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Avoid Creep, Discover the REAL Requirements

Robin F. Goldsmith, JD, President
Go Pro Management, Inc.
22 Cynthia Road. Needham, MA 02494
robin@gopromanagement.com

There's a simple (though not easy) way to avoid much of the requirements/scope creep that many developers assume is normal and unavoidable. "That's not what I expected" and "Users don't know what they want" indeed are repeatedly predictable outcomes of the inadequate way requirements are defined conventionally, but such problems can be avoided. Creep mainly occurs when system/software requirements fail to meet the REAL, business requirements--usually because developers don't recognize business requirements' importance or how to discover them.

In this well-received interactive session, based on his recent Artech House book Discovering REAL Business Requirements for Software Project Success, Robin describes powerful techniques for discovering the REAL requirements and documenting scope in ways that can dramatically reduce creep.

Three Key Elements of REAL Requirements
IT's View of Business and System Requirements
Functional Specs and Use Cases
REAL Business/User Requirements
Why IT Keeps Missing the REAL Requirements
Illusion of Requirements Gathering
Detective Approach to Requirements Discovery
Problem Pyramidâ"¢ Technique
Getting the Problem Right
7 Guidelines for Documenting Requirements
Conventional Scope Statements-That Creep
Scope Statements that Don't Creep
How to Do It Quickly

Presenter:

Robin F. Goldsmith has been President of Go Pro Management, Inc. consultancy since 1982. He works directly with and trains professionals in business engineering, requirements analysis, software acquisition, project management, quality and testing.

Previously he was a developer, systems programmer/DBA/QA, and project leader with the City of Cleveland, leading financial institutions, and a "Big 4" consulting firm.

Author of numerous articles and the recent book Discovering REAL Business Requirements for Software Project Success, and a frequent speaker at leading professional conferences, he was formerly International Vice President of the Association for Systems Management and Executive Editor of the Journal of Systems Management. He was Founding Chairman of the New England Center for Organizational Effectiveness. He belongs to the Boston SPIN and served on the SEPG'95 Planning and Program Committees.

Mr. Goldsmith Chaired BOSCON 2000 and 2001, ASQ Boston Section's Annual Quality Conferences, and is a member of the ASQ Software Division Methods Committee.

He holds the following degrees: Kenyon College, A.B. with Honors in Psychology; Pennsylvania State University, M.S. in Psychology; Suffolk University, J.D.; Boston University, LL.M. in Tax Law. Mr. Goldsmith is a member of the Massachusetts Bar and licensed to practice law in Massachusetts.

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