Page 520 - Using MIS

488 Chapter 12 Information Systems Development

Unlike the SDLC, if a scrum project terminates because of time or budget limitations, the cus-
tomer will have some useful result for the time and money expended. It may not be the fully
functioning version that was desired, but it is something that, assuming requirements are de-
fined and prioritized correctly, can generate value for the project sponsors.
How Do Requirements Drive the Scrum Process?

Scrum is distinguished from other agile development methodologies, in part, by the way that
it uses requirements to drive planning and scheduling. First, requirements are specified in a
particular manner. One common format is to express requirements in terms of who does what
and why.
For example, in the early PRIDE system, a requirement could be expressed as:
“As a doctor, I want to view a patient’s exercise records so I can make sure he is not doing
too much.”
Or,
“As a doctor, I want to view a patient’s exercise records so I can make sure she is following
her prescription.”
Each of these requirements specifies who (the doctor) does what (view a patient’s exercise
data) and why (make sure she is following her prescription). It’s not surprising that the require-
ment includes who and what, but the need for why may surprise you. The purpose of the why
clause of the requirement is to set a context for the value that will be delivered by the require-
ment. Including it increases the likelihood that the product will deliver business value and not
just blindly meet the requirement.
As stated, the product owner creates requirements and prioritizes them. For example, one
of the two requirements above will be judged higher in importance than the other. All other
things being equal, the team will satisfy the higher priority requirement first. This means, too,
that if the project runs out of time or money, the highest priority requirements will have been
completed first.

Creating Requirements Tasks
Given a requirement, the team meets to create tasks that must be accomplished to meet that
requirement. In Figure 12-22, this work is done in the Choose requirements to deliver activity.
Figure 12-23 shows eight tasks that need to be done to accomplish an example require-
ment. In the Choose requirements to deliver activity, tasks for additional requirements that might
also be implemented in this scrum period are created.
Tasks are created in a team meeting because the team as a whole can iterate and allow
members to give feedback. One team member will think of a task that needs to be done, of
which other members are not aware. Or the team member will realize that a particular task is
incomplete, or is doable in some other way, or doesn’t really need to be done.

Requirement:
“As a doctor, I want to view the patient’s exercise records so I can
make sure she is following her prescription.”

Tasks:
1. Authenticate the doctor.
2. Obtain patient identifying data from doctor.
3. Determine this doctor is authorized to view this patient’s records.
4. Read the database to obtain exercise records.
5. Read the database to obtain most recent prescription record.
6. Format the data into a generic format.
7. Determine the type of mobile device the doctor is using.
Figure 12-23 8. Format the generic report into a report for that mobile device.
Example Requirement and Tasks