User Needs
Project Information
Project: |
PROJECT-NAME |
Attached worksheets: |
|
Related Documents: |
|
Process impact: The statement of
user needs captures and explains the actual desires of stakeholders
in roughly their own words. What they
desire is never exactly
what the product
provides. Documenting user needs here,
independently from the
SRS, helps to keep the
SRS precise and makes the tasks of verification and validation more
effective. This document is
not an informal draft of the
SRS, it is different document with a complementary purpose.
Agreed Goals
TODO: Has there been a clear statement of the overall goal of this
project that the stakeholders agree to? If so, paste it here or add
a hyperlink. If not, you should summarize your understanding of the
project goals into a brief statement and try to get the stakeholders
to agree to it. The text below gives some alternative examples,
select one and revise it, or write your own.
We were given a request for
proposals that is agreed to by all stakeholders.
After several interviews and brainstorming
sessions, we have a revised project
description that has been agreed to by all stakeholders.
There are still a few different (but overlapping)
visions of what this project needs to achieve. When a single joint
vision is agreed to, it will be hyper-linked from here.
There are TWO divergent visions of what this
project needs to achieve. We are gathering user needs as a way to
evaluate the alternative visions and select one as our agreed
goal.
The stakeholders agree that the goal of this
project is to build a widely reusable e-commerce engine with a set
of features similar to the features found on the big shopping
sites.
Environment
TODO: Briefly describe the environment where the product will be
used. Describe the environment as it is or will
be, not what you would wish it to become.
- What is the system's business environment?
- Businesses need e-commerce websites to sell
their products to consumers. The system provides product
information to consumers and automates order-taking. The e-commerce
website must integrate with back-end business functions for
inventory, order fulfillment, account management, and
partners.
- Active individual investors make decisions about
stocks traded in public markets. Much of the stock data is
available through the stock markets, brokerage firms, or from a
handful of business news services. Actual stock trades are executed
via the back-end systems of our brokerage partners.
- Each real estate agent works with a set of
potential buyers and sellers. Real estate agents do not share
customer data with other agents, because they do not want to share
commissions. Information on specific available homes changes daily,
and this tool must help them keep up.
- BUSINESS-USER works with LEGACY-SYSTEM and/or
OTHER-BUSINESS-ENTITY to accomplish BUSINESS-GOAL. They must
overcome BUSINESS-CHALLENGE-1 and BUSINESS-CHALLENGE-2. They
emphasize BUSINESS-PROCESS-1 over BUSINESS-PROCESS-2.
- What is the system's physical environment?
- This system consists of a cluster of web,
application, and database servers co-located in a data center with
24x7 monitoring, UPS, air-conditioning, etc. Users of this system
are usually at their home or office computers.
- This product is installed on a single customer
server machine that may be located in a data center or office.
Users of this system are typically at their offices.
- This product is installed on a large set of
point-of-sale terminals at retail stores. Users are typically
standing at those terminals.
- This application runs on hand-held devices that
will often be used while the user is walking from one section of the
warehouse to another. Lighting is good in that environment, but
there are many noises and distractions.
- What is the system's technology environment (hardware and
software)?
- 60% of consumers have machines with P-III or
equivalent processors, while 30% have P-4 machines, and 10% have
less powerful machines. While many users have 17-inch monitors,
15-inch monitors or laptops with 1024x768 resolution are also
common.
- 65% of potential users are using Windows 98 or
Me. 30% are using NT, 2000, or XP. The remaining 5% use Mac OS X,
Mac OS 9, or Linux.
- The e-commerce engine must interoperate with an
existing VENDOR database, VENDOR CRM system, and VENDOR supply chain
management system. These systems provide APIs, custom server
protocols, and web services.
- The web application work on standard J2EE
application servers. The web pages themselves must take into
account the web robots used by search engines and comparison
shopping sites. Our web application must implement the hooks needed
for effective server monitoring.
Stakeholders / Actors
TODO: List and describe the stakeholders for this product. These
can be named individuals or roles that people play. Rank the key
needs of each stakeholder. Consider the expected technical
expertise of the stakeholders and how often they are likely to use
the system, as well as key strengths, weaknesses, preferences, or
other characteristics. Use a greater-than sign to indicate
more specialized types of actors.
TIP: There are many different types of end-users that use the system
differently, and not all stakeholders are end-users (e.g.,
administrators). Gather information by talking to actual users or
user surrogates (people who work with users), such as domain
experts, technical trainers, technical support staff, technical
writers, supervisors of users, and your own sales and marketing
department. Also, review manuals and marketing materials for
competing products.
- All
- All stakeholders share the following key needs:
- Security against abuses and fraud
- Convenient access to the site any time over the Internet
- Efficient interaction with the application to accomplish their goals
- Safe operation to prevent accidental operations
- Consumer
- Consumers want to have a pleasant and efficient shopping
experience. That demands access to detailed product information
that informs the purchase decision, and a check-out process that
they feel confident using. Some consumers visit often, purchase
often, and learn to use advanced features. Others are first-time
users. Frequent buyers are often power users and have high
expectations for the functionality and quality of the site.
