Reading: Analyse and evaluate client and business requirements

Analyse and evaluate client and business requirements

Inside this reading:

Defining client requirements

Interpreting requirements from business or operational needs

Getting it right

Crucial information

Ways of gathering information

Listening and questioning skills

Complying with organisational and business guidelines

Summary

Defining client requirements

As an IT professional you will deal with a diverse range of clients. Most will not have IT training; they have business needs that suit their industry; IT is a tool to support business goals. For this reason you focus on the client’s requirements first, and then you select the technology needed to support the business needs of the client.

Determining requirements depends largely on the role you are given when your services are requested. You may be dealing with a client who has better knowledge and experience than you, but needs you to implement their plan of action. Or you may be dealing with someone totally dependent on your services, skills and knowledge.

A client might want you to:

  • build a network
  • provide support
  • build a web site
  • design a document
  • recommend the purchase of a device.

No matter what is requested, you will need to get a clear idea of exactly what the client actually wants or expects from you. You need to define the scope and constraints (such as time and costs) of the project that will be needed in giving them what they want. It is also reasonable to find out precisely what a client does and their business plans for the next months and years—this helps you properly understand their business needs.

Requests from clients can be as diverse as the workplaces, environments and markets in which they operate. To list just a few examples:

  • An accounting firm may need a network so to share a printer.
  • A legal practice may want to access their office computers while in the client consulting rooms.
  • An automotive franchise may want higher-speed access to the Internet for emails and information updates from the manufacturers.
  • A real estate company may need advice on the type of hardware and software to purchase.
  • A student might need an easy way to keep back ups of their work.

Interpreting requirements from business or operational needs

It may not always be easy to decipher exactly what your client wants, particularly if the client themselves is not very clear about it. You might need to first translate or interpret their general business needs into IT requirements, and then ask more specific questions later. Consider the following case study as an example.

Case study: Modernising a bookshop

Edward has just taken over the management of Edify Bookshop from his elderly parents Lucien and Edith Parboiled. He would like to modernise the shop and has asked his friend Joy, who runs an IT consultancy and whose husband refurbishes shops, to help him to work out exactly what he wants done.

Read the conversation Edward has with Joy about what he needs.

Ed: / I want to earn a living from this shop and be able to pay my staff a decent wage, of course, but for me this bookshop is more than just a business, you understand. It’s my only vice. As you can see, the shop is like a wild treasure trove. You never know what you’ll find. You could spend a whole day here. People do.
Joy: / Absolutely, I love that idea of jumble. I think we need to work out the general direction in which you’d like to take the business. Are there things you’d like changed?
Ed: / I love the jumble and I imagine that so do some customers and book lovers. To them discovering a book by serendipity is what it’s all about. Yet I want to be able to quickly help anyone looking for a particular book, any book. I’d like to invite writers for discussions and debate too, since having events helps sell books. As you know, the university campus across the park has expanded. The faculty of social sciences has relocated there and the whole English department. I’d also like to rearrange the shop, so it’s friendlier, more open. I imagine customers sitting around sipping coffee as they’re leafing through books. You know, right now this shop already has a great collection of literature, with lots of backlist, mostly classics and modern literature. But I’m also interested in contemporary literature and politics and areas of contemporary theory and even music CDs.

Joy would need to ask Edward more questions, so to work out exactly what his requirements are and how they might be translated to IT and refurbishment needs. It’s important, of course, to get as much information as possible. Joy’s opening chat with Edward was really a first fact-finding exercise. When Joy read over the notes she had taken, she felt she was not yet able to work out his needs, since she had more questions for him.

Following joy’s method, you might organise your questions or thoughts under headings to structure your findings to make meaning out of them and to focus on particular aspects. For this example, you might for instance arrive at the headings listed under areas of interest in Table 1 to follow.

