Bite sized training sessions:
Non-Functional Requirements
Objectives
• To understand
– What non-functional requirements are
– When they can be defined
– How they can be defined
• To be able to
– Define non-functional requirements
What are non-functional requirements?
• They are requirements
• They are not functional, data or process requirements
• IIBA Business Analysis Body Of Knowledge (BABOK) v1.6 suggests "Quality of
service requirements […] are also known as non-functional requirements“
• ISEB book on Business Analysis suggests “Non-Functional Requirements are
concerned with performance and level of operation of the system”
• Sad but true: Business Analysis profession – which specialises in analysis and
definition – has no (and can have no) definition for a set of requirements
named on the basis of what they are not!
• Also sad but true: we do need to define requirements which are not
functional or data or process requirements
Chain Of Reasoning:
Drivers
Drivers
Stakeholders
Drivers
Drivers
Objectives Objectives Objectives Objectives
Objectives
Change
Requirements
Stakeholders
Change
Requirements
Change
Requirements
Change
Requirements
Change
Requirements
Change Requirements must be assumed to be wrong until they are proved to be
right
Scope of analysis of change
requirements
• Change requirements can be for
(amongst others)
– Processes
– Organisation units
– Locations
– Channel
– Data
– Applications
– Technologies
– Non-functionals
…oh – and the valid intersections!!!
Requirements Scope Example
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
We need to change how we take orders (process)…
…by the tele-orders team (organisation unit)…
…at our Leeds contact centre (location)…
…by phone or email (channel)
…to capture alternate delivery addresses (data)…
…on the Chordiant system (application)…
…running on the intranet (technology)…
…and make it available 24/7/365 (non-functional).
How to forge links in the Chain Of Reasoning
Problem / opportunity analysis
Driver
Addressed as
measured by
SMART objectives
Project
Objective
Delivered by
Business…
Functional…
Non-functional…
Change
Requirement
…high level
…mid level
Enforces
Process model
Process specification
Non-functional specifications
Data model
Attribute specification
Business Rule
…low level
EXAMPLE way of documenting…
Problem / opportunity analysis
Driver
Addressed as
measured by
SMART objectives
Project
Objective
Delivered by
Business…
Functional…
Non-functional…
No
Change
Requirement
…high level
…mid level
EXAMPLE
High Level Non Functional Requirement
Maps To
Objectives
1
Training will accommodate 40 delegates over 5 training sessions
1,2,3,4,5
2
Training support will be able to process up to 5 queries at any one time
1,2,4,5
EXAMPLE way of documenting…
Problem / opportunity analysis
Driver
Addressed as
measured by
SMART objectives
Project
Objective
Delivered by
Business…
Functional…
Non-functional…
Change
Requirement
…high level
…mid level
Enforces
Process model
Process specification
Non-functional specifications
Data model
Attribute specification
Business Rule
…low level
EXAMPLE PROCESS RULES
A BA can request one of 4 types of support:
1. Phone or email based query about a specific point
2. Informal review of a project deliverable
3. Formal review of full set of project deliverables
4. Facilitated workshop of how to apply analysis to a specific project
Process execution rules
1. In the case of phone or email query about a specific point
the BA poses the question and the training provider will provide guidance for how the technicalities of Business Analysis apply to
the problem
Informal reviews of project deliverables will be done by email and will only discuss the technicalities of Business Analysis in relation to
the document
Formal reviews will involve the BA sending the full set of Analysis deliverables to the training provider who will critique them from a
technical perspective and then deliver the feedback in a one-to-one structured feedback session on the client site
Facilitated workshops will be initiated by the BA - the training provider will supply workshop agenda and prerequisites which the BA
will use to organise the workshop. The training provider will then facilitate the workshop for the project.
Time to start
Training course
BA requests
support
Provide
BA support
Conduct
Training
Analysis Phase
Of Project
concludes
Process dependency rules
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
Who is interacts with process
Where they are
Availability of process
Volumetrics
Performance of process
Security & Authorisation levels
Non-functional Rules
Monitor
Analysis
quality
EXAMPLE DATA RULES
Non-Functional Rules
1.
2.
3.
Who is allowed access to the data?
How long must this data be kept?
How many instances of it must be supported?
Course
Data content rules
Course.Start Date
Definition: the date/time the course is scheduled to start
Data type: Numeric
Size: 12
Domain: Datetime
Data rules:
•
Format is DD/MM/YYYY HH:MM
•
When created must be in the future
•
Cannot be a Saturday or Sunday or Bank Holiday
Attributes
1. Name
2. Start Date
3. Course duration
Attends
Attributes
1. Name
2. Contact details
Delegate
receives
Support Type
Attributes
1. Name
2. Description
Supplies
Analysis
Deliverable
Attributes
Data
1. Name
2. Content
3. Review feedback
relationship rules
Exercise
• You are business analysts working in re-Evolution Coffee
Houses
• Document some high level non functional requirements
• Document some process non-functional requirements
• Document some data non-functional requirements
• Time: 20 minutes
• Deliverable: flipchart
• The business are available to answer any questions
• If you need to make any assumptions, document them
Questions?