The REPAC Framework

“It’s not who is right, but what is right, that is of importance.”—Thomas Henry Huxley.

REPAC is autological, meaning it describes properties it possesses. The Requirement Elicitation, Planning, Analysis, and Collaboration Framework, prefixed by an input source, such as a vendor, regulatory or legal issue, an interruption in services, or an opportunity such as a new partnership or innovation, provides a means to organize ourselves. Sources filter through points of Focus, perspective, and depth to identify quantifiable needs. Suffixed by an assembly of elements that transform into REPAC-aged capsules of information, the framework redefines requirements management at a quantum level.

As solution providers and agents of change, we assemble requirements designed to satisfy stakeholders' needs. The International Institute of Business Analysis (IIBA) and the Project Management Institute (PMI) has done an exceptional job of helping us understand the need for requirements, but what are they?

The REPAC Framework encapsulates Requirements and all of the elements that went into building them into sets. REPAC considers requirements as both behaviours and enablers of behaviour simultaneously—there is no difference. Think of a requirement as an object made up of elements, like an atom, built exclusively from a Stakeholder's point of view.

Requirements separated within a BRD (Business Requirements Document), perhaps by many pages, cause a potential for design, development, and testing errors. REPAC groups each need as a set with the required elements to realize each need.

Another example of a set is your wardrobe. Consider all the different ways you can group all of your clothes. The assortments of unique outfits might number in the hundreds. When we permute, combine and apply sets differently for special situations, they become instrumental building blocks for understanding complex problems. This is the power of REPAC; it brings requirements or imperatives closer to the code using discrete sets of information.

The REPAC framework provides thousands of ways to combine and permute different elements pertinent to organizational issues. Using Set Theory, the REPAC Framework asks a Business Analyst to assemble a set of information which we use to plan business analysis activities and deliverables, elicit needs from Stakeholders, analyze those needs, and determine what is required at a discrete level to realize those needs.

We do not ask our Stakeholders what their requirements are. We construct a Requirement, element by element, based on the information learned from a REPAC set. Using the REPAC Set Builder within the framework seen in the diagram above, we identify a topic source, a perspective to be examined, and a depth to explore. Some of the model's elements are outlined below.

Source

REPAC uses the word source to refer to the initial someone or something that presents the initial problem to resolve or the opportunity to exploit. It is the fuel for the REPAC Set Builder. Identifying a source infers raw data such as documents and diagrams, Stakeholders or the results of a causal analysis. This inference implies that the reference is a generative force capable of producing value-based Stakeholder needs.

Context

Without context, there is no meaning. The circumstances, conditions, factors, and states from the setting for the events, ideas, and terms we experience from our reality. We use context to assess fully, understand, and bring meaning to everything we experience.

Focus

Many conversations must take place on even the most minor plan. Projects of all shapes and sizes rely on mindful and immersive communication. REPAC Focus is a specifier to concentrate attention and a point of emphasis for a REPAC Set.

Perspective

REPAC Perspective is a state or condition permitting a clear understanding of Focus. It is the interrelation in which the subject or its parts, cognitively examined, allow us to realize points of view on the selected Focus. A reference for considerations, expatiations, opinions, beliefs, and experiences. Perspective is our ability to see things as they are—a matter's importance and meaning as it relates to Stakeholders' and organization's needs.

Depth

REPAC uses several strata to organize information into Sets. Depth, more accurately identified as the depth of analysis, is the level of thoroughness or completeness we wish to explore our Focus and Perspective. This analysis method allows us to examine Stakeholder's needs through distinctive layers of abstraction.

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I would like you to stay tuned to understand how to apply the elements of the REPAC framework.

Perry J. McLeod