Chapter 13. Risk Reduction Through Prototyping

"Sharon, today I’d like to talk with you about the requirements that the buyers in the Purchasing Department have for the new Chemical Tracking System," began Lori, the requirements analyst. "Can you tell me what you want the system to do?"

"Wow, I’m not sure how to do this," replied Sharon with a puzzled expression. "I don’t know how to describe what I need, but I’ll know it when I see it."

IKIWISI—"I’ll know it when I see it"—is a phrase that chills the blood of requirements analysts. It conjures an image of the development team having to make their best guess at the right software to build, only to have users tell them, "Nope, that’s not right; try again." To be sure, envisioning a future software ...

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