- Poor requirements are correlated with failed projects. Poor requirements are to blame for as much as 78% of project failures (ZipDo, 2024).
- As more teams shift to Agile and hybrid methodologies, there is often a struggle to develop consistent practices for requirements management.
- Often, business analysts (BAs), or the role tasked with business analysis or requirements management, haven’t developed the right competencies to successfully execute and add value.
Our Advice
Critical Insight
- Contrary to popular belief, business analysis and requirements management are not dead. They are more critical than ever in an environment of continual disruption and upheaval.
- Good requirements practices are the key to unlocking project and product value and reducing technical debt.
Impact and Result
- Develop an outcome-based common framework for requirements management that works across teams and methodologies.
- Standardize the management of evergreen requirements (requirements as an asset), not one-time change requirements.
- Align requirements management with product backlog management and product delivery processes.
- Develop a requirements management playbook that extends your solution delivery framework.
Member Testimonials
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.
9.4/10
Overall Impact
$106,736
Average $ Saved
24
Average Days Saved
Client
Experience
Impact
$ Saved
Days Saved
Metropolitan Nashville Public Schools
Guided Implementation
10/10
N/A
N/A
My first interaction with Info-Tech - I'll be able to estimate time/financial impact after we implement the recommended improvements.
EA Sween Company
Guided Implementation
8/10
$13,700
5
Georgia Municipal Association
Workshop
10/10
$13,700
20
Working through situational examples that happen at our company was very helpful.
State of Kansas Human Services
Workshop
8/10
N/A
N/A
I don't know how to estimate the time and money it will save. But from my team, I received excellent feedback. The only thing we need to do now i... Read More
Ideal Boilers Limited
Guided Implementation
10/10
$17,116
5
The team are so informed but more than that so keen to work with us to get to a great answer for our business.
California Department of Motor Vehicles
Guided Implementation
10/10
$137K
20
Vince was the best part. He covered the material clearly, paused for questions and to check our understanding, and he even covered a topic that was... Read More
Mevotech LP
Workshop
9/10
$10,000
5
Fernco Inc
Workshop
10/10
$68,500
20
Worst: Learning the about the requirements gathering fundamentals that need to be in place to be ready up the bottom from the maturity level. B... Read More
Louisiana Department of Health
Workshop
10/10
$13,700
32
There were so many applicable and executable topics that were covered. Everyone on my team talked about how much they enjoyed the discussions and i... Read More
Modesto Irrigation District
Workshop
10/10
$68,500
20
Kieran did a great job presenting the information. I'm already seeing improvements in the way our team works with end-users to gather system requi... Read More
Public Utility District 2 Grant County
Guided Implementation
10/10
$13,712
20
Westoba Credit Union Limited
Workshop
9/10
$600K
50
Best - The material was relevant, and Kieran presented with examples that really drove the critical points home. We are very new to requirements ga... Read More
Great Lakes Water Authority
Workshop
9/10
N/A
N/A
I found the following most useful: • Maturity Assessment • BA Task Deep Dive • Metrics • Stop, Start, Continue, conversation • Elicitation Te... Read More
The President and Fellows of Harvard College, a Massachusetts nonprofit corporation, acting by and through Harvard Business School
Guided Implementation
10/10
N/A
N/A
Working with Vincent has been very encouraging. He is super helpful to our work and is willing to engage at a pace that is sustainable for us. Vinc... Read More
County of Marin IST
Workshop
9/10
$11,699
10
We had explained our needs to the consultant tentatively assigned to facilitate our workshop, however when our facilitator changed, these needs wer... Read More
General Dynamics Land Systems Inc.
Workshop
10/10
N/A
44
Kieran was extremely knowledgeable and was able to answer all our ad hoc questions. We left the week with an action plan and tools to get started.... Read More
Circular Materials
Workshop
10/10
$10,000
10
We really appreciated Kieran's flexibility. He was able to adjust the content and delivery to the attendees to make the learning experience more ... Read More
City of Virginia Beach
Workshop
10/10
$12,999
10
Mr. Herzstein was very well prepared and knowledgeable, and he managed the sessions well. The best part was to see how the teams were engaged in th... Read More
St. Lukes Health System Ltd.
