2. Requirements gathering and management process

The requirements management process typically contains five major parts that further contain sub-processes. These parts can be categorized as the requirement gathering phase, the refining and categorizing phase, requirements communication & negotiation, and the sign-off and monitor.

2.1 Requirements gathering:

In this phase, the project team identifies the stakeholders and communicates with them, elicits their needs, and identifies opportunities and problems by using various requirement gathering techniques such as:

1. Brainstorming
2. Document Analysis
3. Focus Group
4. Interface Analysis
5. Interviews
6. Prototyping
7. Questionnaires / Surveys
8. Requirement Workshops / JAD Sessions
9. Research and Observations

2.2 Refining and Categorizing :

 

2.2.1 Analyzing requirements:

The stakeholders’ needs are refined, interpreted, and converted into requirements.

The analysis can consist of the following stages:

1. Sufficiently word and detail the requirements
2. Identify which requirements are the most critical, and which are “nice-to-haves”.
3. Carry out an impact analysis for each need
4. Analyze feasibility

 

2.2.2 Specifying, documenting requirements:

The requirements are authored and documented in a formal, conventional language that will be understood by the team that will be working on them. Most teams typically prepare a written document, sometimes called the RSD of the Requirements Specification Document, to formalize and detail the analysis to be presented to stakeholders and clients and the product development team. These days, requirement authoring, documentation, and management software make it really simple to prepare detailed and accurate requirement artifacts.

2.3 Communication and negotiation:

Baseline requirement groups: In this phase, the requirements extracted from the stakeholders, interpreted, and documented, are communicated to the stakeholders to be verified, validated, and prioritized. This phase involves negotiation and coming up with groups of requirements prioritized, categorized, verified, and approved.

The negotiation process can typically go as follows:

1. Studying stakeholders and their needs
2. Thoroughly knowing your proposed system and the problems of the existing system that you are solving
3. Asking open questions
4. Listening and understanding
5. Setting some ground rules
6. Deploying a suitable negotiation method, depending on the stakeholders.
   e.g., The P2O2 method;
   People: Separate the persons from the problems
   Positions: Focus on the interest, not the position
   Options: Generate favorable and unfavorable options (but with adequate mutual gain)
   Objective criteria: Make decisions based on objective criteria
7. Justify your position
8. Know your bottom line
9. Be prepared for favorable, as well as unfavorable outcomes.

2.4 Signing off and monitoring

This phase involves two stages, signing off on the outcomes of the requirement communication and negotiation stage, and monitoring those requirements, monitoring changes and managing them, and ensuring that all involved parties are on the same page in terms of what has been agreed to and how it is progressing.

Sign offs are a legitimate indication that the deliverables have been formally agreed upon and that the stakeholders understand the requirements specification document.