Have a Red Paper Issue?

As Solution Architects and Consultants, we spend a lot of time talking to Users and Customers about Requirements. As we are looking to configure and implement solutions we go through lots of meetings to get to the ‘Real’ needs.

One thing I like to dig into is whether a requirement is a ‘Red Paper Problem’?

What is that, you ask?

If you are, ahem, older (like me), you remember being in the office and printed documents and reports were the norm. You’d get lots of printed reports on your desk daily and weekly.

One week you started getting a report on red paper. Then every week it starts coming on red paper. Years later, someone new is hired and asks, ‘What’s important about this report? Why is it on red paper?’ And to be honest you don’t really know, it’s just a normal report.

Turns out that one day they ran out of the regular copy paper. All they had was red and the report needed to be printed so it was printed on red paper. That’s it. No special thing. But it was done for YEARS.

So when we are gathering requirements it’s important to dig in and find out whether something someone says ‘we HAVE to have this’….is it a red paper problem or a real problem?

Dig into why they have to have it. Who is using the information/data? Where is it being used? What actions does it drive? If they can’t answer these questions or point you to someone who can, then it’s likely a red paper problem.

And red paper problems aren’t real requirements! Just because ‘It’s always been done this way’ doesn’t mean it has to (or should) continue!

So look for those potential red paper problems and weed them out! You’ll be doing everyone a favor!