Creating a Requirements Management Strategy

Having a requirements management system is the key to building the right product efficiently. Requirements management can save your company from going over-budget, losing time, and even embarrassing product recalls.

Requirements management is only effective if it is backed up with a good requirements management strategy.

What is a requirements management strategy?

A requirements strategy is a description of how requirements work is to be carried out within projects, departments, and other types of assignments in your organization. It is a document that helps to set the right level of ambition. The requirements strategy describes what tasks are involved in requirements management, how requirements development should work and how to follow up and document requirements work. The requirements strategy is then input into the requirements plan. (Source: ReQTest.com)

What are the advantages of a good requirements management strategy?

Better communication
Tighter collaboration amongst teammates
Entire organization on the same page
Requirements are clearer and will meet customer needs
Faster time-to-market

How to create a solid requirements management strategy

Gather requirements and clearly understand them
Gather all requirements into one place. Collaborate with teammates and customers to ensure they are all clear.

Structure requirements
Structuring requirements makes them easier to understand, as well as cuts down the list and avoids duplication. Requirements management software that allow you to create hierarchies and sub-requirements are especially useful for this case.

Define requirements, and the team
Set up your team depending on how simple or complex the requirements are. Assign all requirements and create the project scope and schedule.

Analyze requirements
Analyze requirements to determine which ones will benefit your organization the most. Categorizing requirements make this process easier – identify the ones that are technical, the ones that will affect the end user directly, and the ones that will affect the product overall. Use stakeholder interviews in conjunction with requirements analysis software for more a more accurate analysis.

Prioritize requirements
Go over each requirement and take into account how each will each impact your projects, and your business overall. Think about your customers’ needs and try to associate them with the requirements.

Validate requirements
Sign-off the requirements management process by opening them up to all stakeholders for feedback. Once you know which requirements have been approved and validated by your organization, creating project tasks will be much easier.