Collect Requirements Process and its importance: In this article, I would like to focus on elaborating overview of Collect Requirement process and its importance including Inputs, Tools & techniques and Outputs based on latest edition of PMBOK.
Collect Requirements Process and its importance in Project Management
Introduction to Collect Requirements Process
Collect Requirements Process is
the Second process of Project Scope Management knowledge area and part of planning
process group, which is used to determine, document and managed needs and
requirements of the stakeholders in order to meet the objectives of the project.
Six processes of Project Scope Management
Six processes of Project Scope Management
What is Collect Requirements process in terms of Project Management?
Collect requirement is the
process of gathering various requirements of the project and deals with
techniques of requirements collection and decision making that meets the
expectations of stakeholders, customers and sponsors. Project manager is
responsible to collect all necessary documents which becomes foundation for
creating work breakdown structure (WBS).
Process Group
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Knowledge Area
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Planning
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This process is used to determine,
document, and manage the needs of the product, service, or result of the
project by active stakeholders in order to complete project successfully.
Why Collect Requirements process is important?
Collect requirements process is
important project management process because it provides basis for defining,
documenting and managing scope of the project as well as product.
The document for the collect
requirements is considered as key documentation which includes detailed
requirements that required to fulfil needs and expectation of the stakeholders.
Project schedule, cost, risks, quality specification, resource plans and other
required parameters are based on this key documentation.
Inputs, tools and techniques, and outputs of Collect Requirements process
What are the inputs of Collect Requirements Process?
Collect Requirements: Inputs
1. Project charter
The project charter is important input
of Collect Requirements process which includes overview of service or result,
product of the project, high level project description and high-level
requirements that will be used to develop detailed requirements.
2. Project management plan
Project management plan includes:
- Scope management plan
Scope management plan is the
output of Plan scope management process which includes information on defining
and developing scope of the project.
- Requirements management plan
Requirements management plan is
another output of Scope management plan which provides information on how
project requirements will be collected, analysed, documented and how to handle
these requirements.
- Stakeholder engagement plan
Stakeholder engagement plan is
the output of Plan stakeholder engagement process which will be described in
the chapter called Project stakeholder management. This process is used to
understand stakeholder’s involved, their requirements and their level of
engagement in the project to meet its objectives.
3. Project documents
Project documents includes:
- Assumption log
The assumption log contains
high-level and low-level assumptions. It is used to identify assumptions which
can influence requirements such as the product, project, stakeholders and other
factors.
- Lessons learned register
Lessons learned register provides
information on techniques for effective collection of requirements particularly
for projects which are using an iterative or adaptive (agile) product
development methodology.
- Stakeholder register
Stakeholder register identifies
stakeholders who can provide information on the requirements and captures stakeholder’s
requirements and expectations. Stakeholder register is an output of Identify
stakeholders process of Project stakeholder management knowledge area.
4. Agreements
Agreements consists requirements
of the project and product. Agreement contains project schedule, major
deliverables, payment terms, procurement statement of work, general terms,
change request handing techniques etc. Agreement needs to be done with business
partners as per requirement.
5. Business documents
Business case is a business
document which can influence the Collect Requirements process. Business case
includes the objectives of the project and business need for initiating the
project.
It also describes required as
well as optional criteria for meeting the business needs. Project manager can
provide only recommendation but main accountability for developing and
maintaining business needs goes to the project sponsor.
6. Enterprise environmental factors
- Organizational culture
- Personnel administration
- Infrastructure
- Marketplace conditions
7. Organizational process assets
- Policies and procedures of the project
- Historical information
- Lessons learned repositories
What are the tools and techniques used for Collect Requirements process?
Collect Requirements: Tools & Techniques
1. Expert judgment
Expert
judgement describes how subject matter experts and stakeholders can be utilized
to assist project manager for the purpose of developing Scope Management Plan.
Expert
judgement is used to resolve issue or challenges if any arises during handling
the project. Expertise should be considered from knowledgeable and experienced individuals
or groups on business analysis, requirements elicitation, requirements documentation,
requirements analysis, diagramming techniques, facilitation techniques,
conflict management techniques, project requirements in previous similar
projects.
2. Data gathering
Data gathering techniques include:
- Brainstorming
Brainstorming is a technique which
is conducted in a group to identify and gather multiple lists of ideas related
to project.
