How to Best Gather Requirements for SharePoint Projects

How to Best Gather Requirements
for SharePoint Projects

Dux Raymond Sy, PMP

Screencast: http://vimeo.com/14460673

What Does This Mean?

8 5 4 9 1 7 6 3 2 0

Twitter: @meetdux Hashtag: #bpc10 #spreq

How About This?

SharePoint


Session 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 gathering process
  Why requirements traceability is paramount in defining ROI in SharePoint
projects


Presenter: Dux Raymond Sy, PMP

  Managing Partner, Innovative-E, Inc.
  Author, “SharePoint for Project Management”
by O’Reilly Media
  For more information, connect with Dux
  E-Mail: dux.sy@innovative-e.com
  Twitter: twitter.com/meetdux
  LinkedIn: meetdux.com/li
  Blog: meetdux.com


How to Best Gather Requirements for SharePoint Projects

  What are Requirements?

  Eliciting is Not the Same as Gathering

  Analysis Doesn’t Lead to Paralysis

  Too Legit to Quit?

  Put it on Paper

  Summary


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?


BP

Requirements Focus


Example: Defining a Business Need is a Must

  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


Example: Mapping Needs to SharePoint Requirements

  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


BP

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


BP

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 SharePoint 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


BP

Analysis Process

1.  Profile Users

2.  Model stated requirements

3.  Gap analysis

4.  Identify the real requirements


Example: Process Flow Diagram


BP

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 Features


BP

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


What Makes a Great Requirement?

Content + Structure = Readability


Example: Intranet 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: twitter.com/meetdux

Provide feedback to get a chance to win
“SharePoint for Project Management” ebook
http://meetdux.com/feedback


Thank You!

Please be sure to fill out your
session evaluation!

How to Best Gather Requirements for SharePoint Projects

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