People that rely on a project that is being executed rely on the project manager and the business analysts to gather requirements that will produce a product or service that will help the users or stakeholders of the project.
The project Management Institute defines a requirement as "condition or capability that must be met or possessed by a system, product, service, result or component to satisfy a contract, standard, specification, or other formally imposed document.
" The requirements are what will be accomplished when the project is complete.
The requirement gathering process is the process of gathering and documenting the needs, wants, and expectations of the sponsor, customer and other stake holders that will be affected by the project's completion.
The best way is to produce a list of requirements that the project team will work against while the project is being executed.
Without this list, the project may be done, but it might not satisfy the needs of the people who will use the product or system created by the project.
The two aspects of gathering requirements that must be done are listening to the customer and recording the requirements on a list.
During the requirement gathering process the prudent action for the project manager is to listen.
Let the stakeholders and customers talk about the needs and wants.
Record those needs and wants on a list and make sure detailed descriptions of them are noted as well.
Listening According to Larry Alan Nadig, Ph.
D.
, "Active or Reflective Listening is the single most useful and important listening skill.
In active listening we are also genuinely interested in understanding what the other person is thinking, feeling, wanting or what the message means, and we are active in checking out our understanding before we respond with our own new message.
We restate or paraphrase our understanding of their message and reflect it back to the sender for verification.
This verification or feedback process is what distinguishes active listening and makes it effective.
" A project manager who actively listens will produce a better list of requirements, which will in turn produce a better system, process or product.
Requirement List A proper requirements list has the following data points.
The ID accurate numbers the requirement for future reference.
The Stakeholder name is the person that first reported the requirement.
The Need is the requirement and the supporting documentation for the requirement is stored.
This field should be as complete as possible so when the project manager goes through them, he cans assign the right group to accomplish the requirement.
An estimate cost is a good data point to have on the list.
Status is listed to show if the requirement will be done within the current project or be held over to a future project.
Make sure there is ample documentation if the requirement is rejected or held over.
A reference column is useful to show where further documentation is on the requirement.
A complete requirement list will help the project team fulfill the requirements and complete a successful project.
A project with an incomplete requirements list will be set up for disaster.
The project team must listen to the project stakeholders and record those requirements to make sure that each requirement is either accepted and completed within the project or rejected to a future release or removed from the list.
The requirements list should be referred to throughout the project to confirm that they are completed prior to the close of the project.