Table 1: Case study considerations—bookshop modernisation

Area of interest / Thoughts and questions arising
Catalogue / Does Edward still want to maintain the disorder? He says that some of his customers like the disorder and then in the next breath that he’d like to be able to help customers locate their books quickly and have more open space.
Does he want a computerised product catalogue, so to have both? This way he might be able to store multiple copies of books or backlist elsewhere, leaving more space on the shelves, or requiring less shelf space in total. Or does he simply need more shelf space, organised to create more room.
Accounting needs / Does he want a computerised accounting system as well? What kind of accounting does he need to do? What records does he need to keep?
Training needs / Are he and his staff computer-literate and will they need training?
Ambience / What did he mean by a ‘friendlier’ ambience? Perhaps he wants people sitting on comfortable sofas.
Café / Does Ed actually want a café on the premises? Does he have the space for that and the kitchen and proper fire exits and toilets that he would then need? Does he want an actual space also set aside for hosting forums? Again, does he have the space? How big does he want it to be? (What additional accounting/computing needs would a café create, if he does want this?)
Type and placement of stock / How exactly does he see the relocation of the Social Sciences faculty and English department of the University affecting his shop? Does he just mean that he would like to attract university students and staff to public events at the bookshop?
Or does he mean that he wants to stock more books on the social sciences and literature? Is he interested in political books and music CDs having some sort of prominence of separate place in the shop, or just having more storage or shelf space to include them?

Getting it right

Accurately determining and analysing client requirements

Some client requests and the later requirements are quite straightforward. Others, however, can be complex and will need a lot of thinking through on your part as well as the client’s.

You may have heard of technology purchased by an organisation that ends up being hardly used. Or equipment purchased by isolated communities that breaks down and is then left to rust, because parts are not easy to get, and the experts are all in the city. You may have heard of systems that are set up that fail to meet the organisation’s needs or soon get outdated.

In these cases, the client may not have had a clear idea of exactly what was required and may have anyway been mistaken in their assessment. Or the ‘expert’ or supplier may not have helped the client to analyse and determine what their needs are.

What information do you need from your client?

You need to specify the areas in which you need information from the client. A template, with a list of areas such as those in Table 2 below, can help direct your questions. At her second interview with Edward, in the bookstore case study above, Joy will be able to ask questions that will help her to fill in such a template.

Table 2: Template to further question client requirements

Focus area / Response
Background of the organisation or business:
Objectives of this exercise / project:
Problems (and any underlying issues):
Criteria for successful achievement of objectives:
Issues, factors and information that impinge on the problem:
Resources available to address the problem:
Possible strategies for addressing the problem:
Plan of action to be implemented:
Client feedback process:
Plans for the future:
Budget:
Project scope:
Project specifications:
Project timelines:
Other comments:

If the client’s request involves more than one problem, you may need to fill out one of these templates for each problem. Joy, for instance, would probably do this if Edward did in fact want to add a cafe business added to the current bookstore, since it would present a whole series of different problems requiring solutions.

The list of course can be adapted to suit your needs. In your own situation, or area of study at present, is there a client whose needs you are required to determine? If so:

  • does the list in Table 2 above suit this task?
  • would you need to remove any of the headings in Table 2?
  • would you need to add other headings to Table 2?

Analysing client requirements

Suppose you’ve determined your client’s requirements. You’ve collected information on areas listed in Table 2. You’ll now look at that information and ask yourself questions such as:

  • Does the client know exactly what they want?
  • Is there anything I need to research to help the client make a more informed decision?
  • Would I be able to meet the client’s requirements?

In other words, you analyse what the client has said their requirements are.

You might then decide to carry out research on the subject. You might find that there are other ways of solving the problem that had not been considered. Your research may involve anything from consulting other people in your organisation to reading up on the subject on the Internet and in journals.

You might find a template useful for noting down your analysis, such as the one in Table 3. Again, the table here is a generic list of items for analysis that you could adapt or elaborate. It would give you a systematic way of approaching the analysis so as to ensure nothing is overlooked.

