Initial Requirements Modeling

Early in a project a developer invariably has to answer difficult questions:

• "What are you going to build?"
• "How much do you think it's going to cost?"
• "What benefits will be gained?"
• "How long do you think it's going to take?"

To answer these questions initial requirements modelling is required:

• High-level Usage Modeling - use cases where important ones described with a few bullet points and others just named
• Domain Modeling - major business entity types (without attributes) and their relationships
• User Interface (UI) Prototyping - paper sketches of critical screens/pages

The end product of the initial modeling efforts can be summarised in an initial project vision consisting of a few paragraphs. This concept has been promoted by the Rational Unified Process (RUP) and the Project Management Institute (PMI). In addition a couple of scope diagrams (UML or BPMN) which describe the business are useful to present to key project stakeholders.

How Much Initial Requirements Modeling Should You Do?
Agile Model Driven Development (AMDD)