Understanding project requirements is a key success factor.
The collection or gathering of requirements is the process of determining and documenting the needs of the stakeholders to meet a project’s objectives. It’s a crucial step in the project life cycle that helps ensure project success by aligning project goals with stakeholder needs.
Sources
Project requirements can come from a variety of sources. Here is just a sampling:
- Project Charter – the Charter should contain a scope statement, but it may not provide the detailed requirements
- RFP or RFQ – customers requesting project proposals usually provide a list of requirements in the bid request
- Applicable codes, regulations, etc. – will have specific requirements that require lawful conformance
- Stakeholders – requirements provided by a stakeholder or sponsor may not be written and may just be presented with a wave of the hand, you know what I want. Right?
While we may have been provided a list of requirements, they may not be clear and must be refined, explained, detailed, documented, and approved before they can be produced as a project deliverable.
Project Requirement Collection and Clarification Techniques
Here is a list of project requirement collection techniques that can be employed to collect, clarify, and detail requirements.
Interview and Surveys
The simplest way to clarify something is to ask in an interview or survey. This is a structured one-on-one conversation where the project manger asks questions and hoping to receive clarification or additional information about the requirements
Observation
Observation entails viewing and noting relevant information about the requirements
Prototypes
Creating a preliminary model that enables testing or observation to learn more about the characteristics of the requirements
Focus Groups
Inviting a limited and deliberately selected group of knowledgeable people to participate in a facilitated discussion to obtain information about the requirements
Facilitated Workshops
A facilitated workshop is a planned collaborative event where participants “roll up their sleeves” and work together to refine and documents the project requirements
Group Creativity Techniques
Project managers frequently use one or more of the following group creativity techniques to refine requirements.
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The Delphi Technique is a good way to get input from several subject matter experts