A METHODOLOGY TO FINALIZE THE REQUIREMENTS FOR

A PROJECT WITH MULTIPLE STAKE- HOLDERS

Presenting Software Engineering Workshop as a Solution

Ashutosh Parashar and Selvakumaran Mannappan

Cognizant Technology Solutions, SDBIII, 5/535, Old Mahabalipuram Road, Chennai 600096, India

Keywords: Software Requirements, Software scope definition, Software Engineering Workshop, Requirements

Gathering, Requirements prioritization, stakeholder alignment.

Abstract: Implementing software projects for large corporations,

more often than not, involves large number of

stakeholders, each with their own set of requirements, which makes requirements finalization very difficult.

The authors propose Solution Envisioning Workshop (SEW) as a solution and present the practice from the

context of a large project executed for a European banking giant. The project had a very large and diverse

set of stake-holders- around 300 member banks as the client organizations, interfacing requirements with

around ten separate systems/ projects, active involvement of central departments of the organization as

active stakeholders. The paper elaborates on the approach taken towards implementing the SEW, the

preparatory & follow-up activities, the benefits, limitations and the lessons learnt. They conclude that the

SEW approach results in creating better understanding, much faster requirement finalization. Quantitative

and qualitative inputs are provided to corroborate the findings.

1 THE PROBLEM CONTEXT

Scope management, requirements prioritization and

ensuring user acceptance at the end of the project are

constant concern from requirements perspective.

This is more so in the case of large software project

that affect one entire department or the complete

enterprise, due to the simple fact that, each such

software project implementation results in affecting

large number of organizational resources, processes

and practices. Each of these entities becomes a

stakeholder in the project success and joins the

project with their own specific agenda. As the

number of stake holders increases, the complexity

the requirement management process also increases.

In some cases this is because the requirements from

various stakeholders are contradictory but mostly it

is because there is lack of agreement on the

priorities of the requirements. Since for each of

the stakeholder their own set of requirements are the

most desirable ones and a project can satisfy only a

limited set of requirements, the task of scope

definition and requirements finalization becomes

very difficult. And if the project fails to satisfy any

of the requirements of any of the stakeholders, the

acceptance of the project becomes uncertain,

resulting in continuous scope creep and time, effort

overruns and even project scrapping/ failure.

2 INTRODUCING SOLUTION

ENVISIONING WORKSHOP

Enter Solution Envisioning Workshop or SEW.

SEW is a systematic approach to counter the

problem of requirements finalization in the above

context. It gathers all key stakeholders together for a

short but intensely focused period (Leffingwell,

Widrig 1999). This results in better understanding

and faster decision on issues.

The SEW makes the process much more

syste

matic and ensures that the maximum benefits of

the exercise can be taken out with minimum effort

and time. SEW is a rapid, high impact process

designed to align the organizational stakeholders

behind a business opportunity, the requirements that

will enable that opportunity, and a credible delivery

plan (Please refer to the figure 1). The SEW

approach is ideal for certain software project

scenarios as given in the figure 2.

449

Parashar A. and Mannappan S. (2007).

A METHODOLOGY TO FINALIZE THE REQUIREMENTS FOR A PROJECT WITH MULTIPLE STAKE- HOLDERS - Presenting Software Engineering

Workshop as a Solution.

In Proceedings of the Second International Conference on Software and Data Technologies - SE, pages 449-452

 SciTePress

Figure 1: SEW Triple convergence of the benefits.

Figure 2: SEW usage scenarios.

3 INTRODUCING THE PROJECT

AND COMPLEXITY

The SEW approach is discussed here from the

perspective of a project implemented by authors’

organization. This was large development project for

a European bank. The proposed system was a

centralized, loan processing system having

automated interfaces with multiple systems.

From the perspective of the requirements

management and other issues, the project complexity

was so severe that the earlier attempts had failed two

times. This complexity came mainly from large

number of stakeholders and complex interfacing

requirements with the adjoining systems/ projects

(need to finalize and constantly update the system-

interface contracts).

An important factor that increased the number of

stakeholders was the ‘consortium structure’ of the

bank, which consists of a network of around 300

member banks, the Central Organization and several

daughter organizations. In most cases the member

banks work as independent organizations.

With regards to using and maintaining the legacy

software system also these banks were working

independently. Even though each member bank

started with identical software, gradually difference

of contexts necessitated diverse changes and finally

ICSOFT 2007 - International Conference on Software and Data Technologies

450

they had, more or less, a different system. From

requirement management point, this meant bigger

and very diverse set of requirements.

