What Is Requirements Gathering?

Requirements gathering is one of the most essential parts of any project and adds value to a project on multiple levels. When it comes to smaller budgets, tighter timelines and limited scopes, exact documentation of all the project requirements become crucial.

Requirements gathering is easier said than done, it is generally an area that is given far less attention than it needs. Many projects start with basic lists of requirements only to find out down the line that many of the customers’ needs may not have been fully understood and implemented.

Statistics show that over 70% of failed projects are a result of a lack of effective requirements gathering. So, below we’ll delve into what exactly is involved in requirements gathering, why it’s important, and provide requirements gathering template.

What Is Requirements Gathering?

Requirements gathering is an exploratory process that involves researching and documenting the project’s exact requirements from start to finish. Effective requirements gathering and requirements management start at the beginning of the project.

Why Is Requirements Gathering So Crucial?

After completing any projects there are several questions you should ask yourself:

• What were the risks?
• What resources were lacking?
• Were there any scope or budgeting issues or shortcomings?
• What were the overall impacts of those issues or shortcomings?

Without outlining specific requirements, such as scope, cost overrun, and deadlines, your entire project will be affected. This could result in the design of the product being negatively impacted or other developmental delays. Most importantly, without the necessary systems and processes, your project will not reach optimal success as it will face a variety of issues.

Requirements Gathering Process

If you are new to these processes, you will need some guidance. Here is the general requirements gathering process to help you gather all the necessary information more efficiently and effectively.

1. Assigning Roles

As the project manager, you will need to decide who is going to do what. Firstly, the team must know your role. Secondly, ensure that every person understands their role and knows to come to you with all the project updates.

Lastly, you will need to identify the stakeholders as they will be responsible for brainstorming, analyzing, approving, or denying any project updates.

2. Interview Stakeholders

You will need to interview the stakeholders that you identified, asking them the following questions. This will help you understand the exact needs of the project whilst also creating good requirements gathering templates for future use.

• What is your vision or goal for the project?
• What do you want from the project that hasn’t been done previously?
• What changes to the product would convince you to recommend it to others?
• What tools do you need for the project to be successful?
• What are the main concerns you have for the project?

3. Gathering And Documentation

It is highly recommended to write everything down. Record every answer and try to create an accessible system that can be accessed by others when they require information from the gathering phase.

This requirement documentation will be useful at the end of the project when you reflect on the successes and downfalls of the project. This will ensure that all team members are kept focused and accountable. It will also help manage stakeholders’ expectations.

4. Make Lists Of All Expectations And Requirements

Once you have successfully documented expectations and objectives, you can create a cohesive requirements management plan that is measurable, quantifiable, and actionable. Questions you will need to answer include:

• The length of the project timeline
• Who will be involved in the project?
• What are the key risks that could arise during the gathering process
• What is the ultimate goal of understanding the project’s requirements?

Once you have answered the above questions you will have a full map of all the requirements needed for the project, ready to present to the stakeholders.

5. Monitor the Process And Feedback

Once you receive stakeholder approval and feedback, you will be able to start implementing adjustments into the project timeline. It is important to make sure you have systems and methods in place to monitor and track requirements across all teams, to ensure that the risk stays low.

Feedback is also crucial. You can use this data to indicate progress to stakeholders, department managers, and other team members. By doing so, you will ensure the project is on track regarding time, scope, and budget.

Requirements Gathering Tools

When it comes to gathering requirements, the best way to do so differs between projects. Some requirements gathering tools and templates may work better for some projects but not others. Here are some basic tools that teams can use to effectively gather requirements.

Context Diagram

A context diagram maps out the system’s environment, boundaries, and all interacting entities. With the system outlined in the middle of the diagram, you can identify external and internal aspects, customers, end-users, and vendors.

This visual diagram helps you gain a better overall understanding of the software or product you are developing.

Mind Maps

Mind maps are a very common and traditional exercise for coming up with new ideas and mapping out requirements. Mind mapping can help lead a team discussion and keep everyone focused on the task at hand.

Use Cases

“Use case diagrams” depict how the software will interact with the users. All steps in each interaction should be mapped out, along with alternative paths.

AS-IS And TO-BE Models

An AS-IS process model depicts the current state of the system or software. Then the TO-BE model shows the adjusted system. This helps to determine whether the adjustments make sense and will work with the system.

Conclusion

Effective requirements gathering can help ensure your project’s success. At ReQtest we want to help you take control of all aspects of your requirements. We aim to provide the best requirement gathering processes by offering a wide variety of innovative features.

These include but are not limited to customizable requirements hierarchy, full support for agile and other methodologies, as well as full traceability regarding tests and bugs.