Understanding your needs

Getting the plan right in the beginning means your project runs smoothly. We take the time to understand your needs and business processes. Agile and iterative is our mantra, but we like to get it right the first time by taking the time to listen to you. Complex projects benefit from documented requirements.

Telling the story

Our Requirements Discovery service takes your business processes and user needs, and turns them into User Stories and mockups. We use plain English to describe the problem that the system needs to solve, from the user’s perspective.

We’ll include any technical requirements, such as your IT infrastructure, integration with other systems, data migration, cross browser or mobile testing, WCAG compliance, and training needs.

Ensure the system works

You can use the User Stories and mockups to ensure that the system you end up with will actually solve your problem. You can refer back to these documents during acceptance testing, or use them to illustrate to your board or managers what this system should do.

Compare quotes

If you need quotes from multiple development service providers, requirements documents ensure everyone has a clear understanding of what you need, making comparison easier for you.

Stay on track

Taking the time to document your requirements ensures that your scope is correct when the development project begins. Reviewing user stories is a good way to check that the system will cover everything you need.

Timeline & Approach

Every project and every schedule is different. But to give you an idea of how we work, a typical requirements discovery process looks like this…

Requirements Discovery process

At Agileware we want you to feel informed and empowered during the progression of your project so there are no surprises. Your project manager will be in regular contact to discuss progress and seek your feedback.

A standard requirements discovery process usually takes around 1-2 weeks from sign on to delivery and includes 1 review meeting. Complex requirements discovery usually takes 3-4 weeks and includes 2-3 review meetings.

At the end of the process, you’ll have everything you need to manage the development of your new system, and developers will have everything they need to thoroughly understand the business processes the system should enable.

Deliverables

User Stories

User stories with corresponding screen mockups. Up to 8 user stories for standard requirements discovery, up to 16 user stories for complex requirements discovery.

Written requirements

Covers additional technical requirements including your IT infrastructure, integration with other system, data migration, cross browser and mobile testing, WCAG compliance, and training.

Estimate of development work required

Agileware’s estimate of the time and costs for development.

Project plan

Plan for system development, written from your perspective. Includes sequence of events, tasks requiring your involvement, and milestone dates.

What is a User Story?

A user story is a plain English description of how a person wants to interact with the system. For example, you might have a user story to describe a customer searching for a product on your website. Because they are told from the perspective of the user, they don’t include technical details or jargon. What they do include is a simple description of the action the user wants to take, and why. For example, “As a new customer, I want to search for a product so I can check the product details and price”.

The user story will have conditions listed that developers can use to better understand how it should work. For example, “the customer needs to be able to search based on product name, price range, SKU number, or colour”. If the developed system does not allow the customer to search based on price range, then it does not include all the conditions in the user story and it will not pass acceptance testing. The user story should also describe warning or error messages that the user might need to see.

User stories might also include mockups to show what the screen will look like. These mockups are not a pixel-perfect preview of the final system, but they do show all the important elements that will appear and where they should be placed. Diagrams might also be included in a user story to show the flow of information or processing.

Example User Story #01: Search for FAQs

Existing customer is looking for FAQs because they are having problems with their system

Acceptance Criteria:

  • Can find FAQs within one click of homepage, as an anonymous or authenticated user. FAQ info affecting all systems should be on homepage.
  • Able to find an FAQ by putting the question into the search bar.
  • Able to find links to FAQ from Contact page.

User Story example

Example of a User Story mockup