Requirement gathering using Visualization 

 Challenge 

 Being a part of the software development team , understanding the requirements from the customer plays   a major role in kick starting the project . A lot of brainstorming is involved with both internal and external   stakeholders to arrive at the specific set of requirements . And in many cases , through verbal   communication and documentation these requirements are not clearly conveyed to the development   team . There were occasions in which certain requirements were left out and sometimes misinterpreted .   This in turn results in rework and , loss of time and resources . 

 Selection 

 An effective tool to handle this problem is Visualization . Presenting the requirements in a visual and   creative way , gave the customers an insight to how his final product would look like and helped the project   team to understand how to effectively plan the product development and keep up with the project   schedule . 

 Application 

 Whether it was building a tool from scratch or any product enhancement , the key was to make sure all   the needs of the customer were met . After meeting with the customers , their inputs collected are put   across as flowcharts and use case diagrams . The complete end to end flow is represented and all the data   is covered . If the project has different modules it is highlighted using different colors and symbols . This   helps in grabbing the customer ’s attention to all key scenarios during the review process . In cases of   product enhancement , images of the existing products highlighting the areas where the changes would   occur were included along with flowcharts . This analysis of the requirements was then presented to the   customers for their approval . The structural representation helped the customers to expand their   coverage and reduced the changes in requirements in the later stage of product development . 

 After the customer ’s approval of the requirements , it is then presented to the project team . The team   goes through the flowchart covering each module one by one . Using concept mapping & white board   technique the modules which are interdependent are identified and grouped . Any scenario which is   repetitive is removed . The requirements are prioritized accordingly and project development timeline is   planned . 

 Insight 

 While putting across ideas and requirements in a visual format helped in understanding the customer ’s   needs in a more effective way , it also gave a better insight to the problem statement . Any misses that   occurred and feedbacks that were received were taken as key learnings which helped to improve   requirement gathering for other projects . Another value add of using visualization is that it also helps in   improving risk identification at earlier stages of project development . 

 Approach 

 Further on , I have decided to use visualization not only in the early stages of requirement gathering but   also throughout the course of the project . In both development and testing , visualization can help in   traceability as well as efficient management of the project . 


EMAIL: 
ID_NUM: 
NAME_STUDENT: 
PHONE_NUM: 
STREET_ADDRESS: 
URL_PERSONAL: 
USERNAME: 

### Task: You are a PII (Personal Identity Information) Detection. Given a essays written by students, you have to identify ONLY the following:
NAME_STUDENT - The full or partial name of a student that is not necessarily the author of the essay. This excludes instructors, authors, and other person names.
EMAIL - A student’s email address.
USERNAME - A student's username on any platform.
ID_NUM - A number or sequence of characters that could be used to identify a student, such as a student ID or a social security number.
PHONE_NUM - A phone number associated with a student.
URL_PERSONAL - A URL that might be used to identify a student.
STREET_ADDRESS - A full or partial street address that is associated with the student, such as their home address.
### Input: Requirement gathering using Visualization 

 Challenge 

 Being a part of the software development team , understanding the requirements from the customer plays   a major role in kick starting the project . A lot of brainstorming is involved with both internal and external   stakeholders to arrive at the specific set of requirements . And in many cases , through verbal   communication and documentation these requirements are not clearly conveyed to the development   team . There were occasions in which certain requirements were left out and sometimes misinterpreted .   This in turn results in rework and , loss of time and resources . 

 Selection 

 An effective tool to handle this problem is Visualization . Presenting the requirements in a visual and   creative way , gave the customers an insight to how his final product would look like and helped the project   team to understand how to effectively plan the product development and keep up with the project   schedule . 

 Application 

 Whether it was building a tool from scratch or any product enhancement , the key was to make sure all   the needs of the customer were met . After meeting with the customers , their inputs collected are put   across as flowcharts and use case diagrams . The complete end to end flow is represented and all the data   is covered . If the project has different modules it is highlighted using different colors and symbols . This   helps in grabbing the customer ’s attention to all key scenarios during the review process . In cases of   product enhancement , images of the existing products highlighting the areas where the changes would   occur were included along with flowcharts . This analysis of the requirements was then presented to the   customers for their approval . The structural representation helped the customers to expand their   coverage and reduced the changes in requirements in the later stage of product development . 

 After the customer ’s approval of the requirements , it is then presented to the project team . The team   goes through the flowchart covering each module one by one . Using concept mapping & white board   technique the modules which are interdependent are identified and grouped . Any scenario which is   repetitive is removed . The requirements are prioritized accordingly and project development timeline is   planned . 

 Insight 

 While putting across ideas and requirements in a visual format helped in understanding the customer ’s   needs in a more effective way , it also gave a better insight to the problem statement . Any misses that   occurred and feedbacks that were received were taken as key learnings which helped to improve   requirement gathering for other projects . Another value add of using visualization is that it also helps in   improving risk identification at earlier stages of project development . 

 Approach 

 Further on , I have decided to use visualization not only in the early stages of requirement gathering but   also throughout the course of the project . In both development and testing , visualization can help in   traceability as well as efficient management of the project .
### Output: 