Impact Mapping practice
G. Adzic improved and developed a technique for collection of primary requirements called Impact Mapping. Its essence lies in construction of causal relationships (traces) from business goals to particular automation elements (product features). A developer together with the customer must answer the following questions:
- Why do we need this or that functionality, and what measurable goal do we want to achieve? These are our future business goals.
- Who participates in the achievement of this goal? These are actors: employees, people, departments or divisions.
- How this person or employee achieves a goal, what job does he do? This is the influence that the actor exerts on the goal achievement.
- What does this person need from a software system to complete his job? These are certain product features or functions (big stories) which an actor uses to influence the goal.
You can visualize these dependencies with marker and "mind map" technique, or by means of sticky notes.
When the map is completed, and customer and developer agree about goals and amount of work, you can commit the result in "Goals and functions” module, e.g., as follows:
