Improve Requirements Gathering
Back to basics: great products are built on great requirements.
Contributors
- Douglas Van Gelder, IT Manager, Community Development Commission of the County of Los Angeles
- Michael Lyons, Transit Management Analyst, Metropolitan Transit Authority
- Ken Piddington, CIO, MRE Consulting
- Thomas Dong, Enterprise Software Manager, City of Waterloo
- Chad Evans, Director of IT, Ontario Northland
- Three anonymous contributors
Your Challenge
- Poor requirements are the number one reason that projects fail. Requirements gathering and management has been an ongoing issue for IT professionals for decades.
- If proper due diligence for requirements gathering is not conducted, then the applications that IT is deploying won’t meet business objectives and will fail to deliver adequate business value.
- Inaccurate requirements definition can lead to significant amounts of project rework and hurt the organization’s financial performance. It will also create significant damage to the working relationship between IT and the business.
- Often, business analysts haven’t developed the right competencies to successfully execute requirements gathering processes, even when they are in place.
Our Advice
Critical Insight
- To avoid makeshift solutions, an organization needs to gather requirements with the desired future state in mind.
- Creating a unified set of standard operating procedures is essential for effectively gathering requirements, but many organizations fail to do it.
- Centralizing governance of requirements processes with a requirements gathering steering committee or requirements gathering center of excellence can bring greater uniformity and cohesion when gathering requirements across projects.
- Business analysts must be targeted for competency development to ensure that the processes developed above are being successfully executed and the right questions are being asked of project sponsors and stakeholders.
Impact and Result
- Enhanced requirements analysis will lead to tangible reductions in cycle time and reduced project overhead.
- An improvement in requirements analysis will strengthen the relationship between business and IT, as more and more applications satisfy stakeholder needs.
- More importantly, the applications delivered by IT will meet all of the must-have and at least some of the nice-to-have requirements, allowing end users to successfully execute their day-to-day responsibilities.
Start here – read the Executive Brief
Read our concise Executive Brief to find out why you should invest in optimizing your requirements gathering processes.
1. Build the target state for the requirements gathering process
Capture a clear understanding of the target needs for the requirements process.
2. Define the elicitation process
Develop best practices for conducting and structuring elicitation of business requirements.
3. Analyze and validate requirements
Standardize frameworks for analysis and validation of business requirements.
4. Create a requirements governance action plan
Formalize change control and governance processes for requirements gathering.
Guided Implementations
This guided implementation is a nine call advisory process.
Guided Implementation #1 - Build the target state for the requirements gathering process
Call #1 - Review Info-Tech’s requirements gathering methodology.
Call #2 - Assess current state for requirements gathering – pains and challenges.
Call #3 - Determine target state for business requirements gathering – areas of opportunity.
Guided Implementation #2 - Define the elicitation process
Call #1 - Assess elicitation techniques and determine best fit to projects and business environment.
Call #2 - Review options for structuring the output of requirements elicitation (i.e. operating models).
Guided Implementation #3 - Analyze and validate requirements
Call #1 - Create policies for requirements categorization and prioritization.
Call #2 - Establish best practices for validating the BRD with project stakeholders.
Guided Implementation #4 - Create a requirements governance action plan
Call #1 - Discuss how to handle changes to requirements, and establish a formal change control process.
Call #2 - Review options for ongoing governance of the requirements gathering process.
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Requirements Gathering
Poor requirements are the number one reason projects fail.
This course makes up part of the PPM & Projects Certificate.
Course information:
- Title: Requirements Gathering
- Number of Course Modules: 5
- Estimated Time to Complete: 2-3 hours
- Featured Analysts:
- Ben Dickie, Research Director, Applications Practice
- David Piazza, VP of Research and Advisory
- Now Playing: Academy: Requirements Gathering | Executive Brief
Book Your Workshop
Onsite workshops offer an easy way to accelerate your project. If you are unable to do the project yourself, and a Guided Implementation isn't enough, we offer low-cost onsite delivery of our project workshops. We take you through every phase of your project and ensure that you have a roadmap in place to complete your project successfully.
Module 1: Define the Current State and Target State for Requirements Gathering
The Purpose
- Create a clear understanding of the target needs for the requirements gathering process.
Key Benefits Achieved
- A comprehensive review of the current state for requirements gathering across people, processes, and technology.
- Identification of major challenges (and opportunity areas) that should be improved via the requirements gathering optimization project.
Activities
Outputs
Understand current state and document existing requirement process steps.
- Requirements Gathering Maturity Assessment
Identify stakeholder, process, outcome, and training challenges.
Conduct target state analysis.
- Project Level Selection Tool
Establish requirements gathering metrics.
Identify project levels 1/2/3/4.
Match control points to project levels 1/2/3/4.
Conduct project scoping and identify stakeholders.
- Requirements Gathering Documentation Tool
Module 2: Define the Elicitation Process
The Purpose
- Create best practices for conducting and structuring elicitation of business requirements.
