Scope Managmentment 5.1 Collect Requirements

  
Quick Link for Scope Management Process 

5.1 Collect requirement

5.2 Define scope

5.3 Create WBS ( Work Breakdown Structure)

5.4 Verify scope

5.5 Control scope

 5.1 Collect Requirements

Collecting requirements involves defining and managing customer, sponsor and other stakeholder’s expectations.

These requirements must be captured in sufficient detail to be measure during project execution,requirements becomes the foundation for many other project management activities:

•  Requirements become the foundation of the WBS (Work Breakdown structure).
•  Cost, schedule and quality plans are built upon these requirements.
•  Project requirements include business needs, required project management activities, delivery requirements etc.
•  Project requirements include design and technical, performance, security etc. Development of  product requirements usually involves appropriate engineers and technical staff. 

Collect Requirement
Inputs	Tools	Outputs
1.      Project charter 2.      Stakeholder register	1.      Interviews 2.      Focus groups 3.      Facilitated workshops 4.      Group creativity techniques 5.      Group decision making technical 6.      Questionnaires and surveys 7.      Observation 8.       Prototypes	1.      Requirements documentation 2.      Requirements management plan 3.      Requirements  traceability matrix

Two Key Inputs for Collect Requirements:

1. Project charter: Described in this site, the charter provides high-level project and product requirements. As such, it forms a starting point for the developing of detailed requirements.

2. Stakeholder register: As part of communication management, the stakeholder register identifies stakeholders who can provide information needed to develop detailed requirements.

Eight key tools for collect requirements:

1.      Interviews: Used to elicit information form stakeholders by talking to them directly. One-on-one or group interviews with appropriate subject matter experts are used to identify features and functions of desired deliverables.

2.      Focus Group: Interactive, conversational discussions guided by trained moderators with pre-select stakeholders and subject matter experts. The purpose of this exercise is to document stakeholder expectations attitudes about a proposed product, service or result.

3.      Facilitated workshop: Workshops are interactive, group- oriented discussions aimed at quickly defining cross- functional requirements and hopeful, recording stakeholder differences.  Well-functioned sessions can build trust, improve communications and uncover issues more quickly than numerous individual sessions. There are two examples

·        Joint applicant development: Sometimes called joint applications design, these joint sessions brings users and develops together to improve requirements in the software developments industry.

·        Quality function deployment: QFD is used by engineers to develop requirements for new product developments. The process first determines customer needs, then prioritize them and established goals for achieving them.

4.      Group creativity techniques:  The following examples are a;; ways for groups  to generate ideas about any desired topic. In this case, the groups are identifying and documenting requirement.

·        Brainstorming: A group-oriented technique for quickly generating ideas about both project and product requirements.

·        Nominal group technique: An enhanced version of brainstorming which includes voting and prioritizing the group’s idea.

·        Delphi technique: Experts answer questions anonymously and the summarized results are provided to the group. Iterations off questions and answers are performed in search for a consensus about, in this case, project and product requirements.

·        Idea/Mind mapping: The non-linear diagramming of different ideas in a group into a single map for the purpose of highlighting agreement and differences and also generating new ideas.

·        Affinity diagram: A technique for sorting a large number of detailed, specific ideas into logical groups.

5.      Group decision making techniques: Assessment of multiple alternatives using one of the following decision techniques:

·        Unanimity:  Everyone (100%) agrees on a course of action.

·        Majority: A decision made with support from more than 50% of the group.

·        Plurality: Decision determined by the largest voting block of the group (even if it represents less than 50%)

·        Dictatorship: One individual makes the decision for the group (mush like the autocratic form of leadership)

6.      Questionnaires and surveys: written sets of questions that help reach large audience quickly and also enable statistical analysis of data.

7.      Observations:  directly viewing individual performing project activities and carrying out process. This technique is especially helpful when people are experiencing difficulty in articulating requirements.

8.      Prototypes: the use of mock-ups and physical working models to assist stakeholders in progressively elaborating requirements. Rapid prototyping is a technique used specifically for elaborating requirements during the development phase of a project.