Workshop
8/10
$12,599
2
This was our first InfoTech workshop. Kieran did an amazing job facilitating to a wide range of participants. There were also add-ins that were "bo... Read More
South Carolina Department of Education
Workshop
10/10
$779K
50
Truly an enlightening experience. It gave me a sense of comfort in finding that while we need to do some internal organization and setting some u... Read More
The Canadian Food Inspection Agency
Workshop
9/10
$25,000
20
It is hard to estimate the value. The team did get a good foundational base on gathering requirements. With regards to worst parts it would have be... Read More
State Universities Retirement System Of Illinois
Workshop
8/10
$6,299
90
Kieran's insight based on real-life experiences! The real-time updates to ppt slides for processes, and the worksheets we worked from were very he... Read More
BASS (GSD) LTD
Workshop
9/10
$1.26M
47
Best: We were able to utilize the topics covered within the workshop and able to map that against our organization. Worst: It would have been more ... Read More
LynnCo
Workshop
9/10
N/A
5
The worst part was that I had other priorities come up, and I couldn't attend the whole event.
The Suddath Companies
Workshop
10/10
$20,159
16
No worst parts Best - He was great, engaged everyone and got the most out of the folks who participated This feedback is from Paul Schuster
MUFG Investor Services
Guided Implementation
10/10
N/A
5
Presenter was knowledgeable, friendly, prepared with the right materials and was a good listner.
Dark Fibre Africa
Guided Implementation
8/10
$29,139
10
CRH: Oldcastle Building Envelope
Workshop
10/10
$29,139
10
The extensive details within the materials is impressive and very useful. The work shop leader was excellent, I just wish more members of our te... Read More
Lendmark Financial Services, LLC
Guided Implementation
10/10
$12,399
5
There really isn't a worse part but the best part is to hear other idea and opinions and identify gaps. if we had to read thru all the material pr... Read More
County of Marin IST
Guided Implementation
9/10
N/A
N/A
Robert is attentive, listens to our requirement and provides great insight . Unfortunately, due to our current workload, the team needs to shift t... Read More
Requirements Gathering
Poor requirements are the number one reason projects fail.
This course makes up part of the PPM & Projects Certificate.
- Course Modules: 5
- Estimated Completion Time: 2-3 hours
- Featured Analysts:
- Ben Dickie, Research Director, Applications Practice
- David Piazza, VP of Research and Advisory
Workshop: Scale Up Your Requirements Management Practices
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 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: Pre-Work
The Purpose
- Establish a baseline for your requirements management maturity.
Key Benefits Achieved
- Awareness of the current-state maturity
- Serves for planning workshop activities to address significant gaps or needs
Activities
Outputs
Complete Requirements Management Maturity Assessment (Current State)
- An assessment of your current-state maturity and areas of improvement
Module 2: Introduction and Current State
The Purpose
- Understand your current-state maturity with requirements and set a baseline from which to improve.
Key Benefits Achieved
- Defined project leveling
- Defined requirements management processes
Activities
Outputs
Based on the current state, prioritize risks and challenges.
Establish requirements management metrics.
Identify your project levels.
- Project level selection
Define your high-level process.
- Requirements management processes
Module 3: Define the Elicitation Process
The Purpose
- Identify stakeholders and define your elicitation processes.
Key Benefits Achieved
- Building a sample elicitation plan to guide requirements efforts
Activities
Outputs
Identify typical project stakeholders.
Understand and document elicitation techniques by use case.
- Project use cases
Create a requirements management elicitation plan for a typical project.
- Project elicitation plan
Module 4: Analyze and Validate Requirements
The Purpose
- Effectively analyze and prioritize your requirements and validate them against stakeholder needs.
Key Benefits Achieved
- A defined standard for documentation and communication with stakeholders
Activities
Outputs
Analyze and categorize requirements.
Prioritize requirements.
Model requirements with use case diagrams or user stories.
Validate your requirements.
Create a requirements management communication plan for a typical project.
- Requirements documentation and communication standards
Module 5: Changes, Requirements, and Backlogs
The Purpose
- Establish a framework for managing changes to requirements and build a plan for continuous improvement.
