How to Best Gather Requirements for SharePoint Projects

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HOW TO BEST GATHER
REQUIREMENTS FOR
SHAREPOINT PROJECTS
Dux Raymond Sy, PMP

8 5 4 9 1 7 6 3 2 0
WHAT DOES THIS MEAN?

SHAREPOINT
HOW ABOUT THIS?

OBJECTIVES
•  In this presentation, you will learn the best practices in developing requirements for
SharePoint projects
•  In addition, you will be able to identify:
•  Why having a well defined business case is necessary to effectively initiate
requirements gathering
•  The key components of requirements development process
•  Why requirements traceability is paramount in defining ROI in SharePoint projects

MEET DUX
•  Managing Partner, Innovative-e, Inc.
•  Author, “SharePoint for Project Management” by O’Reilly Media
•  Connect with Dux
•  E-Mail: dux.sy@innovative-e.com
•  Twitter: twitter.com/meetdux
•  LinkedIn: meetdux.com/li
•  Blog: meetdux.com

AGENDA
•  What are Requirements?
•  Eliciting is Not the Same as Gathering
•  Analysis Doesn’t Lead to Paralysis
•  Too Legit to Quit?
•  Put it on Paper
•  Questions and Answers

WHY ARE REQUIREMENTS SO DIFFICULT?

WHAT IS A REQUIREMENT?
•  A requirement is something wanted or needed
•  Formally documented and written statements
•  Capabilities needed to solve a problem
•  Conditions of a delivered system, services, product, or process
•  Constraints on the system, service, product, or process
•  Requirements are not
•  Verbal, informal statements or conversations in the hallways
•  Solutions that state how to solve the problem or meet the objectives
•  Characteristics of other systems, services, products, or processes
•  Project budgets, plans, or implementation details

WHAT’S SO SPECIAL ABOUT SHAREPOINT?

REQUIREMENTS FOCUS

DEFINING THE BUSINESS NEED IS A MUST
•  For example: In a recent study, information workers today spend 45 mins/day searching for
information
•  In a team of 20 people, that’s 900 mins/day
•  In 3 months, that’s 54000 mins or about 37 person days
•  How much does this cost in time & money?
•  What if search productivity can be increased by 15%?
•  That’s gaining 7 mins back from the 45 mins lost

MAPPING BUSINESS NEEDS TO SHAREPOINT
•  Business requirements
•  SharePoint shall increase user productivity by 15 percent
•  User requirements
•  The user shall be able to retrieve search results within five seconds of submitting a search
request that can support a maximum of 10,000 simultaneous search requests
•  System requirements
•  SharePoint server shall have two web front ends and a dedicated SQL Server which has at
least dual processors

HOW DO YOU DEVELOP REQUIREMENTS?
•  Requirements development is iterative
•  Business
•  User
•  System
•  Key Steps
1.  Requirements Elicitation
2.  Analyzing Requirements
3.  Validating Requirements
4.  Documenting Requirements

REQUIREMENTS ELICITATION
•  Elicitation: gathering and understanding what stakeholders and users need
•  Done at both an organizational (business) and a more detailed user level
•  Elicitation is a human-based activity
•  Determine requirements sources
•  Decide how to gather information
•  Involves research, reading, talking, and observing
•  Business-level context and framework
•  How the end users do their jobs
•  What would help them do their jobs better
•  Within the scope of our system, product, or process

ELICITATION PROCESS
1.  What do I need to know?
2.  Where do I get this information?
3.  Get the information
4.  Organize what you know
5.  Do I have enough information?

GOAL IS TO IDENTIFY POTENTIAL SOLUTION
•  How would you like to drive a Lamborghini Diablo?
•  BTW, you just learned how to ride a bike yesterday

REQUIREMENTS ANALYSIS
•  Requirements analysis takes elicited information and makes sense of it

ANALYSIS PROCESS
1.  Profile Users
2.  Model stated requirements
3.  Gap analysis
4.  Identify the real requirements

EXAMPLE: PROCESS FLOW DIAGRAM

REQUIREMENTS VALIDATION
•  Requirements validation allows the user(s) to confirm and prioritize the real requirements
•  Essential to identify what it will take to deploy SharePoint
•  Resources
•  Time
•  Skillsets

EXAMPLE: PRIORITIZING SHAREPOINT SOLUTIONS

GENERATE A REQUIREMENTS DOCUMENT
•  Formally communicates
•  Overall quantitative and qualitative characteristics
•  Functionality of the desired end result or outcome
•  Should include
•  Requirement Statements
•  Process Diagrams
•  Traceability Matrix

CONTENT + STRUCTURE = READABILITY
WHAT MAKES A GREAT REQUIREMENT?

EXAMPLE: REQUIREMENTS DOCUMENT

RESOURCES
•  Article: How to Prioritize Business Needs Before Implementing SharePoint
http://bit.ly/8sCiVR
•  Article: How to Define Measurable and Traceable Requirements for SharePoint Projects
http://bit.ly/9AzTDy
•  Article: Project Management Resources for SharePoint 2010 Projects
http://bit.ly/cBYl7X
•  Download: Innovative-e Requirements Development Sample Templates
http://www.meetdux.com/dl/req4sp.zip

QUESTIONS?
•  E-Mail: dux.sy@innovative-e.com
•  LinkedIn: meetdux.com/li
•  Blog: meetdux.com
•  Twitter: meetdux
How did you like the presentation?
http://meetdux.com/feedback

THANK YOU!

How to Best Gather Requirements for SharePoint Projects

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