Requirement Gathering: Buying A Car!

“woof woof! Woof woof! Woof woof!”

 I could barely open my eyes but I was conscious enough to put the alarm on snooze. Yes, I know a barking dog would be a lame alarm but I’ve had it since 6^th grade.

“Wait, it’s Saturday isn’t it?” I thought for a moment.
“My brother’s birthday is in 2 weeks!” I screamed while jumping out of my bed. I grabbed my car keys, a toast with cheese on it that I forgot to eat last night while watching the el Classico and headed straight to the nearest car dealer shop (would you believe it?) in my sleeping suit! :P

“I gotta buy him a yellow sports car. That’s all he ever dreamt of. I am so gonna buy him a yellow sports car. He’s my favorite brother. In fact the only brother I have.”

So I parked my car in a really awkward position and rushed into the building which had a sign on it stating

“Ashir Hanif car dealers
You ask We deliver”

I heard they were running a good business downtown that could order cars and sell them to the user according to their requirements. Well, I guess that was my place because I knew exactly what I wanted to buy. A yellow sports car :D

“May I help you sir?” Asked the receptionist.

“I want to buy a car” I replied.

“What kind of a car sir?” She asked.

“A sports car” I replied.

“Follow me” She took me to the office of a guy name Adeel. 

“I see you are looking for a sports car Mr. ummm?”

“Zaryab” I replied.
“Oh so Mr. Zaryab what kind of a sports car do you want?”

“Ummm. A yellow one?”

“Hahahaha. A yellow one? So I guess you don’t know much about sports car do you?”
“Well to be honest not really but I’m buying one for my brother. It’s his birthday in 2 weeks. He’s really into cars and stuff but I gotta keep it a surprise. And yeah. All I know is that he is obsessed with yellow”

“I’m sorry sir but you’ll have to be more specific”

“As I told you already I don’t know a thing about cars and all I know is that I need a yellow sports car in 2 weeks”

“2 weeks! 2 weeks? Hold on sir you’re not going in the right direction. Here’s the deal. I’m gonna ask you a list of questions and you’re gonna have to answer them. Fair enough?”

Then he started asking a list of long, tough questions such as the car company, the additional features in the car, the horse power, the fuel consumption and I can’t even remember what else. I could hardly answer a few of them. What seemed like a tough interview finally came to an end.

“These are the list of cars that you ought to choose from. What’s your price range?” He took out a list of 8 cars.

“Ummm. 50000 $ I guess.” I replied.
“Well I guess you don’t have a lot of options then. We only have 2 cars in that price range. A lotus Elise which I’d prefer or a used yellow Lamborghini diablo. We don’t have any yellow lotuses.”

“Well that’s it then. Lamborghini it is :D”

We both shake hands after which he says

“Oh wait. There’s just a little problem. You said your brother’s birthday is in 2 weeks? Well I’m sorry but we can’t order one within 3 weeks.”

“What? Why not? What’s the use if I he doesn’t get his present on his birthday?”

“Well Sir we can’t do a lot about that. Maybe you surprise him a week later? How about this. We’ll arrange a party for him at the Lamborghini warehouse and surprise him there! ”

“Well that sounds fun! :D But he won’t be able to ride his car on that day right?”

“No Sir I’m afraid that won’t be the case.”

“Well I can live with that. But it better be one hell of a party then”

“Hahahaha. I’m sure you’ll enjoy it sir!”

“Well it was nice meeting you Mr. Adeel and I hope my brother likes the car”

“I’m pretty sure he will Sir.”

“Well I better get going then. Have a good day.”

“You too Sir!”

I left the building having ordered a yellow sports car however I still wasn’t sure if I had ordered the right car. Well I guess I better get lucky here. Who cares about the type of the car anyway? A huge smile on my brother’s face is all that matters to me!

What we learnt Today:

• User requirements are the services that the system provides and its operational constraints
• System requirements set out detailed descriptions of the system’s functions, services and operational constraints.
• Functional requirements verses Non-functional requirements
• System Requirement Specification is a document containing user and system requirements.
• R requirements elicitation involves technical staff working with customers to find out about the application domain, the services that the system should provide and the system’s operational constraints.
• There are a number of generic activities common to all RE processes

1.       Requirements elicitation;

2.       Requirements analysis;

3.       Requirements validation;

4.       Requirements management.