How to Collect and Manage

Requirements for Successful GIS

ProjectsJennifer Prather

Brynda Hatch

RequirementsProvide direction for program success

Why Requirements are Important?Early mistakes lead to costly fixes

http://www.seguetech.com/rising-costs-defects/

Where do Requirements fit?Waterfall implementation

http://waterfall-agilemethodology.blogspot.com/

Where do Requirements fit?Agile implementation

http://waterfall-agilemethodology.blogspot.com/

Agile Methodologies

Source: VersionOne, State of Agile Survey

http://www.versionone.com/pdf/10th-Annual-State-of-Agile-Development-Survey.pdf

The Road Map to Requirement Success

So how do we get there?

Test

Day-In-The-Life of

the customer

Assess

business

workflows

Host a Planning

Event with

stakeholders

Conduct

introductory

kickoff meeting

Identify

Opportunities for

Improvement

Establish initial

feature level epics

Kickoff meeting

Bring everyone together

Executive leadership is important

Establish working agreements

Business Value to your organization

Provide timeline and structure

Evaluate other leading industry GIS solutions

Day-In-The-Life of the customer - Shadowing Experience

Identify key workflows

Assess current technology

Pinpoint opportunities for automation

Provide fresh perspective

Detect ways to reduce dependencies

Assess business workflows

Define the Existing Data Structure

Diagram out the existing business workflows

Identifying all users and

roles

What did we learn from shadowing?

Types of RequirementsBusiness, Functional/Technical, COTS

• Streamline processes

• Reduce costs

• Increase productivity

• Improve communication between user groups

Business Level

• Enhance capabilities to accomplish work tasks

• Store metadata to support historical metrics

• Use location information to harness the power of GISFunctional Level

• Must be faster than the old system

• Must be on software that is still supported

• Must be built with future growth allowable

Performance/Quality Level

Identifying opportunities of improvement

GAME TIME!Restroom requirements

How to Play

• Step 1: Define your ideal public restroom.

- Write down as many requirements as you can to define a restroom.

• Step 2: The Disgruntled Engineer

- Design (within the set requirements) the worst public restroom ever!

• Step 3: The unhappy customer

- Is this what you really wanted, when you wrote down the requirements?

- Evaluate your requirements and the design with your engineer

Writing and Refining Requirements

How do you write a requirement?SMART

S

M

A

R

T

CCEPTED

EALISTIC

IMEBOUND

EASURABLE

PECIFIC

Example – Public RestroomDecomposing work into manageable pieces

As an employee I need a separate stall

so that I have privacy.

As an employee I need a toilet so that I can make use of it.

As an employee I need a sink so that I can wash my hands.

As a business owner I need a restroom

facility located within 500 feet of all offices so that I meet code.

Build a Public Restroom

Feature level Epic

User Stories

INVEST In Your Customer’s User StoriesSMART

I

N

V

E

S

T

aluable

stimable

mall

ndependent

egotiable

estable

https://www.agilealliance.org/glossary/invest/

Example – Public RestroomDecomposing work into manageable pieces

Working plumbing

Running hot and cold water

As an employee I need a separate stall

so that I have privacy.

Door on each stall, with

working lock

As an employee I need a toilet so that I can make use of it.

Meet construction code

As an employee I need a sink so that I can wash my hands.

As a business owner I need a restroom

facility located within 500 feet of all offices so that I meet code.

Toilet paper on a holder

Sink with faucet

Detailed facility map

ADA accessible

Soap dispenser

with soap in it

Build a Public Restroom

Feature level Epic

User Stories

Acceptance Criteria

Towel dispenser

Watch out for the ‘Gotchas’Things to avoid

• Avoid long lists of acceptance criteria on a single

user story

• Prepare for conflicting requirements

• Avoid requirements that are ambiguous

• Avoid requirements that describe HOW

• Requirements must have a “reason”

• Avoid moving forward on development until after the

customer has reviewed the design

• Don’t forget to prioritize

Build for Value

Standish Group Study Reported at XP2002 by Jim Johnson, Chairman

Requirements evolve over time

Tool to assist in Release PlanningRealTimeBoard

An Agile Sprint Lifecycle

TasksWorking

Increment

Sprint Cycle

<30 Days

Daily

Review

Product Backlog

1

2

3

4

5

6

7

1

2

3

Sprint Backlog

Tool to assist in Sprint PlanningJIRA, TFS, Trello

RequirementsTHE most important part of a project

• Solid requirements gathering leads to successful projects

• Involve the right people in the process

• Pick a methodology that fits your project

• Focus on the level of detail that is appropriate

• Important to prioritize and allocate

• Invest plenty of time to secure customer approval

Questions / Discussion

References

• Agile & Iterative Development: A Manager’s Guide by Criag Larman,

Addison-Wesley ,2003

• Software Requirements (2nd Edition) by Karl Wiegers, Microsoft

Press, 2003

• Use Case Driven Object Modeling with UML by Doug Rosenberg and

Matt Stephens, Apress, 2008

• Writing Effective User Cases, A Cockburn, Addison-Wesley, 2001

• Agile Development with ICONIX Process by Doug Rosenberg, Matt

Stephens, and Mark Collins, Apress, 2005

• STARWest Conference: Six Essential Skills for Modern Testers,

October 2015: presented by Bart Knaack

• PMI-ACP; http://projectmanagementacademy.net/pmi-acp

References

www.agilemanifesto.org

http://alistair.cockburn.us/

http://www.iconixsw.com/

http://www.pmi.org/default.aspx

http://ba-resources.co.uk/smart-requirements.php

http://www.extremeprogramming.org/

http://www.scrumguides.org/scrum-guide.html#values

https://www.agilealliance.org/glossary/invest/

http://www.seguetech.com/rising-costs-defects/

http://waterfall-agilemethodology.blogspot.com/

http://www.versionone.com/pdf/10th-Annual-State-of-Agile-Development-Survey.pdf

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