" Hints
for an EDM Project Analysis "
REQUIREMENTS GATHERING QUESTIONNAIRE
Project Objectives
What are the main drivers behind the project? What is the current or future problem it tries to solve?
Scope
Define any agreed scope limits around the requirements. e.g. Only addressing a particular business group, or a particular set of documents.
Constraints
- Are there existing systems that this project should be compatible with
- Are there specific time constraints? e.g. We cannot start until May or We have to deliver something by 98Q1.
- Are there any specific resource constraints? e.g. "There will be no business resource available between May and June because of workload"
- Are there Compliance/Regulatory constraints affecting this project?
- Are there any relevant Infrastructure constraints? (e.g. it has to support Microsoft Exchange, etc.)
- Are there any budgetary constraints?
- Are there any organizational/political constraints that need to be taken into account?
- Are there any defined targets that the system has to meet?
- Are there specific client/supplier relationships that need to be taken into account?
Assumptions
Are there any assumptions for this project? e.g. "We will not require a new server since there is enough disk space on the existing one" or "Every desktop will have Intranet access"
Associated Documents
List any existing documents relating to this project (e.g. compliance, previous requirements summaries, project brief, etc.) that we should be aware of.
Solution Requirements
Wherever possible, please clarify if the requirements stated below, are mandatory or optional.
Information Overview
Describe the types of information the system will need to handle:
- What Data, What Document types, specific indexing requirements, attributes, formats, etc.
- How is that information held and used at the moment?
- How much of it is on paper and how much is in electronic form?
- Are there any documented processes that control the creation/use of this information?
- How is document ownership defined?
- Are there any related SOPs?
- What is the security access model? I.e. Who has permissions to do what with which documents?
Functional Requirements
Creation & maintenance
1. Which documents are created externally by third parties?
Where from?
What format?
2. Which documents are created internally?
Are more than one authors involved in a document?
What is the authoring process?
3. Are there existing documents that would need to be included in the system?
What percentage is on paper vs. Electronic?
Is it necessary to scan existing paper documents in the system or can they just be referenced?
4. Are there any existing indexing systems, that would need to be included/interfaced with the system?
5. Is it necessary to integrate/relate to paper archives?
Review process
- Is the document review process part of this system?
- Is there a defined process for reviewing these documents?
- How many people are involved in the review process?
- How many steps are there in a typical review process?
- How consistent is the review process across different document types?
- Are Electronic
Signatures going to be used? If so, what type (biometric or user password?)
Document Storage
- How often are documents accessed?
- How quickly would they need to be retrieved?
- How long are documents retained for?
- What determines when documents may be deleted?
- What document retention policies are in place?
- What are the legal retention/archiving requirements?
- Are there existing legacy archives that need to be considered?
- If documents
are stored for long periods, how is Format Refresh going to be handled?
Retrieval
1. How are documents located? What are the main retrieval criteria?
- Hierarchical organization
- Attributes / keywords
- Thesaurus
- Free-Text index
2. How are the documents used once retrieved?
- For reference
- to update them
- as templates for a new document
- to print
- to distribute to third parties
3. How many people would need access to these documents?
4. How do we ensure that the most up to date copy is always used when people are printing documents?
5. Do external contractors require access to these documents?
Distribution
- What is the target population for this system?
- How are the documents currently distributed?
- How are the users geographically dispersed?
- Do the documents need to be explicitly distributed to the users (push) or can they access them whenever there is a need? (pull)
- Do you need confirmation
(receipt) that the users have seen the documents?
Integration
- Is this a requirement for a stand-alone system, or does it need to integrate with other existing (or upcoming) systems?
- If so, what systems
and what interfaces are available?
Other Functional Requirements
Any other requirement/information not covered above
Performance Requirements
1. User Volumes:
- Number of users now
- How will that number be affected in the future?
- How are these users geographically distributed?
- What is the expected "concurrent" use of the system?
2. Information Volumes
- How many documents?
- How much does this number grow per month/year, etc.
- How often are they updated?
- How many document types?
- What is the typical document size? (either in A4 pages or in Kbytes)
- What is an extreme
document size?
3. What is the required access time for a document of average size?
- Time to locate the document?
- Time to open the document?
- How long is a document typically used for, each time it is accessed?
Implementation
Requirements
(Not required
to be filled until the other requirement sections are defined)
1. Where will the system be hosted?
2. How will the system be accessed?
3. How many users have the correct kit?
4. Installation/Roll-out plan:
- Big bang
- pilot group(s) followed by big-bang
- incremental roll-out
5. Training
- How much is needed?
- How many users?
- What level of IT literacy?
- Refresher courses?
6. Data Take-on
- All existing data
- Data from a date onwards
- On demand
- None
Operational Requirements
1. At what times does the system need to be available:
- for local access?
- For remote access?
- Are fallback mechanisms required? e.g. CD-ROM?
2. Roles & Responsibilities
- Who will be the
system owner?
- From IT?
- From the business? - Who is the primary
business contact?
3. Backup Requirements
4. Support requirements
5. What SOPs need to be written for the use of the system?
Quality Requirements
1. Security
- To what extent is secure access an issue?
- Who would need secure access?
- How are documents transmitted securely?
2. What are the Validation Requirements for this system?
3. Will the system be GMP compliant?
4. Will the system
need to support any other regulations?
