Lecture 10 More Innovation SE3821 Software Requirements and Specification Dr. Rob Hasker (based on slides by Dr. Brad Dennis)

The Volere Process Today: Interviews Workshops Focus Groups Surveys/Questionnaires Roleplaying Product Box “Innovation Game” Others

Brown Cow Mandate: improve the work Don’t just reimplement Improvement must innovate How to identify innovative requirements?

Brown Cow Mandate: improve the work Don’t just reimplement Improvement must innovate How to identify innovative requirements? Pulling from Software Requirements 3 rd Edition, K. Weigers, J. Beatty, Microsoft Press 2013

Some More Interview Guidance Starting point: interview customer to see what they want Ensuring good ideas: 1.Establish rapport at interview start introduce yourself, review agenda & objectives, address preliminary concerns 2.Stay in scope: it will wander, but keep interview on target 3.Prepare questions and straw models ahead of time Draft list of guiding questions Prepare models of business process as you know them It’s much easier to critique than draw from scratch! 4.Suggest ideas Convince interviewee this is a joint problem solving session Prompt interviewee with suggestions 5.Listen actively Lean forward, show patience, clarify anything you find unclear Replay central ideas by paraphrasing them!

Workshops Structured meeting Carefully selected stakeholders, context experts Goal: create, define, refine, reach closure on deliverables Encourage stakeholder collaboration Tips: 1.Establish and enforce ground rules start and end times, technologies, comments not criticism 2.Fill all of the team roles Take notes, watch time, manage scope, enforce ground rules Ensure everyone is heard! 3.Plan an agenda in advance 4.Stay in scope: watch for diving into micro-details that eat time

Workshops 1.Use “Parking Lots” to capture items for later consideration Simple tool to help keep on track Ensure have strategy to clear the lots 2.Timebox discussions Limit time on any one topic At end of time: summarize status and next steps, close topic 3.Keep the team small but include the right stakeholders Small groups are more effective Use parallel workshops if > 5-6 stakeholders 4.Keep everyone engaged If someone stops contributing, they may be frustrated Facilitator's job: ensure everyone's voice is heard

Focus Groups Representative group used to generate input, ideas Can be used to explore attitudes, impressions, preferences, needs Very valuable if cannot poll large group of end users Include: Users with experience in domain Users with experience with similar products or earlier version Running a focus group takes training Key: keep on topic, but don't influence opinions Facilitators should have at least some training Results: subjective feedback Do not give these groups decision-making power

Great for feedback from large groups, geographically dispersed Great for determining needs, preferences Especially helpful as input to future elicitation efforts Inexpensive? Certainly simple to construct, administer Difficult to design for good feedback, ensure large participation Tips: Don’t ask too many questions or people won’t respond Provide answer options that cover the full set of possibilities Always test a questionnaire before distributing it Be careful of phrasing, don’t use leading questions Surveys/Questionnaires

Role playing Opportunity to experience work from another perspective Great when requirements depend on different classes of users Eg: students vs employees Process 1.Set context 2.Act out scenarios 3.Brainstorm on ideas generated by role playing

Product Box Innovation Game Excerpted from: Process: 1.Imagine you have a new product to sell 2.What should be on the box? Key slogans 3.What is on the front? Back? Sides? 4.What would be on the boxes next to yours? Why? Customers want to believe purchased product will solve problems These need to be the problems customers care about Can use this with potential customers as a metaphor for articulating this

Other techniques Interview yourself Great for small start-ups Pretend to be interviewed by a reporter 5 years from now What are your successes? What were the challenges? Evaluate unintended uses Are your users using your product differently than the way you intended? Evaluate customer-developed solutions

Review Effective interviews Rapport, scope, prep, suggestions, active listening Workshops Ground rules, scope, parking lots, timebox Focus groups, surveys, questionnaires Role playing Product box innovation game Interviews, unintended uses, customer solutions