How to Document Requirements - How to write better requirements [Business Analyst Training]
Summary
TLDRThe video script offers a comprehensive guide on how to document requirements for a project. It emphasizes the importance of understanding the problem, conducting research, and engaging with stakeholders through interviews and observation. The speaker, with over 10 years of experience as a business analyst, shares practical tips and a template for creating a business requirements document. The example of documenting requirements for a new sandwich at Subway is used to illustrate the process, highlighting the iterative nature of refining solutions and the ease of writing requirements once the problem and solution are well understood.
Takeaways
- 📝 Documenting requirements begins with understanding and defining what constitutes a requirement.
- 🔍 Start by researching existing documentation such as help files, manuals, project documents, and online resources.
- 🥪 Use real-world examples, like documenting requirements for a sandwich, to illustrate the process of identifying requirements.
- 🤔 Always question the 'why' behind a project to understand the underlying problem that needs solving.
- 🗣️ Conduct stakeholder interviews to gather insights and validate your understanding of the problem and potential solutions.
- 👀 Implement observation to gain firsthand experience of the process or product you are documenting requirements for.
- 💡 Conceptualize solutions based on your research, interviews, and observations before attempting to write requirements.
- 📋 Once the problem and solution are clear, writing requirements becomes easier by following a structured template.
- 🔗 Use a template to organize your requirements document with clear sections, headings, and bullet points.
- 🌟 Tailor the requirements to the specific needs of the project and ensure they address the identified problem effectively.
- 📈 Consider the iterative nature of requirements documentation and be prepared to refine them based on feedback and validation.
Q & A
What is the first step in documenting requirements according to the video?
-The first step is to review the documentation that already exists. This could include help files, manuals, project documents, wiki pages, Google search results, meeting recordings, and company websites.
Why is it important to understand the 'why' behind a project?
-Understanding the 'why' behind a project is crucial because it helps to ensure that you are solving the right problem. Knowing the purpose and the intended outcome guides the creation of effective and accurate requirements.
What are some ways to uncover requirements for a project?
-Uncovering requirements can be done through various methods such as researching existing documentation, observing processes and users, and conducting stakeholder interviews to get validation and feedback.
How can you ensure that the requirements you document are relevant to the stakeholders?
-By conducting stakeholder interviews and engaging in discussions with various people involved in the project, such as project managers, product managers, and end-users, you can gather diverse perspectives and ensure that the documented requirements address their needs and concerns.
What is the role of observation in the requirements documentation process?
-Observation plays a critical role as it allows you to experience the user's journey firsthand, understand the processes involved, and identify pain points. This practical knowledge aids in conceptualizing solutions and writing requirements that are practical and user-centered.
How does the video suggest coming up with solutions for the requirements?
-The video suggests that after understanding the domain, identifying the problems, and comprehending the user's journey, you can conceptualize solutions. This involves brainstorming and ideation to address the issues uncovered during research and stakeholder discussions.
What is the recommended approach to writing requirements once you have a solution in mind?
-The recommended approach is to follow a template that outlines the necessary sections for a business requirements document. Breaking down the solution into manageable chunks, indenting, numbering, and detailing each requirement clearly and concisely.
How can the business requirements document template from the speaker's website be beneficial?
-The template provides a structured format with all the necessary sections and an example to follow, making it easier for someone to document their requirements. It streamlines the process and ensures that important details are not overlooked.
What are some follow-up actions suggested in the video after documenting the requirements?
-After documenting the requirements, it is suggested to get buy-in from stakeholders, executives, product managers, and project managers. This involves an iterative process to get sign-off on the solutions and requirements before moving forward with implementation.
What additional topics are mentioned in the video as areas for further exploration?
-The video mentions further exploration into high-level versus detailed requirements, writing requirements in a document versus as user stories, and other related topics which are covered in other videos on the channel.
Why is it important to not rush into writing requirements without understanding the problem and solution?
-Rushing into writing requirements without a deep understanding of the problem and a conceptualized solution can lead to failure. It is crucial to have a clear picture of what is being solved and how it will meet the needs of the users and stakeholders to ensure the success of the project.
Outlines
📝 Understanding the Requirement Documentation Process
This paragraph introduces the challenge of documenting requirements for a project. It describes the initial overwhelm and anxiety that comes with being tasked to document requirements without knowing where to start. The speaker, Carolees, introduces herself as an experienced business analyst and assures the audience that she will guide them through the process of not only documenting but also uncovering requirements. She mentions the resources available on her YouTube channel and website, and encourages the audience to engage with her content.
