Requirements Engineering at Dotbite

Asking the right questions

Before we start a project and before it is even clear to the customer if they want to start a project, Dotbite hosts a requirements engineering workshop. That’s a pretty fancy name, but the process behind it is, from our point of view, indispensable. In essence, in a half or full-day workshop, we listen carefully and ask the right questions about the project’s goal. The client’s task is to filter out the critical answers themselves.

“You know it yourself: the idea seems clear and concrete to you. But if you want to put it into words, it becomes difficult. That’s why it’s essential to put the idea on paper and make it tangible by asking specific questions.”

Emir

To the core

The workshop is all about finding out the core function of the project. Often customers bring dozens of ideas for features and designs to the workshop, but the essentials can get lost from view. Through a thorough introspection of the project and a radical reduction of its functionality to the absolute minimum, we find out what the project must be able to do.

“The requirements engineering workshop is about crystallizing the MVP – what is the minimum product to test and evaluate the use case without spending a lot of time and money on development. It is about finding out whether the target groups use the product at all and where there are connecting points for further developments.”

Emir

Use cases

For this reason, we create both use cases (a description of each of the ways a user interacts with the project) and various user stories (short descriptions from the client’s perspective: “As a [user role], I want to [requirement] so that [goal].”). You can learn more here if you don’t know the difference between the two or don’t know what they are at all. In short, together with the client, we map precisely what the project should do. After all this, we have found out what the MVP, that is, the minimum viable product, must be able to do. In this step, we contribute valuable insights with our experience as a service and SaaS provider and can help with business modeling.

“Figuring out the different user roles and stories is important because all stakeholders can empathize with the use case and the various roles and immediately understand their intent.”

Emir

Tangible results

The great advantage of the requirements engineering workshop is that something tangible is created at its end. Both the client and we know what the MVP must contain in terms of core functionality and which features indeed constitute the project. In addition, we can give the client an actual estimate of the expenditure required to implement the minimum viable product. 

“What’s so interesting about it is that you start into a workshop, and none of the stakeholders know what the project is ultimately going to be. A few hours later, everyone walks out, knowing precisely what the MVP will be.”

Emir

It’s for free*

*if we develop the project further. The requirement engineering workshop is in itself an excellent opportunity to get a feeling for your product and to see if your idea is worth pursuing. If this feeling becomes a certainty as a result of the workshop, we will deduct the cost of the workshop, whether half-day or full-day, from the initial project invoice. Contact us!

“For us, there is nothing more important than truly understanding the client’s requirements and the vision of their product so that users love it. With the workshops, we always find common ground with the clients and understand the whole venture’s goal.”

Emir