Hot Topics: Requirements Management

Hot Topic: Requirements Management Defining, changing and gathering requirements is one of the first steps that can get your project off on the right foot, or headed down the wrong path. Common Component Change Request ( Questionnaire - Template ) Use this Common Component Change Request Form to track all component change requests. Articles Testing Requirements - by Luc K. Richard Requirements Definition is one of the various activities of the software lifecycle. And like any other activity, it must be tested before being declared as complete. The Requirements Puzzle - by Paula K. Martin Before you start putting the pieces together, you need to see the big picture. Learn how to define your customer's project requirements and fit them into the right solution. The Art of Requirements Gathering - by George Spafford A project has an objective to attain in a fixed amount of time with a limited amount of resources. Attaining the objective means that necessary requirements must be identified and managed. The intent of this article is to build on previous articles discussing expectations and provide some ideas about the requirements-gathering process. What Can Go Wrong with Workgroup Workflow: Requirements & Stipulations (Part 1 of 3) - by Joe Wynne Is your workgroup's firm foundation actually a bed of crackers? What Can Go Wrong with Workgroup Workflow: Requirements & Stipulations (Part 2 of 3) - by Joe Wynne Is your workgroup’s firm foundation actually a bed of crackers? As our series continues, we continue to look at the importance of basics: requirements and stipulations. What Can Go Wrong with Workgroup Workflow: Requirements & Stipulations (Part 3 of 3) - by Joe Wynne Is your workgroup's firm foundation actually a bed of crackers? The final installment in our series continues to look at scope of work, and at quality requirements. Know What You Need - by Andre Leclerc Do you really expect to get what you want if you don't know what you need? Requirements are essential to success. Get them right--right from the start. Discovering Stakeholder Expectations - by George Spafford It pays to understand and manage the expectations of sponsors and stakeholders. As expectations are reviewed and nominated to become requirements, the use of a "parking lot" list will help ease the stress for some unmet expectations, and change management will further help ensure that expectations are met when the project draws to a close. Park your eyes here to find out more. Stakeholder Expectations - by George Spafford We've explored the identification and mapping of stakeholders, the first steps of the expectation management process. If expectations are not actively managed during the course of a project, then the risks for partial or total project failure increase. With that in mind, this article will continue to explore the theme and lay the groundwork for the active management of stakeholder expectations. Designing to Close the Stakeholder Value Gap - by Michael R. Wood Asking stakeholders what they value seems to be the easiest way to find out. But there are flaws in traditional survey techniques. Here's a three-pronged approach that can help you close the treacherous stakeholer value gap. Free Downloads Requirements Documentation ( Report - Template ) Complete and accurate requirements are possible if you use a template that takes the guesswork out of the process--changes in the user's mind notwithstanding. Preliminary Application Development Requirements ( Specifications/Procedures - Template ) If you are developing an application for users, it helps to know what your basic business requirements are before you begin extensive analysis and design. This form will help you document them. User Requirements Planning Form ( Specifications/Procedures Questionnaire / Questionnaire - Template ) When developing a new system, you'll have to interview the future users and ascertain their requirements for the system. This form walks you through the process. Pre-Development Requirements Checklist This checklist will help you assess your user and technical requirements for accuracy, completeness and quality. Assessment of Business Change Requirements ( Evaluation Assessment - Template ) Assess the scope, impact ranking and criticality of each business change required to implement a particular application package. Business Information Requirements ( Report - Template ) What data should you keep in a Data Warehouse and why? This form helps you identify the needed data and its associated characteristics in relation to your business requirements. Business Requirements Documentation ( Evaluation Form - Template ) This basic Business Requirements Documentation template covers business function requirements, reports, interfaces, exceptions, and forms. Premium Downloads Stakeholder Requirements Comparison Matrix ( Template ) Different stakeholder groups affected by your project will want different results. Each group's requirements will not only differ, but sometimes be in conflict. Use this template to identify conflicts/potential conflicts, gaps, contradictions or incompatibilities between stakeholder group requirements, so you can reconcile them. Software Requirements and Technical Specification ( Template ) When you're dealing with software requirements and technical specifications, you can't be too thorough, too detailed or too careful. This template will help you identify the functional/technical requirements for your own special project. It also will help you describe the data model that will be used along with its implementation.

Requirements Management Info Center Toolkits Requirements Management Plan Toolkit Includes: - Template: Requirements Management Plan - White Paper: 5 Things You Must Know About Requirements Planning - White Paper: High-Quality Requirements Plan Ingredients - White Paper: Diagnosing Requirements Failure All About Requirements Maturity Toolkit Includes: - White Paper: Hitting The Mark: The Impact of Requirements Maturity on Project Outcomes - White Paper: The Requirements Maturity Model Explained - White Paper: The Six Requirements Capability Areas - Chart: Project Cost by Requirements Maturity Level - Chart: Project Performance by Requirements Maturity Level White Papers Getting Business Requirements Right The later in the system development life-cycle that major errors are discovered the more expensive it is to fix them. But the earliest stages of the systems development lifecycle (SDLC) are most often the least consistently executed. This paper describes a methodology that brings the early stages of the SDLC up to a high level of maturity: consistent, proven, and optimized for success. Getting Consensus on Business Requirements Before your company launches its next package selection, implementation or upgrade, make sure you don’t cripple the project from the start by failing to identify your requirements – the number one reason that projects spin out of control. This white paper summarizes some of the key lessons we have learned through our industry-leading requirements definition practice. 6 Things Your CIO Needs to Know About Requirements Maturity If your organization is not predictably successful in technology projects, there is likely an issue in requirements. CIOs must take action and own requirements maturity improvement. CIOs are in the best position to sell requirements maturity improvement to the organization and can greatly help the process by effectively communicating required actions, and ensuring a suitable resources allocation. There are 6 things your CIO needs to know to help him/her in their role of requirements change advocate. Executive Guide to Evaluating Requirements Quality Requirements quality is tangible. It is possible to look at the specific characteristics of requirements documentation and determine if it is sufficiently clear, accurate and complete to lead to a successful project. Since flawed requirements trigger about 70% of all project failures,1 this paper will present some hard and fast rules for looking at requirements documents, in any format, and being able to determine if they are reasonably well constructed. It will outline the key points to look for in a requirements document, and why this can save a company hundreds of thousands of dollars. Finally, it will offer five straightforward questions to address when evaluating requirements quality. The paper is not intended to be a full audit of requirements, but rather act as a guide and checklist for evaluation. Business Analysis Benchmark Find the path to success in business requirements definition and management. Technology pervades almost every aspect of corporate competitiveness from customer experience to the products and services offered. Companies that do a poor job at requirements definition and management have trouble communicating needs between the business and technology operations. This inability to clearly and efficiently communicate business needs will eventually show up in the fiscal results of even the largest publicly traded companies. Business Requirements Document Template This is a Word 2003(.doc) document produced using the 2011 IAG BRD 6.3 Word template. This template is typical of a BRD produced on IAG Consulting’s engagements (with minor variations for engagements using ReqPro, Caliber, inteGREAT or Sparx EA).