We gather requirements at the beginning of our project planning phase because they are necessary for many other project management tasks. We can gather our project requirements very simply or have a much more elaborate requirements process where we are tracing the originator of each requirement and tying it to their performance commitments.
A very common mistake when gathering requirements is to treat the process as simply making a list of everything everybody wants. This tends to keep people happy because they can add anything they wish to the project. However, the project manager suffers consequences every week from that requirements gathering process. The consequences include stakeholders any additional requirements every single week. This is the classic form of scope creep where we continue to add new features bells and whistles to the project. This process also substantially increases the project failure rate because the project manager is not given additional time or resources to fulfill those requirements and dust the project is late and over budget.
How to Gather Requirements |
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Step # |
Responsibility of |
Actions to Take |
1 |
Project manager |
Immediately after the charter is approved, the project manager uses the information about the identified stakeholders to conduct requirements gathering meetings. |
2 |
Project manager and stakeholders |
The project manager meets with the stakeholders to discuss their requirements for producing the major deliverables of the project. The project manager is not compiling a wish list. Instead, the discussion focuses on each of the major deliverables and what is required to produce them. |
3 |
Project manager |
Every suggested requirement is put through a test of whether it is necessary to produce one of the project deliverables. If it is a good idea but not necessary to the project's scope the requirement is not included. |
4 |
Project manager |
Meet with as many stakeholders as possible with the intent of unearthing all potential requirements. Many of these requirements will not be included in the project plan but there is great advantage to identify them during the beginning of the planning process rather than finding out about them late in the project. |
5 |
Project manager |
For every requirement that is included in the project plan, the project manager completes the requirements register, which documents the individual who is accountable for the requirement. This documentation maintains traceability back to the originator of every requirement in the plan. |
6 |
Project manager |
When all of the requirements have been considered and either accepted or rejected the project manager and team can proceed to the development of the scope statement and work breakdown structure. |
Deep Dive on This Topic with Additional Articles:
Getting a New Project Assignment & Planning it Properly
Project Planning & Requirements
Project Planning: Using the Project Charter to Solve Problems