🔍 Researching and Identifying Requirements
In this paragraph, the speaker emphasizes the importance of research in understanding and identifying requirements. Using the example of documenting requirements for a sandwich, she explains how reviewing existing documentation, such as definitions and menu options on the Subway website, can provide valuable insights. The key takeaway is that documentation can come in various forms, and researching these sources is the first step in the requirements documentation process. The speaker also encourages the audience to like, subscribe, and comment on the video to gain more value and interact with the content.
🤝 Engaging with Stakeholders
This section highlights the crucial step of engaging with stakeholders to validate the understanding of the problem and the requirements. The speaker suggests conducting interviews with different stakeholders, such as employees, managers, and customers in the context of the Subway sandwich example. In a corporate setting, this could involve talking to project managers, product managers, internal staff, vendors, and end-users. The goal is to gather diverse perspectives and ensure that the requirements being documented accurately address the needs of all stakeholders involved.
👀 Observing and Conceptualizing Solutions
The speaker stresses the importance of observation and hands-on experience in truly understanding the user's journey and the problems to be solved. By observing how sandwiches are made at Subway or how software is used in a tech setting, one can gain insights that lead to effective requirements. The paragraph then transitions into the process of conceptualizing solutions based on the understanding of the domain, the user's journey, and the identified problems. The speaker provides an example of how a lack of variety for vegan customers could lead to the conceptualization of a vegan menu, emphasizing the iterative nature of this process and the need for stakeholder buy-in.
✍️ Writing the Requirements
The final paragraph focuses on the actual process of writing the requirements, which becomes easier once the problem, customer, and solution are well understood. The speaker provides a template for a business requirements document and explains how to use it, including breaking down the solution into manageable chunks and numbering them accordingly. She uses the example of adding a vegan sandwich to the Subway menu to illustrate how to write detailed and specific requirements. The speaker concludes by encouraging the audience to watch the next video for further insights on high-level versus detailed requirements and the use of user stories.
Mindmap
Keywords
💡documenting requirements
💡business analyst
💡stakeholders
💡research
💡problem-solving
💡observation
💡templates
💡iterative process
💡user stories
💡project management
💡business requirements document
Highlights
The importance of understanding where to begin when documenting requirements for a project.
The overwhelming feeling one might experience when faced with the task of documenting requirements for the first time.
The introduction of Carolees, a business analyst with over 10 years of experience, who offers guidance on documenting requirements.
The definition of a requirement as a feature essential for a product or service to be useful to stakeholders.
The use of the subway sandwich example to illustrate the process of understanding and documenting requirements for something unfamiliar.
The importance of researching and reviewing existing documentation to uncover requirements.
The necessity of understanding the 'why' behind a project or product before attempting to document requirements.
The value of conducting stakeholder interviews to gain insights and validate assumptions about the problem being addressed.
The practical application of observation to gain firsthand experience and understanding of the user's journey and the operational processes.
The process of conceptualizing solutions based on a thorough understanding of the domain, problems, and user experience.
The iterative process of getting buy-in and sign-off for proposed solutions from stakeholders and executives.
The ease of writing requirements once the problem, customer, and solution are thoroughly understood.
The availability of a business requirements document template on Carolees' website to aid in documenting requirements.
The structure and content of the business requirements document template, including sections and an example.
The transition from understanding the problem to writing requirements, made easier by the comprehensive preparatory work.
The mention of additional topics such as high-level versus detailed requirements and user stories, which are covered in other videos.
