Project Background
The client, a state agency responsible for
developing building energy standards, was in the early stages of defining a software
solution for developing the standards and testing them against an energy
simulation engine. They needed to
understand end users requirements from a variety of stakeholders in the
building energy community. To address the impact the
proposed software would have on compliance software vendors and end users, the
client wanted to use a process that would provide a public forum for stakeholders
to give their input on the project requirements.
L’Monte
was selected to create and facilitate a series of requirements engineering workshops
with compliance software stakeholders, and through this collaborative process,
develop end user requirements for the proposed software. Another task was to provide software consulting
to the compliance software team on software development best practices including
requirements engineering, configuration management and version control, unit
test development, web security and agile software management practices.
The Process
The
proposed software included upgrading to a more powerful energy simulation
engine that could process new building technologies and HVAC systems unavailable
with the current simulation engine used for compliance. Eventually, all approved compliance software
packages would be required to use this energy simulation engine, thus forcing
major changes on current compliance software vendors and end users alike. To address
the potential resistance we invited all major compliance software vendors as
well as other stakeholders to participate in the workshops and receive a
stipend to cover their time and travel. At
the start we formed a small cross functional planning team of client staff and
members of the software development group to provide guidance and leadership
during the workshops. Prior to the first
workshop, we met and decided to setup an online survey
with follow-up phone interviews to gather workshop participants initial
responses to the project.
The
first workshop was a project chartering workshop to define high level scope,
establish a dialogue with stakeholders and clear up misconceptions expressed in
the interviews. Breakout groups led by a
planning team member, focused on brainstorming the project’s critical success
factors and critical risks and issues, which allowed participants to share what
would be needed for them to feel that the project was successful, and allowed
them to air their concerns as well.
Throughout
the workshop series we followed a process of taking requirements models from
the previous workshop and developing exercises and deliverables for the next
workshop. Then the planning team did a
walk-through of the workshop to evaluate the appropriateness and effectiveness
of the exercises and workshop deliverables.
This also prepared them to lead the breakout groups. After each workshop we took the workshop
results and developed the next draft of requirements models, and this was
followed by a review and edit session with the planning team.
Project Outcome
The public requirements workshop process satisfied
both of the client’s goals. At the end of the process the client had functional
requirements that were developed and vetted by a cross section of all major
stakeholder groups. The participatory nature
of the workshop process addressed the potential resistance from compliance
software vendors and end users by giving them an opportunity to express their
ideas, suggestions and concerns for the proposed software.