When I’m visiting my old city I use to let old friends and former colleagues know so we meet for a pint and catch-up. It’s the highlight of my visit home.
I was in town last year and I ping the group on WhatsApp. Who's around? Who's free?
So we went out for beers. And beers. And fun. And more ...
Quite many showed up. I’m delighted they still go out of their way to leave an evening with the family just to meet me.
So …
We exchange what happened lately, what we’re up to; what’s new. You know: standard stuff.
I hear stories about kids and wives. And challenges at the job. Dramas that make life interesting.
See ...
These are all people I worked with closest at one time or another during my career. All great people and good professionals. And we continued being friends like good wine.
We cheer for each other and the drinks are flowing so ...
Then I mention in passing that I started a part time consulting business in engineering and projects. Hands-on work or just working with you to finally instil some structure into your project or delivery processes. A simple and clear way of working so you know what you are doing and where you’re going …
I help you drive your projects to success - whatever the area you need assistance with!
Some blank stares. Some funny looks.
Badly played! - I think. They don’t care. They’re going to start the banter at my expense.
But they do.
One of them jumps up. I thought he got a stroke. He's eyes grow wide:
We need help! We know you!
[they know me, we worked together for years - he knows what I can do].
We’re in deep sh… shambles with our product’s requirements and can’t prove we comply with the Customer and Regulatory requirements and standards. We can't find anyone able to help for months.
I think he’s joking. But he’s strangely coherent and serious. It’s hard for me to pronounce what he just said even now with a clear head.
But it gets worse …
He wasn’t joking!
There was some business for me in there. But the job wasn't fun!
You know as standard: companies like to outsource the work no one wants to do internally.
And it was tedious and needed to be done thoroughly. A perfect job for me. Combining analysis with standards expertise and product knowledge.
I won’t bore you with the details.
But I chewed through 10k requirements. 6 month later they have a complete set of defensible requirements traceability with compliance evidence and 100 non-comformities identified.
And I got a happy Customer.
Well… except for they now need to negotiate with their Client to either accept the gaps or put in some more work for rectifying. But that’s on them now, my job is done!
Anyway ...
You know the feeling when your requirements are all over the place and you can't tell if you are missing something and can't prove to your Customer you will deliver what they want?
There are proven and well-established techniques to address that!
You can do it yourself or get someone to work with your team to make sure all you're requirements are properly captured, validated and verified.
That they are consistent and traced to both your Customer needs and your development artefacts.
We can do all this while coaching and mentoring your team through the process, so they know next time.
You will get a top-notch Requirements deck that is Validated, Consistent and Complete and the peace of mind that you are building the right thing and can prove it!
These things are necessary, logical and easy to understand when explained properly.
To empower your team to move fast and do the right things the right way. Because now they can do it too!
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Alex Toth, CSEP MINCOSE
Systems Magician
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