Requirement Reading

Brad Egeland is an IT/project management consultant and author with over 25 years of software development, management and project management experience leading initiatives in manufacturing, government contracting, gaming and hospitality, retail operations, aviation and airline, pharmaceutical, start-ups, healthcare, higher education, not-for-profit, high-tech, engineering and general IT.

  Requirements Management  

I always say that requirements are the lifeblood of the project. And there’s no question that the quality of your requirements can make or break your project. Detailed, thorough and accurate requirements give you control over your project development and prevent rework. And when you lessen the risk of rework, you automatically have a better chance at hitting the mark in terms of on-time and on-budget project solution delivery. That adds up to a much greater chance at project success and overall customer satisfaction.

So, what are the characteristics of a good requirement? What differentiates a good requirement from a bad one? Generally, in order for a requirement to be good, it must meet four basic criteria:

• It must be verifiable
• It must meet a specific need
• It must be clear and understandable
• It must be attainable

Let’s break these out further…

A good requirement is verifiable
A requirement must state something that can be verified by inspection, analysis, test or demonstration. As you review a requirement, think about how you will prove that the product meets it. How will you test that the end solution is delivering what the requirement is stating as a need? Determine the specific criteria for product acceptance, which will ensure verifiable requirements. And the product acceptance--when speaking in terms …

Please log in or sign up below to read the rest of the article.