Key needs:
- Easily browse or search for information about products
- Track newly available products in categories of interest
- Understand product specs, ratings, and reviews
- Easily select products and check out
- Consumer > Business consumer
- Business users of the shopping website tend to be more
goal-oriented than average consumers: they basically know what they
want, and they want to conclude the transaction quickly. Business
users also tend to spend more and make recurring orders. Professional
products themselves tend to be more powerful and reliable than
average consumer goods, but they often must be used in combination
with other products.
Key needs:
- Browse product information about all products in a product
line or category to make selections
- Understand relationships and dependencies between professional
products
- Quickly place reorders or recurring orders
- Place bulk orders at a pre-negotiated discount
- Bill orders to authorized corporate accounts
- Review and manage corporate accounts
- Department manager
- Department managers are responsible for optimizing the sales in
one or more categories on the website. They select products to
feature, put on sale, or drop from the product catalog.
Key needs:
- View reports on sales figures by item and date
- Update the product catalog entries for products
- Work with partners to clear excess inventory
- STAKEHOLDER-1
- STAKEHOLDER-1 are responsible for BUSINESS-PROCESS. They must
make decisions about BUSINESS-OBJECT. They are familiar with TOOL
or TECHNOLOGY. They tend to work in SITUATION on SCHEDULE.
Key needs:
- OPERATE on BUSINESS-OBJECT
- Understand BUSINESS-OBJECT as part of BUSINESS-PROCESS
- Work with OTHER-STAKEHOLDER to help with BUSINESS-GOAL
- STAKEHOLDER-2
- STAKEHOLDER-2 are responsible for BUSINESS-PROCESS. They must
make decisions about BUSINESS-OBJECT. They are familiar with TOOL
or TECHNOLOGY. They tend to work in SITUATION on SCHEDULE.
Key needs:
- OPERATE on BUSINESS-OBJECT
- Understand BUSINESS-OBJECT as part of BUSINESS-PROCESS
- Work with OTHER-STAKEHOLDER to help with BUSINESS-GOAL
- STAKEHOLDER-3
- STAKEHOLDER-3 are responsible for BUSINESS-PROCESS. They must
make decisions about BUSINESS-OBJECT. They are familiar with TOOL
or TECHNOLOGY. They tend to work in SITUATION on SCHEDULE.
Key needs:
- OPERATE on BUSINESS-OBJECT
- Understand BUSINESS-OBJECT as part of BUSINESS-PROCESS
- Work with OTHER-STAKEHOLDER to help with BUSINESS-GOAL
Notes from Interviews and Brainstorming
TODO: Keep a log of your requirements gathering. Paste in notes
from any face-to-face or telephone conversations with stakeholders
or from brainstorming sessions with members of the development team.
If the communication took place via email, link to it in the archive
or paste it here.
- DATE, INTERVIEWEE
- interview with INTERVIEWEE
- DATE, INTERVIEWEE
- NOTES FROM INTERVIEW...(pasted here)
- DATE, INTERVIEWEE
- NOTES FROM INTERVIEW...(pasted here)
- DATE, PARTICIPANTS
- NOTES FROM BRAINSTORMING SESSION...(pasted here)
- DATE, PARTICIPANTS
- email from INTERVIEWEE
User Stories
TODO: Write brief user stories to demonstrate how various actors would
interact with the system (directly and indirectly) to accomplish a
real-world goal. User stories are not use cases: user
stories are brief (3-6 sentences) paragraphs that describe one
specific scenario in concrete terms. In this description of user
needs, do not make assumptions about details of the system, instead
focus on the users. Note the source of each user story.
- gift-shopping
- Janet is shopping for a birthday gift for her sister. At first,
she does not have a specific product in mind. She browses the
categories for electronics and books. She selects a book on travel,
but then remembers that her sister needs luggage. She browses 36
bags before selecting one, discards the book, and checking out.
(Source: INTERVIEWEE)
- reorder-plus-recommendations
- Carl is a business customer who regularly orders laser printer
toner from the e-commerce site. He logs in, and clicks one link to
reorder the toner. He then notices a related product: recycled
toner cartridges. He reads the product information and learns that
the recycled cartridges are compatible with his printer, have good
ratings from other customers, and cost 20% less. He checks out with
both products. (Source: PERSON-NAME)
- STORY-NAME-1
- PERSON-NAME is a TYPE-OF-USER. PERSON-NAME does STEP-1.
PERSON-NAME does STEP-2. PERSON-NAME UNDERSTAND-INFORMATION and
MAKES-DECISION. PERSON-NAME does STEP-3. He/she
ACCOMPLISHES-GOAL.
- STORY-NAME-2
- PARAGRAPH
- STORY-NAME-3
- PARAGRAPH
Performance and Capacity Needs
TODO: Briefly list the stakeholders' estimated values for various
parameters of the system capacity. If you have a good idea about
averages or rates of increase, note that as well.
By the end of the first year of service, we expect to reach the
following capacity usage levels:
- 50,000 user records in the customer account database (rate:
50-500 new registrations each day)
- 100 users browsing the web site at any moment
- 1000 products offered
- 400 KB max disk space for each product description (average: 15 KB)
- 25 advertising partners posting ads on the site
- 500 actual advertisements in the database