Working Up

by Dwayne Phillips

This is a tried and true method of gathering requirements and specifying systems. Imagine you had a thousand assistants.

There are various methods of gathering requirements and specifying systems. A basic one is to imagine a thousands assistants awaiting your request. If you had a thousand assistants, what would you have them doing?

“Oh,” is how the reply usually begins, “I would tell them to…” And so one flows the requirements and specification.

A system, usually involving a computer and software, is a simulation of a machine. A machine is a device that does what a thousand assistants would do. Hence, a thousand assistants tell us what the computer and software should do.

This is a simple method. I have used it dozens of times. There is something about it that helps people relax, think, and tell system builders what they want. Don’t try so hard. Try something simple.