Most of the clients who have received the Project Proposal from reputed Digital Commerce companies would question themselves, ‘ Why we are paying for the Requirement Analysis ‘ as I have the clear requirement in place and ‘ Why it is taking much time for analysing the requirement of a reconstruction/revamping of the site which is already up and running ‘? The Digital Commerce companies who are responsible for the reconstruction of an existing website is also responsible for its conflicts, which is a terrible end result of a site.
As a part of process,
Requirement analysis and Impact analysis for a newer requirement is a Testing of the existing platform even before the design and development starts.
Case Study:
Let see the case of Raymond Wicks (Assumed Name) who has been running a boutique business worldwide. He has been redesigning and redoing his online store since 2009 and as result his business flourished without lagging.
Yet, Raymond, had no idea of what has been changed and added in each stage in his site since his business starts online and the sad matter is even the contractor had no idea of what has happened in the long run till now.
When it created trouble!
As every digital commerce experts expect a major update in the open source platforms, the platform update lagged in Raymond’s store too and the newer update has many features already developed as custom features in the existing store. Raymond was not able to get the past logs from the contractor and this resulted in a major setback for his newer development.
Analysis required:
As change is the only thing which remains unchanged, Raymond required a change of eCommerce expert to work in his site and he approached us. We did the requirement analysis and Impact analysis as a part of the Project Plan and Process.
With the assistance of Subject Matter Expert and technical crew, we comparatively identified and narrowed down A) what are the default features from the newer version of the platform which is an existing feature in the store, B) what are all the 3rd party modules to be integrated to meet the expectation and C) what are the custom features to be developed and much more.
The next is Impact Analysis which is a part of Requirement Analysis, referred to be the Clear Consulting at the Basic level.
Why it is Mandatory:
It’s mandatory, because; it saves client’s coinage and vendor’s reputation.
How:
When a newer requirement is arrived, taking it forward without an impact analysis will create trouble at the end which also results in additional effort for vendors and will also cost burden to the clients. Prior to start the work, doing an impact analysis and identifying the conflicts either in the design or in the functionality will educate the client about it and thus will pave way for a stronger relationship as the vendor is careful and trying to secure the business of his client.
With the Requirement Analysis and Impact Analysis process in place, we were able to identify the exact need of the client and his store and at the end the site is up and running successfully without data loss with the newer version of the eCommerce platform.
Verdict: We should create processes which benefits the Client Business, and also once we identify a proven track process, stick to it!