In this next post in my series on solution architecture for the Power Platform, we’ll focus specifically on the stage at which we capture granular requirements and some tips on how to lead these sessions for success!
Get the right people in the room
So people, one of the first things so crucial for any session you run as part of your engagement with a customer… please please please, get the right people in the room! This is so key!
Your sessions will not be productive with the wrong people in the meeting or room, and guess what, if the right people aren’t there, it just might not go ahead at all! So this is key tip number 1.
Please give people an agenda
Tip number two for organising requirements capturing workshops is to give your customer and colleagues a workshop agenda. This will let them do a few things… it will let them help with the previous tip of actually bringing the right people on their side, but it will also let all of those people who’s time is important, prepare so that you can all get the best success out of your meeting.
What should be included in each requirement?
So let’s now actually talk about what we should get out of a requirements capturing session. For all of the requirements we capture, we can capture them in the format that works best for us but they should ideally consider these things…
- Personas – I.e. who does the requirement affect, who are the users and stakeholders, who is the owner / who wants the thing
- What are the actual needs for the requirement
- Why is this needed – aka… what is the broader goal
Consider that for larger requirements you pick up or are approached with that these may need to be broken down with the above points considered after these requirements have been broken down.
Prioritising requirements
So once we’re at a point where we’re understanding the requirements the customer has given us on a more granular level, it’s important that we then prioritise these. It’s imperative we don’t start with tasks that are low priority and don’t matter to the customer as much instead of those that are a bit more make or break in creating success.
Prioritise, and stick to this plan friends!
Does it fit?
One of the questions you can ask yourself when capturing granular requirements is how well they fit into the high-level design executed during pre-sales. It something is completely out of this realm then it probably won’t fit within the current scope of the project and budget may need to increase for these requirements to be considered.
Pre and post session work
So friends, remember one of the most important parts to engagement workstreams like this one where we do things like meetings and workshopping. Please make sure you come to these types of sessions prepared and you communicate back to the customer following the session you have with outcomes, actions, timelines, and anything else relevant to making the next parts of the project successful. This is so key for ongoing movement and success in your engagement. Every workshop should have time blocked out either side for these tasks!
Don’t duplicate
Ensure that once you’ve got requirements captured, that you review everything that exists on the board to remove any areas of duplication or doubling up. This could cause conflicting tasks and work items to be created later down the line if this isn’t cleared up at this point.
What’s coming up?
So friends! Stay tuned, as in the next few posts we’ll start to understand how we can categorise the requirements we’ve captured before looking at finalising things ready for work item break down.