This document summarizes a presentation about the challenges faced by requirements engineers and professionals due to the rise of new technologies and amateur developers. It notes that tools like the internet have lowered barriers for non-professionals to create software. This has led to a gap between professional analysts and amateur developers working in marketing. The document gives examples of issues that can arise when marketing departments hire external agencies to quickly build applications without following proper requirements and security practices. While some applications become obsolete after campaigns, others take on more importance over time, leaving professionals struggling to maintain unstructured code. The document argues this approach does not lead to true success and discusses potential measures to improve coordination between professionals and amateurs developing customer-facing applications and websites.

1. Outline Dream presentatie
Doelgroep: Requirements analisten, ~engineers, projectmanagers, kortom vakmensen
Te bereiken doel: Aandacht voor infrastructurele maatregelen om negatieve impact
moderne tooling teniet te doen.
Structuur presentatie:
Sheet 1: Titel, met Almost inkomend.
I have named this presentation Success despite tooling. Many of us have this idea that
tooling will make our life easier. I’m afraid I was a bit to optimistic. I should have added
Almost. I will tell you why.
At This seminar the previous speakers focussed on methods and techniques for
professionals to arrive at good and just requirements. I do not have the illusion to be able
to add something sensible to the previous speakers. So I’d like to focus on requirements
engineering from a slightly different perspective. Because there is another world, another
[KLIK] group of people that practice requirements engineering and software
development that are not present here at this moment. They do however greatly impact
the results we can achieve. And are getting better at it by the day. I do not regard
[KLIK] ourselves as dinosaurs, they however, maybe unconsciously, might do!
And maybe we are on the road to become extinct…
One of the discussions I had shortly was on the subject of the necessity of requirements
engineering at all. In this case a manager had drafted a business case, set out the scope of
the project and was, in his opinion, ready for software development. He had his business
requirements covered. Or so he thought.
Sheet 2 Musicians
[KLIK] I won’t tire you with specific project details but the effect was a bit like these 4
musicians coming to Holland via Schiphol Airport. Upon being asked where their
instruments were they had no answer (because they simply were not there, they had not
thought about bringing them along). Upon being asked where they were supposed to
[KLIK] perform they had no answer. In this case these ‘bolletjesslikkers’ utterly failed to
comprehend the requirements of being a musician, other than in appearance. And so it
was with this business case as well.
[KLIK]
As I will demonstrate new tooling is more and more about appearance. The question is
does this really matter?
In order to make my point about the other people that do requirements engineering and
with whom we have to reckon, I have to elaborate a bit on where we come from…..
Sheet 3 Eniac

2. [KLIK] As you all know, It all started in 1946 with ENIAC. Making software for this
machine (capable of 500 additions per second) was a specialty of mathematicians and
electronics engineers.
A quote from Wikipedia about the early years of computing:
The field was so new that the idea of management by schedule was non-existent. Making
[KLIK] predictions of a project's completion date was almost impossible. Computer
hardware was application-specific. Scientific and business tasks needed different
machines. Due to the need (another word for requirement) to frequently translate old
software to meet the needs of new machines, high-order languages like FORTRAN,
COBOL, PASCAL and ALGOL were developed. Hardware vendors gave away systems
software for free as hardware could not be sold without software. A few companies sold
the service of building custom software but no software companies were selling packaged
software. The notion of reuse flourished.
This quote is about the 1950’s. Now who says that
a) we haven’t made progress: we are able to predict more or less the result of a project,
and we are surely able to predict when and why we are not going to meet given deadlines
b) who says reuse is a new phenomenon.
c) the development of higher order languages is a process that is going on to this day,
with Java, C, Flash and other languages.
So back in those days requirements engineering was truly an engineering task.
Sheet 4 Silver Bullet/Software crisis
Automation really took off in the seventees, which is when automation entered normal
business practice and investments grew bigger and bigger. Until it started falling apart.
Projects with more than a 1000 people failed miserably, Budget overruns were a daily
[KLIK] fact of life. The only solution managers had was to add more people to the
project. As you can see this doesn’t always work. And if you read the newspapers today,
you might think what has changed? It all led to the so-called Software Crisis. It is then
[KLIK] [KLIK] that the idea of a Silver Bullet started to arise. A method, language,
tool, so powerful, to beat all others and deliver software correct, flawless, and timely. It
was also in this time that our profession of business analysis, information analysis and
requirements engineering came into existence. By the way Creating specialized roles
used to be a typical IT answer to emerging problems; when software maintenance
became cumbersome we introduced technical designers, when the gap with users became
too big we introduced functional designers and ourselves, when software proved
unreliable we introduced testing and aftercare. And it worked.
Eventually, after a decade or more, we learned that there was no single solution and that
project management, requirements engineering and software development was, is and
will be a complex task, requiring many skills and a lot of coordination.
We started doing smaller projects, learning to do them within budget and timely and we
even learned to set up a standard benchmark to quantify our efforts (FPA). The Jungle of
consultancy & software slowly turned into a recognized field of practice. We now have
certified Projectmanagers (IPMA-C), OTAP development factories, best practices,
patterns, there are codes of good software practice, Atos has its RDC (Requirements
Definition Centre) which we also use, and the BCS (British Computer Society) has 65000

