On surveys of failed projects, the one cause of failure that shows up most often is having missed or poorly defined requirements. While a project manager does not define the requirements, the user must do that, the project manager is fully responsible for satisfying those requirements.

Of all the activities in starting up a project, accurately gather the user's needs and expectations and decomposing them into technical requirements is the most critical. Without accurate requirements, there is no way to estimate how long the project is going to take or how much it's going to cost. Typical steps in requirements collection include stakeholder analysis, requirements gathering, requirements analysis and documentation, managing requirements changes, product requirements analysis, requirements verification and validation, and stakeholder management. The question regarding whether any requirements are reusable should always be asked.

Once the requirements are captured, they must be managed and tracked. Changes to the requirements must be assessed for impact and those impacts must be approved by the user. Managing requirements changes is the primary tool the project manager has to keep the project from growing uncontrollably.

We have decades of experience in gathering and managing requirements in multiple industries, from aerospace to financial services. We can work with your project team in gathering the user needs or gather the requirements before the team begins. We can also audit the project as it is developed to ensure that controls over requirements are appropriate and adequate.