The FAQ Module

The FAQ Module

The solution for upfront requirements gathering

In this article we cover the features and benefits of the FAQ module.

This module was designed to help teams who gather requirements at the start of their requirements management process. By creating question lists teams can easily capture and reuse their knowledge of the elicitation process to ask the right questions that yield the best requirements.

What is the FAQ module?

The FAQ module is a repository of question lists that your team can construct, edit, change, template, and use to elicit requirements. By using the FAQ module to build up a knowledge base for your team, you can be confident that any team member can engage with stakeholders in an effective manner.

By building the best set of questions on that domain, your team can ensure that they are always eliciting the best possible set of requirements.

The main benefit of this module is that it allows your team the opportunity to build up a knowledge base that can be used by both experienced BA’s, as well as by those who might need to elicit requirements in an unfamiliar domain. The FAQ module comes already stocked with over 3000 questions that cover many different topics.

These topics include multiple ISO Compliance templates, as well as templates on Non-Functional Requirement topics such Scalability, Reusability, or Operability that can be used for elicitation.

For many teams this module will replace their Excel-based question lists they may have used in the past.

To stay in line with the other modules in the Modern Requirements toolset, the FAQ module takes what used to be a disconnected process and connects it directly with your project. This means your teams can easily add requirements into your project simply by supplying answers to the questions in your FAQ question list.

What Value does the FAQ module offer?

The value of our FAQ module can be described in two simple points.

  • The FAQ module helps create better requirements by guiding the elicitation process, leading to a greater likelihood of project success.
  • The FAQ module reduces the time spent on elicitation throughout your project, allowing your team to get started building sooner.

By using the valuable knowledge of experienced BA’s, you can create domain-specific question templates that help structure the elicitation process. This means you can send any BA of any experience level into a room with a stakeholder and feel confident they will create complete and actionable requirements.

By no longer needing to construct question templates and then copy elicited requirements to your RM tool, your team can move through the elicitation process faster. This means more time spent iterating on more accurate requirements and less time spent copy and pasting user stories that are likely to need more work.

What are the Use Cases for the FAQ module?

When we talk to our community about their use of the FAQ module, they often describe the ways in which this module has streamlined their process and made the elicitation phase of projects easier to navigate.

Even with teams who traditionally don’t use question lists, after joining our community they will tell us how much added value they see from being able to consolidate the knowledge of everyone on their team into one cohesive list.

Here are the Use Cases we have seen for the FAQ module.

USE CASE 1

My team currently gathers requirements up front and moves iteratively through our project thereafter. We currently use Excel during the requirements gathering phase, but it means that we are copying requirements to our tool of choice afterwards.

By being a team who gathers requirements up front, this provides a perfect opportunity to use a question list designed for that domain. But using Excel as a means of facilitating this question list is a recipe for a long copy-paste process later down the road. 

Copy/paste processes are generally error-prone and lengthy. It is often during these already long copy/paste processes that a team member will recognize they have missed a property of a work item that they need stakeholder input on.

In this case, using the FAQ module means you will have the question list in your Azure DevOps project already. When you ask your Stakeholder your question you will be able to answer that question in your FAQ question list and it will automatically create a requirement for you.

You can then open that requirement directly and pursue any follow up questions that you might have while you are still with your Stakeholder. This saves time and makes the elicitation process more thorough, while preventing your team from missing opportunities to get the right information at the right moment.

USE CASE 2

My team works in a compliant/regulated space and we need to ensure we are building the full set of requirements to remain compliant and auditable.

One of the best features of the FAQ module is that you can use many of our pre-built compliance-related templates to elicit requirements. Our pre-built templates have been created in partnership with many of our existing customers, as well as through partnerships with thought-leaders in these spaces.

In this case, teams with access to the FAQ module can speak to domain experts and consultants and build the question list that will help them create all the requirements necessary for compliance and regulation. Once created, these question lists can be reused in several projects and can be deployed again and again.

 

How do I use the FAQ module effectively?

The FAQ module provides incredible benefits for teams inside the elicitation phase of their project. Here are some of the ways you can use the module to facilitate project success.

 

Use the Pre-built Question List Templates

When users need a template on either Non-Functional Requirements, or on ISO topics, they can get started quickly by using one of our built-in templates. These templates already contain many of the most important questions about these topics. Users can start with a pre-built template and remove questions that are not relevant and/or add in new questions that necessary.

Build your own Question List Templates

If one of our pre-built templates does not satisfy your need, teams can easily build question lists from scratch. By starting with a blank template, your team can easily build up a comprehensive set of questions that make eliciting requirements a simple and more efficient process.

Once a question list is built it can be reused across projects to help with your elicitation phase down the road.

Build Question Lists that less experienced members of your team

By building question lists you are effectively providing guidance for any member who might be less familiar with a domain, solution, or system. These lists are then a great tool for guiding newer BA’s, or experienced BA’s from a different domain, during the elicitation phase. Teams understand that the quality of the questions we ask at the start of a project directly reflect in the quality of the requirements we elicit.

By building question lists with our FAQ module, you can ensure that you are getting the best possible requirements the first time.

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Time to Read: 5 minutes

The Smart Docs Module

The Smart Docs Module

The full replacement for Microsoft Word when managing requirements

In this article we cover the features and benefits of the Smart Docs module. 
Designed to bridge the gap between document creation and requirements management, Smart Docs empowers users with documentation capabilities within Azure DevOps. This means your documents now live within your team’s project, and your team can finally benefit from a complete and central source of truth.
 

What is Smart Docs?

Smart Docs is an online document authoring system that is built directly into Azure DevOps. As part of
the Modern Requirements4DevOps Enterprise Edition, this module stands as a full replacement for
Microsoft Word when managing requirements.
 
