In this week’s article, I discuss the process of gathering requirements to inform the project’s design.
Here’s an excerpt from the article:
You’ve seen the box on the project schedule a hundred times. It always has the same label: “Gather Requirements”. And it’s always remarkably short — scheduled for just a day or two (or sometimes less!).
When I ask the project manager what this step involves, they inevitably tell me they’ll interview the major stakeholders and gather up the requirements that emerge. It’s going into the fields and picking berries needed for the project.
How do these major stakeholders know these requirements? Well, they just do. They’ve been thinking about it for a while (except for the ones who haven’t). They’ve talked to customers (except for most of them, who never talk to customers). They’ve talked to the sales people and the technical folks and the business modeling folks, who told them exactly what’s needed to make this product successful (but how do those folks know?).
Read the article: Replacing “Requirements Gathering” with Something That Works
How have you dealt with requirements gathering? Let us know below.
