HELP! Why are reporting requirements so difficult. The user seems to need to see the report before they can tell me what they need. Does anyone have any comments, suggestions to make this process easier.
I've used mock-ups to elicit reporting requirements before and found that although they initiated some interesting discussions, invariably they resulted in the end users focusing on the wrong things (such as formatting, images used etc) and not spending enough time understanding what they need the report to do.
I still think that mockuss are a valuable tool for eliciting reporting requirements. People are more responsive to visual stimulus so they do help in engaging the stakeholder and grabbing their attention. However using your approach to get the high level requirements and then using mockups to flash out the finer details would work much better than using just mockups.
In addition, one way to avoid the problem I described above is to use very 'bare-bones' wireframe mockups for the reports.
I quite like your approach.
I quite like your approach.
I've used mock-ups to elicit reporting requirements before and found that although they initiated some interesting discussions, invariably they resulted in the end users focusing on the wrong things (such as formatting, images used etc) and not spending enough time understanding what they need the report to do.
I still think that mockuss are a valuable tool for eliciting reporting requirements. People are more responsive to visual stimulus so they do help in engaging the stakeholder and grabbing their attention. However using your approach to get the high level requirements and then using mockups to flash out the finer details would work much better than using just mockups.
In addition, one way to avoid the problem I described above is to use very 'bare-bones' wireframe mockups for the reports.
Cheers,
Vedran