Optimize Requirements Gathering to Effectively Serve the Business Poor requirements are the #1 reason projects fail – take a strategic approach to optimize requirements gathering to give the business what it needs! Proper requirements management is a challenge that has plagued IT managers for decades. The cost of poor requirements are non-trivial: project overruns, insufficient delivery of business value, and a hit to IT’s reputation. Despite the challenges inherent with proper requirements management, few organizations have put the necessary effort into standardizing and adopting best practices for requirements management. Rethink your approach to requirements gathering and stop paving the cow paths! Just because a process is currently performed a certain way, it does not mean the new application should be designed to do the same. Envision the optimal path before commiting to specific capabilities. Up to 50% of project rework is attributable to problems with requirements, and of projects that fail, 70% fail due to poor requirements. As a result… • IT receives the blame for any project shortcomings or failures. • IT loses its credibility and ability to champion future projects. • Late projects can tie up IT resources longer than planned. • Cost overruns can come directly out of IT budget. Following the Info-Tech requirements gathering framework will… • Reduce overall project time. • Reduce overall project costs. • Reduce instances of errors. • Increase business value of application. Identify and analyze requirements management performance gaps Don’t complete things out of order by investing in expensive requirements management software before addressing people and process related performance gaps. The perfect tool is useless without the underlying people and processes in place. Plan for requirements gathering Having a standardized approach to requirements management is critical, and it should take the form of a set of Standard Operating Procedures. The SOP should cover all the major bases of requirements management. Elicit requirements There is a time and place for each elicitation technique. Don’t become too reliant on the same ones. Diversify your approach based on the elicitation goal. Analyze requirements The analysis phase is where requirements are compiled, categorized, and prioritized to simplify requirements management. Many organizations prematurely celebrate being finished the elicitation phase and do not perform adequate diligence in this phase; however, analysis is crucial for a smooth transition into validation. Assess and validate requirements and solutions Some may argue the biggest challenge in the validation phase is getting stakeholders to sign-off on the requirements package, but the real challenge is getting stakeholders to actually read it. Prepare a user friendly requirements package.

Optimize Requirement Gathering to Effectively Serve the Business

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Page 1: Optimize Requirement Gathering to Effectively Serve the Business

Optimize Requirements Gathering to Effectively Serve the Business

Poor requirements are the #1 reason projects fail – take a strategic approach to optimize requirements gathering to give the business what it needs!

Proper requirements management is a challenge that has plagued IT managers for decades. The cost of poor requirements are non-trivial: project overruns, insufficient delivery of business value, and a hit to IT’s reputation. Despite the challenges inherent with proper requirements management, few organizations have put the necessary effort into standardizing and adopting best practices for requirements management.

Rethink your approach to requirements gathering and stop paving the cow paths!

Just because a process is currently performed a certain way, it does not mean the new application should be designed to do the same. Envision the optimal path before commiting to specific capabilities.Up to 50% of project rework is attributable to problems with requirements, and of projects that fail, 70% fail due to poor requirements. As a result…

• IT receives the blame for any project shortcomings or failures.• IT loses its credibility and ability to champion future projects.• Late projects can tie up IT resources longer than planned.• Cost overruns can come directly out of IT budget.

Following the Info-Tech requirements gathering framework will…

• Reduce overall project time.• Reduce overall project costs.• Reduce instances of errors.• Increase business value of application.

Identify and analyze requirements management performance gaps Don’t complete things out of order by investing in expensive requirements management software before addressing people and process related performance gaps. The perfect tool is useless without the underlying people and processes in place.Plan for requirements gathering Having a standardized approach to requirements management is critical, and it should take the form of a set of Standard Operating Procedures. The SOP should cover all the major bases of requirements management.Elicit requirements There is a time and place for each elicitation technique. Don’t become too reliant on the same ones. Diversify your approach based on the elicitation goal.Analyze requirements The analysis phase is where requirements are compiled, categorized, and prioritized to simplify requirements management. Many organizations prematurely celebrate being finished the elicitation phase and do not perform adequate diligence in this phase; however, analysis is crucial for a smooth transition into validation.Assess and validate requirements and solutions Some may argue the biggest challenge in the validation phase is getting stakeholders to sign-off on the requirements package, but the real challenge is getting stakeholders to actually read it. Prepare a user friendly requirements package.Manage, communicate, and test Requirements Track requirements from inception through to testing by implementing traceability tools. Even if you’re not using a dedicated requirements management suite, you still need a way to trace requirements.