Forums for the Business Analyst

 
  Modern Analyst Forums  Business and Sy...  Requirements  reverse engineering for requirements
Previous Previous
 
Next Next
New Post 8/14/2008 7:38 AM
User is offline Adrian M.
764 posts
3rd Level Poster




Re: reverse engineering for requirements 

I agree with Tony!  Requirements are critical in most instances especially if the desire is to rebuild the system on a new platform.  What we need to know is the actual requirements which satisfy the business need.  The problem with features is that if that's all we document it is nearly impossible to know if changing an attribute of that feature is a bad thing.

Example: Let's say that the existing system has a red-colored round button with "Get Price Quote" as it's caption.  If I create a new system based on the legacy one which one of the characteristics is still important?  The fact that the button is round is that  requirement or just a design decision made by the developer?  There is a big difference between describing the attributes of the system and the actual requirement.

- Adrian


Adrian Marchis
Business Analyst Community Blog - Post your thoughts!
 
New Post 8/18/2008 7:59 PM
User is offline sonavi
37 posts
9th Level Poster


Re: reverse engineering for requirements 

Hi all,

The project which I am working for requires me to do a reverse engineering of the existing system so that additional functionality can be added to the current system. Basically the existing system performs the risk analysis at the company level and now the management wants that the risk analysis should be done at the individual customer level. So to understand the process of risk analysis we had to do reverse engineering of the current system so that we could apply the same logic at the individual customer level also. So in my opinion performing reverse engineering is not a waste of time infact by doing so we need not work from the scratch atleast we have some baseline and then we can think on how to improve the current process.

Thanks

sonavi

 

 
New Post 8/19/2008 5:18 AM
User is offline Craig Brown
560 posts
www.betterprojects.net
4th Level Poster




Re: reverse engineering for requirements 

 adrian wrote

The problem with features is that if that's all we document it is nearly impossible to know if changing an attribute of that feature is a bad thing.

- Adrian

 

Okay - I think you nailed it there Adrian.

Excellent point.

Thanks all for your comments.

 
New Post 8/19/2008 6:19 AM
User is offline steve
1 posts
www.parkson.us
No Ranking


Re: reverse engineering for requirements 

I think that the first priority should be getting the functionality of the existing system right in the new, improved system,  One of the things to be wary of is that we don't disenfranchise anyone.  Through years of use of a system, even with a legacy system on a mainframe, users develop shortcuts and efficient ways of processing that the developers never imagined.  Some are added to the basic system through change requests after the system has been in use. We have to be careful in the re-engineering that we don't leave out these tricks and techniques the users employ to make the operation of the system easier.  We never want to take away anything the system does for the user, no matter how mundane it might seem, at least not without getting consent from the user (and it might be a single user).  A user may not complain if they don't get some extra functionality, but they will scream if you take something away.

 
Previous Previous
 
Next Next
  Modern Analyst Forums  Business and Sy...  Requirements  reverse engineering for requirements

Community Blog - Latest Posts

Fabricio Laguna talks Business Analysis and AI
I recently connected with Fabricio Laguna, aka The Brazilian BA. Fabricio is a passionate and pioneering business analyst from Brazil. During our conversation, we had a thought-provoking discussion on how artificial intelligence stands to shape the field of business analysis in the years ahead. While AI promises to transform many aspects of busines...
Business Architecture, Ontology and More with Terry Roach
It's been a privilege meeting Terry Roach, a visionary in the field of enterprise architecture and business architecture. Terry's insights into the evolution of business models, the importance of ontology in architecture, and the potential of AI to shape our future were not only thought-provoking but also a reflection of his extensive exper...
Today I had the pleasure of chatting to Jignesh Jamnadas, Chief Operations Officer at Mosaic, about his Blueprints for Success. As a Senior Finance and Operations Executive, Jigs (as he is known to many) has a holistic understanding of all facets of business and a flair for managing both people and processes. Having worked with Jigs, I was struc...

 



Upcoming Live Webinars




 

Copyright 2006-2024 by Modern Analyst Media LLC