Requirements Gathering for Catalog Items - templates, methods, and tips

[sbailey1]

We're going to be launching efforts soon to start building out Service Catalog Items and need to figure out the best, scalable, and efficient way to gather requirements from clients, validate, and refine so we can implement. Does anyone have tips, tricks, templates, etc. to share about what you've found to be effective?

Thanks!

[jfarrer]

We have a significant number of complex processes in our Service Catalog and the biggest challenge we face is people thinking they know what they want because they have a soft process. But any time I have sat down with them it took significant time to really define what they wanted. I have tried going through the process and building it together with them as well as the flip side of requiring them to work it out mostly before hand. I'd say at a bare minimum they should have the policies nailed down as to how the process should work (e.g. who can fill it out, is there ongoing data that needs to be stored, can that data be edited, if so by who and under what circumstances, what are the options for drop-downs, etc.) I always expect to do several iterations of the form and workflow.

Most people I work with want to jump straight into how the form will look, but you might want to try having them walk through the process and just write the needed information down on a paper that gets passed around. If everyone involved can do what they need to do with the paper and you have the order nailed down on who gets the paper when (including concurrency of tasks) then it should be a lot easier to get a good first version out and only need to make minor tweaks to it afterward.

I'd be curious to hear what works for others as well. I know we still have a ways to go on improving how we get processes mapped and then into the system.

[SteveS]

I think that a great way to start is to get the workflow figured out before creating the form & layout of the form. We had our people create workflows in Visio that really helped out. Once the workflows are finalized, we covered what should be on the form by looking at the workflows and then laying out the form on our own and then finally meeting with the people responsible for each item 2-3 times till everything was finalized

[sbailey1]

That's a good suggestion. I'd love to hook our clients up with something simple like survey monkey or something similar so they can define what needs to be asked and all the branching logic.