3. members in over a 100 countries proud on being a chartered IT professional! We were
becoming proud on what we had achieved.
Sheet 5 The Internet
[KLIK] [KLIK] And then came the Internet.
And with the internet came tools like HTML, CSS, Dreamweaver, Frontpage, Flash
etcetera. Internet, combined of course with the desktop at home, made it possible for
virtually anyone to create software to be used by many other people.
Where in 40 years we slowly learned to handle the technology gap between Us
professionals and Them users, we now see a new gap jumping into existence. A gap
between Us Professionals and Them Amateurs. And quite a different gap.
Our effectiveness has been greatly affected by these new technologies. Big companies are
usually slow in adopting new technologies, but with the Internet it’s not about a chance
for growth anymore. You are either in or out, not somewhere on the way. I hear my own
professionals complain that they have higher performance PC’s and development
software at home than in the office!
This revolutionary break down of traditional borders between Us Professionals and Them
Amateurs has also led to:
- Some Marketers are more able programming and understanding Internet Software
then some business analysts
- Some Customers even are more able then most Call Centre Agents and even some
Business Analysts
A few weeks ago a customer complaint was given to my department. This customer, a
[KLIK] well known figure in the Dutch Internet Society complained about a supposedly
wrong use of cookies by our Bank. The Call Center Agent really did not know how to
deal with this problem or with this customer? This was not about Banking affairs, or was
it? So when finally we investigated this problem we learned the customer was right. The
cookie setting was a result of our front office system Siebel, not being able to deal with
certain aspects of Internet. At least a few years back it was so. Nowadays Siebel could
cope with it, so we changed it, using the formal procedures.
Could we do without the Internet and forget this trend altogether? Could we safely
continue our profession and pretend nothing has happenend? I don’t think anyone of us
seriously believes that.
Sheet 6 The Banking world/Sox/crisis/TAbaksblatt en alle andere namen in beeld laten
komen.
Before I get into ways of bridging this gap let me get a bit specific for things that are
happening in the Banking world right now.
The period we are now living in is in fact not quite helpful in bridging this gap. I am now
[KLIK] specifically referring to the Banking World in which scandals and financial
disasters have led to ever increasing regulations aimed at being more ‘In Control’.
Combined with the perceived threat of terrorism it is Angst that rules.
[KLIK] So over the past few years we have seen MiFiD, SoX, Commissie de Ruyter I
and II, Basel I and II, SAS-70 (type I and II), Wft, Wet ter voorkoming van witwassen en

