Chapter 7-Understanding the real problem
Brown Cow Model: -
A common
problem voiced by requirements analysts is: “people don’t tell me their
requirements, they tell me a solution to some unstated problem”. This
focus on solutions is further complicated when it is mixed together with
current business constraints, technical constraints and personal perceptions of
the world.
This model of work has four views of
work which are What, Now, How and Future. The two horizontal and the vertical
axes separate What from How, and Now from the Future.
The above figure is a generic
model that illustrates the sorts of subject matter you might identify as
belonging to each of the four points of view. The four quadrants are - What-Now, What-Future, How-Now,
and How-Future.
Each of the quadrants focuses on a
specific point of view and provides you with a way of organising what you
discover. Generally, it is
not sufficient to have only two views of business - the "as is"
and the "to be". This model is a
way of reducing the complexity of systems modelling by dividing the
model's viewpoints. For example, the business analyst needs to separate the
current view of the system from the future.
- Now- This focuses on how things work now-a-days.
- Future- How could things work differently in the future.
- What - What should be done.
- How- How independent is it now and how it might be in the future.
Innovative business value discovered by this sort of innovative thinking are then included in the business stories. These are innovations that could never be discovered by focusing on a software interface.
In the base left quadrant of the Brown Cow display 6 the perspective spotlights on how things are done at this point. This is regularly what specialists request — somewhat a greater amount of what we as of now have. In the base right quadrant, the perspective spotlights on how things could function later on. It is likely that somebody who has a necessity will express it in these terms.
Innovation
ReplyDeleteThe present business analyst ought to consistently be searching for approaches to improve his/her customer's work, and these enhancements quite often come to existence through development. The vast majority don't consider themselves creative, yet there are some sensibly basic things you can do to urge yourself to have more and better thoughts. Keep in mind that advancement is essentially "crisp reasoning," and innovation isn't the equivalent as invention.(Mastering the requirements process, pg.160)
Systematic Thinking
ReplyDeleteYou can modify the parts of a specific project to shape a progressively helpful framework for what's to come. It is arrangement of interlocking machine gear-pieces, is suitable at prerequisites time. The fundamental thought of foundational believing is to see the business as a framework.
Here is a perfect example of systematic thinking- While talking to an engineer as one of the stakeholders in the road deicing project. The engineer asks for “The product to show a map that marks the roads that need treatment in red, and the roads that are safe in blue.”
First of all you will consider think about the solicitation for red streets and blue streets: This designer has requested this shading plan as a result of his own inclinations. Be that as it may, venturing back only a bit, you need to inquire as to whether everybody will decipher red and blue a similar way this individual does. As opposed to focusing on the principal arrangement that you are given, you step back and take a gander at the issue from a more extensive degree. By scrutinizing the hidden purpose behind every one of the components in the solution, and by contemplating the impact that any one component can have on another, you wind up inferring progressively practical prerequisites and, thus, produce a superior final result.
Reference - Mastering Business Requirements Textbook
Back to the Future
ReplyDeleteLet’s return to what we are doing here. Your task is to change the current
work into the future work, or as we have described it previously, to transform
the How-Now into the Future-What. Looked at it another way, this effort
involves changing business policy, and the new policy should be innovative.
As we have said several times—and it is worth repeating—there is little
value in simply re implementing some old piece of work. If your project is
to provide something valuable to the organization, then it must provide an
advance, some fresh thinking, to make the end product as useful as possible.
You must not be afraid to innovate. Customers—both the internal stakeholders
and the external business customers—don’t always know what they
want. Apple, which is by any standard the most innovative company in
the world, almost studiously avoids traditional market research. By its own
admission, Apple builds not what people say they want, but what Apple
thinks its customers are ready for. People usually don’t know what they want
until they see it, so your task is to give them something to see. Improving
the work means delivering a product that when they get it, the users realize
it is what they want.
The future work should provide a better response to the business customers,
or for products to be used internally, a better way of working for the
users. This means giving them something they did not have before, or providing
a facility that makes their task easier.
We have suggested using a persona, and looking at the product from the
point of view of the persona. This usually results in a change to the work to
make it more acceptable—convenient—to the end user or customer. Even
eliminating a single step from a buying or ordering process may make a difference.
Play through your work from the persona’s point of view and see
if you can make it more convenient. And remember—you are not trying to
please yourself.
The outcome of thinking in the Future-How segment of the Brown Cow
Model is a number of models of the future work. These need not be elaborate;
we typically use simple scenarios and sketches to elicit the concurrence of the
stakeholders. You will, of course, need the full cooperation of the stakeholders,
as the Future-What represents a new business policy or the new work to
do. Once you have agreed on the extent of the work, define the boundaries
of the Future-What view by updating your work context diagram and adding
to or changing your event list as needed.