has several integrations, but left an obscure yet
important one out of the scope of work. Usually adding the integration as a change
order is not an issue, but most change orders come with an additional cost. In addition
to change orders, another situation that can unexpectedly arise is the need for updated
hardware or software. Perhaps their current system runs on Windows 7, but the new
build requires an upgrade to Windows 10. Generally that would be an easy upgrade,
but sometimes a new computer terminal will also be needed to accommodate the
operating system upgrade. Since lack of proper funding can derail a project It is always
wise to set aside additional funding. If the money is not spent during the initial stages
of the project it can be used for annual maintenance or desired upgrades. The next risk
is the lack of proper project support by stakeholders. Stakeholders hold a great deal of
power when it comes to the success of a project. A lot of stakeholders are informal
leaders and hold sway over others. If they choose not to support the project, others will
follow. this can impact every part of the project from building to training to
implementation. Each of those pieces need to be appropriately supported in order to be
successful.
The methods I would use to gather requirements would be interviewing stakeholders
and observation. Making sure all stakeholders have some involvement in the project
will go a long way to earning their support. Each stakeholder should have a voice,
since an administrator may have no idea what a front line user needs and vice versa.
In order to get a balanced view each position should be interviewed. Observation is
necessary since seeing how someone does their job can capture information that was
overlooked in interviews. Sometimes a user may do things out of habit or muscle
memory and not realize there is a functional requirement behind it. This is also a
helpful way to verify the information received in the interviews makes sense and
clarify any gaps in the information. Software engineering projects are driven by
business needs. There are many different risks that can arise in a software engineering
project. The common risks include project scope changes, technical challenges, schedule
and budget overruns. In this scenario, the scope of the project poses a risk to the entire
project because the partners are not in agreement of what the scope of the project
should be. With the undefined / fluctuate scope, the project will take longer to
complete thus increase in cost for the project will occur.
To gather information for this retail store sale software, interviewing and requirement
workshops would be appropriate for this situation. Interviewing stakeholders (store
partners, store manager and sale associates) to gather information about their needs and
expectations for the software application. This method is useful because the project
team can obtain valuable insights that can be used to build the features and
functionality that are most important to the store for the application. l Requirement
workshops would bring the stakeholders together along with the project team to discuss
and identify the requirements for the software application and working toward a detail
information/scope of the project that would be aligned with the needs of the store and
its customers. I would have to say that project risk management is a process of
managing risks associated with projects. It involves identifying, assessing, and
mitigating risks. Some of the common types of project risk are project scope change,
budget change or resource availability change. Risk management is an important part of
project planning and execution to ensure that risks are minimized as much as possible.
When it comes to scope change the stakeholders may have different ideas comparing to
what you have for the project. If you and the stakeholders can’t come to an agreement,
then the project that you plan to work with would not be completed. Therefore, you
need to be able to figure out what to discuss and how you and the stakeholders can
come to an agreement. It’s much easier to defend decisions and keep scope in check
when you’ve documented and agreed upon project deliverables before work begins says
.Knowing what risks to watch out for and how you’ll address them can go a long way
in easing anxiety for everyone involved in the project. Two ways that I would use to
gather requirements are document analysis and observation. Frequently overlooked,
document analysis is another highly effective technique for gathering requirements. One
of the best ways to understand what users truly need is to observe them performing
their daily tasks. By observing end users in the real context in which they perform
their tasks, you’ll gain a true understanding of what they are up against and what
improvements they need so they can perform better. You’ll then be better able to
specify a system that successfully reinvents users’ processes and grants them far greater
productivity and usability, rather than simply providing them an incremental
improvement. Handling requirements is another way of categorizing models. A
Predictive Development model is an advancement of thought on the needs before it is
done. The design is based on the requirements of the system and is used as a blueprint
for the code to be written. Sometimes it's hard to know what it needs and the materials
to build it. Moreover, if the developers aren't familiar with a technique to use, it is
incompatible with the program to work.An Adaptive Development model is a way to
change the goals of the project during development if it is necessary. This will
reevaluate the changes in the design's direction when the outset is not relevant enough.
