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Bringing Software Requirements to Life
David WalkerProduct Owner
[email protected]+1 401 267 8874
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bringing software requirements to life
means animating requirements to animate people
• gain a real understanding of the problem
• see why traditional approaches don‟t work
• become your inner educator
• break down the 4th wall
• tgim
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requirements problems are a subset of the systemic human
condition of poor communication
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Babelcorp Inc.
Public Domain
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“[project success rates] are a low point in the last five study periods. This year‟s results
represent the highest failure rate in over a decade”
-Standish Group (5/09)
rework
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ConfidentialCopyright © 2007 Borland Software Corporation. 15
The Source of Software Defects
Requirements
41%
Others
7%
Data
6%
Interface
6%
Logic Design
28%
Environment
5%
Human
5%
Documentation
2%
Source: U.S. Air Force Project, F. Sheldon, 1992
“Reliability Measurement from Theory to Practice”
ConfidentialCopyright © 2007 Borland Software Corporation. 16
Source: Dean Leffingwell, James Martin
Rework typically accounts for
40% of total project cost
Original Project Cost
60%
Rework Cost40%
Cost of Rework
Why Manage Requirements?
Code1%
Other4% Design
13%Requirements82%
Rework Efforts
Requirements efforts account for
over 80% of rework effort
Size of Team Cost of Team Spending on Rework Potential RM Impact
100 $10,000,000 $4,000,000 $3,200,000
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ConfidentialCopyright © 2007 Borland Software Corporation. 17
Relative Cost of Fixing a Defect
0
10
20
30
40
50
60
70
Requirements Design Code Development
Testing
Acceptance
Testing
Operation
Rel
ativ
e C
ost
to
Co
rrec
t a
Def
ect
Source: Barry W. Boehm, Software Engineering Economics
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McKinsey & Co says…
“If a company is later to market with a new product by only six months, 33 percent of the gross
profit potential is lost”
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“Improving time to market by one month improves profits by 12
percent”
Standish says…
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• “If a company is later to market with a new product by only six months, 33 percent of the gross profit potential is lost”
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http://www.getacoach.co.nz/images/Oct4/wealth1.jpg
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Blame Chain SME #1
Blame Chain SME #2 Blame Chain SME #6
Blame Chain SME #5
Blame Chain SME #3
Blame Chain SME #4
Blame Chain SME #7
Everyone knows requirements must be serious and difficult and you must remain seated at all
times. No fun allowed.
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this is not easy…
and…it seems to be getting harder…
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(but it doesn‟t have to be “no fun”)
bringing software requirements to life
must be fun
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http://ciocollaborative.org/wp-content/uploads/Complexity650-300.jpg
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http://www.idiagram.com/CP/cpprocess.html
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technical complexity & software complexity
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http://www.flickr.com/photos/steevil/2755466776/sizes/o/
• Fatigue adj. (weariness, tiredness): temporary loss of strength and energy resulting from hard physical or mental work
• How many interesting excuses have you heard? Are they even making excuses any more?
• Maybe we‟ll do better if we DON‟T participate…could it be worse?
http://www.flickr.com/photos/1suisse/3476366880/sizes/l/
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bringing software requirements to life
must be engaging
• Fatigue adj. (weariness, tiredness): temporary loss of strength and energy resulting from hard physical or mental work
• How many interesting excuses have you heard? Are they even making excuses any more?
• Maybe we‟ll do better if we DON‟T participate…could it be worse?
• What prevents active engagement? Reflex and Momentum
http://www.flickr.com/photos/1suisse/3476366880/sizes/l/
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Reflex: It hurts when I do this…
http://www.freewebs.com/nervous-system/doityourself.htm
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45
Public Domain
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http://messingaboutinboats.typepad.com/sailing/images/2008/01/07/ugly_fish.jpg
What would you fix?
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noise
ambiguity
un-reconciled viewpoints
assumptions
ikiwisi
bringing software requirements to life
drives clearer communication
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http://www.immi.gov.au/living-in-australia/help-with-english/NIS/interpreter_symbol_text.jpg
http://www.annikeris.com/images/teacher_board.jpg
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"Teach me my most difficult concepts in my preferred style.Let me explore easy concepts in a different style.
