Requirements Gathering

CIS Requirements Gathering
"Requirements gathering is the process of eliciting requirements from stakeholders and refining their quality. Early stage requirements gathering is focused on stimulating creative ideas."

Requirements Gathering

Requirements Gathering is the process of generating a list of requirements (functional, system, technical, etc.) from the various stakeholders (customers, users, vendors, IT staff, etc.) that will be used as the basis for the formal Requirements Definition. With over 70% of project failures being attributed to requirements gathering, why are we still using the same techniques and expecting different results? Requirements need to be discovered before they can be "gathered" and to CIS, this requires a robust approach to analyzing the business needs. Requirements gathering is probably the most important activity to be performed in delivering an information solution. There is no one perfect means for identifying and gathering requirements. The most appropriate methods will vary from project to project. Some commonly used methods include Interviews, Storyboarding, Use cases, Questionaires, Brainstorming and Prototyping.

CIS keeps the following in mind when gathering requirements: Identify and involve a representative set of stakeholders (don't lose sight of all of the players); Seek breadth before depth (get the big picture before deep diving); Iterate and clarify (as more requirements surface they will evolve); Prioritize (separate the must-haves from the nice-to-haves); Use the stakeholder's terminology (you're doing an information solution not a technical solution); Employ KISS (keep it simple but be thorough); Realize that you will never get a complete set of requirements up-front; some won't surface until the stakeholders have pieces of the solution that they can see and touch (be careful of scope creep); Remember goals and objectives are not requirements (they are just as important though); and Requirements and constraints should drive the solution not the other way around. Please e contact us for more info.