Key Benefits Achieved
- A roadmap for continuously improving the maturity of your requirements management practices
- A completed Requirements Management BA Playbook
Activities
Outputs
Develop a change control process.
Build guidelines for escalating changes.
Complete Requirements Management Maturity Assessment (target state).
Define roadmap to target-state maturity.
Identify and analyze stakeholders for communication plan.
Create communication management plan.
Build the action plan.
- Target-state roadmap
- Requirements management playbook
Scale Up Your Requirements Management Practices
Embrace business analysis at the speed and scale of your organization.
Analysts’ perspective
Scale Up Your Requirements Management Practices
Vince Mirabelli
Principal Research Director,
Application Delivery and Management
Info-Tech Research Group
Hans Eckman
Principal Research Director,
Application Delivery and Management
Info-Tech Research Group
History has proven the importance of requirements management in delivering value through successful projects, products, and processes. Yet we continue to make the same mistakes, ignoring or discounting the benefits of business analysis and requirements management. These disciplines continue to be under attack despite consistent research and project metrics showing the need for proper requirements management. With the continued shift to Agile DevOps practices, teams are further undermining the value of highly mature analysis, leading to BADgile (bad Agile) practices.
We no longer have time to relearn, rediscover, and redocument.
Managing requirements as an asset is more important than ever with the need to deliver solutions and changes quickly and be able to respond to opportunities or avoid danger.
Operating with an immature requirements management practice is no longer an option.
This is your time to take a stand and develop an outcome-based requirements management process and playbook aligned with your overall solution delivery framework. This becomes your vehicle to keep teams on the right path and dramatically reduce rework and missing value delivery.
Increase your odds of delivering the right value the first time, without costly rework and disappointed stakeholders. Build your highly mature requirements management practice now.
Executive summary
Your Challenge
|
Common ObstaclesYou will struggle with requirements management if:
These manifest as costly project rework and dissatisfied stakeholders who avoid working with you if they can. |
Info-Tech’s Approach
|
Insights summary
Contrary to popular belief, business analysis and requirements management are not dead. They are more important than ever in an environment of continual disruption and upheaval.
Good requirements practices are the key to unlocking project and product value and reducing technical debt.
Poor requirements are the number one reason that projects fail
- Requirements gathering and management has been an ongoing issue for IT professionals for decades. Poor requirements are the primary source of avoidable and costly rework (Info-Tech Research Group’s CIO Business Vision diagnostic, n=324), and 78% of software projects that fail do so because of poor requirements management (Geneca, 2017).
Requirements are more than elicitation and documentation
- When project teams focus solely on gathering and clarifying requirements, they become note-takers and documenters, missing the true purpose of analysis work. Getting things done isn’t as important as getting the right things done at the right time and for the right people.
Analysis isn’t just for product delivery, it is critical for product management
- A business or systems analyst must be one of a product owner’s or product manager’s best friends. Analysis is the bridge between operational (business) needs and the solution development that will unlock value. Requirements management helps ensure that the changes are “ready” for development and prioritized for the highest ROI.
- Managing requirements as an asset (as evergreen documentation in an always evolving current state) provides easier impact assessments, reduced time defining changes, and significantly less risk of requirements errors and omissions.
Requirements management reduces projects failure
78%
78% of requirements are out of sync with stakeholder goals
(Geneca, 2017)
62%
“There exists a Requirements Premium … organizations using poor practices spent 62% more on similarly sized projects than organizations using the best requirements practices.”
– Howard Podeswa, Requirements Engineering Magazine
Requirements define the solution. They must clearly articulate what is expected and serve as the blueprint for downstream activities, from development and testing to managing the adoption of change.
Getting to this point takes focus.
This is why maturing requirements management is critical to your continuous delivery and execution
“Requirements maturity is more important to project outcomes than methodology.”
– Keith Ellis, IAG Consulting
Many organizations would benefit from enhancing their business analysis maturity
The often-overlooked strategic value of the role comes with maturing your practices.
Only 18% of organizations have mature (optimized or established) business analysis practices.