4. financiering van terrorisme (sorry can’t translate that) and Tabaksblat, last year, for the
Saints amongst us. And this list is far from being complete.
These laws led to very strict procedures for IT related investment decisions, documenting
requirements, formal handover procedures, testing, change and release management. And
Although the idea is that we are more ‘In Control’ It certainly has not done project
productivity any good. Not only do we need more people per line of code (all these
procedures have to be coordinated) we also see a dramatic increase in lead-time per line
of code (each procedure requires time in being processed). Finally with a look at the
outside world of Internet, it is fair to say our learning cycle has not shortened.
In the complaint situation I mentioned before it took me 2 days to analyze the problem, to
learn that it will take 3 days of testing to solve it, but with the formal resource allocation
process, adjusting the requirements specification, software delivery procedures and
release schedule we are tight to, it will take me 6 weeks before the customer will see the
solution of his complaint.
Sheet 7 Opsomming Zie hieronder
[KLIK] So where the Professionals in the Banking Industry have to meet general
Requirements like:
- In Control
- Go slow but Surely
- Learn before you Act
- Restricted budgets, many choices as a result of great amounts of legacy
[KLIK] We see the Marketing department acting in a very different environment (within
the same Banking Industry) having to meet another set of Requirements:
- Limitless Creativity
- Be faster than the Market
- Learn as you act
- Budget not so restricted, few choices and all of them ‘new’
The requirements I just mentioned are not specific requirements in any project or
campaign. They are more general requirements underlaying the specific ones. Also I am
[KLIK] not saying that one set is better than the other, all I am saying is that they do not
easily match. It is however in the match between these two that our professional added
value lies.
[KLIK] The Funny thing is, they are both about:
Image is everything Image is everything
[KLIK] (being reliable) [KLIK] (being hot)
When I say Marketing it is short for anyone that has a customer facing role in the
organization, be it in Marketing, Sales, Communications or Advertizing and PR.
Sheet 8 Professional and Amateur
[KLIK] So back to the gap between Us Professionals and Them Amateurs. Where has
this unbalance in requirements, made possible by emerging technologies and new tooling
led to? And please remember that in the days before Internet they really needed us, not
more so.

5. [KLIK] [KLIK] We have the classical waterfall way to develop front- mid- and back-
office systems. This is the domain where Professionalism reigns. And we have customer
facing systems where Marketing together with all kinds of Commercial Advertizing,
Marketing Advice start-ups come up with bright new ideas on a daily basis.
[KLIK] They bring ready-made applications with them to demonstrate new possibilities
of the Internet. The question then focuses on how to align the ready made application
with the wishes of the Marketing department of the Bank that is about to acquire them. If
requirements are being discussed it is quite at another level then we think of here at this
seminar. Can we have this in our company colours, I don’t like this control, what
listboxes can we use, can this object be animated, etcetera.
So they create Banners, Landingpages, Community sites, they think about Widgets and
other applications to seduce customers to visit the companies main website. In itself this
isn’t bad, however these parties do not have to meet the same quality standards as the
professionals within the Bank have to.
These bureaus are not completely aware, to put it mildly of things like the
BS7799 Information Security standard
Data integrity or consistency
Multi layer architecture
So it happens that a customer complaint lands on my desk in which a customer is mad
about a chat function he uses with our callcenter that doesn’t use HTTPS or SSL (by the
way, it’s the customer that uses these words). In other words his private discussion with
an agent in our call center about his investment portfolio is not that private at all. Now
this doesn´t really bother the developers involved as long as the chat application looks
sexy. It is sometimes at that moment (the complaint of a customer) that we learn such an
application exists.
Now I have a question for you
Do you recognize this? That Marketing, Communications, PR and the like departments
hire external agencies to develop fancy webbased applications? Can you raise some
hands please; who do recognize this?
If No; gee I cannot imagine we from Robeco supporting all these hundreds of start-ups..
If yes: I am glad you recognize this, coz I could not imagine we from Robeco supporting
all these hundreds of start-ups only by ourself.
As you may be aware by now I am not very positive about chances for a formal
department of Business Analyst in a big organization to be able to match the speed of
development of these free roaming start-ups using technologies that have yet to prove
themselves. Before we have mastered new tools to specify requirements for the next end-
user experience, in todays words RIA’s (Rich Internet Applications) using a tool like
Backbone (a 2006 technology), it becomes obsolete (in 2007) and is followed by Adobe
Flex. Whereupon our learning cycle has to start again, not to mention all procedures to
convince the senior management that this is really what we need. Ever tried convincing
ICT-management to buy into the latest Internet trend?
One of the arguments Marketing uses not to call in these type of applications with the
Professionals is that they are meant for single use over a short time-span.