Transcripts
how to document requirements
so you started on a project and one of
the first things they ask you to do is
to document requirements
and then you walk away from the meeting
feeling like oh snap
i don't even know where to begin
[Music]
i mean how do you document requirements
what even constitutes a requirement
[Music]
where do i even start looking for
requirements
then some wild thoughts start coming in
your mind
and you start feeling overwhelmed
and you're like i don't know how to do
this
i don't know how
to document requirements
everyone is expecting me to document
requirements i don't know how to
document requirements i'm gonna look
incompetent and everyone is going to
blame me because the project is going to
fail because i don't know how to
document requirements it's just gonna be
bad it's gonna be bad okay oh my god
so you had your little freaking out
episode
and then you got a hold of yourself and
decided to look it up on youtube
and here we are
i'm down i'm going to help you
you have found the right video by the
way i'm carolees and i have over 10
years of experience working as a
business analyst in different industries
i am happy to share that experience with
you so that you can grow your business
analyst career as well
by the end of this video you will know
how to document requirements but you'll
also know how to uncover requirements
and where to start documenting
requirements when you get any project
that lands on your desk
but keep watching okay
also thank you for clicking on this
video great choice by the way
carly's business analyst training we
have lots of resources for you we have
youtube videos that talk about
requirements talk about agile talk about
waterfall talk about jira talk about so
many things so go and check out our
channel and see what else you can learn
from us we also have a book called the
business analyst job market report
there we have studied over 43 000
business analyst jobs they've looked at
jobs across different industries we've
looked at business analyst jobs across
different geographical locations and we
put it all together for you in this
report that will help you to land your
next business on this job we also have a
website paralysed.com and there you can
find templates you can find articles you
can find courses but you can also find
this fit test and this is a test you can
take right now that assesses your
natural behavior to see if you're a fit
for the business analyst job and we also
have consultation so if you want to have
a one-on-one consultation with me you
want to get a personalized help for you
to start your career book a consultation
today and we can have that conversation
so we've got tons of resources to help
you start and grow your business analyst
career let's get started first by
knocking these requirements documents
out of the park
okay so
let's start with what makes a
requirement a requirement
a requirement is a feature that a
product or service must have in order to
be useful to stakeholders and that's
coming straight from the ba times
let's take the subway sandwich example
let's say you got a task to write
requirements for a sandwich
and you have no idea what a sandwich is
how to document requirements for
something you have no idea about
so if you were asked to document
requirements for a sandwich
where would you start
well you probably could start by looking
at the documentation right
good idea
so you go on to google and search up the
definition of a sandwich and what do you
know google has an answer
and so you find the definition there
but where else could you look to find
requirements on sandwiches
let's see maybe you could look at the
subway website since they're very
popular for sandwiches so you go on the
subway sandwich website
so nowhere on the subway website does it
tell you the definition of a sandwich
but
it does give you very useful information
that can help you
know how to document requirements
you notice that there is a menu
and one of the menu options is
sandwiches
that is very distinct from wraps and
other options on the menu
when you click the sandwiches option you
notice something right away
all the images for sandwiches have
something in common
there are different types of bread
on top and bread on the bottom and the
only difference between each type of
sandwich are the things in between the
bread so then you know the difference
between the options in the menu
and you see that a sandwich is not a
wrap even though they are similar
you might go to a few other websites to
check out what they say about sandwiches
as well what did we just learn to help
us know how to document requirements
well
we learned that one of the quickest
things you can do to uncover
requirements
is to research so here's the number one
tip on how to document requirements
review the documentation that already
exists
documentation can exist in many forms it
could be help files manuals project
documents wiki pages google search
results you know meeting recordings
company website
other websites so these are all the
places in a corporate setting that you
could find documentation to help you do
your research before you know how to
document requirements
when you think of how to document
requirements you first need to find out
what documents already exist
and go research them by the way are you
getting value from this video so far
then pump the like button
also click subscribe and leave a comment
to say i subscribe
i'll respond to the first set of people
that comment i subscribe and answer any
questions you might have so go do it
i'll know if you didn't
[Music]
next continuing on our sandwich example
so you read all the documents that exist
on sandwiches and you think you have a
pretty good idea what a sandwich is
but how do you document the requirements
let's say for a new sandwich
what's the problem we're solving
why do we need a new sandwich so what's
next how about you figure out what the
problem is
great idea
so why are we doing this
why are we doing this project
why am i even employed to do this what's
going on why are we doing this
always ask why
now that you've read the documentation
and you understand what sandwiches are
what's the problem
why are they creating a new sandwich who
will buy it and what problem does it
solve for the customer
before you run off and write
requirements and before you try to
figure out how to document requirements
you need to know what you are solving
for even if it's something that came
down from the higher-ups let's say it
came down from your c-level executives
your vps you still have to stop
and question why we're doing it you must
understand the why for you to be able to
write effective accurate requirements
the second clip of how to document
requirements is to figure out what the
problem is
you may have some idea around what the
problem is
but you are going to have to meet with
different people to be able to get
validation and feedback so from your
research from
you know looking at the documentation
