Pension insurance company Elo wants to invest in clear and well-structured requirements documentation. As a long-term partner, Reflector’s consultants proposed sparring sessions for Elo, with the purpose of reviewing Elo’s current requirements documentation. At the same time, the goal was to jointly consider how matters could be described more consistently and how documentation could be streamlined and made more efficient.
The workshops focused on real situations
The first step was a session held in December, where Reflector’s consultants Seija Kälkäjä and Tarja Kunnasvuo initiated the discussion and shared their initial insights on the topic. This led to a series of three workshops in January and February. The workshops were organized around a single development project and were attended by Elo’s requirements analysts, Product Owner, Test Manager, enterprise architect, and project manager.
Reflector’s consultants designed the workshop content so that theory was deliberately left in the background and the focus was directly on real situations and existing documentation. The sparring sessions included extensive discussion and analysis, from which concrete tools and shared insights were drawn for developing requirements documentation.
Insights for developing requirements specification documentation
As a result of the sparring sessions, Elo’s team gained clarity on the situation and methods to standardize their documentation, while changes were already underway in the development model.
Elo’s Head of ICT Development Anna Varjoranta believes that there was a need for this kind of sparring and the timing was just right.
“We wanted to review the documentation from a new perspective and understand what kind of requirements documentation would work best for our business. The joint sessions helped us realise that there is no single right way to define requirements and document them; rather, it is a continuously evolving process that must adapt to business needs. Thanks to the sparring, the teams are now better able to ensure that the specifications support both implementation and the subsequent lifecycle management of the systems.”
Concreteness and customization to the client’s own needs received praise
Based on feedback from participants, the greatest value of the sparring sessions was their concreteness and focus specifically on Elo’s needs. Elo’s team found the discussion and interaction particularly valuable in these sessions.
The workshops’ Net Promoter Score (NPS) was over 70, indicating excellent satisfaction. As a suggestion for further development, more extensive work on example descriptions was proposed, which is why the collaboration continues with the development of model descriptions and best practices for requirements work.
Long-term partnership helps everyone develop
We have been Elo’s partner for a long time, and the requirements sparring is part of a longer joint development path. This project further strengthened our collaboration and supports Elo’s goal to grow and develop. Reflector’s Seija Kälkäjä summarizes the inspiring atmosphere of the sessions: “This team has the will to learn. They had genuine interest and an active approach in every workshop, which made the sessions particularly successful.”