6. And then of course, after the experience, some of these applications become so valuable
that Marketing sees a role for the application beyond a certain campaign. That is the
moment they turn to the Professionals and ask, could you please take over maintenance
from us, coz we are not the experts. And (this they do not tell you) we have a new bright
idea that requires our immediate attention. And we are going develop it exactly the same
way.
Of course there is no way such an application can be maintained, since there is no
documentation, it is programmed in WAS (Without Any Structure) or a language that is
not part of the software standards of the Bank, and the bright guys that programmed it
have left the start-up to start yet another start-up, so they cannot be elicitated.
And yes, on the other hand, enough software is created this way that indeed does become
obsolete after one campaign. Does it hurt? And if so, Where?
Sheet 9 Hurt/tangible/intangible.
[KLIK] First, yes it does hurt. I can name 3 areas of hurt:
- Internal Audit, worse then any formal banking authority, make it a habit to roam
the Internet looking for illegal company applications. If they find one they
scrutinize its specifications and when anything is determined to be wrong they
raise a new issue on the formal auditlist (the one that goes to the board) and
demand to solve it in a unrealistically short time-span. And who do they ask?
Never Marketing!
- [KLIK] Customers, The Public, The Media. If some sexy outside application
doesn’t work they will be the first to let the callcenter know. And those poor
bastards in the Callcenter do not know this application or site anymore then we
Professionals do. What we also see is that these external applications are less
reliable and are able to bring the companies website down, making it difficult to
be in control over our KPI’s like 99.5% availability. As a result also formal
Banking applications become subject to customer complaints.
- A third area is that of integration. At a bank I used to work for a campaign was so
successful that we received 350.000 responses. We were then asked the question
can you help us process these. This was asked at the moment that the halls of the
building were filled with boxes full of cardboard answering cards. No one had
thought about this part of the campaign.
Sheet 10 Opsomming zie hieronder
[KLIK] Does this sound like Success…does this sound like almost Success?, this sounds
like no success at all. However it is possible to take some measures, that will lead to
success with this whole new range of internet based tools and the Amateurs using them?
 [KLIK] Centralize all budgets (so they can’t hire anyone outside us
Professionals)
 [KLIK] Force them to comply to formal procedures (so put Compliance on their
back)
 [KLIK] Get a Mandate to shut down illegal sites
 [KLIK] Withdraw all Procuration (so they cannot buy new applications)
Now that would take care of matters like no other measure could.

7. [KLIK] However it would also ensure that Marketing and the like will never achieve
their set goals.
And lets be fair, if we were to regulate and control every move we made, if we had the
illusion we could control every risk perceived it would destroy innovation. Even a highly
innovative sector as the airplane industry complains about the abundance of risk
management, as you can read in this article.[KLIK] It states that it is often technology
push that creates the big breakthroughs. So how do we give room for technology push
and yet hold on to the idea of being In Control?
If the measures I just mentioned are not the answer. If this does not bring both sets of
Requirements together, what does? For we, the Professionals can moan and groan about
Marketing and the like not following, not sticking to our procedures, apparently we are
not making a good enough effort. And in the end requirements engineering is a service
we deliver that has to be appreciated to be wanted, to be bought.
So are there some ways in which we are able to help ourselves help Marketing? Do we
have or envision some more constructive measures?
Of course we do.
Sheet 11 Architectuur -> opsomming maatregel 1
Many campaigns focus on acquiring prospect or additional customer data in order to
make those customers a personalized investment offer. Within the context of a single
campaign where focus is on timing (be the first) and creativity (be original) there is no
room for an infra-structural solution. But since we know these questions appear time
upon time again, we could offer Marketing a solution whereby a prospect administration
is set-up and one or more flexible XML services can be created (with a well documented
[KLIK] specification). Now this service can be used in numerous campaigns to acquire
data. Of course the realization of such an infra-structural solution must be done outside
the scope and time pressure of any campaign.
[KLIK] The service that is thus created can be offered to different advertising agencies
and they can connect their tools.
Sheet 12 Porno/Bangladesh-> opsomming maatregel 1+2
Another argument used often by Marketing not to involve its own Business Alignment
department is that it doesn’t matter where the software runs, since it does not involve
customer portfolio data. That may be true for the banner and the landing page as such.
[KLIK] But a banner or landing page in a start-ups backroom maybe hacked. And then
the banner does not redirect to the Bank’s main site but to some pornographic content or
in the case of a Green fund to a child labour shipyard in Bangladesh. Since Marketing is
all about reputation and image this should worry them.
A second measure is to find a hosting party (outside the firewall of the Bank) that is well
aware of security demands of the banking industry and is able to meet them. If they can
certify they comply with BS7799 you know they meet the Banks security requirements.
[KLIK] Hosting at one single provider does not prevent Marketing in any way from
being creative, it does not hinder time-to-market and at the same time it does ensure that
security is met as well. Of course again as long as it is not the Bank itself that hosts this
site!

