Presentation to the PMI
Community of Learning,
Introduction:
"Gathering
requirements, getting them right, is hard. Most software projects fail at that
point, which means in real life, you end up writing software twice."
-- John
McNeil, vice president of informatics at Isis Pharmaceuticals, CIO Magazine,
May 15th, 2005
Purpose:
This presentation offers
skills and techniques that you can apply in working with service partners to
identify their needs and meet their business requirements for IT projects. It
provides food for thought in approaching this initial phase of a project and
solicits attendees' experience in how and whether these techniques can be applied more
effectively.
The larger issue the
presentation addresses is how
MIS and IT developers can leverage their specialized knowledge
and expertise to help business segments and individuals succeed in defining and
meeting their business needs.
Background:
IT departments in
organizations are increasingly being called upon to align and integrate their
efforts with business areas and demonstrate their value. Recent articles in CIO Magazine and Darwin Magazine point to the necessity
and the benefits of developing effective working relationships among IT and
business representatives in defining requirements
accurately. The Project Management Institute
(PMI) itself has addressed this issue in its seminars. These benefits
include:
·
Shorter project life-cycle
·
More efficient allocation of resources
·
Easier implementation
·
Reduced duplication of effort
·
Improved fulfillment of user expectations and requirements
·
Better service partner satisfaction and business value
·
Enhanced internal IT reputation and support
Approach:
Just saying that we are
going to align ourselves with
business areas in defining their needs and helping them meet
their requirements does not necessarily make it happen. There are specific techniques
developers can employ to promote a collaborative relationship rather than an
antagonistic one and improve the likelihood of
successful projects. This is true not only in the requirements phase,
but throughout the design, development and implementation phases of projects as
well. These techniques and related skills include:
·
Asking good questions and listening actively both to what is said
and what is not said
·
Including business representatives in the requirements phase and
keeping them in the loop
·
Identifying the real versus 'official' stakeholders and
decision-makers
·
Establishing clear lines of responsibility and accountability
·
Successfully translating business requests into specific project
requirements
·
Using technology effectively to document, communicate and share
knowledge among participants
·
Maintaining an ongoing dialogue with service partners
·
Accurately framing and re-framing needs and goals
·
Avoiding erroneous assumptions and rule-governed versus
rule-guided thinking
·
Determining project resources, scope and constraints
·
Setting priorities for requirements and balancing needs vs.
resources
·
Dealing with changes in project scope and priorities
·
Dealing with changes in personnel
·
Contending with ambiguity
·
Presenting yourself as an advocate for the business area
About the Presenter:
Chuck Lanigan has worked
as a knowledge management consultant for over seven years and developed
workflow and collaborative applications using Lotus Notes. He has made
presentations on knowledge management to the Pittsburgh Technology Council and
the Software Engineering Institute (SEI). He has taught at Pitt's