HAW Hamburg, CARPE 2011, Prof. Dr. Rüdiger Weißbach, Revision : 01.11.2011- 1 - Bridging the Communication Gap in IT Projects - Enabling Non-IT Professionals

HAW Hamburg, CARPE 2011, Prof. Dr. Rüdiger Weißbach, Revision : 01.11.2011 - 1 -

Bridging the Communication Gap in IT Projects -

Enabling Non-IT Professionals for the Requirements Engineering Process

1st CARPE Networking Conference, Utrecht Nov 2011- Creative Engineering -

Prof. Dr. Rüdiger Weiß[email protected]


Structure of the Presentation

Relevance Leading Questions Communication in the Requirements

Engineering & Management Process Ideas for Qualifying Non-IT Professionals for

the Requirements Engineering & Management Process … how Instruction Books Assume … and how Reality is Different

(the FaPrAa Project) Example: Training at the Hamburg University

of Applied Sciences (HAW) Further Research

Relevance

Leading Questions

Communication in the RE&M Process

Ideas for Qualifying Non-IT Professionals for the RE&M Process

(Supposed) Benefits, Constraints and Problems

Example: Training at the HAW

Further Research


Relevance

Einführung

Allgemeine betriebs- wirtschaftliche Aspekte

Informationssysteme und Marketing

Entwicklung von Informations- systemen

IT und allgemeines Management

Betrieb von Infor- mationssystemen

Factors influencing the…

… success of IS projects

… failure of IS projects

• clearly defined requirements• user involvement

• badly defined requirements• lack of user input

Stendish Group, CHAOS Reports, http://www.oose.de/projektmanagement/pm-studie.html et al.


Relevance

quality of requirements and user involvement

are important for the project’s success

Einführung







Leading Questions

How are users involved in the Requirements Engineering and Management (RE&M) Process?

Requirements Elicitation

Requirements Analysis

Requirements Documentation

Requirements Validation

Requirements Management

Einführung







Leading Questions

How are users involved in the Requirements Engineering and Management (RE&M) Process?

Requirements Elicitation

Requirements Analysis

Requirements Documentation

Requirements Validation

Requirements Management

Einführung






… analyzing instruction books, the users tend to have a more passive function,


Users

Communication in the RE&M Process… how instruction books assume

Einführung






R‘Engineer Developer

writes down req.

RE asks for requirements

Users answer

asks for acknowledgement

Users acknowledge

RE forwards req.


UsersEinführung







writes down req.


Users answer


Users acknowledge

RE forwards req.

Communication in the RE&M Process… how instruction books assume2-step “heavyweight” communication flow


UsersEinführung







writes down req.


Users answer


Users acknowledge

RE forwards req.

Communication in the RE&M Process… how instruction books assume2-step “heavyweight” communication flow

Problems:

• Different terminologies and “communication cultures“ between users and software engineers

• Experts are not able to clarify tacit knowledge• Experienced users are not able to keep an analytical

distance to their requests• Users are not trained in modeling languages• Software engineers don't have (enough) domain

knowledge • No experienced requirements engineer to moderate

the process


UsersEinführung







writes down req.


Users answer


Users acknowledge

RE forwards req.

Communication in the RE&M Process… how instruction books assumeSpecial Case “Agile Development”

Problems:

• Different terminologies and “communication cultures“ between user representatives and software engineers

• Users are not trained in modeling languages• Experts are not able to clarify and tacit knowledge• Experienced users are not able to keep an analytical

distance to their requests• Software engineers don't have (enough) domain

knowledge • No experienced requirements engineer to moderate

the process

Special Case „Agile Development“:agile processes institutionalize a

close communication cycle between users and developers(e.g. the on site customer)


Einführung






Communication in the RE&M Process… and how reality is differentThe FaPrAa Project

FaPrAa: Fachabteilungen im Prozess der Anforderungsanalyse (= Business Departments and the Requirements Engineering Process in IT Projects)

research project at the Hamburg UAS (2009ff)

25 semi-structured interviews in SME in northwestern Germany (interviewees work in IT and business departments [BD]),focus on business applications (not on technical software)


Einführung






Communication in the RE&M Process… and how reality is differentThe FaPrAa Project – some intermediate results

line management has to manage its own work and own processes=> users often have documented own ideas

users in traditional business often have experience in process organisation

only few companies are using a formalised process model,

some companies are working “quasi agile”, none of the interviewed companies has

established an explicit role of a requirements engineer


Einführung







different cultures:1. long term employed IT workers with domain

and application knowledge are “knowing the right things to do”

2. long term co-operation between IT workers and BD managers, improving and upgrading existing systems

3. BD managers are promoting new applications, IT staff is only responsible for running infrastructure

4. top management decides about the introduction of new systems with external process support (consultnts, proj.mangrs)


Einführung







in the participating companies, the importance of RE&M is acknowledged

typically the RE&M process is conducted without strict formal methods, caused … … by a lack of methodical knowledge … by a project management, which relies

on the ad-hoc use of small time slots

Interviewed IT and BD managers assume a more formalised RE&M process in future

Interviewed IT and BD managers want a better qualified RE&M process


R‘EngineerEinführung







Users

Domain Knowledge

MethodicalKnowledge


R‘EngineerEinführung







Users

Domain Knowledge

MethodicalKnowledge


Einführung






Ideas for Qualifying Non-IT Professionals for the RE&M Process Domain Knowledge

Training in the domain: (short) trainings apprenticeships on site customer job rotation job enlargement


Einführung






Ideas for Qualifying Non-IT Professionals for the RE&M Process Methodical Knowledge (1)

Training in describing requirements: textual representation

(e.g.: “SOPHIST framework” [RUPP]) Use Case Diagrams (UML) Use Case Templates [COCKBURN]

Entity Relationship Modelling / Class Diagrams

Activity Diagrams (UML) State Transition Diagrams (UML)


Einführung






Ideas for Qualifying Non-IT Professionals for the RE&M Process Methodical Knowledge (2)

awareness of explicit and implicit knowledge acquirement by teaching, …

knowledge about the requirements management process identification of interdependencies

between requirements and their impact on the project management

acquirement by participation in the change request process


Einführung






(Supposed) Benefits, Constraints and Problems of this Approach

Benefits: better quality of requirements documentation better collaboration in project and line work

Constraints: FaPrAa study concentrates on business

applications (“orgware”)


Einführung






(Supposed) Benefits, Constraints and Problems of this Approach

Problems: outsourcing changes the learning situation

between users and IT staff but: training is important for outsourcing


joint project :

project management

+ marketing concept+ req‘ definition+ system selection(+ implementation)

Example: Training at the Hamburg University of Applied Sciences (HAW)BA program: Marketing / Business Studies

t

program-ming, testing

database/ web

systems

ERP/CRM systems, IT managmnt

RE&M, system

selection

marketing basic courses marketing concept

2 professors:• marketing • business informatics


Einführung






Further Research

completion of the FaPrAa study

graduate destination survey on the usefulness of the RE&M training

development and evaluation of RE training programs for BD staff

qualifications for managing sourcing processes

integration of end users in the RE&M process(open innovation, crowdsourcing …)

Documents

HAW Hamburg, CARPE 2011, Prof. Dr. Rüdiger Weißbach, Revision : 01.11.2011- 1 - Bridging the Communication Gap in IT Projects - Enabling Non-IT Professionals