Capabilities Based Planning First Then Requirements

When I hear about requirements churn, bad requirements management - which is really bad business management, emergent requirements that turn over 20% a month for a complete turnover in 4 months - it's clear there is a serious problem in understanding how to manage the development of a non-trivial project.

Let's start here. Start with what capabilities does this project need to produce when it is done? The order of the capabilities is dependent of the business's ability to not only absorb the capability but the value stream of those capabilities in support of the business strategy.

That picture at the bottom shows a value stream of capabilities for a health insurance provider network system. The notion of INVEST in agile has to be tested for any project. Dependencies exist and are actually required for enterprise projects. See the flow of capabilities chart below. Doing work in an independent order would simply not work. 

Capabilities based planning (v2) from Glen Alleman

Once we have the needed capabilities and know their dependencies, we can determine - from the business strategy - what order they need to be delivered.

The Point

When you hear about all the problems with requirements - or anything to do with software development - stop and remember - it is trivial to point out problems. The classical example of this trivial approach is estimates are the smell of dysfunction. This approach is a Dilbert carton management method. It's not only lame, it's not managing projects as an adult. Adults don't whine, they provide solutions. 

So here's a place to start with Requirements Management. 

• The Requirements Engineering Handbook
• Systems Engineering: Coping with Complexity
• Requirements Engineering: A Good Practice Guide
• The Art of Systems Architecting
• Effective Complex Project Management: An Adaptive Agile Framework for Defining Business Value
• Design Structure Matrix and Applications
• Software Requirements Analysis and Specification
• Systems Requirements Analysis
• Systems Management: Planning, Enterprise Identity and Deployment

Each  of these books informs our Command Media for requirements elicitation and management for software intensive systems. As well professional journals provide up to date guidance. 

There are also tools for requirements management. But don't start with tools, start with a process. Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP) is my favorite

There is no reason to not have a credible requirements process - don't let the whiners dominate the conversation. Provide solutions to the problem. 

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