Assessment - Requirement Definitions

We make sure that there is agreement on the definition of what the system must do and how it should work for your business.  Then we translate it into standardized requirements.

A Needs Assessment is a systematic exploration of the way things are and the way they should be. These "things" are usually associated with organizational and/or individual performance.

Assessing your business needs allow us to devise the best possible solution. We do this through a series of documented meetings, and interviews

WHY design and conduct a Needs Assessment? We need to consider the benefits of before we just go and do it:

• What learning will be accomplished?
• What changes in behavior and performance are expected?
• Will they be achieved?
• What are the expected economic costs and benefits of any projected solutions?

Before acting too much in a hurry, companies need to plan carefully and cautiously in order to maintain a competitive edge in this highly competitive environment. It makes sense to asses the project to make sure it is a wise investment with high Return on Investment (ROI)

We conduct our assessments in a 4 step process:

1. “Gap” analysis. Difference between the current situation and the Desired or necessary situatio
2. Identify Priorities and importance. Expressed needs are examined in view of their importance to the organizational goals, realities, and constraints. A determination is made on whether the identified needs are real, if they are worth addressing, and specify their importance and urgency in view of the organizational needs and requirements
3. Identify causes of performance problems and/or opportunities.
4. Identify possible solutions and growth opportunities

The Requirements Gathering process is then a logic consequence of the assessment process.

Studies have shown that as many as 4 out of 5 software development projects go over time, over budget or don't deliver expected results (The Chaos Report, 1994 Standish Group). With such long odds, it pays to put in the effort upfront to minimize the risk of failure. The question is, how do we achieve this?

We do this by following the simple rules:

1. Focus and Clarity. Focus is the most import aspect of any requirements document. A good requirements document clearly states the objective of the project and defines its scope, to clarify what the project does and does not cover.
2. A Format for Specifying Requirements. Through years of experience and research, ALERIANT has developed a requirements document capable of reflecting clearly our client’s needs. It includes the client needs in a business language while includes technical areas where engineering detail is created and aligned with the business needs.
3. Highly trained and capable personnel. It is the key to our success. We hand pick and then train each one of our requirements engineers in how to create the Analysis and Requirements Document (ARD) the way it should be.
4. The Language of Requirements. Clients and Engineers talking the same business languages and its translation into a more technical language is what make us different. Our clients understand what they read and the technical team understands the client. A perfect match.
5. Accurate. We walk the client through the requirements. As many times as it is needed. At the end we have an accurate reflection of what the client needs.
6. Minimize the risk of errant interpretation. We ensure that everybody has the same interpreataion by including examples, diagrams, pictures and sample data to illustrate what the requirement means

• Strategic planning
• Assessment – requirement definitions
• System design
• Code development
• Testing
• Implementation