This month’s post comes by way of Duncan Haughey from ProjectSmart.
Duncan provides some important (and often overlooked) rules for requirements gathering, which is a key component of any project’s success.
Requirements gathering is an essential part of any project and project management. Understanding fully what a project will deliver is critical to its success. Requirements gathering sounds like common sense, but surprisingly, it’s an area that is given far too little attention.
Many projects start with the barest headline list of requirements, only to find later the customer’s needs have not been adequately understood.
One way to avoid this problem is by producing a statement of requirements. This document is a guide to the main requirements of the project. It provides:
- A succinct requirement specification for management purposes.
- A statement of key objectives – a “cardinal points” specification.
- A description of the environment in which the system will work.
- Background information and references to other relevant material.
- Information on the primary design constraints.