Software Requirements, 3rd Edition

Chapter 6. Finding the voice of the user

Jeremy walked into the office of Ruth Gilbert, the director of the Drug Discovery Division at Contoso Pharmaceuticals. Ruth had asked the information technology team that supported Contoso’s research organization to build a new application to help the research chemists accelerate their exploration for new drugs. Jeremy was assigned as the business analyst for the project. After introducing himself and discussing the project in broad terms, Jeremy said to Ruth, “I’d like to talk with some of your chemists to understand their requirements for the system. Who might be some good people to start with?”

Ruth replied, “I did that same job for five years before I became the division director three years ago. You ...