-
Six Chapel Row Consulting provides a wide range of services from product definition and design, through to sales strategy and execution. Our services include: :
-
Market Analysis
Technology solutions should usually only be considered if there is a clear market demand and a strong
business case to implement a new solution. In most cases, new technology solutions will lead to either
improving efficiency of the organisation and/or allowing a new product to be sold to an under-served
or new market.
In most projects, a Market Requirements Document (MRD) is produced which covers an overview of the market,
customer and buyer details such as motivators, influencers and goals, and documents user and market requirements.
A variety of approaches can be taken to perform market analysis including using SWOT (Strengths, Weaknesses,
Opportunities and Threats) and PEST (Political, Economic, Social and Technological) techniques.
The level of analysis needed will depend on the experience of the customer and the maturity of the market.
In many cases, industry analysts may have valuable data that can be used to form the basis for a more detailed
customer specific analysis. In emerging markets where historical data may not be available, then a more
investigative approach may be needed.
-
Business Analysis
The market analysis forms part of a business plan which should always be produced prior to the start of the
product development process. In addition, business advantages, barriers to entry, market strategy, risk and
impact assessments, and a full financial analysis should all be detailed in the business plan.
Business analysis can be conducted in various degrees of detail depending on the maturity or the market
being served or the complexity of the product being planned.
-
Functional Specification and Design
The Functional Specification should detail the proposed solution to match, where possible, the requirements
identified in the previous stages. As with the user requirements, each functional requirement should be clearly
defined and uniquely identified and should reference one or more identified user requirements. Where a user
requirement cannot be completely met by the proposed solution, the reasons for the gap should be documented.
The Traceability Matrix should be updated at this stage to ensure that all user requirements have been
matched by corresponding functional requirements.
-
Technical Specification and Design
The Technical Specification is the critical document for the development/engineering team to use in order to
develop the product. The Technical Specification should detail the technical solution for every functional
requirements documented in the Functional Specification. Unless the customer is very technical, the Technical
Specification is usually treated as an internal deliverable rather than being a formal customer approved document.
|
-
Requirements Management
When documenting requirements, it is important to ensure that they are each individually documented
rather than grouping multiple requirements together (this makes it difficult later in the delivery process).
One of the common challenges when gathering and documenting requirements is the level of detail needed.
This will depend on what solution is being delivered, but usually, requirements need to be detailed
and not open for interpretation.
In many complex projects, the importance of tracking requirements through the project lifecycle is
often under estimated. A user requirement should match an associated market requirement. In the same way,
each technical requirement should have a one or more associated functional requirement(s). Without documenting
and cross referencing captured requirements, the risk of the final solution missing key user
needs is greatly increased.
To solve the potential issue of requirements management, a Traceability Matrix is recommended. Usually started
as soon as possible within the project lifecycle (i.e. during the market analysis phase), the details are added
once requirements are confirmed. Building a Traceability Matrix later or at the end of a project is a time
consuming activity and can result in rework of the functional and/or technical design, development,
and testing of the solution.
-
User Requirements
Without clear and concise user and product requirements, the design and subsequent delivery of a solution
to meet the users’ needs is at significant risk. User and product requirements should be fully supported
by market analysis and requirements.
User requirements gathering and documentation needs to be carefully planned and based on the specific
customer needs (a generic approach to requirements capture rarely works). Considerations may include the
experience of user base (i.e. how do you explain what is possible and manage the scope?) and/or the size
of the user base (i.e. how do you best collect the requirements from 10000 end users?) will require
careful planning and execution.
-
Solution Architecture and Design
The technical architecture of a solution will depend on a variety of considerations including cost,
attitude to technological risk, scalability, performance, and security. It is common for architectural
decisions to be made before a full understanding of what the solution needs to delivery is available.
This can lead to a multitude of problems during later stages of a project. Wherever possible, the
architectural decisions should be based on the identified functional (and associated technical)
requirements and not made independently. The maturity of the technology being considered should
be also be reviewed carefully as defaulting to using the latest technology may not be the best fit
for the solution, especially if the risk of using the latest outweighs any other improvements that
it may deliver.
-
Sales Strategy
The positioning of a product in order to make it marketable and saleable is complex.
From competitive and market analysis through to the best approach to take for maximising sales,
Six Chapel Row can offer proven experience and expertise to plan and execute the best sales
strategy for your product.
|
