Issue Awareness
By Russ Finney
The documentation of issues raised throughout the early phases of the development life-cycle is the beginning of a process which will not be over until the new system is firmly in the hands of the business clients. This recording of issues is a fundamental part of system building. It requires a vigilant awareness in order to initially identify the issues, and unwavering discipline to make certain each issue is recorded. Some of these initial business issue sources are listed below:
Formal Session Issues
As mentioned earlier, during the facilitated sessions (and during the informal preparation and follow-up meetings), business issues will be raised, and they should be listed in a formal session feedback document. These issues should serve as a beginning foundation for an overall issue tracking and resolution approach. Generally, the issues raised at this point take the form of business action items or questions which:
- pertain to the envisioned scope of the development effort
- center on what is occurring within a certain business area
- require detailed follow-up meetings in order to understand complex processes
- highlight specific requested business functions and features.
Analyst Generated Modeling Issues
Another source of issues is the feedback of the development analysts based on their insights from the construction of the business data and process models. These issues generally take the form of detailed questions about what the various affected business departments anticipate needing, what information is anticipated being utilized, and where this information will ultimately come from. In addition, questions may exist as to the best way to model certain unique business situations. Before the analysts can propose optimal model solutions for these situations, the relevant questions must first be answered.
"Management by Wandering Around" Issues
This last group of issues are those generated by the project team leader by simply walking around, checking in with the analysts, and discussing the problems they are currently wrestling with. These improptu discussions stimulate free-form thinking on the part of everyone, and invariably unanswered questions, new ideas, and follow-up action items all surface. Don't let these valuable thoughts slip away into the back recesses of everyone's collective memory. Jot these issues down on a list and use it later as a memory trigger for everyone.
Copyright © 1999, Russ Finney, All Rights Reserved