The project had involvement of a large number of

stakeholders including departments for Central

organization for IT strategy, and the departments for

legal & compliance issues, Quality, Usability etc.

4 SEW IMPLEMENTATION IN

THE PROJECT

The project profile fitted the ‘Major Development

Project’ scenario for SEW implementation. (Please

refer to Figure 2)

Under the SEW approach, the actual workshop to

finalize the requirements takes place towards the end

of the requirement gathering stage. The workshop

requires the largest commitment of time and

resources in the preparation and participation of key

stakeholders whose time is at a premium (Polikoff,

Coyne, Hodgson 2005). A part of the time and effort

is spent on follow-up activities. The figure 3 would

clarify it further.

The Initial Overview stage involved study of the

legacy system, understanding its software context

(relation with adjoining applications), and the

business process behind the system. There were one-

on-one/ group discussions; based on these initial

Software Requirement Overview Document was

prepared. The final finding was presented to all

stakeholders.

The requirements were divided into functional

and non- functional (technical) tracks and there

onwards were pursued separately. Wherever needed,

the tracks were put in sync with each other.

During the requirement gathering, the documents

for these requirements were perfected, by several

rounds of review and rework, to the extent possible

(provisional approved).

To complement the requirements specification, a

prototype was also prepared and updated/ elaborated

continuously. The decision on the scenario to be

depicted in the prototype was made in the beginning

itself.

During final Workshop the output of all this

preparation is presented to all stakeholders. The

discussion was facilitated by the prototype.

The new/ diverging points coming up during the

workshop were handled in the following fashion

• Specific observation on part of the system:

Logging the item as a specification defect.

• Generic observation on any part of whole of the

system: Listing & prioritizing items.

o High priority: Logged as specification defects.

o Medium priority: Logged as Change requests.

o Low priority: ‘Wish- list’ items. The priority

for items was determined so that release plan

for them can be made.

Figure 3: SEW Approach in the project’s requirements gathering phase.

A METHODOLOGY TO FINALIZE THE REQUIREMENTS FOR A PROJECT WITH MULTIPLE STAKE- HOLDERS

- Presenting Software Engineering Workshop as a Solution

451

5 BENEFITS FROM SEW

In general, the SEW provides the following benefits

for the software projects:

• Requirements workshops provide business

value by reducing the time it takes to gather

requirements, by increasing team productivity, and

by reducing risks associated with software projects

(Gottesdiener, 2002).

• Build consensus on the problem scope

• Validating business goals

• Identifying the project objectives

• Core functional requirements

From the perspective of SEW implementation in

the project under discussion the benefits are:

• On the spot discussion helped in preventing

possibility of later disagreements.

• Consent from ‘Senior User’ (representative of

member banks) ensured acceptance by the bank on

the scope decision.

• Changing the document status from

‘Provisionally approved’ to ‘Approved’.

The workshop came out with 133 items.

Without SEW, such items would have surface very

resulting in big rework.

Figure 4: Workshop items- number breakup.

Please refer to Figure 5. Around two- third of the

items are of medium/ high severity.

Figure 5: Workshop items- severity.

6 LIMITATIONS OF SEW

The SEW implementation in the project put forward

the following disadvantages/ limitations of the

approach:

• Time management: The ideal team for

workshop consists of people having thorough

understanding of processes and hence considerable

experience within the organization/ industry. It’s

very difficult to get such people in one place at the

same time.

• Coordination problem: SEW requires active

participation of a project sponsor, who has authority

to make decision in case of persistent disagreement

among participants.

• The use of an outside facilitator experienced in

requirements management can help ensure the

success of the workshop. (Leffingwell, Widrig

1999). For large group of stakeholders such

facilitator, with a convincing yet agreeable approach

for persuading stake- holders and coordinating the

proceedings, is rather a must.

• Time to ponder: Difficult to have continuous

workshop sessions. Participants need to reflect over

items and even need to discuss it with their other

colleagues.

• The elaboration and documentation of the items

discussed in workshop requires effort after

workshop.

7 THE WAY FORWARD WITH

SEW

The authors envision the following improvements:

• Staggered workshop: Dividing the workshop

into multiple small workshops.

• The workshop approach should have been

utilized for the beginning of the requirements as

well.

REFERENCES

Leffingwell Dean, Widrig Don, October 1999, Managing

Software Requirements: A Unified Approach,

Addison Wesley Professional

Polikoff Irene, Coyne Robert, Hodgson Ralph, July 2005,

Capability Cases: A Solution Envisioning Approach,

Addison Wesley Professional

Gottesdiener Ellen, April 2002, Requirements by

Collaboration: Workshops for Defining Needs,

Addison Wesley Professional

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