IFSM 300 UMGC Organizational Process Discussion

For this discussion, you will practice analyzing processes to identify functional requirements for a system to improve a process.

Some students may still have difficulty identifying processes; be sure to refer to the Week 3 readings that describe various processes and review the Week 3 discussion. Keep in mind that a process is a set of specified steps to accomplish a task.

This week’s discussion topic focuses on functional requirements that need to be clearly written so that the people who are developing the system or evaluating a system for use can discern whether the functional requirements are met or not.

The functional requirements statement:

• Is a complete sentence, with a subject (system) and predicate (intended result, action, or condition)
• Identifies only one requirement; does not include the words “and,” “also,” “with,” and “or.”
• For functional requirements, state what tasks the system will support or perform
• Includes a measure or metric that can be used to determine whether the functional requirement is met (time or quantity), where appropriate
• Is stated in positive terms and uses “must” (not “may” or “should”); e.g., “the system must XXXX” not “the system must not xxx”
• Avoids the use of terms that cannot be defined and measured, such as “approximately,” “robust,” “user friendly,” etc.
• Must be testable; that is, there must be some way to test the system to determine whether the requirement is met

1. Drawing from your own experience, select a process used at your place of work or in your interaction with an organization that you would like to see improved. Explain why you picked that process.

2. Imagine that a system is to be implemented (or an existing system improved) to make that process better and write five (5) functional requirements for the system to perform. Each requirement is one sentence in length and addresses one thing the system must do. Here we are interested in functional requirements – the activities the system must perform to support the identified process. Use the information above to create your functional requirements statements.

Example of a process is Marketing Process. You can use this or another example.