Business Case
The business case is established early in
the project to fully specify the objectives of the project and its expected
benefits.
The business case essentially defines the
business requirements of the project.
Benefits Realisation Management is the
process of assessing the extent to which expected benefits have actually been
achieved. This measurement process commences as soon as the project
deliverables have been accepted by the user.
Note that a project supplies products
(deliverables); it does not directly supply benefits. It is necessary that the
customer signs up to say that the expected benefits are derivable for the
project's deliverables.
Project Requirements and Constraints
The project requirements define such
elements as project cost and duration. They should be based on the business
case; the business case may, for instance, be heavily dependent on a particular
project end date.
Constraints may be defined for the project
and for the project deliverables.
Achievement of project requirements and
constraints may be assessed during an end project review.
User Requirements Specification
Based on the business requirements as
reflected in the business case, the user requirements are to be specified by
those who will be using the project's deliverables.
Business rules and quality criteria may be
captured at the same time.
There are many techniques to assist the
elicitation of user requirements; there are many tools designed to assist in
the recording and management of those requirements.
Testing is conducted against the user
requirements specification. Something may be claimed to be a requirement, but
if it is not possible to create a test case for it, then it is not a
requirement.
Testing must be planned and conducted in a
methodical manner in order to ensure that it is done comprehensively. There are
techniques and tools to assist this process. It is important that the
techniques and tools interface effectively with those used for requirements
elicitation.
This level of testing is traditionally
covered during user acceptance testing. For software systems it is essential
that all aspects of the associated business processes are tested.
Technical Requirements Specification
Technical requirements are those detailed
requirements that will support the achievement of the user requirements.
Typically the technical requirements are
divided into two categories; functional and non functional.
Functional requirements define the
essential functionality of the system.
Non functional requirements attach to the
functional ones in a many to many relationship and define aspects such as
performance, security, look and feel, legal, etc.
Testing of technical requirements is
performed against the technical requirements specification. Aspects of this
level of testing will traditionally be performed during acceptance and systems
testing.
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