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Friday, 20 February 2009 11:09

Gathering User Requirements - Part 1: The Beginning

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Most of us, Business Analysts, are more familiar with gathering system requirements because they are more interesting to our organizations and customers than the user requirements. But user requirements are absolutely of equal importance if not more important that the system requirements. You may ask me why is that?

In this series of blogs, I am going to take you through understanding the importance of user requirements and how to gather them.
If the goal of your organization is to develop products that has a good reputation and requires less training and support in the backend (sells well, keeps customers happy, and produces referrals), your focus should be on the users of the product. The main reasons that drive customers away from products are:

1. Inability to use the product in the desired way
2. Missing much needed features

It's so easy for those who have been in an industry for numbers of years to assume that they know what the users want and need. Though this might be true to some degree, it may not always be the case, especially when we are talking about detailed requirements.
For example, if after working for many years in a particular industry, you come up with this really cool product that will help those in the industry perform their jobs more efficiently, then KUDOS to you!!!! However, having a high level idea or understanding the high level requirements (such as business requirements) may not mean that you know how the users activities should translate in your product.
It's only by gathering those requirements that you will know how to build a product that puts a smile in your customers.

To continue with the series, go to Gathering User Requirements - Part 2: What are User Requirements?

Linda Erzah

Linda is a mentor and a consultant.

She currently holds the position of principal as well as instructor at BAMentor, LLC.

Her passion for business analyst combined with her love to see other professionals succeed has inspired her to create BAMentor.


More in this category: « Business Analyst: The Neutral Convener Gathering User Requirements - Part 2: What are User Requirements? »

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