Module 4: Requirements Management and Elicitation Techniques

Glossary

Welcome! The alphabetized glossary contains many of the terms you'll find within this module. This comprehensive glossary also includes additional industry-recognized terms not used in the videos. These terms are important for you to recognize when working in the industry, participating in user groups, and participating in other certificate programs.

Estimated reading time: 5 minutes

Term	Definition
100-point method	A brainstorming voting technique where stakeholders are given 100 points to distribute among requirements based on their importance, helping teams clearly visualize priorities.
Affinity diagram	A visual tool used to organize information gathered during a brainstorming session. It involves sorting ideas into groups or categories based on their relationships.
Agile	A flexible and iterative approach to project management and software development that focuses on collaboration, customer feedback, and rapid delivery of small, incremental improvements.
Azure DevOps	A suite of tools and services that support teams in managing development environments. It offers comprehensive project management, including requirements tracking, and allows teams to link user stories to development tasks and test cases, ensuring traceability throughout the project lifecycle.
Backward traceability	A technique to ensure that all implemented components can be linked back to the original requirements, verifying that nothing has been missed or added without proper approval.
Bidirectional traceability	A technique that combines forward and backward traceability, enabling teams to track the relationships between requirements and their implementations in both directions.
Business process management (BPM)	A systematic approach to improving, optimizing, and automating organizational processes to enhance efficiency and achieve business goals.
Business Process Model and Notation(BPMN)	A standardized graphical representation used to model business processes, allowing businesses to visualize workflows, understand process logic, and communicate processes across teams clearly.
Change management	A structured approach to transitioning individuals, teams, and organizations from a current state to a desired future state, ensuring that changes are implemented smoothly and successfully while minimizing resistance and disruption.
Customer Relationship Management (CRM)	A system or strategy used by businesses to manage interactions with customers and potential clients, aimed at improving relationships, increasing customer retention, and driving sales growth by organizing, automating, and synchronizing customer service, marketing, and sales processes.
Data modeling	A technique that involves creating a data entity visual representation, their relationships, and rules. It helps in understanding data requirements and designing effective data management solutions.
Evolutionary prototype	A gradually refined version of a product created based on stakeholder feedback until it ultimately becomes the final product.
Forward traceability	A technique to track a requirement's implementation through the design, development, and testing phases, ensuring the team completes all steps needed to fulfill it.
Functional requirements	Requirements, actions, or behaviors a system or its components must perform, outlining the features that meet business and stakeholders.
Gantt chart	A horizontal bar chart used to visually represent a project schedule.
Helix RM	A requirements management software that helps businesses capture, track, review, prioritize, and decompose requirements. It enables managers to link requirements with development artifacts, ensuring traceability and smooth implementation of changes.
High-fidelity prototype	A refined and interactive version of a product, closely resembling the final product, and can be created with tools that allow users to click through functionalities and simulate interactions.
Jira	A project management and issue-tracking tool developed by Atlassian, primarily used by software development teams to manage tasks, track bugs, and oversee workflows in Agile environments.
Kano model	A model for prioritizing product features based on their potential to satisfy customers. It classifies features into three categories: basic needs, performance needs, and excitement needs.
Lean	A methodology focused on maximizing value and minimizing waste in processes by continuously improving workflows, commonly used in manufacturing, project management, and software development.
Low-fidelity prototype	A simple representation of a product, typically made up of paper sketches, wireframes, or basic mockups. They are quick to create and modify, making them ideal for brainstorming and initial discussions.
Lucidchart	A cloud-based diagramming and visual collaboration tool that allows users to create flowcharts, process maps, entity-relationship (ER) diagrams, and other visual representations to simplify complex ideas and processes.
MoSCoW prioritization	A method used in business analysis and project management to categorize requirements into four priority groups: Must Have, Should Have, Could Have, and Won't Have, helping teams focus on the most critical tasks for a successful project.
Non-functional requirements	Requirements that define how a system should operate, focusing on quality attributes like performance, security, usability, and reliability, rather than specifying its actions
Process modeling	A BPM technique that visually represents business processes to help stakeholders understand their current and future states.
Prototype	An initial version of a product or system to showcase its functionality and design. It is created to facilitate communication among stakeholders and gather feedback to improve the requirements.
Regulatory requirements	Legal or industry standards that a project must adhere to, particularly in sectors like finance, healthcare, and telecommunications.
ReqView	A cloud-based and on-premise requirements management software that helps businesses of all sizes manage software and system requirements. It allows teams to create and manage requirements while offering traceability features.
Requirements analysis and design definition	A set of tasks BAs perform to ensure that a project's requirements are well understood, documented, and meet business needs. It is a knowledge area defined in BABOK.
Requirements elicitation	A structured approach used by business analysts to collect, assess, and record the needs and expectations of stakeholders for a project.
Requirements lifecycle management	Involves tasks that a business analyst performs to manage and maintain requirements. It is a knowledge area defined in BABOK.
Scope creep	The uncontrolled expansion of a project's scope due to changes or additional requirements being introduced without proper management, leading to delays, increased costs, and potential project failure.
Shadowing	A technique to observe users' workflows over time, enabling analysts to gather detailed data on task performance and role interactions.
SMART goals	A framework for setting clear and achievable objectives by ensuring they are Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, and Time-bound.
SWOT analysis	A strategic planning tool used to evaluate an organization's internal strengths and weaknesses, as well as external opportunities and threats, to informed decision-making and strategy development.
Throwaway prototype	An initial version of a product is created to understand requirements and is not meant for long-term use. It is discarded once the necessary information is gathered.
Traceability	Ability to track and monitor the origin and progression of requirements throughout the project lifecycle. It acts as a roadmap, following a requirement from inception to delivery, ensuring fulfillment, and identifying changes and their impact on other requirements.
Transition requirements	Requirements that outline the conditions needed to shift from the current state to the desired state, often covering training, data migration, and deployment plans.
User story	An informal, short description of a feature conveyed from the perspective of the user.
Weighted scoring	A decision-making tool that prioritizes tasks or projects by assigning a numeric score, which is multiplied by its importance. Requirements are scored based on factors like business value, risk reduction, and cost of delay, then weighted to determine an overall ranking.