The third amigo problem when customer is unknown

Question

BDD is a useful collaboration tool (amongst other purposes). One of the main benefits is the shared language between customers/business analysts, developers, and testers. This is facilitated by the Three Amigos meetings, where all three sides try to come to the same conclusion about the requirements.

If you have a custom made software, a company A hires a software development company B to build the app. Someone from the company A represents the business to the product owner from company B, and in turn, this product owner represents the customer to the development team.

But, what happens when company B is developing software without the requirements, for example, when creating a mobile store app? Who is representing the unknown number of potential users to the team? Where is the product owner collecting requirements from?

Answer 1

This is an example of building a software system for the marketplace. In this case, you have many customers or users, each of which has its expectations for the system. However, someone must have identified that there is a need for the product in the marketplace. If someone did not justify the possible need or desire for the product, how did anyone fund the development?

The "who" depends on the organization building the software and the methodologies used. You would need someone in a product management role. This person or group would be responsible for identifying who may be interested in this product, what their needs and desires are, and expressing those needs to the development team. There are several different techniques for eliciting requirements from a group of potential customers or users - interviews, questionnaires and surveys, market analysis, and brainstorming are just a few.

I'm not entirely sure that I'd say that the software is developed without requirements. Requirements exist in the mind of potential customers or users. Your system may address a fraction of those requirements, which may mean that your target audience will need integration points to use your solution in a broader system or perhaps will decline to use or purchase your product until it satisfied more of their needs.