Requirements Gathering 101
Chris Burke, Software Engineer 2
@cs_burke
Forward Looking Statements
This presentation contains forward-looking statements about, among other things, trend analyses and future events, future financial performance, anticipated growth, industry prospects, environmental, social and governance goals, and the anticipated benefits of acquired companies. The achievement or success of the matters covered by such forward-looking statements involves risks, uncertainties and assumptions. If any such risks or uncertainties materialize or if any of the assumptions prove incorrect, Salesforce’s results could differ materially from the results expressed or implied by these forward-looking statements. The risks and uncertainties referred to above include those factors discussed in Salesforce’s reports filed from time to time with the Securities and Exchange Commission, including, but not limited to: the impact of, and actions we may take in response to, the COVID-19 pandemic, related public health measures and resulting economic downturn and market volatility; our ability to maintain security levels and service performance meeting the expectations of our customers, and the resources and costs required to avoid unanticipated downtime and prevent, detect and remediate performance degradation and security breaches; the expenses associated with our data centers and third-party infrastructure providers; our ability to secure additional data center capacity; our reliance on third-party hardware, software and platform providers; the effect of evolving domestic and foreign government regulations, including those related to the provision of services on the Internet, those related to accessing the Internet, and those addressing data privacy, cross-border data transfers and import and export controls; current and potential litigation involving us or our industry, including litigation involving acquired entities such as Tableau Software, Inc. and Slack Technologies, Inc., and the resolution or settlement thereof; regulatory developments and regulatory investigations involving us or affecting our industry; our ability to successfully introduce new services and product features, including any efforts to expand our services; the success of our strategy of acquiring or making investments in complementary businesses, joint ventures, services, technologies and intellectual property rights; our ability to complete, on a timely basis or at all, announced transactions; our ability to realize the benefits from acquisitions, strategic partnerships, joint ventures and investments, including our July 2021 acquisition of Slack Technologies, Inc., and successfully integrate acquired businesses and technologies; our ability to compete in the markets in which we participate; the success of our business strategy and our plan to build our business, including our strategy to be a leading provider of enterprise cloud computing applications and platforms; our ability to execute our business plans; our ability to continue to grow unearned revenue and remaining performance obligation; the pace of change and innovation in enterprise cloud computing services; the seasonal nature of our sales cycles; our ability to limit customer attrition and costs related to those efforts; the success of our international expansion strategy; the demands on our personnel and infrastructure resulting from significant growth in our customer base and operations, including as a result of acquisitions; our ability to preserve our workplace culture, including as a result of our decisions regarding our current and future office environments or work-from-home policies; our dependency on the development and maintenance of the infrastructure of the Internet; our real estate and office facilities strategy and related costs and uncertainties; fluctuations in, and our ability to predict, our operating results and cash flows; the variability in our results arising from the accounting for term license revenue products; the performance and fair value of our investments in complementary businesses through our strategic investment portfolio; the impact of future gains or losses from our strategic investment portfolio, including gains or losses from overall market conditions that may affect the publicly traded companies within our strategic investment portfolio; our ability to protect our intellectual property rights; our ability to develop our brands; the impact of foreign currency exchange rate and interest rate fluctuations on our results; the valuation of our deferred tax assets and the release of related valuation allowances; the potential availability of additional tax assets in the future; the impact of new accounting pronouncements and tax laws; uncertainties affecting our ability to estimate our tax rate; uncertainties regarding our tax obligations in connection with potential jurisdictional transfers of intellectual property, including the tax rate, the timing of the transfer and the value of such transferred intellectual property; uncertainties regarding the effect of general economic and market conditions; the impact of geopolitical events; uncertainties regarding the impact of expensing stock options and other equity awards; the sufficiency of our capital resources; our ability to comply with our debt covenants and lease obligations; and the impact of climate change, natural disasters and actual or threatened public health emergencies, including the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic.
