Requirements Gathering for Catalog Items?

[jesusemelendezm]

I need to design several catalog items, however the clients don't have a clear definition of the workflow and variables. Whats the best way you have found to capture the requirements from the clients?

I am looking for best practice advise on this (templates, methods, and tips).

Thank you!

[jemers · Accepted solution]

Hi Jesus,

I generally start out with a basic questionnaire for the client. I work for a healthcare organization, that is broken up into a variety of departments so no two requests are alike.   At some point, I am going to create a catalog item for such requests as a starting point. In the meantime, I schedule a meeting with my clients, provide examples of my past work and go from there. Because I used to work on a help-desk, I have a better insight (in most cases) of what the end-user needs to see in terms of layout, my suggestion to my clients is to keep it simple as possible. That goes for naming the catalog item and placing it on the ESS portal in an easy to find place.  

I make it a point to know who the audience is that the catalog request is going to be submitted by. The form needs to have a certain "flow" at all times.

I get the client's "wish list" and make no guarantees. Although you aim to please the client, best practice still needs to be followed. I try not to get in over my head with complicated process, sometimes it can't be avoided. It's more beneficial to you, the client and the end-user in the long run. Below is an example of the most common questions I ask a client that wants a catalog item created. I use it as a visual aide to begin visualizing the workflow.

1.           List of questions that the user will need to fill out. — an attachment you mentioned will suffice in the format you wish to use.

2.           Decide among the questions which ones are required before submission (mandatory).

3.           Does there need to be a separate section dedicated to other departments that are involved in the process? What type of information do they need to enter on the form?

4.           Discuss your process with all parties involved to ensure that it is exactly how you and other departments involved want it to be.

·                 Initial routing: Who (individual analyst or assignment group) receives the request first, second, third etc..

·                 Email notifications: Does a specific analyst or members of a department need to be notified about this type of request? If so, when? What will the email notification subject line and body contain?

·                 Will the requestor need to be sent a specific notification at a certain point in the process after it has been submitted? If so, when? What will the email notification subject line and body contain?

5.           Is there an approval required? If so, it is for certain individuals or to a certain group? When does the approval need to be requested?

6.           Will users be able to open requests on behalf of others? Does that option need to be made available on the form?

7.           How is your routing determined? Is it straight forward after submission?

8.           Will you need any type of training documentation to disperse to users or team members before the request is posted into Production?

If you are going to use templates, they work for me in the workflow on the catalog tasks. They come in handy when the same department wants a different request but have some of the same assignment groups involved in the process.

Templates will also work to your benefit if you will be using record producers. I am also a huge fan of the order guide.

Sorry for the lengthy reply, I'm just happy to finally be able to contribute something to the community that may help you.

[jesusemelendezm]

Jennifer! thanks for your sharing your experience. I truly appreciate the time you took for this. This is really helpful. I'll start out creating the following items:

1. Agenda for meeting to gathering requirements
2. A questionnaire with clear and understandable questions   (I'll follow your input). Additionally I will add a comment to attach graphical workflow(recommended).

Thank you.

[sach1]

Thank you for sharing.

[rajeshgk1]

1. Categorize your infrastructure / Application Maintenance & Support / Application Development related items separate and clearly distinguished. The categorization is very important as it should be easily searched by a normal user.

2. The best way is have approval groups for IT Managers / BU approver by levels and Assignment groups.

3. Emails need to be categorized with relevant information in the subject lines

4. Overall the workflow need to be designed with good exit control.