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Model of Requirements

We need to divide the Requirements into 

• Needs (goals) 
• Business Rules
• Business Requirements
• Stakeholders Requirements 
• Functional requirements
• Non-functional requirements

Your interlocutor probably will use it all in a very chaotic way. Your task is to give it some structure. According to my experience, interlocutors mix some requirements during the introduction of their idea about the new product. They do it unconsciously. Your responsibility is to distinguish the types of requirements and build the first model. This will be the Model of requirements, it helps you to answer what the application should do.

You could describe these requirements as the structure representation. Let’s take a look at how we represent some applications in Product Core Lab

Part of the Requirements Model with Traceability presented on Product Core Lab

Check the benefits of specifying the product using Traceability << link https://docs.google.com/document/d/1wyuf2PQHexOaf0aW6KptoVpQtnZkRy893-2wTe1LFVY/edit# >>

If you want to look at the full Model and other Requirement Models, join our Community and sign up for the Newsletter, we will send you the full Documentation of the application that appeared in the example in this article.

Business Process Model

The most popular association with this model is BPMN. But it is a notation to represent a model. We call it Business Process Modeling notation. 

In our concept of modeling, let’s focus on the aim of the Process Model. We don’t talk about how modeling processes work but about why we use them.

We use modeling processes to describe an environment where and how the software product will be used. Depending on the purpose, the product is embedded in some processes. 

If the product will help optimize an existing process in some company, just model this environment.  

If the application will be some new product on the market, define and model the processes where the clients could deploy this application.

In the above situation, the next model could specify how an application will be used by the users. This would be another model and would represent an application with more details. 

So, when you have a requirements model and a business model, you have specifications, why and what applications do, and where and when. 

Those two models help you communicate and understand the conceptual model of a product at the most general level

Model	Describes and replies to the question
Conceptual Model (not IT) Requirements model * Needs * Business requirements * Functional requirements	What Why Why and What (close to business) What (close to application)
* Business processes (Whole or part of the organization) * User Processes * Use Cases * Concept Model (IT)	Where How What and How What and How

Other models that help you better understand the product of your client.

• Business Canvas Model (It depends, but informally or in a formal way, it describes the business model of the product)
• Lean Canvas Model (Business model – informally)
• Stakeholder map (Could formally represent how different people have an impact on the product)
• Role Structure (Models what roles use the product – this could be a formal model)
• Use case diagrams – formally shows a model of what roles use the product and how
• User Story map (It depends, but formally or informally, it could describe how the product will be used) 
• Structure after Event Storming (in an informal way, it could describe how the product will be used) 
• Work Breakdown Structure – WBS (In a formal way, it could describe a version of a product and the deployment plan)

Those models will be described in our Product Core Lab Newsletter

Join us, We will describe the process of how to better specify the applications of your clients or Owners and we will clarify the models and the techniques to create them. 

About author

I’m Karol Kordziński from Poland . I’m an analyst with a couple of years of experience. I’m the owner of ITGrowPartner where we help small- and medium-sized companies analyze projects.  But mainly I’m the owner of Product Core Lab. Saas tool to manage a product in the whole Product Lifecycle. With this tool, you can explain your product and processes in a structural method. We introduce you to how to model software products step by step

Materials

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