Reverse Engineering Testable Requirements
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The document discusses how to conduct a current capabilities assessment of a system. It explains that these assessments are important because they provide a comprehensive understanding of a system's functionality when documentation is lacking or outdated. The document outlines the steps to take, which include defining the project scope and goals, exploring the existing system, gathering information from subject matter experts, analyzing what was learned, validating findings, and establishing a maintenance process to keep the assessment up-to-date. The overall goal is to understand how the system currently functions in order to inform new projects and testing.
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Reverse Engineering Testable Requirements
- 1. Reverse Engineering Testable Requirements: Current Capabilities Assessments SQuAD Conference: March 12, 2009 Laura Brandau
- 2. What is a Current Capabilities Assessment? 06/08/09 Clear Spring Business Analysis “ Just enough” of each to meet your business goals.
- 3. What problem are we trying to solve? No comprehensive understanding of the system’s functionality Causes issues because: New projects overlook requirements implications Inability to fully regression test 06/08/09 Clear Spring Business Analysis
- 4. Why does this happen? People leave Organizations change focus We can build IT systems without documentation (gasp!) 06/08/09 Clear Spring Business Analysis “ Chaos in the world brings uneasiness, but it also allows the opportunity for creativity and growth.” -Tom Barrett
- 5. Why QA WHY NOT? You have 4 choices: Wait for someone else to do it, Hire someone else to do it, Tell someone else to do it, (this isn’t available to most of us) Do it . 06/08/09 Clear Spring Business Analysis
- 6. Current Capabilities Assessment in Context 06/08/09 Clear Spring Business Analysis Defined project requirements Test case matrices Scalable methodologies
- 7. Developing a Current Capabilities Assessment 06/08/09 Clear Spring Business Analysis
- 8. Initiate: Identify Business Sponsor Who Your manager or other manager/executive-level sponsor. What do they do? Guide the project Keep you informed of organizational goals Gain support across the organization Help you define scope Help you identify subject matter experts 06/08/09 Clear Spring Business Analysis
- 9. Initiate: Define Scope: Business Goals and Systems Business Goals What value does this project provide to your organization? For example, Decrease coding errors released to production Decrease requirements discovered late in the project Systems and Functionality Select systems or components within systems Use a system context diagram to create a visual picture 06/08/09 Clear Spring Business Analysis
- 10. Initiate: Define Scope: Identifying Deliverables Varying levels of detail are possible. Select from the following to meet your business goals Features List Use Case List Actor/Use Case Diagram Use Cases Test Case List Test Case Scenarios Site Map Mix and match, but all detailed deliverables should roll-up to a “list” 06/08/09 Clear Spring Business Analysis
- 11. Prepare: Explore the System Learn everything you can before engaging your SMEs in detailed discussions Consider a high-level demo to kick-start your exploration As you explore, build a list of pages, functions, etc Keep a list of questions to ask Time Box Force yourself to explore for a few hours Limit to 3-4 hours Stop exploring any given page/function when you’re stuck 06/08/09 Clear Spring Business Analysis
- 12. Prepare: Create a Plan Use your preliminary list as a planning tool Identify what you know about each item List the next step Can you document a use case or test case? Do it. Do you not understand this at all? Ask someone to show you. Do you have the basic idea but need to fill in a few details? List what you know and your questions . Review your list with your sponsor, validate what you have learned. Identify stakeholders for each item on your list. They will demo functionality, answer questions, and/or review your documentation. 06/08/09 Clear Spring Business Analysis
- 13. Gather Information Start with business SMEs first, fill in the technical details later. Establish trust—explain what you are doing and why you need their help. Be prepared—have a defined agenda and set of questions whenever possible. Let them talk. Ask them to show you how they use the system and explain their business process. Meet them in their desk if possible. Ask why. Why. Why. (Well, don’t be too annoying.) 06/08/09 Clear Spring Business Analysis
- 14. Gather Information: Rooting Out Requirements People often speak about effects—what the system does for them. Ask why, how, what questions to get at the cause…. … often you’ll find the hidden gems of system functionality or lost business rules. 06/08/09 Clear Spring Business Analysis
- 15. Rooting Out Requirements Happy Path only: Speak in Exceptions: Be wary if nothing diverges from the main path; you’re not getting the whole story Drive out issues: Does every record move to the next step? Are some records handled specially? What kinds of issues happen here? What are some of the things you look for in this process? It can be difficult to understand the happy path if your SME focuses on what goes wrong. Refocus the conversation: If that doesn’t go wrong, what happens? Does every record go through that process? How often does that happen? Tell me about a “perfect” record. 06/08/09 Clear Spring Business Analysis
- 16. Rooting out Requirements Watch for unexplained specificities This happens every Tuesday I get an email from Barb in accounting I download this into Excel and then email it. Take a position of curiosity Take a 10 minute break to review your notes. You’ll often come up with more questions. 06/08/09 Clear Spring Business Analysis
- 17. Synthesize and Validate Goal: Synthesize what you’ve learned and identify gaps. Useful analysis tips Type up meeting notes with “what you heard” Coalesce notes into “what it means” – slot everything against your list. Start drafting documents Diagram work-flows that are confusing. Create spreadsheets to visualize complex relationships. Step through a process with one record from beginning to end. Be SELF-AWARE Stop if you are stuck, frame up what you know and what you don’t. Re-synthesize. 06/08/09 Clear Spring Business Analysis
- 18. Synthesize and Validate Goal: Final output that can be consumed by others. Create clean, clear, extensible documentation Validate documents with SMEs by conducting a document review Is it testable? Use it. If test cases, can you run them against the system? If use cases, can you create meaningful test cases? 06/08/09 Clear Spring Business Analysis
- 19. Maintain Without a maintenance process, the assessment will be out-of-date as soon as the next production release. Integrate maintenance of documentation into your project process…usually a post-project deliverable. Stick to it. 06/08/09 Clear Spring Business Analysis
- 20. Re-Cap It’s easy to find yourself in this situation. Don’t fret. Link a Current Capabilities Assessment to business objectives. Create a balance between preparation and gathering information. Focus on analyzing everything you hear and “rooting out” requirements. Engage the business, then the development team. Create clean, reusable documentation and validate it. Establish a maintenance process. 06/08/09 Clear Spring Business Analysis
- 21. Q& A www.bridging-the-gap.com – read the entire “Current Capabilities Assessment” series [email_address] 06/08/09 Clear Spring Business Analysis