The fit criterion quantifies the performance, behavior and other qualities of a requirement.

Applying to Starbucks we have this example of a non-functional requirement TYPE -14 Maintainability and Support

Description: The new cups’ design shall be available in all the stores.

Rationale: Starbucks need to refill stores with these new cups before release this promotion.

Fit Criterion: All Starbucks coffee shops in Canada should have at least 60% of its cups for hot beverage with the new design from local artists.

It’s a funny thing. Why would something that’s called non-functional be important you may ask. To answer that you have to understand what non-functional requirements are. As we already know, functional requirements are the things that make the product work. The product won’t work properly if the functional requirements are not met! So what about the non-functional?

Think about a piece of software developed for a company. All the functional requirements are met, but the company declines the software. What happened? In this case, let’s say that even though the product worked exactly like it was supposed to, the end users didn’t like ‘the feel’ or user interface. Ultimately, the company that built the software didn’t pay attention to the end users non-functional requirements!

Non-functional requirements can be broken down into eight different categories.

Look and Feel: The spirit or appearance of the product.

Usability and Humanity: How easy or usable is the product.

Performance: How fast and available is the product.

Operational: What kind of environment is the product operating in.

Maintainability and Support: Expected changes and the time needed to make them. The specification of the support to be given to the product.

Security: Is the product accessible, confidential, recoverable and auditable.

Cultural and Political: Is the culture and practices of the end users taken into account.

Legal: The laws and standards that apply to the product.

When describing non-functional (and functional) requirements it’s a good idea to break it down into description, rational and fit criterion. For example, take the Starbucks art design project we are preparing. Functionally it:

Description: Shall only be provided for hot beverages.

The product’s function is to provide service for warm beverages only.

Rational: The art will show better and keep the cost of the cup down.

We believe the art design will show up better on hot product cups which are also cheaper to produce.

Fit Criterion:

Non-functional requirements might feel redundant or obvious but it’s important to clarify them and make sure they are understood an followed. It’s one thing failing to deliver a project because it didn’t function properly. But to deliver a fully functional product only to have it declined due to poor non-functional requirement gathering would be even worse!

 

 

 

 

 

According to the book: NON functional requirements are those which illustrates the statements such as:what your product specifically do or what your product shall have.

This chapter will help us to know why there is need of non functional requirements?

It involves three approaches:

Rabbit: Specifies checklist documents.

Horse: involves multiple stakeholders.

Elephant:written documentation.

This chapter also shows comparison between functional and non functional requirements .

Type 11:LOOK AND FEEL REQUIREMENTS:

Starbucks new artist design cups will be well designed and will specify the intentions of the appearance of the cups.

TYPE:12 USABILITY AND HUMANITY REQUIREMENTS:

Starbucks new artist design cups will be easy to use and will attract the customers of different age groups.

The customers will appreciate the concept of the designs and will be emotionally connect to the cups design.

TYPE 12:PERFORMANCE REQUIREMENTS:

Starbucks new design cups will follows the rabbit approach and will  be completed with less documentation in short period of time.

OPERATIONAL REQUIREMENTS:

Starbucks new design cups will share the sense of culture and will engage the different location attraction rather then constructed within one city.

MAINTAINABILITY REQUIREMENTS:

Starbucks new design cups will maintain the sense of culture ism .Therefore,no issue will arise in future on the basis of cups design.

SECURITY REQUIREMENTS:

Starbucks designer cups from new artist will legally specifies the confidentially ,privacy of artists.

LEGAL REQUIREMENTS:

Starbucks this new implementation will recognize the industrial and professional standards.

 

 

 

What is it?

According to the book: Mastering the Requirements Process – Suzanne Robertson and James Robertson.       Functional Requirements are the things that your product does to support the work.

In order to describe the product’s functionality, we can use scenarios to help describing.

When writing the requirements description, the most common way is using “The product shall… “, this way it is easier to eliminate semantic confusion. The use of rationale is also recommended to show the reason why the requirement exist. For example, for our Starbucks new product we can describe the requirements like this:

Description: The product shall have local artists’ arts printed in the cups.

Rationale: To be able to satisfy our clients with the designs that they chose in the social media campaign and to support local artists.

A data dictionary is also important in functional requirements, it should contain the definition of the class, each attribute and association.

Avoiding ambiguity is very important when writing requirements.