Just don't teach me all the time in your preferred styleand think I'm not capable of learning."
A comment from Virleen M. Carlson, Center for Learning and Teaching, Cornell University
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vakt
Net Geners Learn Differently
– 10,000 hours playing video games
– 20,000 hours on e-mail –chat – blog
– 20,000 hours watching TV
– 10,000 hours on cell phones, and
– under 5,000 hours reading
– fast paced, highly stimulating presentations
– increased interactivity with content & each other
– information that relates to the learner‟s world
– multiple options for obtaining knowledge.
Susan El-Shamy. Training for the new and emerging generations.
Quoted in http://scope.lidc.sfu.ca/mod/forum/discuss.php?d=521
By 21 years of age, They need:
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“Approximately 20 to 30 percent of the school-aged population remembers
what is heard; 40 percent recalls well visually the things that are seen or read; many must write or use their
fingers in some manipulative way to help them remember basic facts; other people cannot internalize
information or skills unless they use them in real-life activities…”
(Teaching Students to Read Through Their Individual Learning Styles, Marie Carbo, Rita Dunn, and Kenneth Dunn; Prentice-Hall, 1986, p.13.)
• lecture
5%
• reading
10%
• audio-visual
20%
• demonstration
30%
• discussion group
50%
• practice by doing
75%
• teaching others / immediate usage
90%
comprehension:average retention rate after 24 hours
http://www.saskschools.ca/curr_content/adapthandbook/learner/images/pyramid.gif
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Adult Learners
According to Malcolm Knowles, adult learners have other learning characteristics, including:
• a requirement to know how the knowledge is of direct benefit,
• a need to apply the knowledge through actual experience,
• ability to learn quickly when the training content is considered to be of use,
• a tendency to learn best when a problem-based approach is used,
• a need for independence, but not enough to cause discomfort (e.g., some trainees are uncomfortable with role playing).
bringing software requirements to life
must be interactive
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bringing software requirements to life
must present the illusion of realism
bringing software requirements to life
must be in tune with the way they learn
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You‟re learners too – how do YOU learn effectively ?
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If the only tool you have is a hammer, you tend to see every
problem as a nail.- Abraham Maslow
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nullum gratuitum prandium
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Requirements Definition
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requirements <> definition
Requirements <> Definition
change the name - change the game
• be open to other alternatives
– interviewing
– JAD
– card sorting
– Ethnographic study
– survey
– prototyping / simulation
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jad
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http://www.sapdesignguild.org/resources/glossary_web/IMAGES/SV1.JPG
if you had to bet $1000 of your own money…
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what is simulation?
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proven in other industries
secures executive attention
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prototypes ask questions before they answer them
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checklist
– don't take them too far
– need to be „real time‟ for collaboration
– need to get in front of as many eyes as possible
– needs to assist with management of feedback
– need to easily communicate downstream
– needs to integrate seamlessly into RDM
– needs to support non-software processes as well
– can't break the bank
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http://www.flickr.com/photos/defwheezer/18789500/sizes/o/
hello, world!
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Breaking the Fourth Wall
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What needs to change
• roundtrip the conversation
• get through - not just give out
• repair relationships
• be relevant – “own the problem”
• define the systems that people want to use
• Change is hard…
95
http://www.stevenmsmith.com/my-articles/article/the-satir-change-model.html
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Be a Trim Tab
With respects to Buckminster Fuller:
“Something hit me very hard once, thinking about what one little man could do. Think of the Queen Mary -- the whole ship goes by and then comes the rudder. And there's a tiny thing at the edge of the rudder called a trim tab.
It's a miniature rudder. Just moving the little trim tab builds a low pressure that pulls the rudder around. Takes almost no effort at all. So I said that the little individual can be a trim tab…”
“So I said, call me Trim Tab.”
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Visual Language
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visual language
this poses an ethical question
can we ethically continue to create our content, in the same “old prose” way, creating 23 to 89% more difficulty for
readers, and hence, creating that much more suffering for them?
can we ethically not use visual language?
Robert E. Horn (paraphrased)
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can we ethically not use interactive approaches when defining
applications?
can we ethically not bring software requirements to life?
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Bringing Software Requirements to Life
David WalkerProduct Owner
[email protected]+1 401 267 8874
