One of the most valuable documents for any Requirements Engineer is the corporation's Organization Chart. If the company is involved in a partnership, it is also helpful to have their organization chart as well.

Although I have yet to hear a good reason, some organizations do not like to distribute their organization charts. What better reason could there be than the need to know who to talk to? Use it as a "check list" that an executive decision was made that a particular business unit should or should not be involved as a requirement supplier or validator.

To illustrate the value of the organization chart, think about the different business communities that may be involved in a particular project. Then start asking, "who is the best contact for that business community?" What you are looking for is the knowledge expert who can supply many requirement details, but first you must designate who is the decision-maker to determine which specific business communities need to be involved in the first place. When you determine who that person is, be prepared with examples of why they should be involved, such as, requirements that would be miss communicated if someone from their area was not involved.

The Requirements Meta Pattern™ is available in the book, A Requirements Pattern: Succeeding in the Internet Economy (AWL, 11/01). Contained in Appendix B is a list of questions for each cell in the Requirements Meta Pattern™. During the first perspective, Planner, you will see questions that determine both the organizational structure and who should be included as potential requirement suppliers.

Organization Charts help you to determine the following:

• Which business communities should be involved in the project? Document why or why not (so often a group is overlooked or brought in too late causing major delays).
• How far down the allocation chain is the community development effort involved? What are they to produce?
• Who is the decision-maker for that business community?
• Who is the knowledge expert for that business community?

For small companies with a very small organization chart, think about outside consultation (lawyers, accountants) that may be called in as a knowledge expert for that topic. Remember that even if you do not have a person on staff who performs a needed role, this does not negate the need to get requirements for that business topic!

SBDi is available to assist your organization in learning more about or implementing a customized version of the Requirements Meta Pattern™.

Our services include:

• Education of the management and development team on the value of the development, implementation and use of anti-patterns.
• Teaching how to identify, develop, validate, and implement anti-patterns.
• Developing project specific anti-patterns.
• Developing a divisional or corporate process for the development and implementation of anti-patterns.
• Review of existing anti-patterns for quality.

Pat Ferdinandi