Development of Lightweight Process improvement requirements

Requirement development refers to the process of developing product requirements by analyzing user requirements. Demand development refers to the process of converting user-oriented requirements into those of R & D teams, and answering the question "What kind of products do we have to do" from the R & D team. Demand development is directly oriented to the R & D team, which is a necessary part of transferring user requirements to the R & D team. This article mainly describes the main procedures involved in the development of project requirements, possible problems, analysis of these problems and corresponding improvement measures.

I. requirements development procedure

In the context of the lightweight process improvement series, the differences and links between requirement management and requirement development have been clearly stated in the "requirement management" domain, which will not be expanded here. Each team may have different understandings and interpretations of the context. However, the main task of requirement development is to allow the R & D team to obtain product requirements and design and implement the system according to product requirements, demand development is usually a cross-functional team activity, and usually includes the following procedures:

1. Requirement Analysis

• Objective: Requirement Analysis is a process of defining product requirements. By analyzing various requirements from the project line and integrating the existing functions of the product line, we can develop and manage product requirements, ensure that the product requirements meet the requirements of product platform construction and project line management.
• Main role: led by product manager
• Main steps: the product management team needs to collect product requirements, on the one hand, from the input of the project line, on the other hand, it also needs to conduct market analysis. Based on the existing product requirements, use the requirement analysis and definition tools for system modeling, and form the "product requirements manual".

2. Demand Review

• Objective: To apply the evaluation strategy to ensure the correctness of the product requirements and user requirements, we need to confirm the user requirements and reach an agreement with the customer, for product requirements, we use formal reviews. Demand review ensures that product requirements complement and improve the existing product structure and future product strategies.
• Main role: led by the product manager and attended by the person in charge of each R & D team
• Main steps: Hold a demand Review Meeting. The product manager leads the meeting agenda, and the project, technology, and operation teams participate in the requirement meeting and review the product requirements, the review results form a formal product requirement statement.

Ii. Problems in demand development

Demand development belongs to the product management category in this series of articles. It is mainly carried out by the product management team represented by the product manager, making product management difficult, in addition to the demand development process, there are also a number of work such as product platforms and standardization. Therefore, the product demand development here is only discussed from the perspective of requirement analysis and definition, which is relatively simple, it mainly involves the tools and methodologies of demand analysis, and the following problems may exist:

1. The granularity and dimension of the requirement definition are unreasonable.

A common problem in requirement definition is the granularity and dimension of requirements, that is, how we break down and describe requirements. Unreasonable requirement definition granularity will increase the difficulty of R & D management, because the management of R & D scope is usually based on the definition granularity of product requirements. The granularity is too large to facilitate information synchronization, if the granularity is too small, the management cost will be increased. In terms of dimensions, a requirement that clearly defines non-functional requirements and other auxiliary requirements will promote the development of R & D work and measurement, on the other hand, coordination is required to define and develop these requirements.

2. The display mode of requirement definition is too simple

Sometimes the expression of requirement definition is very important. Whether it is a user experience-driven Internet product or an enterprise-level application driven by the business field, it is not easy to find an appropriate requirement definition method, depends on specific products. However, no matter what type of product requirement definition, diversified forms of presentation can often better express the meaning of the demand itself, to ensure that the R & D team can quickly and intuitively understand the demand. Many requirements are hard to understand and maintain because their presentation is too simple, which is not conducive to the Team fully grasp the details of the requirements.

3. Lack of unified requirement modeling process

Requirement Modeling is necessary in the process of requirement analysis. The degree of modeling may vary depending on the characteristics and complexity of the system, however, we should adopt a unified modeling method that is widely recognized by the Team to sort out the requirements. The result of lack of requirement modeling is that each requirement definition personnel may have their own set of rules and methods, which may lead to different people to have different understandings and maintenance methods for the same requirement, in a team collaboration environment, an invisible barrier is formed to reduce work efficiency.

3. Requirement Development Process Improvement

Demand development involves more about how to efficiently present user needs and product features to R & D personnel. The entry points for improving the demand development process include:

1. Focus on Decomposition of product requirements

The general principle of demand decomposition is equally useful for both user and product requirements. However, the granularity and dimension of product requirements are usually more important than those of users, because product requirements are the main source for developers to understand the product, they directly affect the development plan and System Design of the R & D team. Attention to product demand decomposition is also a process of tailoring, which should be balanced according to the current situation of team cognition and product development features.

2. Focus on the use of modeling tools

Essentially, requirement analysis can be understood as a system modeling process. System Modeling is also a very large field, both structured analysis and object-oriented modeling can provide us with a system model. In the process of requirement development improvement, the use of unified system modeling tools can ensure that the product requirements meet the mainstream analysis and definition styles in the industry, ensure that team members, especially R & D personnel, fully understand product requirements and eliminate unnecessary ambiguity and misunderstanding.

3. Focus on the forms of demand

Different teams can use different forms of demand presentation, but ensure that the team understands and recognizes this form. The problem of a single presentation mode in the requirement definition mentioned above is a focus in the improvement process. On the other hand, the forms must be unified.

In view of the above starting points, we will sort out the modes and practices for improving the demand management process, including:

1. Establish configuration management concepts and procedures

The configuration management concepts and processes for requirements mentioned in requirement management are also applicable to the demand development process and will not be expanded here.

2. flexible application of various "weapons"

Product managers should have some weapons to develop product requirements. These weapons show product requirements in different aspects. Here are several weapons that are considered important and easy to grasp:

• Feature list: the feature list is a decomposition mode of product requirements. It is also a quantification mode. A feature list is formed by requirement-> module-> function line-> Function Point Analysis, it can help the entire R & D team to form a consistent understanding of product requirements, and also provide the basis for R & D team to split R & D tasks, schedule and process management. For the feature list, refer:

• User case: Use Cases are a valid description of functions, and the use cases are represented in a variety of forms. We will not discuss them here. You can refer to Alistair Cockburn's writing valid use cases. the following is a form of representation:

• System prototype: A system prototype is a visual representation of product requirements. It provides the R & D team and even the customer with a product requirement for system vision and user interaction, common system prototype development tools include axure RP and mockups. The system prototype developed using mockups is similar:

3. Carry out System Modeling

There are many methodologies for system modeling, such as structured analysis, object-oriented, and domain-driven. As a supporting tool for these methodologies, UML is currently the mainstream system modeling tool. UML can be used for both Requirement Analysis Modeling and system design modeling. Here we use a UML sequence diagram as an example of Requirement Analysis Modeling, for example:

Iv. process assets of demand development 1. Product Requirement Specification

The Product Requirement manual mainly includes the following key points:

• Overall product introduction, including product goals, user groups, scopes, roles, decomposition principles, and forms
• System functional requirements, including the interface style, various functional modules, and functional points
• Non-functional requirements of the system, including hardware and software environments and quality requirements

V. Summary

Requirement development belongs to the product management improvement domain, and is more inclined to be within the team than requirement management. Demand development is usually closely integrated with the product platform and standardization construction. In the improvement process, the definition and Expression of product requirements are also focused. However, product management is far more than requirement development. We will elaborate on product positioning and analysis, product function priority, and other decisions in the subsequent product management improvement domains.

Development of Lightweight Process improvement requirements