- Interviews
An interview is used to gather
information related to the project from stakeholders by talking, asking
questions and recording their responses. Interviews are also used to obtain
confidential information.
- Focus groups
Focus groups bring together
stakeholders and subject matter experts in order to gather information about
their needs and expectations. and attitudes about a proposed product, service,
or result. Moderator involved who guides the group through an interactive
discussion designed to be more conversational than a one-on-one interview.
- Questionnaires and surveys
Questionnaires and surveys are
written sets of questions designed to quickly accumulate information from many
respondents.
- Benchmarking
Benchmarking is also one of the
data gathering techniques which compares actual or planned elements such as
products, processes, and practices to those of comparable organizations
(internal or external) to identify best practices and generate ideas for
improvement.
3. Data analysis
Data
analysis techniques used as tools & techniques for collect requirement
process is document analysis which is used to produce requirements by analyzing
existing documentation and identifying information relevant to the
requirements.
4. Decision making
Decision
making techniques include:
- Voting
Voting
is a collective decision-making technique which is used to create, classify,
and prioritize product requirements. Voting techniques include:
Unanimity: Everyone
agrees on a single course of action.
Majority: Support obtained from more than
50% of the members.
Plurality: Used
when number of options nominated is more than two. largest block in a group decides,
even if a majority is not achieved.
- Autocratic decision making
Here, individual makes the
decision for the group.
- Multicriteria decision making
A
technique that uses a decision matrix to provide a systematic analytical approach
for establishing criteria, such as risk levels, uncertainty, and valuation, to
evaluate and rank many ideas.
5. Data representation
Data
representation techniques includes:
- Affinity diagrams
Affinity diagrams allow large numbers of ideas that are generated from other
requirements gathering techniques to be sorted into groups for further analysis.
- Mind mapping
Mind mapping is a diagram of consolidated ideas which is used to reflect similarity
and differences in understanding and to generate new ideas.
6. Interpersonal and team skills
Interpersonal
and team skills includes:
- Nominal group technique
The nominal group technique usually done during same meeting as brainstorming with
a voting process used to rank the most useful ideas for prioritization.
- Obseration/conversation
Observation
is also known as “job shadowing” which is usually done externally by an
observer watching a potential user performing work. It can also be done by a
“participant observer”. Observation and conversation provide direct method of
watching individuals in their work environment to determine how they execute
their activities.
- Facilitation
Facilitation
session has ability to effectively guide group of stakeholders to a successful
decision or conclusion. Facilitation session is most important as it can
identify issues earlier and resolution process is quicker.
7. Context diagram
Context
diagram is a scope model which depict the product scope visually by showing a
business system and how people and other systems interact with
it.
8. Prototypes
Prototype is a model or sample of expected product designed before building it. Prototype is
presented to stakeholders to obtain early feedback on requirements. Example of
prototyping is Storyboarding.
What are the outputs of Collect Requirements process?
Collect Requirements: Outputs
1. Requirements Documentation
Requirements
documentation is an important output of Collect requirements process which
provides idea on how individual requirements meet project’s business need. As
per need, the format of the requirements document may range from a simple
document to more elaborate forms.
Simple
form lists all the requirements categorized by stakeholder and priority whereas
elaborate forms contains an executive summary, detailed descriptions, and
attachments. Requirements can be grouped into classifications which includes
Stakeholder, business, solution, Project, quality and transition requirements.
2. Requirements traceability matrix
Requirements
traceability matrix is another important output of Collect Requirements process
which helps track the requirements over the project’s life cycle. It ensures
each requirement adds business value and all requirements completed to deliver
successful outcomes. It is a grid that links product requirements from their
origin to the deliverables that satisfy them and provides structure to manage
changes to product scope.
In
order to keep track of all information and to analyse requirements, requirement
traceability matrix can be used by the project manages. Tracing requirements
includes product design and development, project objectives and scope, WBS
deliverables, high level requirements etc. Attributes are associated with each
requirement which helps to define key information about the requirement.
Conclusion
Most
hopefully, you would like this information. This chapter is very much important
to understand because if project requirements are not collected properly then
many issues may arise, and it will greatly impact project to meet its
objectives.
Project
success is highly influenced by Collect Requirements process of Project Scope Management and, also this process is vital component of PMP examination.
Next article will be based on third process
of Project Scope Management i. e “Define Scope” which also falls under planning process group.
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highly appreciated and of course, you can also contact me on my email
id: sdeepak222@gmail.com.
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