Chris Burke
Software Engineer 2
Enterprise Fleet Management
St. Louis, Missouri
Why Do We Need Requirements Gathering?
Expectations vs Reality
WHAT YOU ORDERED….
WHAT YOU GOT….
Requirements Gathering 101
What is it all about?
Cheat Sheet Template
Requirements Gathering 101
What is it all about?
Cheat Sheet Template
Gathering Requirements
What is it?
Requirement Gathering is the process of gathering all the information and details you need in order to plan out your project.
Requirement Gathering includes the following items:
Stakeholders
Who are the right people?
Stakeholders are the right team of people that can tell us what needs to be done for the project.
Every Project is different! Bring who can contribute to the project, but not everyone.
Todays Example: Sales Project to benefit the Sales Team
Stakeholders
My Favorite Sales Team
VP of Sales
Sales Manager
Sales Team Member
What Do They Really Want?
Story Time!
What Do They Really Want?
“Be curious, not judgemental”
- Ted Lasso
5 WHY’s
If you are having trouble with getting the full story…
…start thinking like a little kid who wants to know everything ask the Question “Why?”
The 5 Why’s in Action
Example - WHY? Part 1
Project Team - Why the new field?
Stakeholders - We need the sales team to add this information so we can track it.
Project Team - Why do we need to track this information?
Stakeholders - We are not hitting our targets goals and this will help to make sure we are making goals by the deadlines.
The 5 Why’s in Action
Example - WHY? Part 2
Project Team - Why are we not hitting our targets goals?
Stakeholders - We are not being consistent on follow ups with the customers in the current sales process.
Project Team - Why are we not being consistent on follow ups?
Stakeholders- There are too many manual steps in our current sales process
The 5 Why’s in Action
Example - WHY? Part 3
Project Team - Why so many manual steps?
Stakeholders - We have not re-evaluated our process in several years.
Project Team - Can we consider reducing or automate steps in order to free up time for better customer follow ups?
Root Issue: Re-Evaluate our current Sales Process
Needs, Wants, and Expectations
NEEDS = Essential Requirements
They’re the items and features that must be included.
WANTS = Desired Requirements
These are the “Nice to Have” items that would be great to add.
EXPECTATIONS = Stakeholders Vision
This is how the stakeholders picture and see the solution working at the end of the project.
Needs, Wants, Expectations
Examples with a sandwich
Needs
Wants
Expectations
What is Scope?
Scope tells us all of the work that must be done to deliver the results of the project.
Setting the Scope
Is it IN or OUT?
Setting the Scope
Is it IN or OUT?
Only sold at a
Beach Side Restaurant
Must use
Lemon Grass from the top of a Mountain
Chef should be TV Famous
Whole Grain Bread
Locally Sourced Meat
Quality Cheese
Cheese from the Goats of Thor
Bread must be from France
Must be served with a Brownie Sundae
Organic veggies
Only served on sterling silver platters
Lightly Toasted
Requirements Gathering 101
What is it all about?
Cheat Sheet Template
Requirements Gathering 101
What is it all about?
Cheat Sheet Template
Requirements Gathering
Cheat Sheet
How does it work?
Requirements Gathering Cheat Sheet
We divided up each section based on what we create in Salesforce:
Cheat Sheet Examples
New Field Example
1) What is the exact name of the field? (40 Character Limit)
2) What is the Help Text for the field? (510 Character Limit)
3) Security - Who needs access to the field?
a. Who needs View access?
b. Who needs Edit access?
Requirements Gathering 101
Cheat Sheet Template
QR Code will go to Quip, where you can save your own copy to make the changes you need to make it work for you!
Where can you learn more?
�Trailhead Trail #1
Get Started as a
Salesforce Business Analyst
Trailhead Trail #2
Learn Project Management Essentials from Walden University
BOTH LINKS ARE INCLUDED IN THE CHEAT SHEET TEMPLATE
Trailhead!