Motivating Specific Requirements
Defying Solution Gravity to Get Specific Requirements
When writing use cases for a development team, solution gravity exerts itself more than ever. Solution gravity lures stakeholders into designing a solution before establishing what’s needed. Use cases contain the details of those needs. See Making the Cases for a Solution for an introduction to use cases.
Brenda Glasser, Application Architect at Lambda School, gave a presentation at the Salesforce Business Analyst Summit, “Separating the Solution from the Requirements.” Her presentation highlights how to defy solution gravity by asking specific questions about what’s needed from the solution.
Brenda uses a questionnaire to ensure she covers the solution requirements. She intentionally avoids asking “how” questions that intensify solution gravity, luring stakeholders into solution implementation before determining what they need.
Brenda’s approach highlights four essential types of questions: Why, Who, What and When.
Why?
When Brenda gets a solution request, she asks these “why” questions:
Why is this important?
Why now?
Why is the current solution no longer working?
Asking about the importance of the solution establishes its purpose and value, giving stakeholders an incentive to answer other questions.
Learning why the current solution no longer works opens an opportunity to fix or enhance that solution. Asking, “Why now?” helps with setting priorities and scheduling development.
Who?
Brenda asks these “who” questions about a new solution:
Who will use the solution?
Who needs training for it?
Who provides information needed by the solution?
Who will be impacted by the solution?
User stories answer “who will use the solution,” assuming they cover the scope of the solution.
Understanding “who needs training” prepares trainers for a new course about the solution.
Discovering “who provides information needed by the solution” identifies those who will have tasks to provide that information. People “who will be impacted by the solution” need to know how the solution will impact them.
Also, who will answer which questions about the details of the solution?
What?
Brenda starts with these essential “what” questions:
What is the process today?
What should be the process tomorrow?
What is important to capture?
What do you need to report on?
Answering “what is the process today?” establishes a baseline of what the current process does. “What should be the process tomorrow” elicits the changes needed to meet current and future needs. Those changes become the solution.
“What is important to capture” defines the information needed for the solution, coming from those “who provide information needed by the solution”, the answer to an earlier question.
“What do you need to report on” reveals what users and management need from the solution. In most cases, they need information from reports. The answer to this question should relate to the answer to “Why is this [solution] important?” The value of a solution comes from the information it provides.
This returns to the question, “Who will answer which questions about the details of the solution?” The person who benefits most from an aspect of a solution should answer the questions about that aspect.
Getting busy stakeholders to collaborate on the questions can pose a challenge, even when their answers will ultimately benefit them. The book “Tested Stakeholder Interviewing Methods” by Adriana Beal has a chapter titled, “How To Get Your Stakeholders To Care.”
Adriana advocates creating a brief story, making a busy stakeholder a requirements hero by specifying what s/he needs. The story relates the business value of the solution to the hero stakeholder. Here is an example she provides to make a director of sales a requirements hero:
We are about to get started on the new internal collaboration tool, which will help your sales team spend less time getting information from the product team and more time in revenue-generating activities. I'm putting together a requirements workshop with people from different backgrounds so the solution can benefit from multiple perspectives. Having you or a subject matter expert from your team participate will ensure we don't forget any capability that would be critical to reduce the time it takes for your salespeople to receive the information they need from the product team and other departments to win their next deal.
Adriana emphasizes the business benefits of the sales director’s participation in the requirements workshop. The director and her/his team receive those benefits from the director’s participation. See Turn Customer Stakeholders into Discovery Heroes for more information on how this works.
Making a stakeholder a hero can scale down to having her or him answer critical questions by showing how their answers ultimately benefit the stakeholder and his/her team. For example, a manager may not want to spend time walking through process steps until s/he realizes that the solution will make those steps easier and more productive.
When?
Brenda asks two different “when” questions:
When does ‘X’ happen?
When do we need to launch?
‘X’ refers to an event that happens within the solution. For example, when does a lead convert into a contact? When ‘X’ happens, it can trigger an action. For example, when a lead converts into a contact, notify the account owner’s manager.
The answer to “when do we need to launch” requires careful consideration. Brenda points out that the person requesting a solution may not realize how much time and effort it takes to deliver the solution. S/he may think the solution will be ready next week, when it really takes two months to develop.
Most stakeholders want their solution “as soon as possible.” The launch schedule depends on how well the requirements are defined, providing additional incentive for a requesting stakeholder to answer their requirements questions with a sense of urgency.
Motivational Questions
In summary, Brenda poses some questions encouraging stakeholders to answer requirements questions:
Why is the solution important?
The answer expresses the business value of the solution, motivating answers to other questions.
Who is impacted by the solution?
The answer defines people who
Benefit from the solution
Use the solution
Support the solution by providing data, training or help.
What information or outcome is expected from the solution?
The answer indicates the solution’s business value, motivating answers from those who benefit from the information or outcome.
When is the solution needed?
If it’s “as soon as possible," then answers to requirements questions become more urgent.
Brenda customizes each questionnaire around a solution request to capture meaningful specifics of what’s needed from a solution. Accurate and complete answers to these questions result in timely delivery of a solution fulfilling the expectations of those who requested it.
Motivating stakeholders with solution benefits to answer key questions makes realizing the benefits faster and more accurate.