When determining the needs of a business, it’s easy to run head first into finding solutions before actually determining the real problems of the business. In software development, time and money is often wasted when starting in the Future How, as most developers must return to the Future What to fully realize what the need, and therefore, solution is! Delving into the lower right side of the Brown Cow Model, we move from a place of virtual abstraction to a the world of physical technology. Having discovered the need in a more abstract way, we can now dig into a more concrete implementation. 

The book mentions that Understanding the Real Problem find the true essence of the business, and so deliver the right product—one that solves the right problem.

Abstraction

The book mention that in this step is drawing away or removing physical implementation so as to reduce it to its essential characteristics. In other words, an abstraction is the idea, not the implementation.

SOLVING THE RIGHT PROBLEM

In this point, the book mentions the elements to consider to solve a problem using proper strategies

SOLVING THE RIGHT PROBLEM

The book defines solving the right problem involves questioning and enhancing the current business essence to make the business more effective, efficient, and innovative.

HOW TO BE INNOVATIVE

The book mention that to be innovative, business analyst have to looking for ways to improve his client’s work, and these improvements almost always come about through innovation.

The book also describes these concepts:

SYSTEMATIC THINKING: As an idea of innovate systematically

Starbucks is now throwing more support behind its refreshment category.

VALUE: Capability of the product to be worthwhile

As a brand that can have a daily interaction with its customers, there is an expectation for Starbucks to innovate and lead the category at pace and scale. This comes to life across three main areas: people, place and product.

They always ensure that they will continue to support customers values as part of what they do every day.

PERSONAS: When real users are not available or are too numerous for you to interview all of them. The persona is a virtual character that substitutes for the human users.

 

 

This Chapter, describes the scenarios and the steps to recognize the activities into them.

Those scenarios are related with current conditions of the business, and how Business Analyst works to improve solutions to these conditions.

1- Business Use Case Name

2- Trigger

3- Preconditions

4- Interested Stakeholders

5- Active Stakeholders

6- Outcome

ALTERNATIVES:

The book mentioned that alternatives arise when you wish the user to have a choice of possible actions. These choices are intentional, as they are wanted and defined by the business.

EXCEPTIONS:

The book mentioned that exceptions are unwanted but inevitable deviations from the normal case. They are unwanted in the sense that the owner of the work would rather that they did not happen.

MISUSE CASES AND NEGATIVE SCENARIOS

The book mention that exceptions are misuse cases show negative or harmful possibilities, such as someone abusing the work or attempting to defraud it.

 

 

The business Analyst is responsible for investigating the work before making any changes to it.

In business the term “Trawling” means sifting through a business to identify the work being done. It can be done by analyzing the business current situation, observing structures and patterns or using the Brown Cow Model which is an easier way to show a system model by dividing the model’s viewpoints. It is divided in 4 quadrants: the top left quadrant mentions what is happening now and the top right quadrant what is going to happen in the future, the left lower quadrant shows how it is now and the right lower quadrant how is going to be in the future.

Apprenticing is when the business analyst goes to the user’s workplace and actually do their work or observe and ask questions.

This chapter discusses the Business Use Cases , Product Use Case and the responsibilities of the Business Analyst.Moreover ,discusses about the helpful features of the Business Use Cases.

Business Use Case of Starbucks

Responsibilities of BA

In this Chapter, authors comprehend the possible problems during the developing process of the project, and how teams make the planning to have a clear vision of the scope to avoid these difficulties.

Blastoff deliverables:

• Purpose of the project: Quantified statement of what the product is intended to do.
• Scope of the work: Understand the area affected before developing the project
• The Stakeholders: People interested in the project
• Constraints:Restrictions on the scope or style of the product.
• Names: Terminologies to be used in the project.
• Relevant facts and assumptions: Possible assumptions that project need to consider
• The estimated cost: Possible expenses
• The risks: to reveal the main risks faced by the project
• Go/no go decision: Viability decition

 

Formality Guide

Rabbit: should have a sketch of the work scope diagram pinned to the wall close to their user stories; close by should be a list of stakeholders

Horse: should be more formal and hold a blastoff meeting; they should also record their deliverables and communicate them to the appropriate stakeholders

Elephant project: should take the additional step of having the quality assurance (QA) people test their blastoff deliverables: Elephant projects are critical, and costly if they make errors, so the foundation of the requirements must be proved to be rock solid. Risk analysis and cost estimation are important to elephant projects; having a clearly defined and properly understood work scope is crucial.

SETTING THE SCOPE

The author describes this point as a way to understand what that owner is doing, and what he wants to do, if you are to deliver optimal value. In any event, if you want to build something valuable, then you have to understand what the owner values and what he is trying to achieve when he uses your product.