Evaluation of business requirements, design and integration techniques - Post 4

Evaluating the business IS requirements involves gathering information from multiple departments to ensure the project captures all the company’s needs. Knowing who will use the solution is important as it helps the collection of targeted input for systems design (Wacksman and Stutzman, 2014). After operational needs are assessed and concept definitions are completed, the team analyzed the requirements which could cover user needs, quality aspects, process and user behavior, etc. (see figure 1 below). These are then translated into system requirements using the various methodologies covered above (agile, waterfall, spiral, combination, etc.) and cost related to using one over the other.

Figure 1: Sample overview of requirements collection and change processes diagram (source: MITRE website available on www.mitre.org)

Users provide functional and non-functional requirements all of which are used to build the project. Functional one’s support building user requirements and complete specific tasks and systems quality aspects such as availability, timeliness, etc. Software engineers must work closely with the project teams to understand project requirements. The features can be delivered and tested (in bits and pieces) early to minimize the risk of delivering large chunks of software with insufficient features. When requirements are completed, and the project is launched, changes may still be required. Adding requirements when a project is live drastically increases costs (El-Halwagi, 2006). New requirements should be bundled to avoid unnecessary ad-hoc changes. Flexibility is however required to manage changes that deliver high capabilities

Many challenges exist in the requirements engineering process. This occurs when enough time is not provided to understand user requirements or when they’re captured, changes not accommodated. In some cases, they’re not revisited to assess validity based on new information and/or logic.

Some of the best practices in the process are soft as opposed to hard technical skills. For example, good interpersonal skills help software engineers be objective and open-minded when interacting with system users. They can bounce off new ideas and resolve conflict and issues along the way. Thinking broadly, considering trends and future business needs also helps develop dynamic systems that can be cost-effective in the long run (Salazar and Sawyer, 2007). There should be provision for critical changes along the way. Although comprehensive information gathering may have been completed, there should flexibility to adopt new ideas and concepts based on new operational needs. Prioritizing requirements is important in helping to establish needs vs wants, it is also important in establishing the need for off the shelf products as opposed to custom building (Norman, 2007). Integration is critical to the success of programs. When system components are developed, they must be integrated into the environment in which they will operate and tested to see if operates according to the requirements. Integration takes various forms; vertical integration where components of a single program are linked to existing systems to deliver certain requirements. An example is an agent banking platform being linked to a bank’s core banking software. Horizontal integration delivers new capabilities across multiple systems developed using different programs. An example being a CRM system which links to more than one organizational system to deliver new capabilities to the customer care department (Gao, 2011).

Several tools exist to support the process of business needs identification, gathering, solution design, and integration. Decisioning on this should be based on the approach to be deployed (waterfall, agile, Spiral, etc.). The use of an integration testing tool is important as it automates execution and analysis of tests to see how your new software will behave once the integration is complete. This helps avert issues in the real environment which can cause extensive downtime and loss of business.

References

El-Halwagi, M. (2006). Process integration. Amsterdam: Elsevier Academic Press.

Gao, J. (2011). Advanced design technology. Durnten-Zurich: Trans Tech Publications

Norman, T. (2007). Integrated security systems design. Amsterdam: Elsevier Butterworth-Heinemann.

Salazar, A. and Sawyer, S. (2007). Handbook of information technology in organizations and electronic markets. New Jersey: World Scientific. 

Wacksman, B. and Stutzman, C. (2014). Connected by Design. Hoboken: Wiley.Weisstub, D. and Richet, J. (2016). Financial Crimes: Psychological, Technological, and Ethical Issues. Cham: Springer International Publishing.

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