There are many engaging ways to use Smart Docs.
The most obvious way this tool can benefit your team is by allowing you to create living requirements
documents within Azure DevOps. What do we mean by living requirements documents? If you have ever
used Microsoft Word as part of your requirements management process you have undoubtedly had to
deal with the pains of changing requirements. Changing requirements is in and of itself typically
something teams can handle, but when a requirement is in “some document” which lives “somewhere”
… teams can go mad.
 
Building living requirements documents means that you can create a Smart Doc and include your
requirements within that document. If you update a requirement from the Smart Doc interface, or make
changes to a requirement in the backlog, that requirement will be updated everywhere. This means no more hunting for documents which contain the requirements you have changed.
 
The documents we see teams using include, but are not limited to:
  • Business Requirements Documents
  • System Requirements Documents
  • Functional / Non-functional Requirements Documents

What value does Smart Docs offer?

As a purpose-driven tool, Smart Docs has been uniquely designed to tackle real-world issues our users
are currently facing, or which they have already faced in the past. By working closely with our
community, and strategically incorporating feedback, we have built a tool that offers the following
unique value proposition:
  • Documents (and their versions) created in Smart Docs are saved within your Azure DevOps
  • project.
  • Removes the need for all third-party applications and document repositories.
  • Documents are updates automatically as requirements change anywhere in Azure DevOps.
  • Documents can be versioned, compared, output, and reviewed, directly from with Azure DevOps.
 

What are the Use Cases for Smart Docs?

When we asked a group of prospects how important documentation is to their requirements management process, we found that most teams value documentation to a high degree.
 
We also found however, that teams found documentation to be the first thing to “fall by the wayside” when a project gets going.
 
When asked why this was the case, teams responded that it was the most difficult asset to maintain, and
that document creation required a large amount of time copy and pasting and the asset was often being
maintained separately from their requirements.
 
The following represents only a few Use Cases for Smart Docs.
USE CASE 1
My team currently copy/pastes requirements from Azure DevOps to Microsoft Word in order to create
documentation.
 
This takes a lot of time and is an error-prone process that we can’t rely on.
 
Using Smart Docs removes the need to copy and paste requirements to and from Microsoft Word. By
building up and maintaining your documentation in your project, you can trust that everything is always
up-to-date and ready for exporting.
USE CASE 2
My team has stopped using documentation because of the duplicate work required to create both
requirements and documents separately.
 
By using Smart Docs your team can now choose to build their requirements in Azure DevOps and drag
them into any document, or type a new requirement into their document and it will automatically show
up in your project’s backlog. As a true central source of truth model, Smart Docs will allow your team to
build everything once and use it wherever they need. Including in a document.
USE CASE 3
We only use documentation to get reviews from Stakeholders.
 
By using Smart Docs you can take advantage of the online document reviews we offer by using Smart
Docs in tandem with our Review module. If you are doing document reviews any other way you could
encounter the following obstacles.
 
  • One person is responsible for the entire review.
  • There can be multiple Stakeholders.
  • The person responsible for the review must consolidate the changes each Stakeholder would
  • like made to the document.
This produces a final document that needs to go through the approval process again.
The cycle repeats – in some cases for weeks.
 
With our document reviews, your team can collaborate and see all requested changes before a
document is altered. These changes can then be approved, and a final document created in one cycle.
 

How do I use Smart Docs?

A completed Smart Doc is an easy to navigate collection of both context sections and requirements.
Teams use Smart Docs everyday for the benefits it adds over a Microsoft Word driven process. 
Here are some of the ways your team can use Smart Docs. 
 
Make a Meta Template:
Before your team jumps head-first into Smart Docs, you will want to create a Meta Template. Meta Templates offer you the ability to construct a structure to your document. You can choose where team members can place context elements (Sections), and where they can add specific requirements in your document. This is a one-time operation and can be used with multiple documents built on the same structure.
 
Add Context to your Documents
Teams can add context to Documents by adding in a rich-text Section.
Once a Section is added to your document you can add rich text to it the same way you do in Microsoft Word.
This allows you to have free form control over the content that gets added into any given Document.
 
Create a Reusable Document Template
Many teams currently have a requirements document sitting on their Desktop which includes all the necessary elements that that document needs to include. For instance, your team might have a “BRD Template” they open which already has the Introduction, Scope, Risks, and a placeholder for Business Requirements already laid out to get started quickly. Our reusable templates offer the same ability, allowing users to quickly get started with a Document Template of their choice.
 
Add Requirements to your Documents
You can add requirements into your document in one of two different ways using Smart Docs.
  1. You can publish requirements into your Azure DevOps project simply by building onto your document. This allows you to add to your project from a document-driven workflow.
  2. You can insert requirements that are already in your project into any document.
All requirements added to documents will reflect any changes made elsewhere in the project. This means if you need to change a requirement in the backlog, those changes will already be reflected in the latest version of your document – no more need to update requirements in several places.
 
Explore Version Management
You can manage document versions easily using our built-in version management tools. Versions can be created manually or automatically depending on how you plan to use your documents. The version management tool comes complete with a Compare feature which enables you to compare any two versions of a document and see an easy to understand red-line view of the changes.
 
Have your Document Reviewed
You can send documents to Stakeholders (for free) for them to review. Using our Review module, document reviews enable all your document reviewers/approvers to collaborate in the same space. This way teams can see who has approved/rejected a work item and why. Teams can then discuss changes before any change is enacted.
 
Output Documents
Last but not least, all of the document you create in Smart Docs can be easily exported as Word, PDF, or HTML. We allow nearly limitless customization of your document when saving as Word, and provide you options to configure different attributes of a requirement to include in your report.
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Time to Read: 5 minutes