With that higher level of maturity comes increased levels of capability, efficiency, and effectiveness in delivering value to people, processes, and technology. Through such efforts, teams are better equipped and able to connect the strategy of their organization to the projects, processes, and products they deliver.
Mature teams shift focus from “figuring business analysis out” to truly unleashing its potential, with business analysts contributing in strategic and tactical ways.
Source: PMI, 2017
Info-Tech Insight
Business analysts are best suited to connect the strategic with the tactical, the systems, and the operations. They maintain the most objective lens regarding how people, process, and technology connect and relate, and the most skilled of them can remove bias and politics from their perspective.
How business analysis supports our success today
Delivering value at the tactical level
Effective business analysis guides an organization through improvements to processes, products, and services. Business analysts “straddle the line between IT and the business to help bridge the gap and improve efficiency” in an organization (CIO, 2023).
They are most heavily involved in:
- Defining needs
- Modeling concepts, processes, and solutions
- Conducting analysis
- Maintaining and managing requirements
- Managing stakeholders
- Monitoring progress
- Doing business analysis planning
- Conducting elicitation
By including a business analyst in a project, organizations benefit by:
(IAG Consulting, 2009)
87%
Reducing time overruns
75%
Preventing budget overspend
78%
Reducing missed functionality
Use requirements to identify solution return on investment (ROI)
Requirements are key to product management success
Take a systems-thinking approach to solutions to ensure end-to-end value for end users aligned with the solution’s vision
- Product requirements are the building blocks for all work and value delivered by an organization, whether they know it or not.
-
Think of requirements as the raw materials for your operations. Your quality is dependent on the “builder” and “building blocks.”
- If your materials are of poor quality, your structure will be too.
- If analysts (builders) lack the skills to use the materials effectively, your building design will underperform.
- You need both high-quality requirements and expert analysts to build an organizational foundation that is built to last.
Strong stakeholder satisfaction with requirements management results in higher satisfaction in other areas
Source: Info-Tech Research Group’s CIO Business Vision diagnostic; n=324 small organizations
High satisfaction indicates a score greater than or equal to eight out of ten, and lower satisfaction a score below eight.
What is requirements management?
Requirements management includes “[p]lanning, executing, monitoring, and controlling any or all of the work associated with requirements elicitation and collaboration, requirements analysis and design, and requirements life cycle management.”
– “Business Analysis Body of Knowledge,” IIBA, 2015
It is an end-to-end framework for ensuring;
- The right questions are asked.
- The right features are built.
- The features built maximize stakeholder value.
- Change is managed effectively.
- Knowledge is maintained for the future.
Effective requirements management brings improved outcomes
Build the right features
Define what your users need and how best to engage with the solution.
Align with strategy
Ensure that what is being built into the solution “moves the needle” on achieving the strategic objectives of the organization. Otherwise, why build it?
Prevent scope creep
Define the boundaries of what you will and won’t include in solutions. This makes it easier to push back against stakeholders asking for “just one more feature.”
Avoid barriers
Support planning so that your project or product can avoid the many pitfalls and constraints that arise.
Adapted from Asana, 2024
There is a significant price to pay for poor requirements
(And we're not just talking figuratively!)
Poor requirements can result in increased effort, rework, defects, lower trust, low value, technical debt, costly production support, and little agility.
64%
64% of defect costs could be avoided during the analysis and design phases
(Crosstalk, cited in Deloitte, 2022).
Source: PPM Express, 2022
Address the causes of poor requirements
Retrospectives must be actionable and address the causes of poor requirements management. This isn’t a product/project issue. This is an enterprise risk and constraint issue.
Root Causes of Poor Requirements Gathering:
- Requirements elicitation procedures don’t exist.
- Requirements procedures exist but aren’t followed.
- There isn't enough time allocated to the analysis phase.
- There isn't enough investment secured from stakeholders and SMEs.
- There is no senior leadership mandate to fix requirements management.
Outcomes of Poor Requirements Gathering:
- Delays, rework, and costly overruns.
- Poor deliverable quality.
- Delayed feature implementation and value realization.
- Low feature utilization.
- Low stakeholder and end-user trust and satisfaction.
