You wouldn't try to build a house without plans ...
It’s a strange fact that many, many businesses commission new systems without being clear on their requirements. It’s perhaps no surprise then that many system investments are seen - with hindsight - to have failed, at least in part.
Assuming you have a clear Business Case that sets out the benefits your project or system investment is intended to achieve, creating a good Business Requirements Definition is not hard – but it can be a lot of work. Here are the questions to ask – and keep asking until you’re done:
- What benefits are the project, system or investment to deliver?
- How (in the sense of “A causes B”) will the benefit be created? What’s the mechanism?
- What function will the system, etc. have to perform to achieve that?
- How (in the sense of how fast and how reliably) will it have to perform that function? What are the performance metrics?
- If the system performs all the defined function(s) in the required way, will that be sufficient to fully deliver all the benefits? If not, what else is required?
Voloper consultants are experienced in business requirements analysis and can work with you to develop a detailed Requirements Document for any project that prospective suppliers will be able to bid against.
This will certainly get your project off on the right foot towards being one of those that will be seen as a success.