Fluent Essays

Due Sep 12, 11:59pm, PT............20 hours left Need to write about 2 pages (1.5 line spacing and 11 or 12 font size) of summary of chapter, so that it contains: (part 1) important concepts of the chapter (part 2) experience/application/opinions of the chapter. Chapter 4: The Requirements (Business) Analyst 1 4.1 The Analyst Role  Gathers, studies, documents, validates requirements  Principal conduit between customer/user and developers  Not a job title; software engineers, managers, domain experts, users can be analysts 2 4.2 The Analyst’s Tasks, 1  Define business requirements ◦ Understand why project is being done ◦ Know project’s vision and scope  Identify stakeholders and users ◦ Know who is affected by success or failure ◦ Know who will interact directly with system 3 The Analyst’s Tasks, 2  Elicit requirements ◦ proactively, persistently ◦ variety of techniques—interviews, workshops, surveys, observations, work flow analysis,…  Analyze requirements ◦ Find derived, implied requirements ◦ Find vagueness, conflicts 4 The Analyst’s Tasks, 3  Specify requirements ◦ Clear enough for customer/user ◦ Precise enough for developers  Model requirements ◦ Text usually isn’t enough ◦ Graphic models enable analysis ◦ Prototypes increase understanding 5 The Analyst’s Tasks, 4  Validation ◦ Lead the effort—schedule and chair the reviews ◦ Ensure the excellence of the requirements ◦ Ensure correct interpretation—review the code and test cases derived from requirements 6 The Analyst’s Tasks, 5  Facilitate prioritization—ensure successful negotiation between users and developers  Manage requirements ◦ Create the plan ◦ Establish baselines ◦ Control changes ◦ Track status 7 4.3 Essential Skills, 1  Listening ◦ Be attentive ◦ Confirm understanding ◦ Detect unspoken, implied needs  Interviewing and questioning ◦ Be able to talk with variety of people (even aggressive or intimidating) ◦ Ask about normal and unusual uses and situations ◦ Clarify uncertainties, disagreements, assumptions 8 Essential Skills, 2  Analysis ◦ Deal with abstraction and detail ◦ Generalize and specialize ◦ Think critically ◦ Resolve conflicts from multiple sources ◦ Separate wants from needs, solutions from requirements 9 Essential Skills, 3  Facilitation ◦ Be neutral ◦ Relieve tension between customer/user and developers ◦ Build trust on all sides  Observation ◦ See the subtle, in user words or actions 10 Essential Skills, 4  Writing ◦ Express complex ideas clearly ◦ Have good command of customer/user language ◦ Read efficiently and critically  Organization ◦ Structuring a large array of changing information into a coherent whole 11 Essential Skills, 5  Interpersonal relationships ◦ Getting competitors to work together ◦ Mentor and educate  Creativity ◦ think of innovative capabilities ◦ satisfy needs that user hasn’t thought of yet 12 4.4 Essential Knowledge  Modern techniques ◦ Requirements engineering ◦ Software development  Project management  Risk management  Quality engineering  Application domain knowledge 13 4.5 Making An Analyst, 1  Former User ◦ Good understanding of business, work environment ◦ Little familiarity with engineering or technical people ◦ May not respect current users ◦ May focus on user interface 14 Making An Analyst, 2  Former Developer ◦ Good technical skills ◦ Often lacking in social, organizational skills ◦ Little knowledge of business or application domain 15 Making An Analyst, 3  Subject Matter (Domain) Expert ◦ Excellent grasp of problem domain ◦ Good at assessing reasonability and impacts on users ◦ May prefer his own requirements over those of actual users ◦ May create an unnecessarily ambitious system 16 END 17