Gathering Non Functional requirements and who to involve (Part 2)

This is part 2 of a previous article with the purpose of providing guidelines for gathering non-functional requirements (NFR’s).  Part 1 explained What are Non Functional requirements, why they are so important and common mishaps.

See brainstorming diagram below.  This shows the different categories of non-functional requirements that need to be gathered and types of questions to ask.

To gather these, business and IT stakeholders will need to be involved.

If the project is development to existing systems then some of the NFR’s may already be documented in SLA’s and other documentation.  It may be necessary to get business and IT stakeholders in a meeting together to determine whether existing NFR’s are appropriate and to agree joint measurements that are achievable.  For example could an IT department support a system being up 100% of the time if the business thought it was a requirement. A compromise may need to be agreed to allow time for maintenance etc.

Thoughts? Questions? Please share in the comments.

If you have found this article useful then you might like my book – The Business Analysis Handbook – Techniques and Questions for better Business Outcomes.  The book is available from www.koganpage.com and all major print and e-book retailers.