2 | The Quest for Good Requirements
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• Constraints: Lack of funding, resources, cultural barriers
• Ask: What am I not seeing? What have I missed?
3. Develop and Evaluate Options — Generate a wide range of options:
• Choose options that show promise, need more information, can be combined or eliminated,
or will be challenged.
• Weigh advantages/disadvantages of each. Consider cost to the business, potential loss
of morale/teamwork, time to implement the change, whether it meets standards, and how
practical the solution is.
• Predict the consequences of each option. ("If/Then" or "What if?")
• Ask: What is the worst solution?
4. Choose the Best Action — Select the option that best meets the decision objective:
• Consider factual data, your intuition, and your emotional intelligence when deciding
a course of action.
• Accept that the solution may be less than perfect.
• Consider the middle ground. Compromising on competing solutions may yield the best decision.
5. Implement and Monitor the Decision — Develop a plan to implement and monitor progress
on the decision:
• Step-by-step process or actions for solving the problem
• Communications strategy for notifying stakeholders
• Resource identification/allocation
• Timeline for implementation
• Measurements/benchmarks to gauge progress
In business (and in life), decisions can fail because the issue has not been clearly defined and
alternatives have not been carefully considered. Rather than delay the decision or make one based
on faulty information, this model ensures that the right problem gets solved at the right time and
in the right way.
About the Author:
Dr. Martin Schedlbauer, CBAP, OCUP, consultant and instructor for the Corporate Education Group, is an accom-
plished business analysis subject matter expert and has been leading and authoring seminars and workshops in
business analysis, software engineering, and project management for over 20 years. Beyond that, he is involved
in architecting large-scale distributed software systems for many of his clients.