Requirements are a balancing act
Collaboration
Collaborating with subject matter experts and delivery team leads is necessary to define and validate requirements. Work with their limited availability.
Communication
Stakeholders and the delivery team must be kept informed throughout the requirements lifecycle. Provide the right information to the right people at the right time.
Documentation
Recording, organizing, and validating requirements are essential and must be right-sized to avoid slowing the time to delivery.
Control
Control points establish your “Definition of Done” for the timely gathering, analysis, and validation of product requirements.
Leverage Info-Tech’s proven Requirements Gathering Framework as the basis for building requirements processes
Info-Tech’s Requirements Gathering Framework is a comprehensive approach to requirements management that can be scaled to any size of project or organization. This framework has been extensively road-tested with our clients to ensure that it balances the needs of IT and business stakeholders to give a holistic, end-to-end approach for requirements gathering. It covers the foundational issues (elicitation, analysis, and validation) and prescribes techniques for planning, monitoring, communicating, and managing the requirements gathering process.
Don’t forget the importance of training
When creating the process for requirements management, think about how it will be executed by your BAs and what the composition of your business analysis team should look like. A strong business analysis professional needs to serve as an effective facilitator, mediator, and designer, maximizing value delivered to all areas of the organization.
What are some core competencies of a good BA?
- Strong stakeholder management skills
- Strong facilitation and elicitation skills
- Ability to ask relevant probing questions to uncover the unstated needs of stakeholders
- Experience with a variety of tools, tactics, and techniques
To ensure alignment of your BAs to the requirements management process, undertake a formal skills assessment to identify areas where analysts are strong and areas that should be targeted for training and skills development.
Training your BAs on the requirements management practice is essential; you need to get them on the same page to ensure consistency and repeatability of the requirements process.
Consider implementing a mentorship program between senior and junior BAs or investing in foundational training to lay a solid foundation for or close gaps in your requirements management practice.
Info-Tech’s methodology for requirements management
Phase Activities |
1. Understand the Value and Benefit of Requirements Management1.1 Understand Your Current State 1.2 Establish Metrics 1.3 Define Your Project Levels 1.4 Define the Process 1.5 Define Roles |
2. Define Your Elicitation Process2.1 Define Your Challenge 2.2 Identify Stakeholders 2.3 Understand and Document Elicitation Techniques 2.4 Create a Requirements Management Elicitation and Analysis Plan |
3. Analyze and Validate Your Requirements3.1 Analyze Your Requirements 3.2 Categorize Your Requirements 3.3 Prioritize Your Requirements 3.4 Model Your Requirements 3.5 Validate Your Requirements 3.6 Plan Stakeholder Communication |
4. Manage Requirements Change and Governance4.1 Develop a Change Control Process 4.2 Build Guidelines for Escalating Changes |
5. Plan Your Move to Your Target State5.1 Define Target-State Maturity 5.2 Identify and Close Gaps to Mature Requirements Practice |
Phase Outcomes |
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Blueprint tools and templates
Each step of this blueprint is accompanied by supporting deliverables to help you accomplish your goals:
Requirements Management Maturity Assessment
Helps establish your current maturity level, define your target state, and plan how to get there.
Requirements Management Workbook
Supporting tools and templates to advance your requirements management practice.
Key deliverable:
Requirements Management Playbook
A practical playbook for aligning your teams and articulating the guidelines for managing requirements within your team and organization.
Info-Tech offers various levels of support to best suit your needs
DIY Toolkit
“Our team has already made this critical project a priority, and we have the time and capability, but some guidance along the way would be helpful.”
Guided Implementation
“Our team knows that we need to fix a process, but we need assistance to determine where to focus. Some check-ins along the way would help keep us on track.”
Workshop
“We need to hit the ground running and get this project kicked off immediately. Our team has the ability to take this over once we get a framework and strategy in place.”
Executive & Technical Counseling
“Our team and processes are maturing; however, to expedite the journey we’ll need a seasoned practitioner to coach and validate approaches, deliverables, and opportunities.”
Consulting
“Our team does not have the time or the knowledge to take this project on. We need assistance through the entirety of this project.”