Mind Mapping Improves Software Requirements
Quality, Communication and Traceability
Table of Contents
Introduction ... 3
Improve Requirements Quality... 4
Improve Requirements Communication... 5
Improve Requirements Traceability... 7
Abstract
This paper is for Business Analysts and Product Managers who would like to understand more about the use and application of mind mapping software for requirements elicitation, capture and collaboration.
About the Author
Daniele Chenal is Co-Founder, Senior Consultant and COO of QAvantage. Daniele has over 18 years of experience in the high tech and commercial software industry working for leading technology companies including Compaq Computers, Tandem Computers, HP, HandySoft and OneSoft. Prior to QAvantage, she was Vice President of Product Management at HandySoft Global Corporation. Daniele has helped companies develop, launch, sell and maintain software solutions spanning such diverse areas as Business Process
Management, GRC/Compliance, Payment Processing and E-Commerce.
QAvantage provides software products and consulting services that assist companies with software lifecycle management.
Introduction
In our years of consulting to IT departments and commercial software companies, we’ve encountered a variety of tools and techniques for the elicitation and manipulation of requirements. These tools have widely different orientations. Some start with visual use case depictions, others are text based with a behind-the-scenes database, and still others offer direct database entry. If you had to name the most universal tool though, it would probably be Microsoft Word as it is so frequently used to convey requirements in MRD, PRD, SRS and other formats.
As we all know, good requirements are essential to project success. While there are many tools aimed at tracking and managing requirements, there is still room for tools that can help in eliciting and gathering
requirements in the first place, especially if those tools are graphically based. We think that mind mapping tools and in particular, because of its more recent integration capabilities, MindManager Pro® from Mindjet®, has the potential to become a commonplace tool for requirement elicitation, definition and analysis.
We initially ran into our first MandManager junkie over 7 years ago, someone that was using it primarily for presentations. We took note of the fanaticism, but didn’t put in any time to explore it. That was our mistake. Fooling around with it for about 30 minutes or so is all it really took before we were slapping our foreheads thinking of all the occasions that it would have been the ideal tool to use and the hours and hours of tedium it would have saved. (Mindjet estimates that there are 400 million information workers world-wide who could benefit. They have sold 1.3 million copies, so if you are one of the 1 in 308 people that should be using it that already is, you can look straight ahead now.)
MindManager Pro is a general purpose graphical information tool that has a rapidly growing following in the workplace and universities. Those familiar with it may well have used it in brainstorming sessions for capturing and connecting ideas in whiteboard fashion. But its power extends beyond these applications and that fact is being recognized by an increasing number of companies that are purchasing corporate-wide licenses for a variety of uses.
It holds big value particularly for Business Analysts, as well as Product and Project Managers because it helps them with a fundamental task of their job: it’s geared to taking thoughts and ideas and forming that into useful information with structure. Anyone who is responsible for requirements (solo or in groups) will certainly find it much more effective at initial capture of requirements than sticky notes or Word. But, you can also import from Word and manipulate and reorganize the overall structure of the information very easily. When you do, you’re saved from dealing with dense text in a word processor. Instead of tedious highlight-cut-and-paste, you drag and drop, and while you do, you can readily see the larger bigger picture of your ideas and their inter- relationships. It’s a huge timesaver when you need to restructure a document that has some initial organization to it.
Improve Requirements Quality
In the initial phases of a technology project, interviews and brainstorming sessions are typically done to gather requirements. Whether it’s mapping out a multi year release plan for a commercial software product, gathering requirements for a new system or documenting user enhancements to an existing system, a Mind Mapping tool let’s you capture ideas in a free form way, just like whiteboards, post-its, etc.
The difference is that you’re quickly capturing the essence of an idea and its relationship to other ideas at the same time. Since everything you enter and the structure is maintained there is no need to
transpose or cut and paste information later into a document so nothing is lost in translation.
Post the brainstorming session by using drag and drop techniques, a Business Analyst or Product Manager has the ability to analyze, breakdown, and re-organize the information in as many iterations as might be needed to produce a clear and
comprehensive set of requirements.
Equally powerful as brainstorming and capturing new requirements is the ability to import and analyze existing Microsoft Word requirements documents. MindManager uses the Word heading structure to identify
document sections and their hierarchy, then maps headings and subheadings graphically to topics on the screen. You can then quickly change and rearrange headings, regroup information, change views and more. Once restructured , you can export a completely transformed document with a couple of clicks into wide variety of document formats.
In a recent project for example, our client used Microsoft Word to describe their process and requirements. The word document, while nicely structured, did not provide the clearest picture of how the functional requirements aligned to the overall business process steps the system was intended to support. Using MindManager, we were able to import the Word document and then reorganize the requirements under their respective process areas. This quickly clarified how the functions mapped to the process and highlighted areas of missing requirements. MindManager doesn’t contain any special magic to auto -identify any logical inconsistencies in your
requirements, but because it can quickly expand and collapse data in nodes and switch to different formatted views, you can identify needed changes to the hierarchy, see where you need to define dependencies or quickly understand where you may need to shore up some detail. Viewing all the requirements in your 83 page Word document on one screen that lets you drill into the detail at any time is simply much better than hopping back and forth through an entire Word document.
Different Views of the Same Requirements
Improve Requirements Collaboration and Communication
One way to improve requirements communication is to provide more than just text based descriptions. There is quite a bit of flexibility to attach different types of data to MindManager elements. Once topics and sub-topics are laid out in the map, information to elaborate on each sub-topic (requirement) can be added. For example, textual information can be accompanied by mock-up screen images, use case diagrams and other typical requirement related graphics. MindManager has a variety of display formats as well, so a flow, or hierarchy or other map formats can provide a perspective that can’t be achieved with Word or other RM tools.
Embellish with Icons, Shapes etc. Right hand pane shows container contents
Once requirements have been defined, soliciting input from other stakeholders is readily supported through the use of review notes and Mindjet connect, an on-line subscription service where mind maps can be shared and collaborated on in real-time.
Output mind maps to many formats
MindManager also let’s you output your requirements to many different formats supporting the various ways in which you will likely need to communicate and use the requirement information you’ve captured. Quickly prepare a presentation for development, produce a MRD (market requirement document for management) or export requirements to a requirements management database for further analysis, audit and status tracking.
With tightly integrated support for the Microsoft Office Suite you can output documentation in multiple formats including Microsoft Word, Power Point and Visio keeping data in the map format until your requirements are finalized ensuring a single source of data for these various outputs.
Improve Requirements Traceability
While traceability comes in several flavors, Requirement to Requirement traceability is one of the major capabilities companies are seeking. In the event a change occurs in one requirement it can be traced to other requirements that have dependencies on it making impact analysis easier. Using a standard MindManager function to draw relationships, linking one requirement to another, allows you to easily visualize the requirement dependencies and identify and avoid dependency gaps.
Use Built in Functions to Illustrate Dependencies
Traceability between requirements and other downstream elements such as tasks, tests and assets can also be achieved by exporting requirements from your mind map to a lifecycle management and traceability tool like QAvantage’s RTIME. Using an Add-In component to the MindManager software and following a simple wizard let’s you extract requirements from the map and load them into the RTIME database. With the combination of a mind mapping tool and integration with an RM tool, you can have the full power of a database driven
requirements management system with the front-end flexibility and ease of use of mind mapping.
Worth Trying
The folks at Mindjet allow you to try MindManager Pro for 30 days for free. If you haven’t used a mind mapping tool before, we think you will be surprised by how easy it is to use, how it can help with requirements and in the