Table 3: Analysis details

Analysis / Details
What the client requires (to resolve the problem):
Other methods for resolving the problem:
Advantages and disadvantages of each method:
Recommendation (if any) and reasons for recommendation:
Implications for initial budget, timelines, etc:
Other comments:

Information you need to provide to your clients

Once you have analysed a client’s requirements, you can then:

  • tell the client if you (or your organisation) can meet their requirements
  • let them know of other options or possibilities of which they may not have been aware
  • provide the client with any information that will help them understand what they’re getting into.

If you work for an organisation or business that deals with clients, think of the types of information that you provide to clients who come to you with requests. Alternatively, reflect on the last time you yourself had a request. Were you provided with information that helped you make an informed decision and made you understand what you were getting into?

Crucial information

It’s important that you get the right information from a client to accurately work out their requirements. And it’s just as important that you provide the client with information that will help them to agree with you on certain decisions, such as the specifications and scope of the job.

You don’t want a client to say at a later date that they were not satisfied with the service you provided (or worse, be taken to court!). You need to try to pre-empt any later misunderstandings. Table 4 lists types of information that will need to be obtained from the outset. You may need to provide some of this information to the client to satisfy your organisation’s policies. For example, your organisation may have a policy for charging additional fees for services beyond those originally requested.

Table 4: Examples of information that should be provided upfront

Item / Explanation
Extra costs / The client must be fully aware of how much they would need to pay and for what service. Are there any extra costs that could be incurred by the client? Are there any extra charges or penalties the client could be asked to pay under particular conditions?
Scope of the job / You and the client should agree on exactly what you are supposed to do. They should know what they have to provide. What are the parameters of the job (or project)? Exactly what lies outside the scope or brief?
Specifications / It’s important to spell out the details that you will need to attend to in order to do the job.
Agreement or contract / Is there a document such as a service level agreement?
Changing of the brief / Sometimes halfway through a job, a client may want to change their original brief. Is there a deadline for changes to the brief? Which specifications can be changed? Are there agreed penalties for changes?
Options and possibilities / Let the client know what their options are. Provide information on the features of each option. The client may make a request for a certain service or product. However, they may not be aware of other options or other possibilities.
Recommendations / Is it your organisation’s policy to give recommendations to the client? Sometimes clients request that you do. Make sure you carry out research.
Process / The client needs to be aware of the processes you’ll take when carrying out their request. Is the client part of this process? Will they be consulted? When will they be consulted?
Roles / It’s important to clarify roles. What is your role? What is their role? What are the roles of each person on the project?
Consultation with the client / Will the client be consulted? At what stages of the job or project will this consultation occur?
Contact person / Can the client contact you or someone in the organisation if they have queries?
Timelines / What are the dates for the completion of the job (or various parts of the job)? Will there be penalties if deadlines are not met?
Job guarantee or insurance / Is there a job guarantee? If the client is not satisfied with the service, is there recourse (a person or a regulatory body they could contact perhaps)? Do you have any insurance against defects in work or non-delivery, by which they might recover any losses in the event of things going wrong.

Once you have agreed on this information, it would wise to put it down in writing. It could simply be in the form of a letter to the client where you say something like: ‘Below are the decisions we made and agreed to at our meeting on....’ Or it may be in the form of a contract or service level agreement.

If the scope of the job is likely to change and there is no formal agreement of what to do if that happens, then be sure to give the client plenty of notice and a clear explanation of that change of scope.

Ways of gathering information

How a client conveys their requirements depends a lot on the size of the business and the size of the project. A small business might approach you directly to provide a specific service. Larger organisations may advertise for interested providers to tender a proposal or solution. (A larger organisation may include an IT section and you may then work within the larger organisational structure.)

Methods of gathering information include:

  • direct questioning and discussion
  • printed ‘option statements’ with request for comments
  • open surveys of the management and personnel
  • active listening strategies and questioning skills
  • literature searches and general research.

It is important to relate any information found back to the client to show your understanding and to keep the client informed of progress.

Listening and questioning skills

Table 5 lists some key principles of active listening to help you elicit information. In being an active listener, you encourage people to talk freely (yet must avoid spending too much time discussing unrelated matters).