Programme and product requirements - why don’t we get them right?
Paul Meredith
Building a start-up fintech in the SRT space | Programme Director | Operations Director | SaaS | Blockchain | Building smarter digital workflows for capital risk management
Why do so many people think that engineers are the best people to “fill in the blanks” on high level or insufficiently detailed requirements? Who tests them on this at interview? I’ve never heard of it happening.
The business units are the customers. The tech team is their supplier. Customers need to decide what they want. In detail. The programme team will facilitate workshops to help with this, but business units need to be prepared to take part and make decisions.
I’m a fan of Agile. But that means we’ll add features or change priorities as we go along. It doesn’t mean that the business units should expect their supplier to decide all the details.
If we’re building a house we employ an architect to design it to meet our needs. We don’t just recruit a team of bricklayers and tell them to build a house. Nobody says “As long as you build a house I’ll be happy.” We specify requirements such as the number of bedrooms, bathrooms, reception rooms and so on.
Better requirements enable better business outcomes. And that’s why we’re running this programme.
Remember too the People and Process elements of the programme. We need to deliver them as well as the tech change. So don’t minimise the time, cost or resources needed when creating the business case.
Building a start-up fintech in the SRT space | Programme Director | Operations Director | SaaS | Blockchain | Building smarter digital workflows for capital risk management
1 个月Andy Siddiqi Thanks for reposting.
The Social Media Marketer | Personal & Professional Brand Assistance | LinkedIn Company Page Management Strategy | Content Specialist | Organic Marketing | Copywriting | Brand Strategy
1 个月Engineers are key, but we need to be mindful of the bigger picture. It’s not just about solving problems but understanding the requirements too Paul Meredith! Who agrees?
Chief Financial Officer (ACA, MA Oxon, MBA, CFA, SMF3) - Immediately Available - helping CEOs build their firms to the next level (? - saved last firm ￡200k per month)
1 个月If anyone's building me a house, I want a waterfall methodology - i.e. I want to know how many bedrooms, bathrooms, etc. from the outset. Too many tech teams seem to re-intetpret Agile as "Today we feel like building a bathroom. In two weeks time we'll ask what room everyone wants on the other side of the bathroom door!"
CFO | Insightful clarity in complexity. Tech/ SaaS/ AI/ Fintech. Strategic & operational financial leadership, ensuring sustainable growth & value. Builds relationships. Perm, interim
1 个月Between the client on a house build there is often a Project Manager between client, architect and builder to ensure the main purpose ie a completed house, to a budget and on time is built and change requests are managed both in cost, time and benefits
Experienced Programme Manager | Specialising in Global Business Transformations | People-First Leadership
1 个月Paul, it's the difference between passivity and proactivity: customers need to be part of the process of identifying and describing the solution needed. Thanks for the article.