If you're on a Galaxy Fold, consider unfolding your phone or viewing it in full screen to best optimize your experience.
Imagine this: You’re a graphic designer. After spending hours designing three different logos for a client, you excitedly submit your work. An hour later, the client tells you they all look good but none matches the idea inside her head. Ouch.
Maybe she’s being difficult. Maybe she simply doesn’t know what she wants. Or maybe you misunderstood what she was looking for.
You can, of course, try and justify your designs, but if you made the mistake of designing without first going through a requirements gathering or "discovery" phase with the client, then you may have to start all over again.
Requirements are conditions or capabilities stakeholders require a project to deliver. Conditions can mean the terms of a contract, budgets, time frames, compliance requirements, or any other policy you need to observe.
Capabilities refer to the features, functions, or characteristics the project’s outcome must possess, such as "the ability to run at certain speeds," "must be orange," or "10 feet high."
Project requirements are divided into three major categories:
The requirements gathering process, also known as requirements elicitation, is a project management basic practice that uncovers, verifies, documents, and manages the various needs and requirements of a project’s stakeholders.
As you probably realized from our logo design example above, a solid grasp of the project’s requirements is critical to project success. When you take the time to gather requirements prior to execution, which is one of the five phases of the project life cycle, you’re able to:
Capture and translate the project’s requirements into tangible deliverables that match stakeholder expectations.
A clear understanding of what you’re delivering results in better estimates -- an accurately defined project scope, a budget that works, and a realistic timeline.
How do you know your project is on the right track? By ensuring approved stakeholder requirements are met. Does the product have the required features? Does it satisfy the project’s objectives? Does it deliver business value?
A software system that fails to solve pain points obstructs, rather than drives, productivity. Consulting users to figure out what they need is essential to getting organizational tools right, whether you’re rolling out an off-the-shelf solution or building one from scratch.
Without requirements gathering, producing deliverables customers actually want is next to impossible. To make sure your project outcomes are aligned with stakeholder expectations, follow the steps below.
Who has interest in the project? Which stakeholder groups have the most impact on the project? Meet with team members, project sponsors, and other relevant groups to identify both key and secondary stakeholders.
Some of the most commonly used requirement-gathering techniques include:
Each of the above has strengths and weaknesses, and some are best suited for certain project types. Use a combination of tools and techniques to explore the project’s requirements from several angles.
We’re stating the obvious here, but it’s worth emphasizing that to get the answers you need, you have to ask the right questions. Some stakeholders may not know right away what they want, and you may have to ask probing questions to help them uncover what they’re looking for.
Also, when in a meeting, whether with a client or the project team, take notes. Capture items for clarification, research, or further discussion.
A requirements document is one of many documents project managers -- or someone else on the team -- may have to maintain throughout the different project phases, primarily because project requirements may evolve over time.
Make the document shareable and available on demand using project management software, so the project team can refer to it at any time.
Now that you’ve collected and documented your requirements, it’s time to take a close look at them. Ensure they’re complete, accurate, and achievable.
Then, prioritize them based on significance. Once done, get the project’s stakeholders to verify the results and sign off on them. Doing so will save you a lot of stress and increase your team’s chances of achieving the project’s goals.
Let's say you’re building a house, and your client wants it to be big and beautiful. "Big and beautiful" isn’t necessarily helpful, right? Before you head over to your computer to put your project planning tools to work, sit down with the client to discuss several things.
Once you have the answers you need, you can start building a design prototype.
If you’re offered a logo design project, questions to ask may include:
You may also want to ask about budgets and timelines, and if there are other people involved in the project, such as decision-makers other than the client.
Requirements are the foundation of any project. And if the foundation is not solid enough, the project is doomed to fail. So whether you work in project management for a small business, construction, or software design, don’t make the mistake of skipping requirements gathering.
Only once you fully understand what’s expected of a project, you can deliver what clients (and other stakeholders) want.
Our Small Business Expert
We're firm believers in the Golden Rule, which is why editorial opinions are ours alone and have not been previously reviewed, approved, or endorsed by included advertisers. The Ascent does not cover all offers on the market. Editorial content from The Ascent is separate from The Motley Fool editorial content and is created by a different analyst team.