Requirements Planning: Faux Pas or a Must?

Melicia holds a bachelors degree in Computer Science and Philosophy. She successfully completed her masters in Computer-Based Management Information Systems with distinction and received the Graduate Award for Best Project. Melicia holds 2 Graduate Certificates in Project Management and Business Analysis.

  Business Case   Requirements Management   Scope Management   Strategy  

Recently, there has been an upsurge for business analysts, especially in concocting requirements for projects. One important responsibility for a business analyst is to identify the approach to collect requirements that need to be documented and implemented to ensure that the project is completed successfully.

On any project, requirements are just the necessary items that must be included in the project to ensure success. When it comes to planning projects and designing solutions, the project manager and/or business analyst are typically tasked with this particular chore; thus, placing emphasis on the importance of requirements planning can never be overrated.

Without clear, concise and actionable detailed requirements, projects will flounder. Grasping what requirements planning is, how to engage in it effectively and the success factors for it will result in the collection of accurate and detailed requirements.

The reality is that projects are continuously failing due to the questionable process being executed to plan how to elicit, gather and document requirements. If we dissect the prevailing issue, it will point to the fact that many organizations are not spending time to plan for requirements development. Therefore, it begs the question: Is requirements planning a faux pas or a must?

As practitioners in an …

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