Key Benefits Achieved
- A repeatable framework for initial elicitation of requirements.
- Prescribed, project-specific elicitation techniques.
Activities
Outputs
Understand elicitation techniques and which ones to use.
- Project Elicitation Schedule
Document and confirm elicitation techniques.
Create a requirements gathering elicitation plan for your project.
Build the operating model for your project.
- Project Operating Model
Define SIPOC-MC for your selected project.
- Project SIPOC-MC Sub-Processes
Practice using interviews with business stakeholders to build use case models.
- Project Use Cases
Practice using table-top testing with business stakeholders to build use case models.
Module 3: Analyze and Validate Requirements
The Purpose
- Build a standardized framework for analysis and validation of business requirements.
Key Benefits Achieved
- Policies for requirements categorization, prioritization, and validation.
- Improved project value as a result of better prioritization using the MOSCOW model.
Activities
Outputs
Categorize gathered requirements for use.
- Requirements Gathering Documentation Tool
Consolidate similar requirements and eliminate redundancies.
Practice prioritizing requirements.
Build the business process model for the project.
Rightsize the requirements documentation template.
- Requirements Gathering Testing Checklist
Present the business requirements document to business stakeholders.
Identify testing opportunities.
Module 4: Establish Change Control Processes
The Purpose
- Create formalized change control processes for requirements gathering.
Key Benefits Achieved
- Reduced interjections and rework – strengthened formal evaluation and control of change requests to project requirements.
Activities
Outputs
Review existing CR process.
- Requirements Traceability Matrix
Review change control process best practices and optimization opportunities.
Build guidelines for escalating changes.
- Requirements Gathering Communication Tracking Template
Confirm your requirements gathering process for project levels 1/2/3/4.
Module 5: Establish Ongoing Governance for Requirements Gathering
The Purpose
- Establish governance structures and ongoing oversight for business requirements gathering.
Key Benefits Achieved
- Consistent governance and oversight of the requirements gathering process, resulting in fewer “wild west” scenarios.
- Better repeatability for the new requirements gathering process, resulting in less wasted time and effort at the outset of projects.
Activities
Outputs
Define RACI for the requirements gathering process.
- Requirements Gathering Action Plan
Define the requirements gathering steering committee purpose.
Define RACI for requirements gathering steering committee.
Define the agenda and cadence for the requirements gathering steering committee.
Identify and analyze stakeholders for communication plan.
Create communication management plan.
Build the action plan.
After each Info-Tech experience, we ask our members to quantify the real time savings, monetary impact, and project improvements our research helped them achieve. See our top member experiences for this Blueprint, and what our clients have to say.
Client
Experience
Impact
$ Saved
Days Saved
MicroPort Orthopedics Inc.
Guided Implementation
10/10
N/A
10
Holy Name Medical Center
Workshop
9/10
N/A
50
Advisors Excel, LLC
Guided Implementation
10/10
N/A
N/A
Pembina Pipeline Corporation
Guided Implementation
9/10
$25,000
10
Traeger Pellet Grills LLC
Guided Implementation
9/10
$12,733
1
Office of the Attorney General
Guided Implementation
10/10
$63,667
120
MSS Technologies, Inc.
Guided Implementation
10/10
N/A
2
Sport Maska Inc
Workshop
8/10
$25,000
32
Jamaica Public Service
Guided Implementation
8/10
N/A
20
Westoba Credit Union Limited
Guided Implementation
9/10
N/A
N/A
Palm Beach State College
Guided Implementation
8/10
N/A
N/A
State of Hawaii
Workshop
10/10
N/A
N/A
Montana Department of Revenue
Workshop
10/10
$31,833
10
Federal Economic Development Agency for Southern Ontario
Workshop
10/10
$50,000
20
MF Elivate
Guided Implementation
8/10
$3,820
5
Sinclair Community College
Guided Implementation
8/10
N/A
N/A
Regional Sanitation & Sacramento Area Sewer District
Guided Implementation
9/10
N/A
N/A
Regional Sanitation & Sacramento Area Sewer District
Guided Implementation
9/10
$127K
20
City of Virginia Beach
Workshop
10/10
$382K
90
HEXO Operations Inc.
Guided Implementation
10/10
$75,000
50
Ariens Company
Guided Implementation
9/10
N/A
N/A
Arizona Department of Environmental Quality
Guided Implementation
9/10
N/A
10
Office of the Attorney General
Guided Implementation
10/10
$12,733
10
Apple Federal Credit Union
Workshop
10/10
N/A
5
Noramco
Guided Implementation
10/10
N/A
N/A
GoodLife Fitness Clubs
Guided Implementation
9/10
N/A
N/A
Office of the Attorney General
Guided Implementation
10/10
N/A
N/A
UC Irvine, Division of Continuing Education
Guided Implementation
10/10
$127K
20
VCU Health System Authority
Workshop
9/10
N/A
20
California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection
Guided Implementation
9/10
$29,923
50