8. Sheet 13 Manuals & Facilities -> opsomming maatregel 1 + 2 + 3
A third measure to streamline the unstoppable Marketing endeavours, is to make clearly
written manuals that Marketing can hand over to the agencies she involves in her [KLIK]
assignments. These manuals should provide guidelines about software code of good
practice, documentation standards, surrendering test evidence. Making these manuals is a
requirements engineering task. Of course someone should be available to clarify these
guidelines. Preferably one of us. Other aspects of non-functional requirements can and
should be organized as facilities. What I intend to say is that what we wish Marketing to
comply to should be helpful, not a hindrance. Think f.i. about purchasing, security
guidelines, architecture and testing.
Sheet 14 Dialogue -> opsomming maatregel 1 + 2+ 3 + 4
Most important however is to be able to keep the dialogue open. The question here is
How do you get a Business Analyst at the (Executive) Marketing table?
Alan M. Davis remarks about this in Great Software Debates
Students of engineering learn engineering and are rarely exposed to finance or
marketing. Students of marketing learn marketing and are rarely exposed to finance or
engineering. Most of us become specialists in just one area. To complicate matters, few
of us meet interdisciplinary people in the workforce, so there are few roles to mimic. Yet,
software product planning is critical to the [business] development success and
absolutely requires knowledge of multiple disciplines.
So if you wish to be involved, and this is a very old truth, make sure you understand their
language, talk their language and make yourself visible.
[KLIK] In keeping the dialogue open we have learned to distinguish between 3 types of
applications:
- No data involved: banners, landingpages, webvertizements: Marketing and the
like are free to do as they please. Their own set of rules (corporate house style,
legal and financial compliance) is sufficient. The hosting party we have selected
is a sufficient guarantee that Banking regulations are met.
- Integration with back office systems required. F.i. in our case smart applications
that calculate and predict future return on investment on customer specific
portfolios. These are the applications where the Professionals are in the Driver
seat. Requirements engineering and software development all are done in
accordance with formal Banking procedures. And Marketing will simply have to
learn to plan involvement of Business Analysts in these cases earlier and better.
- Collection of data: smart applications that collect prospect and customer data.
This is the gray area where a choice has to be made between speed and
sustainability. More and more we come to the conclusion that it is possible to
combine both requirements. With some of the measures I have described above.
And surely you are able to come up with numerous others ways to combine both set of
requirements.
Sheet 15 Closure
I am getting to the end of my presentation.

9. [KLIK] Jack Welch made himself famous with numerous quotes, one of them is this one:
Change …. Before you have to
As I have said the world in which we endeavour in requirements engineering has
changed. We no longer hold a monopoly, business is sometimes in the driver seat
themselves. The speed of technology change and further new tools will only strengthen
this trend. It is a reality we have to cope with. We can see this as a threat to our existence,
or we can see this as a chance to improve ourselves. That in which we need to improve
[KLIK] ourselves is not new. I’m afraid it is a rather old message, It is still about:
- Understanding your clients’ business
- Meet their requirements.
- Take it up one level; don’t only answer to application needs, but also the
infrastructural needs underlying
With that we’re successful most of the time. And whether you work in a bank or
elsewhere makes no difference.
Thank you for your attention.
[KLIK] Sheet Questions.

10. [KLIK] Jack Welch made himself famous with numerous quotes, one of them is this one:
Change …. Before you have to
As I have said the world in which we endeavour in requirements engineering has
changed. We no longer hold a monopoly, business is sometimes in the driver seat
themselves. The speed of technology change and further new tools will only strengthen
this trend. It is a reality we have to cope with. We can see this as a threat to our existence,
or we can see this as a chance to improve ourselves. That in which we need to improve
[KLIK] ourselves is not new. I’m afraid it is a rather old message, It is still about:
- Understanding your clients’ business
- Meet their requirements.
- Take it up one level; don’t only answer to application needs, but also the
infrastructural needs underlying
With that we’re successful most of the time. And whether you work in a bank or
elsewhere makes no difference.
Thank you for your attention.
[KLIK] Sheet Questions.