How to Discover Quality Requirements

Michael R. Wood is a Business Process Improvement & IT Strategist Independent Consultant. He is creator of the business process-improvement methodology called HELIX and founder of The Natural Intelligence Group, a strategy, process improvement and technology consulting company. He is also a CPA, has served as an Adjunct Professor in Pepperdine's Management MBA program, an Associate Professor at California Lutheran University, and on the boards of numerous professional organizations. Mr. Wood is a sought after presenter of HELIX workshops and seminars in both the U.S. and Europe.

  Business Case   Requirements Management   Scope Management   Strategy  

So often, the seeds of failure are sewn into the fabric of a project from the very beginning due to the lack of a quality requirements discovery process (RDP). Far too many project managers erroneously rely heavily on believing stakeholders are able to articulate what they want in the end product. This is especially true in software application acquisition and development projects.

Before jumping into the requirements discovery process, it is important define what is meant by “requirements management”. Here are a few definitions that serve this purpose. The first is from the “CDC Unified Process Practices Guide for Requirements Management” publication as follows:

“Requirements management is a systematic approach to finding, documenting, organizing, and tracking requirements and the changes that may occur. Requirements Management helps ensure that the end product meets the needs and expectations of the stakeholders. A key step in requirements management is to determine and agree upon specific requirements gathering processes, documentation of requirements, traceability, and testing expectations. Requirements are defined during the planning phase and are managed throughout the entire process from high level requirements, through detailed requirements, design, build, and test.”

For me, the operative word in the above definition is…

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