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Requirements

Scenario and Feature Frame

A Scenario and Feature Frame is a quick way to show your project’s incremental value and dependencies.  It’s helpful for showing your management what you’ll deliver in terms of a baseline release.  It’s helpful for you in terms of finding ways to reduce dependencies.  If you have a bunch of scenarios that depend on certain …

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What’s a Scenario

Photo by Wonderlane What’s a scenario?  Not everybody uses the term “scenario” the same way.  In the software industry, there’s three common usages of scenario: The same as a use case. A path through a use case. An instance of a use case. Usually, the most helpful one is “an instance of a use case.”  …

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5 Situations for Writing Use Cases

What are five common project situations for writing use cases?  In Writing Effective Use Cases (Agile Software Development Series), Alistair Cockburn identifies five different situations for writing use cases to help you better understand variances between the purposes and approaches. Five Project TypesCockburn identifies the following five particular situations: Eliciting requirements, even if use cases …

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User Requirements vs. System Requirements

I’ve often run into debates over whether it’s worth distinguishing between user requirements and system requirements. I would argue that having precision around the perspective helps you make more effective trade-offs, as well as make sure you’re looking through the appropriate lens when you need to. In Scenarios, Stories, Use Cases: Through the Systems Development …

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What are the User, Business, and System Goals?

The most effective way I’ve found to elicit requirements, is to simply ask: What are the user goals? What are the business goals? What are the system goals? I like to follow on by asking about the boundaries (constraints) for goodness and the tests for success. User, Business and System Goals The user goals address …

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