you may get an idea of what the problem
might be because you understand what it
is but you need to meet with people to
validate that idea and to make sure
you're solving the right thing so the
third step in how to document
requirements
is to talk to stakeholders my third tip
for how to document requirements is
conduct stakeholder interviews
in our subway sandwiches example the
next step would be to go to a subway
store
and talk to the stakeholders you can
talk to the employee the store manager
the customer that way you can find out
from each of their perspectives
in a corporate setting you could talk to
project manager the product manager and
these people give you the background for
the project or the product that you're
creating you'll also talk to your
internal staff and they will tell you
more about the operations in the
day-to-day process you may be able to
talk to vendors or partners if that's
epic level
it'd be great if you could talk to the
users or the clients and anyone else who
is a stakeholder
out there
and talk to people
don't be afraid to have a meeting in
fact i have a video on how to conduct
effective meetings and prevent them from
getting derailed please check that out
when you're done with this video
sometimes you might
have to work with a group
so it's not always going to be a
stakeholder interview that's one-to-one
sometimes it makes sense to have it in a
group so you can do a workshop you can
do ideation sessions depending on the
type of project that it is so you did
your research you found out what the
problem is you talked to people
so what's next how do i document
requirements that you asked
as you are doing these activities you
are taking notes you are putting
yourself in the place of the user or the
customer and you are understanding the
jobs to be done and the user's journey
it's great to talk to people and it's
great to read documents but wherever
possible try to get your hands dirty
my number four tip for how to document
requirements
is observation
get out there and do
and if you can't do then observe
wherever possible be the customer or the
user yourself
in our subway example go to subway be a
customer
watch how they make the sandwich observe
how the process works get in the back
and see what happens behind the scenes
talk and observe
in a software setting go to the app use
the app use the software or watch as
other people use the software to solve
their day-to-day problems set up
meetings with clients and ask them about
how their usage and their pain points
or get with the ux team on the marketing
team and conduct some research from them
if you're not able to access a client
directly
get up in there and get to know your
users
so at this point you've researched it
you've talked about it
you've observed it
what's next how do i document
requirements
hold on hold on stick with me here stick
with me we've already come this far
stick with me to the end
how about now we come up with some
solutions
great idea
so my number four tip for how to
document requirements is come up with
solutions conceptualize
solutions
once you understand the domain
you know the problems you understand the
user's journey
then we can conceptualize solutions
maybe in the subway sandwich example the
problem was that there wasn't enough
variety for the vegan customers and they
wanted to provide a fuller menu for
vegans maybe the solution could
be
that you've conceptualized a whole vegan
menu that has vegan meat
and vegan cheese and vegan bread for the
sandwich
once you come up with these solutions
you have to talk to people
you have to get buying from your
stakeholders you have to talk to your
executives and your product managers and
your project managers and you have to
let it go through the whole process
there's a whole iterative process that
goes on to get sign off
for your solutions
let's say that subway management was all
in
and the executive said yes and you
should go ahead with this whole new
vegan option
guess what
now is actually the time to go off and
write requirements
you have to understand that if you try
to write requirements for something you
don't understand
new will
fail
so my main tips for you being able to
write requirements to understand how to
document requirements is you need to
understand the problem you need to
understand the customer or the user
and you need to understand the solution
then writing the requirements comes
easier
so much easier
you literally just need to follow a
template at this point
lucky for you i have a template on my
website carlease.com for absolutely free
to download go to carly.com click on
templates and then just download the
business requirements document template
it has all the sections that you need
and even has an example in there that
you can follow
you open up the template you fill in the
sections and when you get to the
requirements section you break up your
big solution
into manageable chunks
you indent and your number
and that's it you have your requirements
you've documented your requirements for
example if i was to write the
requirements to add the vegan sandwich
to the subway website i would say
something like this add a vegan sandwich
to many options let's say that this is a
part of a whole body of requirements and
this is the second you know second
section
so i would indent and i would have my
numbers and my bullet points and i would
say let's say number two is add a vegan
sandwich to many options i would say
when the user selects sandwiches from
the main menu the system must show the
image
the sandwich name which is meatless
vegan sandwich and a hover over menu
with view and order
now as options so view and order now at
the options and then the sandwich name
2.2
and image will be links that navigate
the user to the order page and then i'll
continue about the order page and it's
probably going to be
um
the order page already exists so it's
going to be existing functionality today
and maybe we'll have some requirements
around pricing and how to update pricing
etc so this is just a little snippet of
what it could be
but writing this is going to be easier
because you understand the problem you
know what you're solving for and you've
done all the thorough work to get to
this point so writing it's going to be
it's going to flow out of your brain
quite easily
it will be much easier for you when you
know what you are solving for believe me
there are other things i didn't get into
in this video such as high level
requirements versus detail requirements
writing the requirements in a document
versus as user stories
but for that watch the video at the end
of this one and i have so many other
videos about that on my channel so check
out my channel as well
so now you know how to document
requirements how to uncover requirements
and where to start when you get any
project that lands on your desk that
requires you to document requirements
thank you so much i really hope you
enjoyed this video and watch this video
next
[Music]
you
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