Workflow Detail: Analyze Problem

Purpose

The purpose of this workflow detail is to:

• Produce a Vision document for the project
• Agree on features and goals of the system

This workflow detail may be revisited several times during inception and early elaboration. As requests from stakeholders are more clearly understood, both business process solutions and technical solutions will evolve.

The primary activity in analyze problem is to develop the Vision document, which identifies the high-level user or customer view of the system to be built. In the Vision, initial requirements are expressed as key features the system must possess in order to solve the most critical problems. The features should be assigned attributes such as rationale, relative value or priority, source of request and so on, so that dependencies can begin to be managed. As the Vision develops, the system analyst identifies users and systems - the actors of the system.

How to Staff

The project members involved in analyzing the problem should be efficient facilitators and have experience in techniques for finding the problem behind the problem. Of course, familiarity with the targeted technology is desirable, but it is not essential. Active involvement form various stakeholders to the project is required.

Work Guidelines

The following are sample techniques that can be applied to find the problem behind the problem:

• Fishbone diagrams
• Pareto diagrams