An example of this is watching a detective show. It has a detective trying to find the
killer, he/she has the necessary tools, and each time he/she finds a clue, the direction
becomes updated.
A Sashimi Development model also known as the SashimI Waterfall phase is just like
the Waterfall model but it can overlap the steps. There are three types of prototypes;
throwaway, evolutionary, and incremental type. A throwaway is a study of the system
being tossed out once it is gathered and then the developer writes the code from the
beginning based on that system. An evolutionary prototype is a type that describes the
application's features. During the process, refinement of the features is established, new
additions are replaced, and the finished app is based off of those new features. An
incremental is creating a collection of other types from the characteristics of their
finished version, a combination of the applications. It is easier for developers to work
on individual pieces from separate prototypes. Feature-Driven Development is both an
iterative and incremental model where large teams use risk, the value of customers, or
the waste to guide their development process at a higher level. The features listed in
this build are popularized and become added. It goes through five phases; develop a
model, build a feature list, plan by feature, design by feature, and then build by
feature. Two partners which are unaligned will derail the project, disappoint the
customer, and ruin their reputations. The partners should be able to communicate and
collaborate effectively. These risks can be unavoidable when the two partners have
different visions, levels of experience, expertise, and technical skills. One of the
partners will dominate the other partner and will hinder collaboration because they will
have a different understanding of the system requirements, tasks, and processes.
Unaligned goals will be another risk for the project. Both partners should have clear
objectives for the project and the deliverables at the end of the project.
One partner may have higher technical knowledge than the other partner. The more
experienced partner will lead in the development process, and this might inhibit the
learning experience of the other partner. To avoid these types of risks, both partners
should have similar levels of skills and experience so they can collaborate effectively
on the project.A lack of resources can cause significant problems for the software
project. Resources include the time, budget, and resources that are required to complete
the project. If one or both partners lack the required resources to complete the project,
they will have to make difficult sacrifices in order to complete the project on time.Two
methods I'd use to gather requirements for this project would be interviews or surveys.
Interviews could be done with key stakeholders to get the requirements from different
perspectives. A survey could be sent to customers to learn more about the requirements
for this project. I would use a combination of both methods to collect information for
my software project. I would also use workshops to gather more information from these
key stakeholders and customers. In this situation there are two partners that want this
sales software, but they are unable to agree on what it should do. That in itself is a
risk for the project. One of the biggest risks to software development is the purpose
and need not being well defined. Be able to agree on what the program should do falls
under the purpose and need category and the stakeholder risk. With these partners not
agreeing they won't be able to execute the project wisely. They become stakeholders in
the project because they have the most interest in the project succeeding and with them
disagreeing it succeeding will become difficult. I would start by doing stakeholder
engagement because getting the partners to agree on what the software should is
important before any planning or development can be started. Even, if it's just a very
basic and simple idea to start with.This can be achieved in many different ways by
brainstorming, questionnaires, surveys, or presentations of various ways that the
software could work. Once we get them to agree then when can start documenting
requirements. The require are important because they can define the various features
that will be necessary, how many users will it need to support at a given time, and
even where and how they want to store customer information. I would generally do
more than what is described here, but I think this is a good place to start. For this
weeks discussion topic of two small sports equipment store partners not agreeing on
what the proposed sales software should look like or do, I'd run away from this
project! Just kidding, but what a mess. I wonder how their brick and mortar store is
functioning, or not functioning. One partner must be carrying the load to avoid conflict.
Anyway, back to the question. One reason this project if classified as a risky project
would be by definition of a Waterfall model having clear and well defined objectives.
If the model needs to complete one step before moving to the next step, they would
never get past the first step of gathering what the software should look like and do.
High level design will never happen if the two partners can not give you a clear
picture of what they want. In the real world would it be possible to give them a
example of past working software's to agree upon? Another reason this would be a
risky project would be the possible conflict as the project continues or nears completion
and the partners see an example of their new sales software and not liking what they
see.So, two methods I would use to push this project along would be one on one, or
face to face interactions like brainstorming or group discussion. This would give all
parties some sence of urgency to get on the same page.
