Row One: Scope

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Requirements Analysis: From Business Views to Architecture
By David C. Hay
Table of Contents
Chapter 8.  Column Six: Motivation

Row One: Scope

Business Rules Applied begins its discussion of scope with a description of the "business context [that] includes the organization's mission, strategies, objectives, policies, and business performance metrics. These represent the reasons for the system and the measurements by which it will be deemed a success, even as it changes over time" [von Halle, 2002, p. 8]. In the book, Ms. von Halle goes on to say that as scope is being defined, it is important to establish that business rules will in fact be captured as a distinct part of the systems development effort.

The Business Rules Group, in its Motivation Model, asserts that the scope of an organization's motivation is its vision and mission. Vision is a statement about the future state of the enterprise, without regard to how it is to be achieved. That is, an automobile company's vision might be that it will be the foremost marketer of high-quality , prestige automobiles.

A mission , on the other hand, is the means to achieve a vision. It defines the ongoing operational activity of an enterprise. While expression of the mission is part of the "why" of an organization, it clearly drives the scope of the first five columns of the Architecture Framework. The car company's missions, then, might be to increase sales by 10% per year and to always be ranked in the top three by the J. D. Powers Company.

As we have done in this book, Ms. von Halle includes an organization's mission in the scope effort, in terms of its data, processes, locations, people and organizations, and events. To this she adds that scope should include definition of business performance metrics, business and technical constraints, and business and technical risks.

Thus, the vision and mission of an enterprise should be established before a system development project is launched. It is reasonable to believe that when a requirements analysis effort begins, the vision and its associated missions will be available to the requirements team. This provides priorities for a project, and with that an important part of its context. If these items are not initially available to the requirements team (which is often the case), it is to the team's advantage to seek them out.


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Requirements Analysis. From Business Views to Architecture
Requirements Analysis: From Business Views to Architecture
ISBN: 0132762005
EAN: 2147483647
Year: 2001
Pages: 129
Authors: David C. Hay

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