SRE Lec # 3

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SRE – The Requirement Analyst
BSEF15 (V)
Abdul Razaq Ali
Requirements Analyst (RA)
RA is someone in the project team who is responsible for working with stakeholder representatives to elicit, analyze, specify, validate, and manage the project’s requirements. Also called a business analyst, system analyst, requirements engineer, and simply analyst.

The analyst is a translator of others' perspectives into a requirements specification and a reflector of information back to other stakeholders. The analyst helps stakeholders find the difference between what they say they want and what they really need. He or she educates, questions, listens, organizes, and learns. It's a Tough and demanding Job.

Role of RA
Work collaboratively with customers, users, and system architects and designers to identify the real requirements
Work effectively with customers and users to manage new and changed requirements (assistCCB)
Be alert to new technologies that may help
Facilitate the project’s reuse of artifacts and achieving repeatability
Assist the project and its customers in envisioning a growth path –First Release till final product
Advise methods, techniques, and automated tools that are available to best support requirements-related project work and activities
Use metrics to measure, track, and control requirements-related project work activities and results
Be able to facilitate discussions and to mediate conflicts
Skills of RA –Professional Growth
Characteristics of RA
In Addition to the Hard skills described earlier, next section will explain a set of personal characteristics that will serve the RA well.
Most of these are soft skills (listening, speaking, negotiating, contributing, proactive etc) that should be part of RA personality Traits.

Activities to build characteristics -1
Below list will help guiding how to build RA characteristics:
Engage in Continuing education
Reading RE literature, attending conferences
Good listener, Writer and Communicator
Attend seminars on listening skills, get trainings on effective communication skills
Good facilitation and negotiation skills
Practice facilitating meetings, coordinating workshops
Persistent and preserving
Practice evolving real requirements from stated requirements
Proactive in engaging others
In performing daily assignments, think deliberately
Effective communication with management
Practice looking at your responsibilities from the perspective of your manager and senior management.
Activities to build characteristics -2
 Learn, apply and use effective practices
Review practices, select the one appropriate to you, apply it, review its results
Attitude towards continuous improvement
Sky is the limit -Practice the Plan-Do-Check-Act (PDCA)
Take responsibility for your views, attitudes, relationships, and actions.
Acknowledge good work of others and accept your mistakes
Ability to estimate work requirements
Estimate planned vs actual time on requirement task you did
Maintain Focus
Get closer to real requirements
Prioritize and re-prioritize –do priority checks frequently
Think outside the box
Brainstorming –multi-dimentional ideas and implement the best voted, previous projects SWOT analysis
Activities to build characteristics -3
Strengthen knowledge of available Technology
Reading tech reviews
Meeting system architects and finding solutions using latest technology
Set Achievable goals – plan your work intelligently, make realistic plans, Requirements -keep it simple and concise (KISS)
Make a difference in work environment – explore your task, discuss with management, how better it can impact in making difference to environment, project and Org.
Contribute to project Risk process - Volunteer to serve on the project’s risk management team
The Making of RA -1
1- Former User
Applying BA as a role of Requirements Analyst
Applying a old user to facilitate Requirement Gathering

True Story: The senior manager of a medical devices division in a large company had a problem. "Two years ago, I hired three medical technologists into my division to represent our customers' needs," he said. "They've done a great job, but they are no longer current in medical technology, so they can't speak accurately for what our customers need today. But what's a reasonable career path for them now? -They can be RA provided they have good Communication and Customer dealing skills
The Making of RA -2
2 - Former Developer
Using software developer as RA where dedicated RA is not available
Lack of client handling skills
Focus of module development instead of a whole business domain
Developer-turned-analyst might need to learn more about client interaction and soft skills, overall business understanding
The Making of RA -3
3 - Subject Matter expert (SME)
Ralph Young (2001) recommends having the requirements analyst be an application domain expert or a subject matter expert, as opposed to being a typical user
SME focuses on high-end, all inclusive system whereas actually a less comprehensive system was required. On the other hand, RA with development experience may focus on small things and loose overall perspective.

Best to apply a development-turned-Analyst with an SME so both factors can be covered.
RA -Job description
ABC company requires RA or engineer who has the primary responsibility to elicit, analyze, validate, specify, verify, and manage the real needs of the project stakeholders, including customers and end users. The RA/engineer is also known as a requirements manager, business analyst, system analyst, or, simply, analyst. The RA serves as the conduit between the customer community and the software development team through which requirements flow. An RA is involved at some level throughout the entire system or software development life cycle. Upon establishment of the requirements baseline, the focus is shifted towards the management of the requirements specification and verifying the fulfillment of all requirements. The requirements engineering function is a project role, not necessarily a job title. The role may be performed by a dedicated RA or split among multiple team members who have other primary job functions, such as a PM or product developer. The RA is responsible for ensuring that the tasks are performed properly.
Questions ?