Understanding Corporate Culture

Requirements analysis should take into account various aspects of corporate culture and politics. Lack of attention to corporate culture can result in a solution that is not well received or is difficult to implement.

Stakeholders

Identify individuals and organizations that have a vested interest in the success of the proposed solution. All stakeholders should actively participate in defining the business goals and requirements. If a stakeholder does not participate or is uninformed of planned changes, the plans could have significant shortcomings. Such a stakeholder could even block the implementation of the deployment.

Standards and Policies

Make sure you understand the standards and policies of the organization requesting the solution. These standards and policies might affect technical aspects of the design, product selection, and methodology of deployment.

One example is the confidentiality of personnel data that might be owned and controlled by the human resources organization or unit managers. Another example would be company procedures for change management. Change management policies could dramatically affect acceptance of a solution and influence the implementation methodology and time table.

Regulatory Requirements

Regulatory requirements vary greatly, depending on the nature of the business. Research and understand any regulatory requirements that might affect the deployment. Many companies and government agencies require compliance with accessibility standards. When deploying global solutions, consider foreign laws and regulations. For example, many European countries have strict controls on storing personal information.

Security

Some goals that you identify might have implicit security issues that should be emphasized. Call out specific security goals essential to the solution. For example:

• Authorized access to proprietary information

• Role-based access to confidential information

• Secure communication between remote locations

• Invocation of remote applications on local systems

• Secure transactions with third-party businesses and organizations

• Enforcement of security policies

Site Distribution

The geographic distribution of sites and the bandwidth between the sites can affect design decisions. Additionally, some sites might require local management.

Such geographic considerations can raise the project’s training costs, complexity, and so forth. Clearly state requirements resulting from geographic distribution of sites. Highlight which sites are critical to the design’s success.