Statistics: (3120 Views) (1 Comments) Print Posted: Monday, November 29, 2010 Categories: Functional Specifications, Requirements Management and Communication (BABOK KA), General Business Analysis

Author: Jan Kusiak

Is documentation a blessing or a curse? If you’re working on an agile project does it get in the way? If you’re updating a core system that runs your company’s business, are you cursing the analyst who didn’t adequately document all the business functionality? Is today’s agile project tomorrow’s core system?

How much documentation to produce is one of the most troublesome issues facing analysts today. There are no hard and fast rules on this and successful projects define their own rules to fit the circumstances and organisation.

However one thing every project has in common - there is always some documentation even if it’s only a terms of reference. Not many projects get signed off based on a verbal business case - at least the company accountant hopes not! Here are some guidelines to consider when producing your next set of documentation.

• Follow the money – the project Terms of Reference
  
• Does the client know what they want?
  
• Describing functionality – user stories or requirements specifications?
  
• Talking to the technical folk
  
• Modelling
  
• Maintenance – it comes with the territory
  
• So how much is enough?