Our usual approach to defining requirements is to produce a 'Project Scope Document' accompanied by a Working Prototype. In conducting a Project Scoping engagement, we develop a prototype that accurately reflects the scope of the project, ascertained from shared design sessions. Once the prototype is agreed, we document the scope in more traditional ways and present the results. The scope process allows for reasonably accurate estimates of costs and timings. The Project Scope Document contains the following sections:

·       Executive summary, consisting of recommendations, costs, benefits and suggested implementation timetables. 

·       Project scope summary, stating the general, future and excluded requirements of the system. 

·       Project scope detail, describing each of the business entities and the data and actions that can occur to each entity (such as data entry, filtering, reporting etc.). 

·       Technical architecture, including model-driven architectural work products, recommendations for security, messaging, databases, toolsets/languages etc. 

·       Detailed project schedule and costs, including the deliverables / milestones of the project. 

·       Appendices, such as preliminary ER data models, screen / window navigation & usability assessments and report templates (based upon the agreed prototype).